The Mexican right in the twentieth century. Agony, transformation and survival. A Book Review

The Mexican right in the twentieth century. Agony, transformation and survival. A Book Review 

Dr. José Antonio Alonso Herrero y Dr. Jorge Vidal Urrutia

BUAP 

The Mexican right in the twentieth century. Agony, transformation and survival. Xóchitl Patricia Campos López and Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero (Coordinators): BUAP-PROFMEX-Montiel & Soriano Editores. 2017, 254 pp.

ISBN: 978-607-7512-77-6 and ISBN: 978-607-525-465-4

http://www.profmex.org/ciclosytendencias/vinculos/La_Derecha_Mexicana_en_el_Siglo_XX.pdf

La derecha mexicana en el siglo XX. Agonía, transformación y supervivencia. Xóchitl Patricia Campos López y Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero (Coordinadores): BUAP-PROFMEX-Montiel & Soriano Editores. 2017, 254 pp. 

ISBN: 978-607-7512-77-6  y  ISBN: 978-607-525-465-4

1. Dr. José Antonio Alonso Herrero

Profesor Investigador del Instituto de Ciencias del Gobierno BUAP

Research Professor of the Government Sciences Institute BUAP
https://www.academia.edu/39891147/La_derecha_mexicana_en_el_siglo_XX_Agon%C3%ADa_Transformaci%C3%B3n_y_supervivencia_1

This publication represents, in my opinion, one of the definitive advances to understand and interpret the current relationship between the Mexican political system and the Roman Catholic Church. Several articles analyze in depth and supported in a vast bibliography such crucial issues as the cult of Christ the King, the Cristiada, the assassination of the Jesuit Miguel Agustín Pro in the context of the main political-religious groupings in Mexico. In the third part highlights the chapter dedicated to the vicissitudes of Mexican fascism along with the Hispanic Heritage of Manuel Gómez Morín. Finally, Xóchitl Patricia Campos López and Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero -coordinators of the volume- analyze two topics of undeniable topicality: conservative feminism and the National Action Party, graphically described as THE CONSERVATIVE SMURF.

In the preface, it is rightly pointed out that in order to penetrate the tangled political jungle of Mexico, it is necessary to remember the great heterogeneity of the Mexican left, as well as the socio-political hedge of the right. The distinctive note are the articles included in the abundant and varied bibliography, on which the authors base their statements, and the clarity with which they present their varied theses. An essential article to understand the confusing current approach of the relations of the Mexican Government with the Holy See is the article by Elio Masferrer, in which he analyzes the control - not only religious - exercised by the Inquisition during the Colony. He then goes deeper into the analysis of the different historical periods: Independence, the 1930s and the contemporary Spanish political-religious situation. In order to understand "the strategic responses of the Catholic Church", as Elio Masferrer affirms, this author aptly quotes the funeral note published in memory of ex-Girolamo Prigione:

"Against what many think that Mexico gave everything and did not ask for anything, in
there really was not much to give or ask. However, Salinas
(the president) put a condition. That Miguel Hidalgo and José María
Morelos were redeemed from their excommunication. Girolamo Prigione, as
apostolic delegate, he proposed it to Pope John Paul II, who took it to
his canons, as his lawyers are called. The matter was studied and
They found a happy solution. Bishop Manuel Abad y Queipo was a
son had out of wedlock and that prevented him from being a bishop. A) Yes
that he only had the appointment of provisional bishop, but not definitive. Y
excommunication requires a definitive episcopal appointment. So,
therefore, Hidalgo and Morelos were never excommunicated and did not require
they would redeem. "

A second article also essential for the same purpose is the one dedicated to "The Faithful Spain", in which the concept of Hispanidad is analyzed as a generator of "authentic Hispanism". This admirable synthesis of "Mexicanness" and "Hispanicness" forged by Manuel Gómez Morín is crucial to understand the ideological development of the Mexican right. Fundamental factor, as the authors underline, to understand "the cultural and spiritual community between Spain and its colonies."

What would be the final evaluation that is imposed upon the conclusion of the reading of all the articles? A first evaluation is found in the preface written by Samuel Schmidt, James W. Wilkie and Edna Monzón Wilkie. We do not pretend to formulate a critical opinion of such lucid evaluations, but we do not hesitate to agree with these authors when they indicate that "this book is important because it allows us to study the origin and evolution of the political forces prevailing in Mexico."

