| Sumario: | Through a combination of the cross-case method of compari- son (more typical of sociology) and the cross-temporal method (more typical of history), the essay seeks to construct a range of similarities and differences between the Independence movement and the Mexican Revolution, primarily by looking at the participation of indigenous common people in each upheaval. Three major variables are selected for comparison: ethnicity, the role of the community, and religious sensibility. These three variables are not isolated, however, but are inter-dependent, since late colonial villages were defined not only by ethnicity, but also by localist (community) loyalties, localism was reinforced and even built upon religious practice, and religious belief and practice in large measure were shaped by the nature of ethnicity. The conclusions are that the Mexican Independence movement was much more Indian, more intensely localist, and more religious in tone than the revolution of a century later. It is only with the Revolution that signs of a nationalist sensibility begin to appear among common people.
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