Two rural teachers in Durango, Mexico. From the Cristiada to Henriquismo

Abstract

In this paper I will explain my parents’ participation in a convulsive period of Mexican history. My father was a rural teacher in the state of Durango and my mother, although not trained as a teacher, also worked as one in different places within the state. During their years as teachers they worked under threat because they had to follow the State education policy of socialist education. They were persecuted and more than once they had to leave the villages in the middle of the night. Years later my father joined the Henriquez movement, which would ultimately be defeated, and had to leave Durango for Mexico City. Based on the family documents left by my father (personal accounts, some letters and official documents, photographs), I intend to describe the vicissitudes of a couple who obeyed orders in their teaching work and later fought against the establishment through partisan politics, being defeated in the end.