Can someone explain mexican freemasonry to me?

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MEXICAN MASONRY- POLITICS & RELIGION
(Mexican Freemasonries-Encounters with Religion and Politics)
Oscar J. Salinas E., Senior Grand Warden-York/Mexico.

Brethren :

I am delighted to speak to you. Speaking simply as a Brother and friends, and not exactly in my capacity as an Officer of various Masonic Grand Bodies. And, I also hope you will remember that nobody really can claim to speak for Freemasonry, because it is such a diverse movement. Indeed, I have chosen to title my talk Mexican "Freemasonries"- Encounters with Religion and Politics, because of that great diversity.

You certainly heard last year what I consider to be a very good conference from our now Past Grand Master, Terrance O'Rourke, in which he gave you a good synopsis of Mexican Masonic history with a General discussion on Lodges in Mexico. I will now try to give you a little bit more of historic data which will help you to better understand Mexican Masonry.

I don't think it is a secret that Mexican Freemasonry has long had a reputation for being involved with political and religious issues and with the initiation of women. As with most second hand information, not everything you may have heard is completely accurate. Nevertheless, it is true that Mexican Masonry is complex and that some of its components are different from the Craft elsewhere.

Masonry has been a major influence in Mexican life for many decades. One of its effects has been to legitimatize political power in a country where other sources of legitimacy, such as the Church, are denied to the ruling elite. The tension between Catholicism and secularism which has characterized Mexican history can trace its roots to even before the beginnings of the Republic. Unlike many other Latin countries, Catholicism per se has not been prerequisite for political success in Mexico.

Some would argue that the effect of Freemasonry has been that: "A Mexican can win acceptance as a full member of the national community --- from the other members of that community, the majority of whom profess Catholic beliefs --- whether or not he shares this religious faith. Catholicism may open some doors to him in the social, intellectual, or business communities, just as Masonic affiliation aids a man in political circles, but religious association is significantly not the prime criterion for acceptance within the national community".

Whether Masonry's political role was beneficial to Mexican society is a deeply contentious issue. There are those who believe Masonry was "a Symbol of and major instrument for the creation of the modern 'neutral' society --- a society in which the fixed statutes of the medieval world gave way to the needs of a changing and dynamic economic and social structure, where artificial and dysfunctional group distinctions are ignored and the individual is judged on his achieved rather than ascribed status".

Lodges had also been formed in both France and Spain quite early in the 1700's. You may recall that the so-called Scottish Rite was brought to the New World from France to the West Indies by Stephen (Etienne) Morin and then gradually spread into Latin America. He was empowered to bring this Scottish Rite to the Western Hemisphere in Bordeaux, France, in 1761, so that the Craft must have arrived in Mexico sometime in the following 30 years.

The first documented evidence of Masonry in Mexico is on June 24, 1791, in what must be the most dramatic Saint John's dinner in history. A Lodge had been organized by a number of recently arrived French retainers of the viceroy, prominent among them watchmaker Jean Laroche, cook Jean Laussel and a barber named Duroy, at whose house the dinner was held. The local parish priest had been watching their comings and goings and tipped off the Holy Inquisition who broke into the meeting. At least one member. Laussel himself, was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment in Africa as "heretic and Freemason".

After this, it is not difficult to imagine that any Masonic Lodge or individual Mason would be particularly careful not to have any written records of Lodge activities. This explains the fact that although many participants in the War of Independence seem to have been Masons, documented evidence of their membership in our Order is scarce or non-existent.

By the way, in Mexico as in most Latin countries, the term Scottish is used for the blue Lodge Scottish Rite or Continental Rite. As many scholars point out, it is of French and Prussian origin and has little or nothing to do with Scotland.

In 1810, when the Mexican fight for Independence from Spain started, the first leader was a Catholic priest and possibly a Mason, Father Miguel Hidalgo. I don't find that as peculiar as some people do, because I imagine that Father Hidalgo could have found in Freemasonry the ideals of freedom and personal dignity which always marked it, and saw no contradiction between Masonry and his faith.

Unfortunately, the initial uprising was squashed by the Spanish and Hidalgo was executed. This meant that our struggle for Independence in Mexico lasted much longer than did the American one, and Mexicans took sides as to just what sort of new nation should emerge.

Even before Independence, the British colonies to the north had enjoyed a significant degree of personal and political freedom. It was only natural for political activity after independence to be channeled to the development of political parties and democratic procedures. In Mexico and the rest of Latin America, on the contrary, the autocratic nature of the Spanish Crown had prevented the development of any kind of political organization and experience. This vacuum drew Freemasonry irresistibly into the whirlwind of political passions and explains what followed.

