Cristero War: A Visual History

The Cristero War (1926-1929) was a rebellion in western and central Mexico against President Plutarco Elias Calles's enforcement of the 1917 constitution's anticlerical articles, which limited priests, banned religious schools and orders, and, in the Calles Law of 1926, imposed fines and prison for violations. The bishops suspended public worship in July 1926; peasants in Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacan and Colima rose under the cry 'Viva Cristo Rey' and leaders like Enrique Gorostieta, a Freemason general hired by the Catholic League. Federal troops burned villages and hanged priests, and the rebels dynamited a train and shot officials; about 90,000 died. US ambassador Dwight Morrow brokered the arreglos of June 1929 whereby the bishops reopened churches on unchanged laws; many Cristeros were killed after surrendering.

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Priests in Mexico

State limits and expulsions cut the clergy drastically; by 1935 many states had none.

Timeline of the Cristero War

1. 1926
   Calles Law; churches closeAugust.
2. 1927
   Risings spread; Guadalajara train attack; Father Pro shot
3. 1928
   Gorostieta commands; Obregon assassinated
4. 1929
   Gorostieta killed; arreglosJune.
5. 1934
   'Segunda' Cristero revolt
6. 2000
   Cristero martyrs canonised

Church and revolution

The revolution's 1917 constitution stripped the Church of legal personality, property and schools; Calles, a fierce anticlerical, enforced it in 1926 with the Calles Law and expelled foreign priests. The bishops' strike closed every church in Mexico from 1 August 1926; a boycott failed; and by January 1927 armed bands were rising in the rural Catholic west, the Bajio and Los Altos de Jalisco. The League in Mexico City tried to coordinate them and in 1927 hired the retired general Gorostieta, who built an army of 20,000 with peasant officers.

The war

Federal general Joaquin Amaro used reconcentration, forcing peasants into towns and burning the countryside; captured Cristeros were hanged along the railway lines and priests such as Miguel Pro were shot (Pro's execution in November 1927 was photographed by order of Calles and became an icon). Cristeros held much of Jalisco, Colima and Michoacan by 1929, ambushed columns and blew up the Guadalajara train in 1927, killing 100. Obregon, re-elected, was assassinated by a Catholic militant in July 1928. Women's brigades smuggled ammunition under their skirts.

The arreglos

Ambassador Morrow, keen for stability and oil settlements, brought interim president Portes Gil and the exiled bishops together; the Vatican, wanting worship restored, agreed to accept assurances rather than legal change. Gorostieta, opposed to any deal, was killed on 2 June 1929; the agreements of 21 June reopened the churches and the Cristeros were told to go home. Some 5,000 were killed by the government or agraristas after laying down arms; a smaller 'Segunda' revolt flared in the 1930s. Cardenas eased the persecution after 1936, and 25 Cristero martyrs were canonised in 2000.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• United States (1776 to present)
• Spanish Empire (1492 to 1976)

Wars of the same era and region

• Mexican Revolution (1910 to 1920)
• Mexican War of Independence (1810 to 1821)
• Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939)
• Carlist Wars (1833 to 1876)
• Mexican drug war (2006 to present)
• Guatemalan Civil War (1960 to 1996)

8 surprising things about the Cristero War

1. The Cristero battle cry 'Viva Cristo Rey' (Long live Christ the King) gave the rebels their name.
2. Enrique Gorostieta, the Cristeros' best general, was a Freemason and agnostic who took the job for pay and came to believe in the cause.
3. Father Miguel Pro was shot without trial in 1927 with his arms outstretched; Calles had the photos printed to deter Catholics and they had the opposite effect.
4. The Knights of Columbus in the US lobbied hard for the Cristeros; Ambassador Morrow's daughter married Charles Lindbergh during his mission.
5. Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory is set in the persecution's aftermath in Tabasco, where Garrido Canabal banned religion outright.
6. The war's rebel stronghold, Los Altos de Jalisco, remains one of Mexico's most conservative Catholic regions.
7. About 5,000 Cristeros were killed after the peace, many by their agrarista neighbours.
8. The 2012 film For Greater Glory starred Andy Garcia as Gorostieta.

Sources

• Cristero Rebellion Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Cristero War Wikipedia
• Mexico: Calles and the Cristeros Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Jean Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion: The Mexican People between Church and State 1926-1929 (1976) Cambridge University Press

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