The Mysterious Sofia

One Woman's Mission to Save Catholicism in Twentieth-Century Mexico

By: Stephen J. C. Andes

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Paperback | 1 December 2019

At a Glance

Paperback
450 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 2.54

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Who was the "Mysterious Sofia," whose letter in November 1934 was sent from Washington DC to Mexico City and intercepted by the Mexican Secret Service? In The Mysterious Sofia Stephen J. C. Andes uses the remarkable story of Sofia del Valle to tell the history of Catholicism's global shift from north to south and the importance of women to Catholic survival and change over the course of the twentieth century. As a devout Catholic single woman, neither nun nor mother, del Valle resisted religious persecution in an era of Mexican revolutionary upheaval, became a labor activist in a time of class conflict, founded an educational movement, toured the United States as a public lecturer, and raised money for Catholic ministries-all in an age dominated by economic depression, gender prejudice, and racial discrimination. The rise of the Global South marked a new power dynamic within the Church as Latin America moved from the margins of activism to the vanguard.

Del Valle's life and the stories of those she met along the way illustrate the shared pious practices, gender norms, and organizational networks that linked activists across national borders. Told through the eyes of a little-known laywoman from Mexico, Andes shows how women journeyed from the pews into the heart of the modern world.

Industry Reviews

"Stephen J. C. Andes' The Mysterious Sofia is a solid contribution to the growing body of literature on the lives of elite and conservative women in Latin America. Its function as an exploration of wealthy Catholic views establishes it as an important work, but the form in which Andes packages this knowledge is just as important."-Jason Dormady, Latin Americanist
"With a sensitive, creative, and highly readable style, Andes narrates the life of Sofia del Valle, a complex, dynamic, and fascinating Mexican Catholic activist and lay leader. Yet Andes has done more than write a biography: he has also vividly portrayed the transnational world in which Sofia lived-a world in which lay activists and clergy circulated between Mexico, Europe, the Vatican, and the United States, exchanging ideas and plans, founding vibrant new organizations and publications, and working to engage Catholics in new ways with their Church. . . . Andes has brilliantly narrated an essentially Mexican story, one that explains and investigates the long and often contentious interplay between Church, state, and society in twentieth-century Mexico."-Julia G. Young, author of Mexican Exodus: Emigrants, Exiles, and Refugees of the Cristero War

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