Tuesday, August 03, 2010

La Cristiada: The Cristero War












Revolution and civil war: that was the widespread pattern in the wake of "The Great War," World War One (1914-1918). One of the things to sort out was the balance between religious and secular power. Typically, governments tilted toward secular power, as in Turkey, Russia and Mexico, for instance, if not so much in Ireland.

In Mexico, armed backlash came in the form of La Cristiada, the Cristero War of 1926 to 1929, a Catholic uprising fighting against government seizure of church-owned properties.  This uprising, including men, women and children, was successful enough to end in a sort of de facto compromise: the state would leave space for the Catholic church.  Once the church made peace, however, many of its followers were left hanging, or put against a wall and shot by government enforcers of the new status quo. Others fled to the USA.  It was a bloody process, indeed, and included the assasination of one of the last big leaders of the Mexican Revolution, President Álvaro Obregón, in 1928.  














Stay tuned for Cristiada (ca. 2011), Dean Wright's epic film version being shot in Mexico as of this post and reportedly including Peter O'Toole, Rubén Blades, Eva Longoria Parker and Karyme Lozano, among many others.

Today's Rune: Warrior.

2 comments:

Sidney said...

That's a piece of history I'd missed. Interesting and sad.

Brantigny said...

The blood of Martyrs is the mothers milk of the church. The Church grows the best when it is persecuted.