Gray Days

How would the world be with out any religion or beliefs? Plutarco Elias Calles was the president of Mexico from 1924 to 1929; he included to our constitution a law called “Calles Law.”He sent his troops to close more than seventy convents and most of the churches in Jalisco and other states. In this law, he obligated priests to stop celebrating mass and preaching the word of god. This law tried to separate people from the Catholic Church, but this didn’t work the way Plutarco intended. Priests didn’t stop celebrating masses; they manage the situation making clandestine mass. This eventually provokes the death of twenty-nine priests in five states of Mexico. This conflict lasted four years from 1926-1929. After 80 years there are still some consequences of the incident; many Mexicans families including my own. And the effects of “Calles Law “are still felling.

My great-grandfather lost his land, which was the livelihood of the family. In fact, he didn’t lose his land. The troops from Calles took most of it. They settled in my great- grandfather’s house for three days. According to my grandfather, those days were humiliating, and the grayest days they ever had. The troops obligated my great-grandmother and her daughters to serve them. This wasn’t the hardest part; the hardest part was to hear them being disrespectful to my great-grandmother and her daughters, my grandfather said. The days were gone and as they were the land too. My great-grandfather was devastated. The land was the only livelihood people had back then and still these days. Once my mom and dad got married, they suffered from the struggle of “Calles Law.” There was no land that my great-grandfather could give to my dad, so he could build our house. For this reason, my dad didn’t have any other choice than go to the US to work and send some money to my mom. Land was the only way my family could survive.


Another problem that happened during La Guerra Cristera was when Calles’ troops took my great-grandfather’s cattle. In those days, cattle was an essential way of life and still is fundamental for people who live in farms like my family. Cattle and land were the only livelihood people could have back then. Calles’ troop had a mission, which was to scare people and make them feel fear, so they could stop following their religion. Most people didn’t refuse to follow the word of God. For this reason, the troops took their cattle. The government thought this was the only way they could get people scared. Most people didn’t stop following their beliefs, even though there were soldier killing people and priests who refuse to follow Calles’s law. If this conflict hadn’t happened my dad wouldn’t have had to travel to the US to send some money to my mother, so she could start building our house and buying some land and cattle. As a consequence of La Guerra Cristera, my mother, my siblings and I only have the opportunity to see my father once a year. My dad wanted to earn enough money to buy our livelihood which was land and cattle.

The last effect of the Calles Law in my family was that they line in fear. The assassination of priests was increasing. La Guerra Cristera stared for this reason just to kill priests who preached the word of God. The priests refused to follow Calles Law because they thought it was absurd to stop believing in God for political reasons. They started making clandestine masses in people’s houses or hiding in the mountains. On one occasion, my great-grandfather and family were in one clandestine mass, when the troops interrupted and took the priest and tortured him. They made him walk barefoot on sharp stones for hours. After there was no more blood to bleed and the troops made him climb a “mesquite,” a big tree. These trees are covered with sharp thorns that penetrated into his already cut hands and feet. This just makes his pain twofold intense. The troops obligated the people to watch the priest who was about to die. The priest was tide up his own rope and while he was doing this, the soldier never stopped blaspheming him. He died forgiving them. Those were his last words. After seventy years of his death he became a saint, my favorite saint. Year after year, I always go to visit him at to his church, which has incredibly grown year after year. It’s a personal satisfaction to see that his pain wasn’t in vain; faith was always there. He never lost it.


After almost a century of La Guerra Cristera involving the government and people’s beliefs, my family still has some problems of the conflict. Although the government tried to repair of the damage by removing the Calles Law from the constitution, People didn’t receive their land back, not even the cattle. Nowadays, my family and I are working in the US to buy the land that once was ours. After gray days, light comes again to illuminate our life. That is what faith is all about. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church is declining day after day because priests are not doing anything to maintain it. It’s ironic to have priests willingly to give their life for God in order to keep faith alive.