Rebecca Janzen brings a unique applied understanding of religion to bear on analysis of Mexican cinema from the Golden Age of the 1930s onward.
Unholy Trinity first examines canonical films like Emilio Fernández’s
María Candelaria and
Río Escondido that mythologize Mexico’s past, suggesting that religious imagery and symbols are used to negotiate the place of religion in a modernizing society. It next studies films of the 1970s, which use motifs of corruption and illicit sexuality to critique both church and state. Finally, an examination of films from the 1990s and 2000s, including Guita Schyfter’s
Novia que te vea, a film that portrays Mexico City’s Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish communities in the twentieth century, and Carlos Carrera’s controversial 2002 film
El crimen del padre Amaro, argues that religious imagery—related to the Catholic Church, people’s interpretations of Catholicism, and representations of Jewish communities in Mexico—allows the films to critically engage with Mexican politics, identity, and social issues.
Table of Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Negotiating a Place for Religion in a Developing Economy: Catholicism in the Golden Age
2. Catholicism at Its Wit’s End: Priests, Madams, and Sex Workers
3. Complex Religious Expression without Redemption: Catholicism, Syncretism, and Judaism
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Index
About the author
Rebecca Janzen is Assistant Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina. She is the author of
The National Body in Mexican Literature: Collective Challenges to Biopolitical Control and
Liminal Sovereignty: Mennonites and Mormons in Mexican Culture, also published by SUNY Press.
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