Mysterious Sofía

Stephen J. C. Andes is an associate professor of history at Louisiana State University. He is the author of The Vatican and Catholic Activism in Mexico and Chile: The Politics of Transnational Catholicism, 1920–1940.

• ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsNota Bene, Dear ReaderPrologue: De te fabula narraturPart 1. The Mysterious SofÍa1. Days of the Dead2. The Sophie Letters3. Miss del Valle4. The MastermindInterlude: Tere HuidobroPart 2. A Family Romance5. Little Flowers6. SofÍa’s Belle Époque7. Vocation8. Respectable Telephone Operator9. Preparing the FutureInterlude: Family AlbumsPart 3. Mexican Odyssey10. The Catacombs11. The Voyage12. The Test13. Gasparri’s Parrots14. A Long, Hot Roman Summer15. The Return16. The PeaceInterlude: Las viejitasPart 4. A Woman Alone17. Out of the Shadows18. The New Woman19. Resistance20. Les femmes internationales21. Terrible Beasts22. Winter in the City of Light23. Doubt24. Lourdes25. The Road to Warsaw26. Borders27. BridgesInterlude: WallsPart 5. Catholic Vagabond28. Miss del Valle Goes to Washington29. The Plan30. The Deception of Miss Duffy31. Consider the Lobster32. Golden Hour of the Little Flower33. On the Road34. La patria CallsPostlude: Day’s EndMatins: A Few Days AfterPostscriptNotesBibliographyIndex

"Stephen J. C. Andes’ The Mysterious SofÍa is a solid contribution to the growing body of literature on the lives of elite and conservative women in Latin America. Its function as an exploration of wealthy Catholic views establishes it as an important work, but the form in which Andes packages this knowledge is just as important."-Jason Dormady, Latin Americanist “With a sensitive, creative, and highly readable style, Andes narrates the life of SofÍa del Valle, a complex, dynamic, and fascinating Mexican Catholic activist and lay leader. Yet Andes has done more than write a biography: he has also vividly portrayed the transnational world in which SofÍa lived-a world in which lay activists and clergy circulated between Mexico, Europe, the Vatican, and the United States, exchanging ideas and plans, founding vibrant new organizations and publications, and working to engage Catholics in new ways with their Church. . . . Andes has brilliantly narrated an essentially Mexican story, one that explains and investigates the long and often contentious interplay between Church, state, and society in twentieth-century Mexico.”-Julia G. Young, author of Mexican Exodus: Emigrants, Exiles, and Refugees of the Cristero War