This work reconstructs the cultural encounters which led to Mexico's post-revolutionary government. It sets aside the mythology surrounding president Lazaro Cardenas to reveal his dilemma: until he and his followers understood peasant culture, they could not govern. This dilemma is vividly illustrated in Michoacan. There, peasants were passionately engaged in a Catholic culture focusing on the Virgin Mary. The Cardenistas, inspired by revolutionary ideas of equality and modernity, were oblivious to peasants' spirituality and determined to transform them. A series of dramatic conflicts forced Cardenas to develop a government that embodied some of the peasants' complex culture.