Mexico at the Crossroads: Politics, the Church, and the Poor

Critical praise for 'Mexico at the Crossroads':

Tangeman's timing is perfect. With Bishop Samuel Ruiz of San Cristobal the only link between the Mexican government and the Zapatista rebels, the role of the Church is of extreme importance in the present complicated situation in Mexico. The Church itself, however, is far from monolithic, and this book provides valuable material not elsewhere available about its inner workings.

- Gary MacEoin, journalist, author & activist †

Provides numerous, revealing portraits of Church-State interactions in the last decade, suggestive of a relationship, and a potential political role, undeveloped elsewhere in the extant literature on the Catholic Church. Tangeman's work is especially useful in exploring the interrelationship between the government, the Church, and the marginal Mexican population.

- Roderic Ai Camp, Tulane University

Mexico at the Crossroads: Politics, the Church, and the Poor

(Orbis Books; Maryknoll, NY; 1995)

From the book's cover:

On New Year's Day, 1994, the uprising of Indian peasants in Chiapas, Mexico signalled a dramatic new chapter in a long history that began five hundred years ago. That history involves three major players: the rich and powerful elite, the church, and the poor majority.

In Mexico at the Crossroads, veteran correspondent Michael Tangeman explores the history of interaction between these rival forces in America's closest neighbor, beginning with the arrival of Spanish conquistadors and missionaries in the sixteenth century, through the era of independence, revolution, and emergence of the modern nation.

Tangeman provides essential background for understanding the current dramatic developments in Mexico, including the Zapatista uprising, the assassination of a leading presidential candidate, the emergence of a vital challenge to the long-governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), violent debates over the NAFTA agreement and the impact of its neo-liberal program on the rights and welfare of the poor.

Ending with the bitterly contested 1994 elections, Mexico at the Crossroads offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive review available of the unfolding drama in Mexico, its meaning and implications for the future.

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More critical praise for 'Mexico at the Crossroads':

This is a superb analysis of the Mexican clergy's struggle to balance their role in the nation's political crisis, while at the same time adjusting to the demands of an evolving Catholic mission. Tangeman's book is a must for those who seek to understand the 'Revolution' found in 'Post-Revolution' Mexico.

- Thomas M. Davies, Jr., San Diego State University

Through the eyes of the experienced journalist, Tangeman offers a fast-paced account of the frequently dramatic, often confusing, recent events in Mexico that so directly impact on the life of the Church, not only in Mexico but here as well.

- Thomas E. Quigley, United States Catholic Conference

MichaelTangeman.com

Mexico at the Crossroads: Politics, the Church, and the Poor