The Mysterious Sofía: One Woman’s Mission to Save Catholicism in Twentieth-Century Mexico

448 Pages·2019·17.505 MB·English

by  Stephen J. C. Andes

The Mysterious Sofía
•
The Mexican Experience
William H. Beezley, series editor
The Mysterious Sofía
•
One Woman’s Mission to
Save Catholicism in
Twentieth- Century Mexico
Stephen J. C. Andes
University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln
© 2019 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Andes, Stephen J. C. (Stephen Joseph Carl), author.
Title: The mysterious Sofia: a Catholic woman’s story through
a century of change / Stephen J. C. Andes.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2019] |
Series: The Mexican experience | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2019003680
isbn 9781496214669 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 9781496217608 (pbk)
isbn 9781496218186 (epub)
isbn 9781496218193 (mobi)
isbn 9781496218209 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Valle, Sophia del, 1891– 1982. | Catholic
women— Mexico— Biography. | Catholic Action—
Mexico— History— 20th century. | Catholic labor
unions— Mexico— 20th century. | Catholic Church—
Mexico— History— 20th century.
Classification: lcc bx1428.3 .a53 2019 |
ddc 282.092 [B]— dc23
lc record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2019003680
Set in Arno Pro by Mikala R. Kolander.
For my father, Fred Stephen Andes III

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Nota Bene, Dear Reader xv
Prologue: De te fabula narratur xvii
Part 1. The Mysterious Sofía
1. Days of the Dead 3
2. The Sophie Letters 8
3. Miss del Valle 9
4. The Mastermind 11
Interlude: Tere Huidobro 15
Part 2. A Family Romance
5. Little Flowers 19
6. Sofía’s Belle Époque 33
7. Vocation 43
8. Respectable Telephone Operator 52
9. Preparing the Future 68
Interlude: Family Albums 81
Part 3. Mexican Odyssey
10. The Catacombs 91
11. The Voyage 99
12. The Test 112
13. Gasparri’s Parrots 131
14. A Long, Hot Roman Summer 139
15. The Return 152
16. The Peace 164
Interlude: Las viejitas 170
Part 4. A Woman Alone
17. Out of the Shadows 185
18. The New Woman 191
19. Resistance 200
20. Les femmes internationales 204
21. Terrible Beasts 218
22. Winter in the City of Light 220
23. Doubt 231
24. Lourdes 239
25. The Road to Warsaw 242
26. Borders 248
27. Bridges 252
Interlude: Walls 260
Part 5. Catholic Vagabond
28. Miss del Valle Goes to Washington 265
29. The Plan 272
30. The Deception of Miss Duffy 281
31. Consider the Lobster 288
32. Golden Hour of the Little Flower 294
33. On the Road 305
34. La patria Calls 328
Postlude: Day’s End 341
Matins: A Few Days After 353
Postscript 358
Notes 359
Bibliography 393
Index 407
Illustrations
1. Sofía Goeury Smith and Francisco
del Valle Ballina, ca. 1887 23
2. Sofía del Valle at play as a child, undated 27
3. Family del Valle, ca. 1900 29
4. Sofía del Valle with her maternal grandmother,
Sofía Smith de Goeury, date unknown 30
5. Family del Valle, behind the ideal, early 1900s 32
6. Sofía del Valle in a European school, ca. 1908 35
7. Matilde, Sofía, and an unidentified friend, ca. 1910– 12 37
8. Alfredo Méndez Medina, founder and first director
of the Mexican Social Secretariat, ca. 1920 48
9. The Mexican Social Secretariat at 9 Motolinía
Street, ca. 1923 56
10. Ericsson telephone operators at the main exchange
in Mexico City 60
11. “Respectable” Ericsson telephone operators in the
Rest and Recreation Room, ca. 1926 61
12. Sofía del Valle and “Catholic couture,” ca. 1926 70
13. Elena Lascuráin de Silva and Clara Arce, leaders
of the Damas Católicas 71
14. Sofía del Valle, ca. 1926 73
15. Miguel Darío Miranda in the Social Secretariat,
ca. 1926 75
16. The trial of Madre Conchita and José de León
Toral, 1928 148
17. Sofía del Valle, ca. 1930 192
18. Students of Cultura Femenina on field day, ca. 1930– 32 194
19. Students at Cultura Femenina, ca. 1930 196
ix