JUAN SOLDADO: Rapist, Murderer, Martyr, Saint

In 1938, 24-year-old Mexican soldier Juan Castillo Morales was executed for the rape and murder of eight-year-old Olga Camacho. Despite his well-publicized confession, people began doubting his guilt after his death; soon they had turned his Tijuana grave into a shrine and transformed Castillo Morales into Juan Soldado (Juan the Soldier), an unofficial saint to whom devotees prayed for good health and safe passage to the United States. In this extensively researched but flatly written book, Vanderwood, professor emeritus of Mexican history at San Diego State University, sheds new light on the circumstances surrounding the crime. Vanderwood also delves deeper than the title indicates, exploring the origins of religious devotion in Mexico and around the world and examining the history of criminals–cum–popular saints, from Mexico's Jesus Malverde, the patron saint of drug dealers, to Tucson's El Tiradito (the Castaway), whose shrine is promoted by the Chamber of Commerce. The book also devotes a chapter to the tense, Depression-era atmosphere in Tijuana and postrevolutionary Mexico at the time of Olga Camacho's murder and includes interviews with members of the Camacho family, witnesses to Castillo Morales's execution and present-day visitors to the soldier's grave. Those interested in Mexican culture and religious customs will surely glean new information from this book, but stolid prose compromises Vanderwood's thorough research and astute personal observations. (Dec.)