México ante Dios. (Mexico Before God)

Reviewed by Bruce Jensen, Spanish in Our Libraries, CA -- Críticas, 4/1/2007

The thesis of this work is unmistakable, repeated fervently throughout the novel: the Catholic church has long been Mexico’s most damaging enemy. In a grim prison cell in late 19th century Mexico—the same prison where reformist president Benito Juárez was held for a time—a freethinking journalist at the end of his life offers his younger cellmate a detailed chronicle of the abuses the Catholic church carried out in exercising its vast power. His narratives and the recollections of the younger man move the story through the lives of presidents, archbishops, and revolutionaries, carrying the reader into private offices, cathedrals, and a convent as it spans close to 100 years of history. Moreno’s wildly popular brand of historical fiction is a conscious alternative to official Mexican textbook versions of events and of people; it might occupy a shelf parallel to that of the brilliant historical novels of Gore Vidal in the United States. A lawyer who left his career with the federal treasury to write about big money and big politics from an insider’s perspective, Moreno is an avid researcher who documents his novels with hundreds of source citations. Though scholars have observed that his passionate advocacy tends to eclipse rigorous historical objectivity, the author clearly makes his case and works to bolster it through a detailed, if selective, presentation of evidence. The strong sales in Mexico of a book with such a potentially controversial message testify to the sophistication of the reading public, as well as Moreno’s gifts as a storyteller. Recommended for all libraries and bookstores.