October 25, 2004

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico – Episodes of persecution of Evangelicals in Mexico in the past and heated questions about how they continue today were raised by Mexican intellectual and political analyst Carlos Monsivais.

Monsivais spoke during the inaugural conference of the "Second Symposium about Protestantism in Latin America and the Caribbean," held in this city in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, from October 19 - 22.

The Mexican intellectual dealt with the origins of Protestantism in Mexico in the XIX Century and offered family references when he mentioned that his grandfather was one of the first converts in the state of Zacatecas in northern Mexico.

With the entertaining and ironic style that characterizes him, he spoke of personal experiences of his childhood when, for being a Protestant, he was the victim of scorn and segregation on the part of neighbors, class mates and teachers.

"I cannot resist the temptation to refer to other episodes of my heretic memory. A history Professor, aware of the fact that there were four Protestants in his class said very seriously, "think carefully about your beliefs because in Mexico no Protestant can be president of the Republic."

The teacher asked us what we thought about this prohibition and as I remember I said "it is unfair because I believe that we should all be presidents of the Republic."

Monsivais spoke about the 1929 historic episode when the National Revolutionary Party elected Pascual Ortiz Rubio as a candidate for president as opposed to Aaron Saenz, who everyone thought was a sure thing. The reason: Saenz was a Protestant.

Monsivais noted that Protestants ended up accepting the rejection and the martyrdom, as well as self determination as third class citizens. He also mentioned the multiple persecutions that have taken place, above all in rural zones "where preaching the Protestant faith was a great risk."

At the same time, he said that leftist groups and Progressives have never raised their voice in favor of this religious minority that participated in social movements and diverse educational projects, such as those registered by Swiss historian Jean-Pierre Bastian.

He maintained moreover that the Bible, in the Reina-Valera translation is a monument to the language which the Protestant Church must not give up. "I think it should continue to use the Reina-Valera version and complement it with new versions. To give it up is to give up the relationship of Protestant communities with an idiomatic tradition of the first level."

Monsivais recalled the case of the Summer Institute of Linguists that Marxist anthropologists demonized as sent and allied with "Yankee" imperialism and even CIA spies, a campaign that ended with the removal of the SIL from Mexico.

Monsivais ended the conference by lamenting the silence of the Mexican left and leader of the Zapatista movement, sub commander Marcos who in his long list of minorities never mentioned Protestant groups.

Finally, he said that it is not possible to ignore the expulsions that took place in San Juan Chamula during the past three decades of the past century and recalled the lynching and the sexual abuse of women and children.

He concluded by asking "What do none of the groups that defend indigenous rights even mention religious persecution? Why is the inclusion of religious persecution within the field of human rights so slow?

And added, why when Catholic Bishops talk about religious liberty the context is Catholic education and not freedom of worship? Why have professional atheist Marxists defended the Catholic religion as the only possible religion of the indigenous?

ALC News Service/Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency