When a young French graduate student named Jean Meyer arrived in Mexico in 1965 to write his doctoral thesis on the religious war known as the Cristiada, the topic was virtually unknown to historians. A conflict between Catholics and the government that had claimed the lives of approximately 250,000 people between 1926 and 1929 remained cloaked in official silence, and the archives of Church and state related to the struggle were closed to investigators.
The work done by Meyer would ultimately help to provide the general framework for the new movie For Greater Glory, although the movie deviates substantially from the documented facts of the war’s history. After five years of research and interviews with hundreds of eyewitnesses, Meyer completed his work: La Cristiada, a three-volume account of the war and its historical antecedents.
To his surprise, a Mexican publishing house of a decidedly Marxist bent, Siglo Veintiuno Editores, agreed to publish the work, beginning in 1972, and it has been in print ever since, having passed through more than 20 editions. Meyer eventually became a Mexican citizen, and today he lives in Mexico City, working as a professor and researcher at the Economic and Teaching Research Center.
With La Cristiada, Meyer established himself as the principal academic historian of Mexico’s epic war to save the Catholic religion. Meyer, 70, spoke with Register correspondent Matthew Cullinan Hoffman to discuss the Cristiada, its historical ramifications and his own personal odyssey.
How did your research of the Cristero Rebellion and the writing of this history affect you?
Well first, it made me a Mexican. It made me a Mexican because I worked in a very strange situation for a historian at that moment; at that moment, the whole history [of the conflict] didn’t exist. It was not accepted in the academy. But in ’65, when I came to Mexico, the religious conflict was too recent, so the archives of the Church and the archives of the state and the archives of Rome were totally closed. And I found myself in a very difficult situation as a historian prepared to work in archives on documents, to have almost nothing. [There were] newspapers, but they were not very credible. So I had to work as an anthropologist or as a journalist, a newspaperman — go find the people, the survivors. The youngest at that moment, the youngest ex-Cristero, was 60 years old. Now they have all died. So I had to travel all over Mexico and to come to know the popular Mexico, what some anthropologists call the “deep Mexico.” That made me a Mexican.
I came from a Catholic family, from Alsace in France, a province that was always very religious, as is Brittany or the Basque country in the south of France. And, by the way, a very strange story: When I left France in 1965, I went to Alsace to say good-bye to my grandparents, because they were very old and I thought that I would never see them again — and by the way, it was true. And so, with my grandfather, we paid a visit to his brother and sisters in the small village of Alsace called Itterswiller, and those men that were still there, they never left the land. They were peasants, didn’t speak French. They speak Alsatian. And one of the ladies, my great aunt — everybody was afraid of her because she was a matriarch and an authoritarian mother. And she said, “Hey kid, why are you going to Mexico? Mexico! President Calles! Padre Pro!” And she went for her prayer book, and she had a photograph of Father (Miguel) Pro. So, even in deep France, people knew about the religious conflict in Mexico.
I think I read somewhere that you had, to some extent, a conversion yourself, in terms of philosophical viewpoint.
As a historian, I was a Marxist; and so the agrarian problem was the key to everything, and I came with the idea, as I told you, that the few mentions of the Cristeros were that they were just the puppets of the landlords in order to impede an agrarian reform. Very quickly I discovered that it was not true. So I left my Marxist ideas and accepted more the ... thesis that the superstructures may change the structures and not only the structures determining the superstructures.
And the deep Christian faith of the Mexican people confirmed my own Catholic faith personally. I was educated as a Catholic in a very practicing family, and I never stopped to be. But I discovered a new dimension, because in France — in my France, because I was born in the south of France in Provence — in contrast with Alsace: It’s not true today, but 50 years ago, 100% of the men and the women went to Mass on Sunday. … Everybody was very religious. But in Provence, it was very different. In Provence, maybe 20%, 30% were practicing. A very, very high practice for today, but I think that today 8% or 10% only. So, the Mexican people confirmed me in my Christianity.
How many Cristeros did you meet, and what were the Cristeros like?
Well, I think that I interviewed more than 300 or maybe 400. I have a collection of tapes. … If you see the movie of my son, The Last Cristeros, the beginning of the movie, everything is dark, and you have only the voice of a very old man: And they say, One day in the morning, I was just passing by the church, and I saw that there was a paper on the door of the church, and I went there, and I read: “I, President Plutarco Elias Calles of the United States of Mexico decree: Article One: Everybody that …” and so on. The beginning of the persecution. I recorded that in 1969. The movie begins with a historical record — and perfectly conserved.
When I visited my Cristeros, the huge majority of those Cristeros were poor men, poor proletarians. Some in Mexico City were very rich men, but they were self-made men. They left their villages after the war because they didn’t want to be killed for vengeance or reprisals after the war. And they came to Mexico City, and one was a very big merchant in La Merced, which was the principal market in Mexico City, and his specialty was shrimp. He had almost a monopoly on shrimp in Mexico. … But the big majority were still living in the countryside, in small villages. Some in good conditions, but really as peasants or farmers, and with all the problems that you know farmers have all over the world.
And so, I think that, in my books, I gather kind of a social-professional basis, analysis, of the rank and file of the Cristero Army or the Cristero guerrilla, because it was not truly an army; it was a guerrilla (army). And I can tell you that 90% of them were either proletarian or middle class, but rural middle class.
What do you think was their fundamental motivation?
I guess that many people had more than one reason to fight. But all had in common the religious reason. For some, it was the only reason. For others, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. So, some people had very personal reasons to fight against the government, a lot of reasons of old problems, and, suddenly, came the last problem, but not least, and that — the closing of the churches, the end of the Masses, the impossibility of getting the sacraments, and, as one told me, “After living as a dog, to die as a dog, without a Christian burial — I can’t stand.”
Matthew Hoffman writes from Mexico City.
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Saw the movie yesterday, and it was fantastic! Found out about Saints who were unfamiliar to me and that in itself was worthwhile. The movie is so moving and touched my heart and soul very deeply. Everyone (especially Catholics) need to see this!
I think there must be a mystical connection between Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of Good Hope in Wisconsin. The connection is the Catechism. Our American children need the Catechism, and haven’t been allowed to know their true faith. It is a persecution by anti-clericals within the Church herself to not feed the sheep. It is worse than killing.
The Mexican children know their Catholic faith like they know their own mothers. I pray for the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A good resource for understanding much of these mystical connections is the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 144 Sheldon Road, St Albans, VT 05478.
Until this movie, many Mexicans I personally know, educated or not, did not know about the actual events of the Mexican revolution that started in the 1920s. As an American I only heard about it when I read Graham Greene’s fictionalized account in The Power and The Glory. Yet even as an American I could not believe that such persecutions can happen to our friendly neighbor just south of the border….. I look at my country & realize that anything horrible is possible even in a free country.
We saw the movie yesterday. If you want your soul lifted….go see the movie.
This movie fits in with our time now in the USA.
Our faith is being tested in the public square like never before in our life time. Go join….Christ….HE is on the side of the road waiting for you.
I saw this movie yesterday and was very moved by faith of the people; especially of Jose! I think it is a clarion call to US Catholics of what may come upon us if we do not defeat the HHS mandate. Our religious freedoms are slowly being eroded and we do nothing.
Does Mr. Meyer have any comment on the approximately 250 public school teachers brutalized by the Cristeros in the period 1931-40: some tortured (the Cristeros made a specialty of cutting off ears), some murdered? (See J.W. Sherman, The Mexican Right (Praeger, 1997), p. 250.
Thank you Mr. Meyer, Mr. Hoffman and all those working to reveal the history of the Cristeros movement. I am related by marriage to some survivors of this movement. As they age, passing on the history to younger generations has become a burden to them. They seem to feel a sense of desperateness to pass on the truth (even if they have left the church!). Knowing that their story is bing shared in multiple languages around the world is a great comfort to them.
Wonderful article, powerful movie and a terrible but inspiring lesson for all of us about the tenuous relationship between Church and State.
The Church will perdure until the Lord returns but the many dangers posed by States that stand opposed to the Church in their midst and to the Gospel of Christ will be with us as well.
As the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus stated in his famous Neuhaus’s Law, “Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will eventually be proscribed.”
And, as the late great Jesuit catechist Fr. John Hardon said often, “At this time in salvation history, ordinary Catholics will not survive. Only heroic Catholics will survive.”
Viva Cristo Rey!
Thanks, Matthew. Outstanding article.
Where has this story been? 250,000 of our fellow Catholics murdered for “Christ the King” less than a hundred miles from where we live. And we didn’t know about it. This is incredible. No wonder the Government and the secularist press of Mexico was so upset when JPII Beatified the “Mexican Myrters.
I enjoyed reading it.
Excellent article. I’m not a religious person, but I do like people who takes history seriously.
