Welcome
About the exhibition
This digital exhibition explores the period of the Cristero War (1926-1929) in Encarnación de Díaz, Jalisco through an archive of Cristero photography (Instituto Cultural de Aguascalientes) and the personal archive of Enrique Aguilar Ugarte Infante (Cenidiap – INBAL), an important but lesser-known post-revolutionary artist from the state of Aguascalientes. The Cristero War, also known as the Cristiada, erupted in 1926 when thousands of Catholics called “Cristeros” staged an uprising against the anticlerical policies implemented by the government of Plutarco Elías Calles (1924-1928). The conflict devastated the central-western zones of the country, with the violence largely concentrated in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Nayarit, however religious worship continued underground in the form of clandestine masses and seminaries.
In 1929, the artist Enrique Aguilar Ugarte was dispatched to Encarnación de Díaz to work in the Cultural Missions, a national educational project launched by the Ministry of Education (SEP) with the aim of modernizing Mexico’s rural communities and using culture to eradicate “religious fanaticism”. During the Cristero War, the Ministry of Education intensified this campaign to promote “the spiritual pacification of the peasantry” in the region of Los Altos de Jalisco and other Cristero strongholds. As we approach the centenary of the Cristero War in 2026, the exhibition Enrique Aguilar Ugarte en Encarnación de Díaz: Photohistories of the Cristero War (1926-29) examines this complex chapter in Mexico’s national and regional history from two distinct photographic perspectives: that of the Cristeros of “la Chona” who actively resisted the government, and that of Ugarte and his colleagues as federal teachers.
About the “Cristero Movement” Collection held at the Archive of Aguascalientes Cultural Institute
The “Cristero Movement” Collection has been held by the Aguascalientes Cultural Institute for eleven years. Compiled during the 1980s by Alfredo Hernández Quesada, nephew of Cristero captain Efrén Quesada Ibarra, the collection is comprised of various documents as well as audio, video and photographic material. The exhibition draws images from this final section which reveal how the Cristero War was experienced in Encarnación de Díaz. These photographs offer glimpses of important locations such as the main square and the Parish of Our Lady of Encarnación, spaces often used for the kinds of public religious congregations which were banned during the conflict. Likewise, other images document the clandestine religious activities, as well as the armed resistance of local Catholics against the government in defence of their faith. This is the complex situation that faced Enrique Aguilar Ugarte and his fellow missionary teachers when they arrived to “la Chona” in 1929.
About the Photographic Archive of Enrique Aguilar Ugarte Infante held at the Cenidiap (INBAL)
The Enrique Aguilar Ugarte Archive was donated by the artist’s daughter Martha Aguilar Ugarte on the 7th August 2013 and is currently held at the Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información de Artes Plásticas (Cenidiap) where it forms part of the historical and artistic patrimony of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA). Although Aguilar Ugarte’s artwork is less well-known today, he was a contemporary of Leopoldo Méndez and was affiliated with important institutions such as the prestigious San Carlos Academy, the Chimamlistac School of Open-Air Painting, the National School of Fine Arts, the National School for Teachers and the Cultural Missions established during the governments of Álvaro Obregón (1920-1924) and Plutarco Elías Calles (1924-1928).
The archive is comprised of 416 items which include documents relating to Ugarte’s appointments as a missionary teacher, catalogues and books featuring his artworks as well as original works composed using a range of techniques, a selection of musical scores and photographs of the locations he visited as a missionary teacher, including Encarnación de Díaz in the state of Jalisco in 1929. During the Cristero War, missionary teachers sought to train teachers located in rural zones and isolated communities. This was undoubtedly a challenging task for Ugarte and his colleagues: missionary teachers were expected to act as social guides and leaders in the government’s new revolutionary educational crusade. In addition to understanding the geography of the specific region, as shown in the photograph of the map identifying the locations of cultural missions, these teachers lived alongside and interacted with the local community. The exhibition captures these interactions in photographs showing Ugarte and his colleagues in the market, the town square and participating in community festivities.
CURATORIAL TEAM
Lucy O’Sullivan - University of Birmingham (UK)
Jacqueline Romero Yescas - Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información de Artes Plásticas (Cenidiap)
Katia Lorena Bárcenas Pedroza - Archivo Histórico del Instituto Cultural de Aguascalientes
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CREDITS
Many thanks to the archival teams at the Instituto Cultural de Aguascalientes and the Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información de Artes Plásticas (Cenidiap) for providing digitizations of the photographs included in this exhibition. Particular thanks is also given to the Ugarte family for authorising the use of photographs from the Photographic Archive of Enrique Aguilar Ugarte Infante held at the Cenidiap (INBAL).
SOURCES
Fondo Movimiento Cristero, Archivo Histórico del Instituto Cultural de Aguascalientes
Fondo Enrique Aguilar Ugarte, Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información de Artes Plásticas (Cenidiap), INBAL