The government called the rebels
Cristeros since they invoked the name of
Jesus Christ under the title of "Cristo Rey" or
Christ the King, and the rebels soon took to using the name themselves. The rebellion is known for the
Feminine Brigades of St. Joan of Arc, a brigade of women that assisted the rebels in smuggling guns and ammunition, and for certain priests, who were tortured and murdered in public and later
canonized by
Pope John Paul II. The rebellion eventually came to an end following a settlement brokered by the Ambassador
Dwight W. Morrow with financial relief and logistical assistance provided by the
Knights of Columbus.
Beginning of violence On 3 August, four days after the Calles Law came into force, in
Guadalajara, Jalisco, some 400 armed Catholics shut themselves in the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe ("Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe"). They exchanged gunfire with federal troops and surrendered when they ran out of ammunition. According to American consular sources, the battle resulted in 18 dead and 40 wounded. The following day, in
Sahuayo,
Michoacán, 240 government soldiers stormed the parish church. The priest and his vicar were killed in the ensuing violence. On 14 August, government agents staged a purge of the
Chalchihuites,
Zacatecas, chapter of the Association of Catholic Youth and executed its spiritual adviser, Father Luis Bátiz Sainz. The execution caused a band of ranchers, led by Pedro Quintanar, to seize the local treasury and to declare themselves in rebellion. At the height of the rebellion, they held a region including the entire northern part of Jalisco. Luis Navarro Origel, mayor of
Pénjamo,
Guanajuato, led another uprising on 28 September. His men were defeated by federal troops in the open land around the town but retreated into the mountains, where they engaged in
guerrilla warfare. In support of the two guerrilla Apache clans, the Chavez and Trujillos helped smuggle arms, munitions, and supplies from the
US state of
New Mexico. That was followed by a 29 September uprising in
Durango, led by Trinidad Mora, and an 4 October rebellion in southern Guanajuato, led by former General Rodolfo Gallegos. Both rebel leaders adopted guerrilla tactics since their forces were no match for federal troops. Meanwhile, rebels in Jalisco, particularly the region northeast of Guadalajara, quietly began assembling forces. Led by 27-year-old
René Capistrán Garza, the leader of the Mexican Association of Catholic Youth, the region would become the main focal point of the rebellion. The formal rebellion began on 1 January 1927 with a manifesto sent by Garza,
A la Nación ("To the Nation"). It declared that "the hour of battle has sounded" and that "the hour of victory belongs to God." With the declaration, the state of Jalisco, which had been seemingly quiet since the Guadalajara church uprising, exploded. Bands of rebels moving in the "
Los Altos" region northeast of Guadalajara began seizing villages and were often armed with only ancient muskets and clubs. The rebels had scarce logistical supplies and relied heavily on the
Feminine Brigades of St. Joan of Arc and raids on towns, trains, and ranches to supply themselves with money, horses, ammunition, and food. By contrast, the Calles government was supplied with arms and ammunition by the American government later in the war. In at least one battle, American pilots provided air support for the Federal Army against the Cristero rebels. The Calles government failed at first to take the threat seriously. The rebels did well against the
agraristas, a rural militia recruited throughout Mexico, and the Social Defense forces, the local militia, but were at first always defeated by regular federal troops, who guarded the main cities. The Federal Army then had 79,759 men. When the Jalisco federal commander, General Jesús Ferreira, moved in on the rebels, he wired to army headquarters that "it will be less a campaign than a hunt." That sentiment was held also by Calles. Reyes Vega was renowned, and Cardinal Davila deemed him a "black-hearted assassin". At least five priests took up arms, and many others supported them in various ways. Many of the rebel peasants who took up arms in the fight had different motivations from the Catholic Church. Many were still fighting for agrarian
land reform, which had been years earlier the focal point of the Mexican Revolution. The peasantry was still upset of the usurpation of its rightful title to the land. The Mexican episcopate never officially supported the rebellion, but the rebels had some indications that their cause was legitimate. On 21 June 1927, the first Women's Brigade was formed in
