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sábado, 29 de mayo de 2021

CATHOLIC QUARRY LIKE THE CRISTERA, ¿WILL WE SEE IT AGAIN? ECHOES OF THE CRISTE WAR IN MEXICO.

 

CARMELITA CONTRERAS

"They're coming! ... they're coming!" - shouted, in the height of horror, on January 13, 1928, in the afternoon, in the alleys of Huejuquilla, an important population of the State of Jalisco, limits of Zacatecas, a humble, disheveled woman, and with all the signs of having made a long walk along the paths that come down from the neighboring mountain. "But who's coming?" Asked some peaceful residents of the town, who met her in the alley. - They! ... They! ... the bandits! ... the callistas! They are already at the San Antonio hacienda and they say they are coming to Huejuquilla. . . that Vargas brings them ... and that they come to make a "lesson" ... Ay! Holy Mary of Guadalupe! ... what shall we do? ... ¡Oh, they come to kill us all! . . . I escaped from the hacienda without being seen. . . to warn them. . .

¡Oh! They are coming! And they are fed up... fed up! It is quite a troop... and they are furious, because down there, in Los Altos, the Cristeros have given them good luck... And they, since they cannot take revenge there, have come to the other end of the State, and they say that we are also Cristeros, and that we have to pay them. What will we do?... And between convulsive sobs she continued like crazy, running through the streets of the town.

The neighbors came out to the doors of their houses to the shouts that the poor woman gave, and aware of the event and the threat, some of the men said: "Let's go to the mountains, as many as we can." They are looking for the Cristeros, those "guachos" and that the town is empty... Let them go looking for them where they are... What do they not dare?... But we are not going to let ourselves be killed like sheep...

—I have a pistol, said one, and I another; and I a shotgun, and I another, and we our field machetes. . . We will defend ourselves, some of the neighbors shouted. "But what are ten or twelve against the hundreds of rifles that the" guachos "bring? ... No, it's crazy," exclaimed the most prudent and respected of the population. find anyone, you will go somewhere else and we will come back ... "But what it is, I'm not going," shouted the man with the shotgun, "... they won't say that there are no men in Huejuquilla ... Even if it's some of them. ¡I will throw them down... Bandits! "" Well, those who want and have weapons, let them stay, but when the park runs out ... to the mountains with us ... Don't be crazy. The rest of us, let's go, with the women and children ... Bring food for two or three days,blankets and what they can carry. . . Soon. . . soon let's go!

  And they all scattered throughout the town and soon left their homes, loaded with the most essential items, and set out on the mountain path. Only a dozen brave remained, ambushed behind the windows of the houses or on the rooftops and so weakly armed that no one would stop calling them reckless, if it were not for the Catholic modesty of the Jalisco, who was moved so many times revealed in the terrible persecution. The news reached the house inhabited by an excellent and pious woman, Miss Carmelita Robles, accompanied by other good girls, who, more than her servants, can be considered as her disciples in virtue, all daughters of Mary without actually forming a religious congregation.

When the suspension of the services on July 31, 1926, and the withdrawal of the priest who ministered in the little church of the town, he requested with great urgency that his house be chosen for oratory, that it substitute as a private house, the Church and in it The Sacred Deposit of the Blessed Sacrament would be kept, and Holy Mass would be celebrated, to which, as visits to the house, all the people of the town could attend.He achieved his attempt and in the best room of his dwelling, that oratory was put, and It was to see the decorum, cleanliness and adornment with which he always maintained it.

Carmelita was the president of the group of the Popular Union of Jalisco established in Huejuquilla, and president of the Daughters of Mary and of every pious organization that existed in Huejuquilla. Her cheerful and kind character, her clear talent and her Christian courage highlighted her great and solid virtues, and made her an idol of the neighbors, who respected her, obeyed her and followed her excellent advice, like faithful children of a woman. good mother. Many times Carmelita had argued with the chief of the population the so-called Colonel Juan Vargas, a demon-possessed socialist, and a knobby at all times, always defeating him; defeats that the rogue concealed or believed to conceal, with great mocking laughter.

Carmelita, upon learning about the exodus of her neighbors, openly declared that she did not leave her house. "I have the Blessed Sacrament in my oratory, and I am not going to leave him alone.” …"We'll take him with us, Carmelita." I believe that in this case we can do it, even if the priest is not there. . . -No and no. Nor do I leave the oratory. . . And I will do everything possible so that they do not desecrate the church ... If God wants them to kill us, as we have not committed any crime, ¡and just because we are Catholics ... we will be martyrs like so many other Mexicans have already been! God's will. . .! "Well, we won't leave her alone," Miss Ignacia, Ramona, Gregoria, Carolina, and Guadalupe Ibarra, daughters of the absent one at the time, Don Melquíades Ibarra, said to one of them, who lived in the house next to Carmelita's."Neither do we," said the other girls in the house, Margarita Victorio, Concepción Ruiz, and Hilaria Madera. "Vargas respects me, and perhaps I can prevent many atrocities," Carmelita finished. And that's how that group of brave and pious women also stayed in Huejuquilla, that afternoon of January 13.

On the morning of the 14th, as announced by the woman, Vargas, with Colonel Mendoza, and the politicians from the village of Mezquitic, Jesús Ocampo, Apolonio González, and Eliseo Robles, in front of seven hundred men in the troop, entered, hurling blasphemies. and with the screams of true demoniacs, in Huejuquilla.

As no one answered them, surprised by the case, they went out to the outskirts where they thought the men would have barricaded themselves.



Loneliness everywhere!

But in the little ranch of Los Arroyos, they found a poor old man of more than sixty years - Don Juan Ramírez - who had not fled, and incontinent, after having asked him if he was a Catholic, to his affirmative answer they shot him with savage screams. Near the Tepetates gate, they entered a small house and there they found another neighbor, Pedro Ochoa, who had not fled.

