The Cristero Centennial
In Mexico a hundred years ago,
The government forced secularization.
Its liberal politicos roared “No!”
To worship and religious education,
To convents, vows, processions, celebration
Of marriages and funerals that show
Devotion in a Christian civilization.
The communistic head of state and crew
Were ruthless hypocrites with much to do:
Enforcing law meant culture had to go,
And every criticism would be banned;
Church buildings seized by nationalization
Were given back in 1992.
Still, piled-up stones are not the Church. Faith grew
First peacefully against crude bigotry:
Boycotts, petitions, talks, tax payment strikes
Only increased the godless zealotry.
On August third of 1926,
Four hundred fought, the first Cristero band:
“Without a priest’s permission or command,
We throw ourselves into this blessed struggle
For freedom! Without permission or command,
We will continue till we win or die.”
Eighteen died that day. Two hundred thousand
Were killed in three unyielding years of war;
More yet, in twelve years of state treachery.
The common lay folk led in being martyrs;
Their bodies hung on telephone pole crosses.
Remembrance activates no frail nostalgia,
But firm commitment. “Viva Cristo Rey!
Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!”
Whispered and shouted for a hundred years,
These words join earth with the celestial spheres.
Cristo Rey: Christ the King
Margaret Coats lives in California. She holds a Ph.D. in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University. She has retired from a career of teaching literature, languages, and writing that included considerable work in homeschooling for her own family and others.
This is a fantastic preview of what could happen here! What a great treatment of classical historical proportions. I remember studying the communist rise and demise in Mexico in my graduate history minor. If only our younger generation could learn from history. The time has come for action by Christian forces of righteousness before the enemy within become overwhelming for even a short time.
Thanks for your comment, Roy. From your history studies, you would realize that the United States started out on the wrong side in the Cristero conflict, probably because the Mexican party in power did not identify as “communist” (I call them “communistic”), and because in the 1920s the full horrors of communism were only beginning to become obvious, and because there were influential persons in the U. S. who favored leftist totalitarianism. Your recommendation of watchfulness and pre-emptive action today is a good one.
I had the same thought as Mr. Peterson as I was reading your excellent poem, Margaret. Thank you for casting light on a very sad part of history, the likes of which we ourselves seem to be courting.
Thank you for appreciating my poem, jd. The Cristero history, relatively close to us in time and just across our southern border, is too little known. It’s a good indication of what can happen when secularization overwhelms our institutions.
Hi Margaret,
Thanks for this bit of history!
Have you ever read Grahame Greene’s “The Power and the Glory”? I can never think of Mexico under communism without bringing that novel to mind.
Jeremiah
Hi, Margaret. Like Jeremiah, I’ve read about this chapter of Mexican history through the lens of Graham Greene, so it was nice for me to be reading of these events and not being totally ignorant of them.
Your poem is as inspiring in its way as the ‘whiskey priest’ in ‘The Power and the Glory’.
Thanks for the read.
Hello Margaret C.
This is, indeed, an ominous poem. My mind returns to the relatively “innocent” mid-century decades when corruption, upheavals, political tensions, religious persecutions , etc. were not in the every day mind-set ( at least in the Midwest) as those issues are today. Society and civilization seem to be at great risk today with so many under-currents raging. Your poem reminds us .
Thank you for the excellent poetic history lesson, Margaret. May courage not fail us.
God bless you for writing this! Indeed: A warning. But also a joyous proclamation: Jesus is King! Now and forever!
A somber reminder of what happened not too long ago. I fear that same atmosphere has engulfed the world we live in today. Prayers and courage, Viva Cristo Rey!
Great history lesson poem Margaret, thank you. Christ is King indeed and the gates of hell cannot prevail against Him.
It’s hard to believe that something like this has been suppressed from the history presented to us in academia. I had never heard of this until a handful of years ago and as I ask family and friends about it, neither had they.
I think history is repeating itself across the world in Nigeria. So few people are aware of what is now happening there.
Thank you Margaret for sharing this piece of history with us. I very much identify with the tone of your poem and its sentiments. In 2020 my poem “The Ballad of Babi Yar” was published here at SCP. It describes the massacre of Jews and other “undesirables” by the Nazis in a ravine at Babi Yar in Ukraine at the beginning of WWII. Your poem reminds me so much of it. Kindred spirits!!!
https://www.classicalpoets.org/the-ballad-of-babi-yar-by-theresa-rodriguez/
Your poetry is very unexpected, surprising, enlightening, educational, not to mention so beautifully executed!! There is so much beauty in the way you put your interesting topics to verse, even (and maybe especially) in a telling of the tragic Cristero war, which Evan published on its Centennial. I learn so much from you, by way of what you write about, and how you write it. I truly look forward to more of your unique poetry!!!