Roman Catholicism

About 90% of Mexicans profess Catholicism. Though its grip over emerging generations today is perhaps marginally less strong than over their predecessors, Catholicism's dominance is remarkable considering the rocky history that the Catholic Church has had in Mexico, particularly in the last two centuries.

The church was present in Mexico from the very first days of the Spanish conquest.

Until independence it remained the second most important institution after the crown's representatives and was really the only unifying force in Mexican society. Almost everyone belonged to the church because, spirituality aside, it was the principal provider of social services and education.

The Jesuits were among the foremost providers and administrators, establishing missions and settlements throughout Mexico. Their expulsion from the Spanish empire in the 18th century marked the beginning of stormy church state relations in Mexico. In the 19th and 20th centuries (up to 1940), Mexico passed numerous measures restricting the church's power and influence. The bottom line was money and property, both of which the church was amassing faster than the generals and political bosses. The 1917 Mexican constitution prevented the church from owning property or running schools or newspapers, and banned clergy from voting, from wearing clerical garb and from speaking out on government policies and decisions. Church state relations reached their nadir in the 1920s, when the Cristeros (Catholic rebels) burned government schools, murdered teachers and assassinated a president, while government troops killed priests and looted churches. Most of the anti church provisions in the constitution ceased to be enforced during the second half of the 20th century, and in the early 1990s President Salinas had them removed from the constitution. In 1992 Mexico finally established diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

The Mexican Catholic Church is one of Latin America's more conservative. Only in the south of the country have its leaders gotten involved in political issues such as human rights and poverty. The most notable figure in this regard is Samuel Ruiz, long time bishop of San Cristobal de Las Casas, who retired in 1999.

The Mexican church's most binding symbol is Nuestra Sehora de Guadalupe. the dark skinned Virgin of Guadalupe, a manifestation of the Virgin Mary who appeared to an indigenous Mexican in 1531 on a hill near Mexico City. The Guadalupe Virgin became a crucial link between Catholic and indigenous spirituality, and as Mexico grew into a mestizo society she became the most potent symbol of Mexican Catholicism. Today she is the country's patron, her blue cloaked image is ubiquitous, and her name is invoked in religious ceremonies, political speeches and literature.

Other Christians

Around 5% of Mexicans profess other varieties of Christianity. Some are members of the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian or Anglican churches set up by American missionaries in the 19th century. Others were converted by a new wave of North American missionaries this time of evangelical leanings entering Mexico in the 20th century. Among these are the Wycliff Bible Translators, also known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics. In recent decades Pentecostal evangelical churches such as the Assembly of God and Church of God have gained many converts, particularly among the rural and indigenous peoples of southeast Mexico, sometimes leading to strife with Catholics.

Indigenous Religion

The missionaries of the 16th and 17th centuries won the indigenous people over to Catholicism as much by grafting it on to preHispanic religions as by deeper conversion. Often old gods were simply identified with Christian saints, and the old festivals continued to be celebrated, much as they had been in pre Hispanic times, on the nearest saint's day. Acceptance of the new religion was greatly helped by the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531.

Today, despite modern inroads into indigenous life, indigenous Christianity is still fused with more ancient beliefs. In some remote regions Christianity is only a veneer at most. The Ruichol people of Jalisco have two Christs, but neither is a major deity. Much more important is Nakawe, the fertility goddess. The hallucinogenic drug peyote is a crucial source of wisdom in the Huichol world. Elsewhere, among peoples such as the Tarahumara and many Tzotzil people in highland Chiapas, drunkenness is an almost sacred element at festival times.

Even among the more orthodox Christian indigenous peoples it is not uncommon for spring saints' festivals, or the pre Lent carnival, to be accompanied by remnants of fertility rites. The famous Totonac voladores (see the 'Voladores' in the Central Gulf Coast chapter) enact one such ritual. The Guelaguetza dance festival, which draws thousands of visitors to Oaxaca every summer, has roots in pre Hispanic maizegod rituals.

In the traditional indigenous world almost everything has a spiritual dimension trees, rivers, plants, wind, rain, sun, animals and hills have their own gods or spirits. Even Coca Cola is believed to have supernatural powers by the Tzotzil people of San Juan Chamula, Chiapas.

Witchcraft, magic and traditional medicine survive. Illness is sometimes seen as a 'loss of soul' resulting from the sufferer's wrongdoing or from the malign influence of someone with magical powers. A soul can be ,regained' if the appropriate ritual is performed by a brujo (witch doctor) or curandero (curer).

Jews make up 0.1% of Mexico's population. Most of them live in the state of Mexico and Mexico City, where there are several synagogues.