The Mysterious Sofía: One Woman's Mission to Save Catholicism in Twentieth-Century Mexico(The Mexican Experience)

Who was the “Mysterious SofÍa,” whose letter in November 1934 was sent from Washington DC to Mexico City and intercepted by the Mexican Secret Service? In The Mysterious SofÍa Stephen J. C. Andes uses the remarkable story of SofÍa 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.  

Table of Contents:
Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Nota Bene, Dear Reader Prologue: De te fabula narratur Part 1. The Mysterious SofÍa 1. Days of the Dead 2. The Sophie Letters 3. Miss del Valle 4. The Mastermind Interlude: Tere Huidobro Part 2. A Family Romance 5. Little Flowers 6. SofÍa’s Belle Époque 7. Vocation 8. Respectable Telephone Operator 9. Preparing the Future Interlude: Family Albums Part 3. Mexican Odyssey 10. The Catacombs 11. The Voyage 12. The Test 13. Gasparri’s Parrots 14. A Long, Hot Roman Summer 15. The Return 16. The Peace Interlude: Las viejitas Part 4. A Woman Alone 17. Out of the Shadows 18. The New Woman 19. Resistance 20. Les femmes internationales 21. Terrible Beasts 22. Winter in the City of Light 23. Doubt 24. Lourdes 25. The Road to Warsaw 26. Borders 27. Bridges Interlude: Walls Part 5. Catholic Vagabond 28. Miss del Valle Goes to Washington 29. The Plan 30. The Deception of Miss Duffy 31. Consider the Lobster 32. Golden Hour of the Little Flower 33. On the Road 34. La patria Calls Postlude: Day’s End Matins: A Few Days After Postscript Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Stephen J. C. Andes is an associate professor of history at Louisiana State University. He is the author of The Vatican and Catholic Activism in Mexico and Chile: The Politics of Transnational Catholicism, 1920–1940.  

Review :
"Stephen J. C. Andes’ The Mysterious SofÍa 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 SofÍa 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 SofÍa 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