By: roberto r. treviño  (Page 13/14)

Yet these were the same sisters who had begun taking steps to break with the past. In order to understand such contradictory behavior we must keep in mind that in the 1940s social change was a halting and uneven process, one that was impelled as much as it was checked by some of the major forces that shaped the decade —ethnic and class tensions, and the dislocations of war. By the 1940s, Catholic sisters and other Americans were becoming increasingly uneasy with Jim Crow and a disturbing sense of impending upheaval loomed. World War II particularly upset the social order and disquieted individuals, often bringing out the worst in people. “We have so many neglected souls, and this war is not helping them to be better,” a sister wrote in 1945. “Race hatred is everywhere,” she reported, “and we see signs of it on all sides.” Sister Mary of Grace [to Mother Angelique Ayers], 7 January 1945, Deans Correspondence Coll., Ayers File, AOLLU. Some people at times were overwhelmed “with gasoline rationing . . . and with all the other complications of trying to keep things going in war time.” Tatton to Ayers, 13 October 1942. As a result of these strains, self-interest and the comfort of established ways prevailed over ideals that were more easily articulated than lived; it was easier to acquiesce than to challenge Jim Crow.

The illiberal positions that progressive Catholics sometimes took reflect their human flaws and the fact that doubts and ambivalence sometimes plagued even well-intentioned Catholics who believed in social equality. Tatton’s ruminations, for instance, revealed the uncertainties triggered by her introspection about the moral issues and shifting social landscape of the time, as well as some illogical conclusions she drew as she tried to come to terms with her own views on race, religion, and class in Jim Crow Texas. Thus, the same letters that projected a liberal social consciousness and embraced efforts to help the Mexican poor, also spoke condescendingly about “[t]hese southern negroes,” portraying them as childish and improvident. Ibid. Tatton’s letters and some aspects of the relationship between the Mexican- American Catechists and the Sisters of Divine Providence illuminate much about Catholic women who challenged Jim Crow despite their human limitations. This underside of otherwise progressive Catholics shows how closely entwined class and color were in Jim Crow Texas, and how thorny the path was for those who took the tentative first steps toward dismantling that society.

The demise of Jim Crow and the advent of significant social gains by Texas Mexicans would await the great catalysts of World War II and the Civil Rights era. Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas , chapter 12. But in the meantime, Catholic sisters and people they had influenced had begun to confront and resolve their paradoxical relationship to Texas Mexicans and social inequality. Through their personal agency, these women enhanced the viability of Texas Mexican families and communities by offering needed social services, inspiring others to work for social justice, and opening professional opportunities for tejana nuns, those destined to become role models for future generations. Moreover, as pioneers in religious social work, these women contributed substantively to the development of the American social welfare system. As they chipped away at race prejudice and social discrimination aimed at Texas Mexicans, Catholic nuns forged ties with the modern civil rights movement. Clearly, they had their faults and the pace of change they promoted seems glacial by today’s standards. Nonetheless, by the mid-twentieth century Catholic sisters could be counted among the precursors of impending social change as, however imperfectly, they prepared the soil for greater social justice in the future.