Truly a moving and inspirational movie. At this time, when we are worried about our religious freedom, it prepares me for what may be happening here. We must pray constantly. Dear God please have mercy on the USA. Mother Mary, please intercede on our behalf.
“Mejico lindo y querido…” they say in Mexico and in the U.S. by those emotionally tied to Mexico. It may be beautiful and loved, but it is an abyss of opression and banditry by all levels of life, primarily the few who own all the riches of Mexico and are in control of all. Those lords are afraid of the truth, the truth the people learn, the truth people outside Mexico learn. Those lords will kill anyone, including priests or religious who preach the truth of Christ against them. Mexico will never heal. It is a cancer which can only get more “leproso” as time goes by. I have traveled some, and I have seen and heard enough.
So how does the movie deviate substantially from the documented facts of the war’s history?
Although I haven’t read it, by the author’s own admission (perhaps unvoluntary), it’s not an objective account of what happened and, therefore, not really a history book. To say that the Cristiada was a spontaneous uprising (i.e. not sparked by the catholic hierarchy)and to totally omit the attrocities committed by the christero guerillas (hanging teachers, cutting their ears and noses because they were “comunists” etc…) is to present a fairy tale, not a history book. By the way, the new movie has the same unbashful bent. If you want to see a movie about RELIGIOUS FANATICISM in Mexico, your best bet is CANOA.
Viva Cristo Rey!
I first heard about this when a priest gave a homily on Jose Sanchez del Rio a few years back.
Considering myself well versed in a US history I was surprised that I knew nothing of this which happened so closely. I eagerly read some articles about it on the internet after the homily but soon relegated it to the back of my reading list.
I watched the movie “For Greater Glory” and was deeply impressed by the epic.
Needless to say I am eagerly anticipating purchasing Meyer’s book, La Cristiada, about the war when it comes out later this month.
Thank you so much for this article, it fleshes out the sad story of Mexico’s recent history. Although there was not much information available when I was a child, I remember the story of Blessed Miguel Pro and the persecution of the Church in Mexico in the 1920’s. I would love to know where to get this book. As a Catholic, I feel it is very important to know as much as possible about our history as possible. Viva Cristo Rey!
Hollywood made a movie in the 1940’s or early 50’s about a Mexican priest who lived and served under the reign of terror that ruled Mexico. People don’t realize that the Church operates only by the good graces of the government. The same situation of 1920-1939 can return in a heartbeat depending on political climate. I’d love to read La Cristiada.
Unfortunately the movie never even mentions that the Mexican government of the time was rampant with anti-christ masons.
What’s the point of requesting comments if you don’t publish them?!!!
This looks very interesting! How can we get this movie to come to Melbourne Australia?
Ladies & gentlemen, Speaking of the Christaros thingy, a no. of years ago while I was living and working with the Yaqui, one of them offered me a gold Chalice and cross. I contacted a certain gentleman here in Alamos who showed intense interest and promptly gave me a signed, blank check to Buy it.
I contacted the Yaqui involved, who took me to a jewelry store in Obrgon who’s owner promptly refused to even discuss the subject - it was highly illegal - but after some coaxing finally brought out the chalice. It was a very well made one but the idiot had filed on the rounded outside to Chemically determine it’s Gold contact, which destroyed it’s collector’s value.. As it turned out, it only had a flash coating of Gold of .900 fine, and the Silver base was .720 fine. I askd the yaqui where it had been found, he said alongside of the Church at——It and the cross etc., had been carefully wrapped ina cloth and buried there. He had found them by a ‘fire’ that they produced.
Since it hadn’t been an unblemished Gold Chalice, I returned the check. Later I found that I should have had the posterior section of my lower anatomy booted, since Later it turned out to be part of the Christero movement.
It seems that the priests had asked for donations of Silver & gold, and someone had cast the Chalice out of .720 coin silver then later flash coated with Gold from coins. They did marvelous work.
Apparently the priest would sneak back to the church and dig up the Chalice etc. hold mass, then rebury them until the next time.
I never could find out who the priest was, or what happened to him or why the Chalice was never dug up after the last mass. I can only presume that the priest /s had been caught and executed.t.
So I had let a bit of actual, irreplaceable, history slip through my hands.
Incidentally, the original would be puchaser agreed in my tearing up the check, since it wasn’t what he had thought - actually it was far more valuable, sigh
Don Jose de La Mancha
Hello. fantastic job. I did not expect this. This is a remarkable story. Thanks!
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