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Mexican Exodus: Emigrants, Exiles, and Refugees of the Cristero War

Mexican Exodus investigates the intersections between Mexico’s Cristero War (1926-1929) and Mexican migration to the United States during the late 1920s. The book traces the formation, actions, and ideologies of the Cristero diaspora, a network of tens of thousands of Mexican emigrants, exiles, and refugees across the United States who supported a Catholic uprising against the anticlerical Mexican government from beyond the border. Although they were ultimately unable to achieve their political goals, these emigrants – and the war itself - would have a profound and enduring resonance for Mexican emigrant community formation, political affiliations, and religious devotion throughout subsequent decades, and up to the present day.

Date & Time

Monday
Mar. 13, 2017
4:00pm – 5:30pm ET

Location

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

Mexican Exodus investigates the intersections between Mexico’s Cristero War (1926-1929) and Mexican migration to the United States during the late 1920s. The book traces the formation, actions, and ideologies of the Cristero diaspora, a network of tens of thousands of Mexican emigrants, exiles, and refugees across the United States who supported a Catholic uprising against the anticlerical Mexican government from beyond the border. Although they were ultimately unable to achieve their political goals, these emigrants – and the war itself - would have a profound and enduring resonance for Mexican emigrant community formation, political affiliations, and religious devotion throughout subsequent decades, and up to the present day. 

Julia Young is an assistant professor of Latin American History at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She is the author of Mexican Exodus: Emigrants, Exiles, and Refugees of the Cristero War (Oxford University Press, 2015) and the co-editor of Local Church, Global Church: Catholic Activism in Latin America from Rerum Novarum to Vatican II (The Catholic University of America Press, 2015). She recently completed a fellowship as a scholar in residence at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. She holds a Ph.D in History from the University of Chicago.

The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University) and Christian Ostermann (Woodrow Wilson Center) and is sponsored jointly by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year. The seminar thanks the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the George Washington University History Department for their support.


Hosted By

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

Mexico Institute

The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute.   Read more

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