It should be emphasized that the authors of the various chapters have described and deepened a political-religious theme in a creative and well-documented manner. This confirms the opinion of these three authors when affirming (ibid: 24) that "Patricia and Diego show us that there is not a single historical truth and that there is still much to be discovered and explained about the rights in Mexico".

Affirmation very understandable and acceptable. But, for our part, we allow ourselves to indicate that the accurate historical considerations directed towards the end towards "The Priista Smurf" (El Pitufo Priista) offer us, at the same time, an objective basis for deepening the "Vatican Smurf." They are two 'Smurfs' intimately connected for centuries. In Mexico we already have an abundant historical research on the relationships maintained for two centuries by these two politico-religious entities. It is time, to conclude, for the researchers to delve into the structural characteristics of the Vatican State capable of granting, preventing and reformulating apparently ecclesiastical distinctions, but which penetrate and configure the intimate historical structure of countries such as Mexico and Spain. 

2. Dr. Jorge Vidal Urrutia
Profesor Investigador de la Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales de la BUAP 
Research Professor of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the BUAP
https://www.academia.edu/39891148/La_derecha_mexicana_en_el_siglo_XX_Agon%C3%ADa_transformaci%C3%B3n_y_supervivencia_2

After the National Action Party rise to presidential power in 2000, a style of political activism that has operated in Mexico for more than a century was unveiled. The work of Álvaro Delgado entitled "The Anvil. The far right in power" (2003), was a watershed to understand the reconfiguration that had different actors who managed to converge with traditionalism, conservatism, religiosity, etc., to give rise to what can be defined as the Mexican right.

The discussion in Mexico on the right is already decimonial, if we go back to the discussion of authors like Hale (1982) we will know that the political and ideological role of the representatives of the same have transcended since the 19th century, heirs of a Mexico that did not end to distinguish beyond conservative liberalism of the nineteenth century.

The Mexican Right in the twentieth century. Agony, transformation and survival (2017) comes to be subscribed in the discussion, which to this day is latent in national history, about groups of past and contemporary conservatism. The text recovers the memory - still alive - of many characters forgotten by history and ignored for being in the disagreement of the great men of the revolutionary period; nevertheless, they are real architects of the change and Mexican political transformation.

Divided into 4 parts the text takes us through a first discussion and approach to the concepts and categories of what is called symbolic representation with the contributions of compilers and national researchers Cesar Cansino and Elio Masferrer, important in this section to observe the Mexican ideological compass (Cancino, 2017: 44) to size and locate the range of topics on the Mexican right. In the second part, the cult of Christ the King in the moments of Mexican nationalism during the first half of the 20th century, as well as the religious themes linked to the peasant movements of that historical period of the nation; It gives an account of the formation of Mexican ultra-right groups and of characters still little known in history such as Miguel Agustín Pro. In the third part and as political alternatives of the Mexican right, we explain the set of fascist expressions of these social components of the right, like José Vasconcelos himself, led to sympathize with Nazism, the Hispanic heritage of Gómez Morin, as well as the description of the activism of discrete groups of the caliber of MURO, Yunque and Tecos, made by Gerardo Lozada and Hervey Rivera; in the fourth and final part the work leaves the slopes where the right can reconfigure itself in the present, through the phenomenon of Conservative Feminism headed by Margarita Zavala, and the role of the "Priista Smurf"; which reveals the power relationship that led the PAN to collaborate with the regime's party that was antagonistic since its creation in 1939.

The work coordinated by Xóchitl Patricia and Diego Martín, is a serious example of the symbolic reconfiguration and political praxis that the right wing had in Mexico during the 20th century, through a fine collaboration of academics. From the beginning the work highlights the interview with James W. Wilkie and Edna Monzón Wilkie, on the part of Samuel Schmidt to rescue through the thought of Manuel Gómez Morin the ideological bases that constituted the PAN.

The work of recovery and hermeneutic analysis of the work, the handling of documentary sources not widely disseminated in the national and regional scope, as well as the exploration of topics such as ultra-right groups and their involvement in alternative projects of the nation is the hallmark of originality of This product of academic research that also speaks of a dynamic and historical social inertias in many parts of contemporary Mexico, which are still awaiting new epistemological approaches with which to observe the transformation and survival of the Mexican right, the intensification of the authors was to gather different contributions to make a formal analysis that would lead us to think about the different types of conservatives and rights in our country.

Delgado, A. (2003). The anvil. The extreme right in power. Mexico: Plaza and Janés.
Hale, C. (1982). Mexican Liberalism in the time of Mora. Mexico. Ed. Siglo XXI