ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the US-Mexican War and its effects on Mexican American religion. A brief survey of the war and some of its causes is useful for understanding how religious concerns played a part in the conflict. Before discussing the aftermath of the US-Mexican War and its consequences for Mexican American religion, it is important to recall the role that Anglo-Protestant anti-Catholicism played in the conflict. The chapter looks at how the religious lines drawn in the war often created or reinforced perceived racial differences between Anglos and Mexicans, thus linking religion and race. In Mexico, before and during the war, there was explicit confidence that US anti-Catholic nativism could create a decisive benefit for Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which ended the US-Mexican War in 1848, did make some provisions for the Mexican inhabitants of the conquered territory. Mexican American Catholics quickly found themselves marginalized in their own land.
