Chiapas and its many religions

Hermann Bellinghausen
There are few more beautiful views of San Cristóbal de Las Casas than the
facades, at sunset, of its indigenous cathedral and the indigenous baroque
temple of Santo Domingo. The sun paints them gold and one understands
why people see the kingdom of God as something shining. But that is not all.
In Chiapas, Pope Francis has to set foot in the least Catholic territory in all of
Mexico. Result of a long and complex regional history, since this did not
belong to New Spain, the religious panorama of Chiapas must be seen as
extraordinary in the national context. To a very significant Catholic base,
today freely organized in Los Altos, La Selva, La Frontera and the Northern
Zone, is added an astronomical variety of diverse Christian churches.
Evangelism is numerous, as well as Pentecostalism, and para-Christian
denominations: Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists. All
with many followers. There is mass Protestantism here, as scholars point
out. Furthermore, although their members are only a few hundred in San
Cristóbal de Las Casas, the Chamula Muslims, of Sufi origin, give a lot to
talk about.
Chiapas is the place in Mexico where the Catholic Church is not the majority,
or it is only by a narrow margin. Among the indigenous peoples, mainly
within the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Catholicism represents
perhaps 50 percent of the total. Even the Inegi figures, neither complete nor
updated, confirm that non-Catholic churches are widespread in the
indigenous communities and neighborhoods of the cities.
Add that San Cristóbal, a relatively small city, far from the center of the
country, is home to a dozen Buddhist centers, a community of Orthodox
Jews, another of Sikhs and three Muslim groups (a large mosque is being
built on the outskirts of the city). Furthermore, Chiapas is characterized by its
high number of atheists, 12 percent. And the most notable thing: while the
city has been Indianized since 1980, to the point of having today a Tzotzil
Chamula population almost on par with that of San Cristobal, a good part of
these indigenous people, many born here, are not Catholic.
The populous peripheral colonies are dotted with hundreds of non-Catholic
temples. The bulk of real Catholicism in Chiapas is based on indigenous
communities, almost always in competition with other Christian
denominations. Conflicts are part of the history of these people, but
ultimately it is not for religious issues but for political ones. In Chiapas,
religion does not happen automatically. Indigenous Catholicism is
liberationist, and it is a conscious choice. In a very complete study on the
subject, Chiapas for Christ. Doctrinal diversity and political change in the
non-Catholic religious field of Chiapas (MC Editores, Mexico, 2008), José
Andrés García Méndez states that the main religious change that Chiapas
society (societies) has experienced in the last fifty years consists precisely of
the possibility of choosing, of religiously constructing different worlds or at
least of appropriating the same world in a different way.
The author points out the existence of an indigenous Christianity, which is
not only a way of believing in it but also acting on it, where faith has become
a convenient form of political action. The native church of Tatic Samuel was
accused of this for years, while García Méndez considers that Protestantism
is now “more Chiapas than Protestant; Local cultures have imprinted their
own character, but not only from a theological reflection, but mainly from a
very particular way of acting Christianity. It is not (at least for now) about the
creation of a properly evangelical 'lifestyle', as Harold Bloom proposes" with
respect to what he calls American religion, but rather about evangelical
styles that are specifically Chiapas.
Centuries of living in the mountains as unredeemed Indians, poorly reached
by the Spanish crown, nominally Catholic, the indigenous peoples would be
exposed to swarms of Protestant missionaries from the United States,
Guatemala and Mexico itself, who found fortune throughout the state, since
The local chiefs of the 19th and 20th centuries were priest-eaters like
Garrido Canábal (governor Victorico Grajales burned churches) and
therefore permissive with other churches. Cardenism made way for the
Presbyterian Summer Linguistic Institute since 1940. And so on to infinity.
The author points out the existence of an indigenous Christianity, which is
not only a way of believing in it but also acting on it, where faith has become
a convenient form of political action. The native church of Tatic Samuel was
accused of this for years, while García Méndez considers that Protestantism
is now “more Chiapas than Protestant; Local cultures have imprinted their
own character, but not only from a theological reflection, but mainly from a
very particular way of acting Christianity. It is not (at least for now) about the
creation of a properly evangelical 'lifestyle', as Harold Bloom proposes" with
respect to what he calls American religion, but rather about evangelical
styles that are specifically Chiapas.
Centuries of living in the mountains as unredeemed Indians, poorly reached
by the Spanish crown, nominally Catholic, the indigenous peoples would be
exposed to swarms of Protestant missionaries from the United States,
Guatemala and Mexico itself, who found fortune throughout the state, since
The Local chiefs of the 19th and 20th centuries were priest-eaters like
Garrido Canábal (governor Victorico Grajales burned churches) and
therefore permissive with other churches. Cardenism made way for the
Presbyterian Summer Linguistic Institute since 1940. And so on to infinity.