José Anastasio Díaz López: educating poor infants in Christian Morals, 1890-1905

Abstract

This paper analyzes the historical role of José Anastasio Díaz López as a promoter of the Catholic movement for the return of religion to the public sphere, particularly to the confessional school, in Zacatecas. This priest developed several concrete actions to position the Christian religion as a bastion of civility in society. The poor children that he protected in the asylum that he built for this purpose were educated by the nuns of the congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Saint Mary of Guadalupe that he created to promote job training and the teaching of Catholic religion. Through the maxims of the Salesian pedagogical model and the norms of the Principles of Christian Civility Manual, the children learned about and practiced civility on three levels: personal, social and Christian. The useful component of civility was that it taught how to treat each person according to their social role, as well as their material and spiritual needs. Cordiality, reason and charity accompanied by docility, prudence and affability were virtues of a good Christian. With these urban virtues, children experienced a conversion process that articulated what ought to be and what to do well.