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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — -PUBLICATION NO. 6 



ed with antireligious ideas. In addition, com- 

 munism would take all property from individ- 

 uals and use it for the state itself. People would 

 eat and be clothed only at the expense and will 

 of the state, and subsequently wives would be 

 taken from husbands. Sinarquism would prevent 

 this proposed future order. The anticommunis- 

 tic struggle was to be ideological, and required 

 neither dues nor fighting; merely the right spirit 

 was necessary. 



At the end of the speechmaking, some citizens 

 were unimpressed and left, but others stayed 

 to form a local committee with officers. For 6 

 months there was little progress, though a few 

 meetings were held in private. Presently the 

 municipal president threatened to kill the chap- 

 ter head if meetings continued, so he fled to 

 Patzcuaro. Apparently the matter was settled, 

 but unbeknown to the authorities, secret meetings 

 were held in the convent under the direction of 

 the priest, who urged the most fanatical Catho- 

 lics to support and further the new organization. 



In July, 1941, another outside commission 

 came from a nearby village where Sinarquism 

 had taken root, and in a small private assembly 

 a new local chapter was formed. Subsequently, 

 meetings were held each week to which non- 

 members were invited and later asked to join. 

 Within a month a hundred persons were attend- 

 ing, and new rules were drawn up dividing the 

 local area, including nearby settlements, into 

 zones, sectors, and blocks, each with chiefs. It 

 was decided to levy an assesment of .^0.50 

 against each member to buy Mexican flags, one 

 for the men and another for the women. On 

 August 18 of that year formal delivery of the 

 flags was made in the presence of representa- 

 tives from Patzcuaro, Quiroga, and a dozen other 

 towns, and a parade around town terminated 

 in the plaza where speeches were made from 

 the bandstand. Meanwhile the municipal presi- 

 dent, who was not in sympathy, sent to Patzcua- 

 ro for soldiers, who arrived after the demon- 

 strators had dispersed to their homes for ban- 

 quets. The leaders were arrested and placed in 

 jail. This tactically unwise move immediately 

 made heroes of them, and a great crowd of Si- 

 narquistas gathered around the jail, singing 

 hymns and anthems, leaving money with the 

 prisoners, and bringing them food. As the news 

 spread to other villages, the crowds continued 



to grow, and there were threats of stoning the 

 municipal ofiicers out of town if the prisoners 

 were not released. Public opinion soon became 

 so violent that this action was taken. Subse- 

 quently, almost all adults in Tzintzuntzan affil- 

 iated with the movement. 



Later in the year the president and secretary 

 of the Siiiarquistas journeyed to Mexico City 

 to take part in a national congress, where they 

 were further instilled with the spirit of the 

 movement, particularly to obey implicitly orders 

 which were given from higher men in the organ- 

 ization. But upon their return the two delegates 

 failed to give an accounting of the money given 

 them, and fell to quarreling as to who should 

 be the highest chief. As a result a number of 

 members became disgusted and dropped out, 

 and subsequent weekly meetings resulted in bit- 

 ter bickering, in which one of the chiefs little 

 by little converted his position into that of ex- 

 treme dictatorship to direct all local policies. 



By midyear of 1942 a rebel movement formed 

 a new committee which quickly took over and 

 set upon a course of recruiting members from 

 the town and surrounding villages. The new 

 chief formed "flying squads" of propagandists 

 consisting of four or five youths and girls, ac- 

 companied by an older woman as chaperon. 

 These groups visited other towns for periods of 

 several days and talked and sang hymns and 

 Sinarquista songs. The plan was successful and 

 the chapter increased in size until it was dis- 

 covered that the chief had been making improper 

 advances toward the girls. He was stoned out 

 of town and never returned, and the member- 

 ship quickly fell off^. 



Subsequent attempts to increase membership 

 met with little success, though a small militant 

 nucleus continued to meet regularly. A new 

 national congress, to which a delegate was sent, 

 provided the answer to the falling membership. 

 Baja California and Sonora were in grave dan- 

 ger of being taken by the United States. For the 

 sake of the Patria these lands must be strength- 

 ened, and this could best be done through colon- 

 ization. The leaders of the movement had dis- 

 covered the touchstone to success. Mass meet- 

 ings such as had never been seen were held, 

 and contributions to the colonization fund grew 

 apace. The only thought now was that of saving 

 the honor and territory of Mexico, regardless 



