Hispanic Catholics and all who care about freedom of religious belief around the world will swell with pride starting Friday, June 1 when the film
For Greater Glory opens in US move theaters.
It has become a smash hit in Mexico where it opened on April 20 under its Spanish title of
Cristiada.
Produced by a warm-hearted and committed Catholic father of four children, Pablo José Barroso, For Greater Glory is an epic account of incidents from the great
Cristero War of 1926-1929. (
Español)
Tens of thousands of Catholic farmers, ranchers, and ordinary middle class Catholics rose up against the murderous attempts of vindictive and ardently atheist socialist President Plutarco Elías Calles to exterminate the Catholic Church and religious freedom in Mexico.
Calles subjected Catholic children to socialist indoctrination after banning religious education. He desecrated and destroyed churches, and the
great statue of Cristo Rey, Christ the King, at Cubillete Hill (
Español).
Over 4,000 priests were killed or exiled so that by the mid-1930s fewer than 400 priests were officially approved by the government to serve a population of 17 million.
Over 30,000 Catholics died in the Cristero War and subsequent persecution. Tens of thousands of other Mexican Catholics and secularists were also slaughtered.
He was declared a martyr and beatified by Pope Bendict XVI on November 20, 2005. According to proper Catholic terminology he is called Beato or Blessed José Luis. We pray that he may soon be canonized and become Santo or Saint José Luis.
Too young to fight, he carried the Cristero banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe into battle on horseback with the Cristero war cry, ¡Viva Cristo Rey y la Santísima Virgen de Guadalupe! Long live Christ the King and the most holy Virgin of Guadalupe!
He is played by the terminally adorable Mexican actor Mauricio Kuri. He is 14, exactly the same age as José Luis at the time of his brutal execution and martyrdom.
Beato José Luis Sánchez del Río:
José Luis carrying the Cristero banner of La Guadalupana, Our Lady of Guadalupe:
Cristeros made up songs about their struggle in the popular Mexican song forms of the
corrido and
ranchera, which form the core of Mariachi music.
The
Cristero corridos were the Twitter of the Cristeros, many of whom were exactly the ages of the present day Millennial Generation, whose first members were born in 1980 and the oldest of whom are turning 32 this year.
In 1926 radios and telephones were sparse in the countryside around José Luis’s hometown of Sahuayo in the state of Jalisco, whose cities of Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara are familiar names to Americans.
Like the camp fire songs of soldiers in the US Civil War and songs improvised by cowboy poets around campfires, the Cristero corridos celebrated and passed on news of important incidents in the war.
A vividly representative sample of Cristero music is El martes me fusilan, “On Tuesday morning at six they are going to shoot me for believing in God and our great Lady of Guadalupe.”
It is shockingly frank to Anglo ears, but the Cristeros were almost matter of fact about risking death so that future generations of Mexican Catholic children would be free to practice their faith.
Eventually some of these children came to re-discover the history of the Cristiada, which has been a taboo subject for the last nearly 80 years in Mexico. They have lovingly made the remarkable film that celebrates the Cristeros’ faith unto the shedding of their blood.
Besides Mauricio, the cast features Mexican and Mexican American stars pro-life activist Eduardo Verástegui and Eva Longoria. They are joined by Cuban-Americans Andy Garcia and Nestor Carbonell, Guatemalan-Cuban-American Oscar Isaac, Columbian Catalina Sandino Moreno, Chilean Santiago Cabrera, and Rubén Blades from Panama.
We rightly grieve the loss of what young people who die or have been killed have become. We too often fail to see what they have already accomplished. Every teenage life is a life of accomplishment. Just ask their mothers.
Ask the mother of 13-year-old Syrian Muslim Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, tortured and killed almost beyond recognition by the Asad regime.
Ask Coptic Christian mothers in Egypt, and Christian mothers in the Middle East, India, and Indonesia, and everywhere believers are persecuted.
The life of 14-year-old José Luis Sánchez del Río was a life of accomplishment. He teaches us that nothing is more important than the friendship of God and the freedom to be fully and freely a friend and child of God is worth everything including your own life.
What we need are legions of internet and iRL Cristeros to fight for religious freedom. In El martes me fusilan the voice of José Luis assures us:
Muchos quedan en la lucha y otros que vienen naciendo.
Many are in the fight and more are being born.