To explain this, imagine that after the British were beaten at Yorktown, there had been another ten years of civil war between Americans, and that the two warring parties had been based on Masonic Lodge membership. I believe there is no other example of a Masonic war being the initial act in a country´s history, and every Mexican schoolchild learns about the Scottish and the York confrontation, although I doubt if they, or their teachers, understand what it meant. These two Masonic groups were not the Scottish and the York Rites as we know them today, but they display some characteristics which you would recognize. The two camps became competing political clubs or parties, sharply divided over the Spanish question. Scottish Rite Masons defended the resident Spaniards, seeing their cause as a test of individual rights and guarantees; the Yorkists attacked the gachupines in a manner reminiscent of the Jacobins, as if to avenge Hidalgo and Morelos. The Scottish Rite was more hierarchical and it supported the Emperor Agustin de Iturbide, first Emperor of Mexico, an Army private who made himself into the ruler of Mexico. The Scottish Masons were not antagonistic towards the Spanish who remained in Mexico, while many Yorkists suspected that those who remained, might still want to welcome back the Viceregal government and wanted all Spanish to leave.

The first American Ambassador to Mexico was Joel Poinsett, for whom the Christmas Flower is named. In Mexico we don't refer to the Christmas Flower as a Poinsettia because, among other things, Poinsett is regarded as a meddler in Mexican affairs. It was he who brought York Rite Masonry to Mexico, and Mexican historians think this is because he saw the York Lodges as a way to extend American influence, which may be true. But they overlook the fact that all his life he was an enthusiastic Royal Arch Mason and, it was natural that his enthusiasm led him to side with the Yorquinos or Yorkists... and probably not entirely because of politics.

Poinsett was a Charleston aristocrat and inveterate traveler, he paid an initial visit to Mexico in the summer of 1822, when he met and formed an unfavorable opinion of the Emperor Iturbide and his Court. Poinsett received the Mexican appointment in 1825, one which had originally been offered to Andrew Jackson. This was at a time when the predominantly Protestant and democratic United States, was suspicious of a Catholic and aristocratic neighbor, wary of increasing British presence in Mexico, and alarmed about Mexican intentions in Cuba.

Poinsett was given a mandate: "to represent democracy" where the dominant element consisted of aristocrats and monarchists; to support the Monroe Doctrine of America for the Americans against the official tendency in Mexico to seek European affiliations; to vindicate the prestige of the United States, where Great Britain had established a virtual protectorate; to insist upon the 'most-favored nation' principle in commerce when the Mexican government favored mutual concessions among the Spanish-American states; to present the complaints of his fellow-citizens against bewildering commercial regulations; to oppose Mexico's cherished designs regarding Cuba; and to acquire territory when the mere suggestion of such a transaction confirmed Mexican suspicion, wounded Mexican pride, and intensified Mexican irritation."

To accomplish such ambitious goals, Poinsett determined that he must change the attitudes of the Mexican government, challenging the Spanish-born who still looked towards Europe. Although Poinsett himself was a Freemason, many of those he opposed were Scottish Rite Masons. In 1824, he arranged for five Lodges to be chartered by the Grand Lodge of New York, working in the York or American Rite. The next year, they proceeded to form a York Rite Grand Lodge for Mexico under the name of "La Gran Logia Nacional Mexicana", which rapidly grew to more then 100 Lodges.

Then came an episode without precedent in Masonic history. Iturbide's short-lived Empire had come to an end in 1823...Show more

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Sure. Freemasonry is the world's oldest social fraternity and largest philanthropy. One of the requirements to join the fraternity is a belief in a Supreme Being. Lucifer isn't a Supreme Being. So you're SOL. Freemasonry and the Illuminati aren't related at all. Freemasonry exists, whereas the Illuminati - a Bavarian political action group that advocated the overthrow of European monarchies - were disbanded 227 years ago. Freemasonry doesn't plot. It's a fraternity. It has no interest in taking over the world, it only has an interest in making good men better. You don't have to believe in a higher power (again, Lucifer isn't a higher power of any kind, anyway), you have to believe in a Supreme Being. It's a pretty clear and specific requirement. You join the fraternity by going to your local Lodge and asking for an application. Freemasonry doesn't play a 'role' in anything. Freemasonry is a fraternity. NOTES: - There's no such thing as a "Free Mason" or "Free Masonry" and - more importantly - what a Freemason believes isn't going to be found on any 'gotquestions' nonsense site. Duh....Show more

Freemasonry In Mexico...Show more

Thankyou for your history of Freemasonry.Grew up in El Segundo california as a catholic.married 1984 into a Scottish Rite Lodge family.Wifes grandmother Sarrah Crooks was/God rest her soul.was Grand Matron.Never heard a word of Lodge buisness.watched her receive it.loved the traditions.been studying what history you think i could understand.most impressed with the history of the very beggining of freemasonry and other public groups.most of all i love the not secrecy,but the respect of subjects a person cant understand like myself to keep those subjects out of places that only distort the truth.I was raised by an LAPD dad to know somewhat the public will never understand.my grandmother in law only said i could remain a bible believing man.I was raised around Demoley or Jobs daughters.always classy.thankyou so much for the information regulated by what you know is too much to understand.sincerly Kirk Coffelt...Show more

I wish I could help, but I'm not familiar with this history, I will see if I can find out though....Show more