Zapopan. It began with 16 women and one man, but after a few days, it grew to 135 members and soon came to number 17,000. Its mission was to obtain money, weapons, provisions, and information for the combatant men and to care for the wounded. By March 1928, some 10,000 women were involved in the struggle, with many smuggling weapons into combat zones by carrying them in carts filled with grain or cement. By the end of the war, it numbered some 25,000. Several female Catholic activists groups formed during this time, and women were instrumental in the formation of activist groups to promote a movement in response to the anticlerical campaigns of the period. Another difficulty facing the Cristeros and especially the Catholic Church was the extended period without a place of worship. The clergy faced the fear of driving away the faithful masses by engaging in war for so long. They also lacked the overwhelming sympathy or support from many aspects of Mexican society, even among many Catholics. of the
National Catholic Welfare Conference. Calles's term as president was coming to an end, and ex-President
Álvaro Obregón had been elected president and was scheduled to take office on 1 December 1928. Obregón had been more lenient to Catholics during his time in office than Calles, but it was also generally accepted among Mexicans, including the Cristeros, that Calles was his
puppet leader. Two weeks after his election, Obregón was assassinated by a Catholic radical,
José de León Toral, which gravely damaged the peace process In September 1928, Congress named
Emilio Portes Gil as interim president with a special election to be held in November 1929. Portes was more open to the Church than Calles had been and allowed Morrow and Burke to restart the peace initiative. Portes told a foreign correspondent on 1 May 1929, that "the Catholic clergy, when they wish, may renew the exercise of their rites with only one obligation, that they respect the laws of the land." The next day, the exiled Archbishop Leopoldo Ruíz y Flores issued a statement that the bishops would not demand the repeal of the laws but only their more lenient enforcement. Morrow managed to bring the parties to agreement on 21 June 1929. His office drafted a pact called the
arreglos ("agreement"), which allowed worship to resume in Mexico and granted three concessions to the Catholics. Only priests who were named by hierarchical superiors would be required to register; religious instruction in churches but not in schools would be permitted; and all citizens, including the clergy, would be allowed to make petitions to reform the laws. Over the previous two years, anticlerical officers, who were hostile to the federal government for reasons other than its position on religion, had joined the rebels. When the agreement between the government and the Church was made known, only a minority of the rebels went home, mainly those who felt their battle had been won. On the other hand, since the rebels themselves had not been consulted in the talks, many felt betrayed, and some continued to fight. The Church threatened those rebels with excommunication and the rebellion gradually died out. The officers, fearing that they would be tried as traitors, tried to keep the rebellion alive. Their attempt failed, and many were captured and shot, and others escaped to
San Luis Potosí, where General
Saturnino Cedillo gave them refuge. The war had claimed the lives of some 90,000 people: 56,882 federals, 30,000 Cristeros, and numerous civilians and Cristeros who were killed in anticlerical raids after the war had ended.
American involvement Mexican-American resistance While the war was raging on in Mexico, Cristero exiles and other
Mexican immigrants and refugees would attend sermons by banished Cristero priests denouncing President
Plutarco Elías Calles' regime and the Cristero War. The attendees would also help generate sympathy in the United States for the Cristero War by printing newspaper articles about the war and would create religious nationalistic organizations such as
Unión Nacionalista Mexicana (Nationalist Mexican's Union) to gather funds for the war effort. There were some within these groups that would contribute more military aid to the Cristeros, with actions including smuggling arms across the
Mexican-American border, providing espionage against the Mexican government, recruiting new troops to aid the Cristeros, and inciting armed revolts within Mexico.
Knights of Columbus Created in New Haven, Connecticut in 1882, the
Knights of Columbus would establish its first chapter in Mexico called
Caballeros de Colón (Knights of Columbus in Spanish) in Mexico City in 1905. Established by California railroad mogul and Knight
John B. Frisbie, a resident of Mexico City, the first chapter would be made up of mostly Irish and Irish-Mexicans before more Mexicans would join the organization. The Knights of Columbus would eventually become one of Mexico's biggest and most monumental Catholic organizations, with a total of 5,102 members across 45 councils nationwide. In addition to lobbying the American public, the Knights met United States President
Calvin Coolidge and pressed him for US intervention on behalf of the rebels. According to former
Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus,
Carl A. Anderson, two thirds of Mexican Catholic councils were shut down by the Mexican government. In response, the Knights of Columbus published posters and magazines which presented Cristero soldiers in a positive light. ==Aftermath==