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This is your seventh annual Greer Lecture in Latin American History that you have planned and organized. What is your process on deciding who will speak each year? Can you talk about why you reached out to Dr. Young to speak this year? 

I pick Greer lectures by looking at the most award-winning books in the last few years and/or the continued relevance of certain topics in the field. In this case, Dr. Young had a book “Mexican Exodus” (2015) that was very well received a few years back. "Mexican Exodus" looked at immigrants, exiles, and refugees during the Cristero War and this is still a relevant topic even though her book was published almost a decade back. This is still a relevant topic when we have questions surrounding immigration but also the questions of refugees. In this particular case, the Cristero War was a very divisive, very violent time in Mexican history, so the fact that you have refugees and exiles from this time period gave her book a significant meaning and it still continues to give significant meaning with waves of immigration from Mexico, in particular.

The topic for the lecture is the Cristero War. Without giving too much away, can you discuss the significance of this topic for a Greer lecture? 

The Cristero war was a war from 1926 to 1929. This is a period that encompassed what's known as the Mexican Revolution (1910-1946). This is a violent time period but also one that lays the ideological foundation for what is today modern Mexico. The Revolution initially started in 1910 with the efforts to oust a dictator named Porfirio Diaz, and to have free and open elections.  Somehow out of all of this violence, they managed to lay the foundation for what's known as The Constitution of 1917, which is the constitution that's still in place in Mexico today. The Mexican Constitution is considered one of the most progressive constitutions in the hemisphere, and during its time period. It was a big ideological step forward. The problem is, you have a succession of presidencies during this 36 year period. Between 1910 and 1946, every single Mexican president brought their own ideology to the revolution. From 1926 to 1929, that's when you had the presidency of Plutarco Elias Calles and he was super anti-clerical and had a lot of hatred for the Catholic Church at this time. He grew up with a really strict Catholic background, which involved physical and verbal abuse. So, he carried that anger in him when he took the presidency in the 1920s and resulted in the Cristero war. Calles bans public mass; he attempts to curb political speech from the pulpit and emphasizes that education should be secular. On top of that, you have Catholic union workers who have embraced the idea that their labor and their suffering is going to help them in the afterlife. The Cristero War set up a clash between these Catholic groups and this revolutionary ideology. The Catholic Church, Latin America, and especially Mexico are always intrinsically intertwined. That's where Dr. Young’s work comes in and explores how it's not isolated to one time period, in one location in Mexico, but is rather transnational in scope.

As we head into Hispanic Heritage month, in your opinion, what does the significance of learning about the Martyrs of the Cristero War hold for both the U.S. and Latin America? 

I think it means that the relationship between the Catholic Church and Latin America is still very much intertwined. We've seen that already this year with the death of Pope Francis, who is of Italian origin, but he was well connected and was born in Argentina to Italian parents. He brought this idea of what the Catholic Church should be in the 21st century. Then you have our current Pope, Pope Leo, who also has ties to Latin America and is also trying to bring the church into the 21st century. The fact that it’s Hispanic heritage month means that this dialogue between the church and Latin American practitioners of Catholicism and lay Catholics, they're still talking about these topics that are meaningful in the 21st century: what does family mean? What role should the church play in daily life?

What do you think attendees will learn by attending this event? 

I think the attendees will get a greater understanding of how the legacies of the Cristero War are still very much part of Mexican history and on both sides of the border. I think Dr. Young will expand on how the Cristero War has spilled over beyond that of 1926 to 1929 and has established digital legacies in the current conservative movements on both sides of the border.

What would you tell someone about this event that would encourage them to attend?
 
I would tell them to come see how history, religion, and social media interact in our contemporary digital landscape but also to help them think about the long game of history and religion; that these are two very long threads of time with multiple actors over centuries that have shaped Mexican history and Catholicism. As I said earlier, these have a long history, so now you have the introduction of social media that's going to change traditional understanding and give it a new audience and a new scope.