UC Berkeley

“Claiming the Cross” examines the shifting relationship between the Catholic Church, the federal government, Mexican immigrants, and Mexican Americans during the 20th century. It argues that over the course of the 20th century, Mexicans and Mexican Americans pushed for and won a change from adversary to advocate in the Church’s role as mediator between them and the national state. Focusing primarily on the US Southwest and Washington, DC, “Claiming the Cross” shows that the Catholic Church initially aligned itself with state actions against interests of people of Mexican descent. Over time, however, as Catholic officials assumed advisory positions at all levels of the federal government, Catholics of Mexican descent leveraged their Catholicism to promote advocacy on their behalf. Securing Church advocacy granted Mexicans and Mexican Americans access to federal dollars for social welfare programs that increasingly came under the control of Catholic organizations. It also meant obtaining Catholic support for immigration legislation that included civil rights protections for undocumented immigrants.

“Claiming the Cross” is part of a broader research program that integrates civil rights, Mexican American, and religious history. It offers a new perspective on the traditional story of civil rights history by illustrating how Mexicans and Mexican Americans drove civil rights reform. Focusing on people of Mexican descent and the Catholic Church that so many of them claimed as their own, recasts the civil rights movement as both long and wide, chronologically, geographically, demographically, and substantively. Issues such as citizenship, bilingualism, immigration reform, and labor unionism emerge as pressing concerns. In addition, it demonstrates that religion was integral to how Mexicans and Mexican Americans fought for greater equality. Finally, the shifting alliance between Mexicans, Mexican Americans, the Catholic Church, and the US federal government reveals a robust and little known church-state partnership that directly impacted political change in the 20th century United States.