In the last chapter, we talked about racism in the United States viewed through Mexican eyes. In this chapter we will talk about religion, another pillar of the United States, which prides itself as being one nation under God. In the 19th century, many Mexican travelers wrote much about it but over time interest in the subject diminished. Mexicans and Americans are two nations that experienced their religiosity in contrasting ways. Such contrast produced many comments from travelers. The United States is a nation that was founded by devout who wanted freedom of religion. Mainly Protestant Christian. Mexico is a Catholic country that endured several wars in the 19th century in order to have a secular state with freedom of religion. Mexico continues to be a Catholic nation that has freedom of religion. Since 1857, in Mexico, religion became a matter of the private sphere. Still, religious festivities often turned into public celebration and that was accepted as long as the government was not involved. To Mexicans, the way Americans live their religious ceremonies was rather unfortunate, especially when it came to Sundays, the day of the Lord for American Protestants. Many Mexican intellectuals commented on the solemn nature of Sundays in the United States. Zavala describes his experience of a Sunday in Philadelphia where women and men spent at least four hours at their Protestant churches. Protestantism in the city was pervasive and grim. There was no noise in the streets. No music, no playing or any form of entertainment to stray from the day of the Lord. Philadelphia on Sunday was a city asleep, where the only walk was to and from the church. Sanctified Sundays also meant that stores and businesses were closed. People who did not go to church were to be isolated from life even in 19th century New York. When Justo Sierra was in New York on a Sunday he wondered where all people had gone. It seems to him that they had disappeared. Only to be reassured by his travel companion, who clarified that it was Sunday. So people could either be at church, home, in the countryside, or at the bar. But bars were closed on Sunday. These alarming views of Sundays in the US by Mexican intellectuals were reported from visits to some of the largest cities in the country. Some of these intellectuals were religious and some were not. But they contrasted their experiences of Sundays in the US with those of Mexico, where people went to mass. But attendance to mass would be followed by revelry, music, dancing, family gathering and things of the like. Sunday was a holiday, a day to celebrate in joy. Frederico Gamboa suggests that in the United States, there is a form of Protestant Catholicism. Meaning that Catholics adopted the stiff manners of Protestants in the United States. In 1903, during Holy Week, he longed for the rituals and celebrations he used to dread when he was in Mexico. As he realized a great indifference with which Holy Week goes by in the United States, he began to miss it. Years later, Bishop Zuria y Vera talked about the excellent qualities of Catholics in the United States. They were pious, generous in their donations, gave great importance to Catholic education, they were active in community services. They did not eat meat on holidays. They were everything that Mexican social Catholics are not. More into the 20th century, Octavio Paz commented on how the religious foundation of American democracy was not as visible anymore, but it remained as powerful as ever. In his opinion, the religious element was key to understanding the history of the United States and the crisis it offered in the 1960s as the result of the Vietnam war and water gate. Today, Mexicans and American continue to live religiosity in contrasting ways, but the differences are less shocking to Mexican observers. Americans, over the 20th century, became more diverse, and this diversity has made Sundays in the United States less somber. Many stores are now open on Sundays. In summary, the Mexican perspective on religiosity in the United States, shifted from viewing religion as a regimented institution, to one that acknowledged a growing diversity in the population and secularism.
