| Summary: | This essay explores the ways in which Catholic Mexican women of the Juventud Católica Femenina Mexicana (JCFM) employed press mechanisms as a means to produce and disseminate conservative ideologies to combat the nascent state’s left-leaning agenda. I place Mexican women at a nexus point between the social and ideological standoffs of Mexico’s Cristero Rebellion, on the one hand, and the cultural and political battles of the early Cold War. Specifically, I grant special focus to JCFM magazines and pedagogical campaigns as vehicles of social mobilization among female teachers, students, farmworkers, laborers, and domestic employees. On the one hand, I critically examine notions of Catholic feminism, as developed by members of the JCFM. On the other, I analyze social divisions among JCFM members, particularly as these emerged along racial and class lines. Ultimately, I question the effectiveness of JCFM magazines and social campaigns as tools for ideological unification and social mobilization.
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