Setting the Virgin on Fire cover

Setting the Virgin on Fire

by Marjorie Becker

"Provides convincing revision of the 'myth of secular redemption' surrounding Lázaro Cárdenas and his program of land distribution to the campesinos. Operating on a 'stripped-down image of land-hungry peasants,' Cárdenas and his supporters underestimated the difficulty of gaining peasant allegiance to the post-revolutionary government and initially failed to understand that they were confronting a cultural as well as an economic problem as they tried to extend revolutionary hegemony"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?