Setting the Virgin on Fire

Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán Peasants, and the Redemption of the Mexican Revolution

• Author(s): Marjorie Becker,
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Pages: 188
• ISBN_10: 0520084195
  ISBN_13: 9780520084193
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads of State , History / General , History / Latin America / General , History / Latin America / Mexico , History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) , Political Science / World / Caribbean & Latin American , Religion / Christianity / Catholic , Social Science / Sociology / Rural ,

Description:... In this beautifully written work, Marjorie Becker reconstructs the cultural encounters which led to Mexico's post-revolutionary government. She sets aside the mythology surrounding president Lázaro Cárdenas to reveal his dilemma: until he and his followers understood peasant culture, they could not govern.

This dilemma is vividly illustrated in Michoacán. There, peasants were passionately engaged in a Catholic culture focusing on the Virgin Mary. The Cardenistas, inspired by revolutionary ideas of equality and modernity, were oblivious to the peasants' spirituality and determined to transform them. A series of dramatic conflicts forced Cárdenas to develop a government that embodied some of the peasants' complex culture.

Becker brilliantly combines concerns with culture and power and a deep historical empathy to bring to life the men and women of her story. She shows how Mexico's government today owes much of its subtlety to the peasants of Michoacán.