Young Cristero millennials both Catholic and Evangelical like Katie Pavlich, Matthew Boyle, Mary Chastain and many others have risen up in a new Cristiada to expose the bloody
Fast and Furious Scandal under the direction of US Attorney General Eric Holder that has created
Los nuevos mártires de Rápido y Furioso – the New Martyrs of Fast and Furious.
Katie Pavlich's new book
Fast and Furious: Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up is the authoritative source of information on the scandal.
Hundreds of Hispanic Catholics have been killed in Mexico by nearly 2,000 weapons our government knowingly and willingly placed in the hands of Mexican drug cartels under the direction of US Attorney General Eric Holder.
Foremost among the New Martyrs in the US are Hispanic Catholic Special Agent Jaime Zapata and his fellow Special Agent, Irish-American Catholic Brian Terry.
Their mothers Mary Zapata and Josie Terry have been shamelessly stiff-armed by Holder, who has covered up the scandal. More than a year after their sons’ death they still do not know exactly what happened to their martyred sons.
Thank God a bi-partisan coalition has finally formed in the House of Representatives with Republican Darrell Issa and Democrat Pat Donnelly and others joining together to demand that Holder stop his folly or soon be cited for contempt of Congress.
The death of the New Martyrs of Fast and Furious is not a partisan issue. It is an outrage.
In the video below the great
Vicente Fernandez,
El rey de la canción ranchera “The king of ranchera music”, sings the Cristero ranchera
El martes me fusilan – “On Tuesday at 6 o'clock in the morning they are going to shoot me for believing in God eternal and our great Lady of Guadalupe
.”
It is a song we can easily imagine José Luis singing to himself on horseback wondering if today would be the day of paying the full price in the fight for freedom as he carried the banner of La gran Guadalupana into battle.
This video is from the channel of vladnyanke. Sometimes when I watch it my monitor goes blurry. Just look at those faces.
Go subscribe to
vladnyanke's channel. He lives in Mexico with his beautiful wife and daughter. He also has a large tattoo on his back of St. Michael pwning Satan the is quite awesome. He will appreciate your support.
Also leave comments from at the video for Cristo Rey, la gran Guadalupana, José Luis, and great justice. Thanks.
¡Viva Cristo Rey y la Santísima Virgen de Guadalupe!
Muchos quedan en la lucha y otros que vienen naciendo!
El martes me fusilan a las seis de la mañana
por creer en Dios eterno y en la gran Guadalupana.
Me encontraron una estampa de Jesús en el sombrero
por eso me sentenciaron porque yo soy un cristero.
Es por eso me fusilan el martes por la mañana.
Matarán mi cuerpo inútil pero nunca, nunca mi alma.
Yo les digo a mis verdugos que quiero me crucifiquen
Y una vez crucificado entonces usen sus rifles.
Adiós sierras de Jalisco, Michoacán y Guanajuato,
Donde combatí al Gobierno que siempre salió corriendo.
Me agarraron, de rodillas, adorando a Jesucristo.
Sabían que no había defense en ese santo recinto.
Soy labriego por herencia, Jalisciense de naciencia.
No tengo más Dios que Cristo por que me dio la existencia.
Con matarme no se acaba la creencia en Dios eterno.
Muchos quedan en la lucha y otros que vienen naciendo.
Es por eso me fusilan el martes por la mañana.
On Tuesday at 6 o'clock in the morning they are going to shoot me
For believing in God eternal and in our great Lady of Guadalupe.
They found a picture of Jesus in my sombrero
So I got sentenced to death because I am a Cristero.
That's why they are shooting me on Tuesday morning.
They can kill my useless body but never, never my soul.
I tell my torturers I want them to crucify me,
And then after crucifying me to use their rifles.
Goodbye Mountains of Jalisco, Michoacán and Guanajuato,
Where I fought the Government, who always ran away.
I knelt down and worshipped Jesus Christ.
They knew that there was no defense in this holy place.
I ‘m a farmer by heritage and a Jalisciense by birth.
I have no God but Christ, who gave me existence.
Killing me off isn’t going to stop people believing in the eternal God.
Many are in the fight, and others are being born.
That's why they are going to shoot me on Tuesday morning.
PS: I would like to translate this article into Spanish and other languages, particularly Arabic, Persian, and Indonesian. If you can help out please contact me at internetcristero [at] gmail dot com.
Gracias y ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