- ¿Are you Catholic, for which reason? -They Asked. -— ¡Yes, I am! Replied the brave man. —Well here; and they riddled him with bullets. And as they did not find others, furiously they burned all the houses of the ranches and devastated everything in their path. They returned to Huejuquilla on the afternoon of the 15th and went to Carmelita's house, where they found those good women, whom Mrs. Isabel Jaime, mother of the Ibarra ladies, had joined in prayer in the oratory of the house…Carmelita, anticipating what was to happen, at two thirty in the afternoon, that Sunday, along with the other young ladies, she consumed the Sacred Deposit. She ordered several of her companions throughout the morning to go home, and with those who remained with her she prepared, praying, to wait for the events. With the federals and Vargas, who entered the house, another colonel, a certain Mendoza, seemed to have even greater authority than Vargas, and ordered all those girls to leave the house, and that some of the soldiers go in search of the others who had withdrawn, but could not find them, because Carmelita had ordered them to hide well.

Meanwhile the soldiers dedicated themselves to looting the house, and one of those rascals found a clothed image of the Lord "Divine Prisoner" and taking off his wig and tunic he put them on and left shouting amid the laughter and blasphemies of his companions: - Worship Christ the King! ... - Fool!

Other villains had forced the door of the Little Church of San Antonio, and filled the empty tabernacle with filth, and did the same in a crystal urn, which contained another image of Jesus Christ called in the town "the Lord of the injuries of the Passion. ".

These men are the genuine representatives of the Mexican Revolution, of which some boast so much!

But how can it be thought that there was something good, in a Revolution made by such savages?

The few Catholics ambushed, of which I have already mentioned, believed that the moment had come to defend holy things from such desecration, and some shots were fired from various parts of the population, of which not a single one was lost.

Panic then seized the wicked. They believed that the Cristeros had set a trap for them, and that they had entered the houses that they had previously found empty, without them noticing ... It was not even their minds, that the shooters would scarcely reach a dozen and poorly armed !No!... They were without a doubt the Cristeros! Let's go!...

Carmelita had parked at the door of her house, and before they would pass by her corpse, than to allow her to take out only one of the girls her companions, because she well knew what awaited them...

But the brave (?) Colonel Mendoza gave the order for her to be lashed and dragged out onto the street ... The other young women were pushed out as well... They wanted to mount them all on the haunches of their horses, but those brave women resisted...

Then they threw a rope around their necks and on foot they hurriedly took them to a place called "Las Cuevas", a kilometer from the town.

With Carmelita were Concepción Ruiz, Hilaria Madera, Ignacia, María Ramona, Guadalupe, Gregoria and Carolina Ibarra; Margarita Victoria and Doña Isabel Jaime Vda. of Ibarra, who followed her daughters Ignacia and Ramona, ready to kill her rather than allow any villainy to be committed with them.

That same day, the 15th, they were taken to the San Antonio ranch, 8 kilometers from Huejuquilla; But to go faster for fear of being chased by the ghost Cristeros, they were made to ride there on two donkeys. Throughout the entire journey, Carmelita did not cease to exhort her companions to remain firm in their faith, and offer their sufferings to Christ the King, for the salvation of Mexico.

On Monday the 16th, they were mounted again, but without having given them a piece of bread and a sip of water since their departure from Huejuquilla, they were taken to another ranchería called "La Soledad." There they were lowered to rest a little. Carmelita could no longer stand. Taking her by the arm, they threw her on a table, where sleep overcame her for about five or ten minutes. New order to continue on the road, and to put the exhausted women back on the donkeys, to take them to Mezquitic, where they arrived at 11 at night. Carmelita was crying in silence, and one of her closest companions told her that she was crying because the absence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament was very hard on her. Yet she made efforts to cheer herself up and encourage her companions. They sometimes prayed the Office of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in choir;then that heroic woman, drawing strength from weakness, would read aloud to them Fabiola's book by Cardinal Wiseman that she had managed to take with her. . . On Tuesday the 17th they had everything in Mezquitic; and Mendoza and Vargas began to want to discuss religious matters as usual, and as always, Carmelita confronted them by giving them an ordago roll. Well then, the word of Jesus Christ was fulfilled: "When you are brought to court, do not think before what you have to say; the Spirit of God will speak for you." But so much fatigue finally put an end to the physical strength of that holy lady. .and Mendoza and Vargas began to want to discuss religious matters as usual, and as always, Carmelita confronted them by giving them an ordago roll. Well then, the word of Jesus Christ was fulfilled: "When you are brought to court, do not think before what you have to say; the Spirit of God will speak for you." But so much fatigue finally put an end to the physical strength of that holy lady and Mendoza and Vargas began to want to discuss religious matters as usual, and as always, Carmelita confronted them by giving them an ordago roll. Well then, the word of Jesus Christ was fulfilled: "When you are brought to court, do not think before what you have to say; the Spirit of God will speak for you." But so much fatigue finally put an end to the physical strength of that holy lady…

At night he could no longer pray out loud... kneeling and in silence she followed inwardly the prayers of her faint companions ...

Then a poor soldadera approached with a child that had just been born and Carmelita, making a supreme effort, baptized the child... At eleven o'clock at night the soldiers entered the room of the house where they had locked up the brave martyrs, and they were ordered to leave three by three, because they were going to continue on their way. In vain Carmelita begged those brutes to get them all out together... At last there were four left in the room: three girls and Carmelita ... the three, pushed by the soldiers, left in turn.

 And Carmelita?...

No one ever saw her again... Various assumptions have been made about his undoubted murder. ¿In it, it is said, Vargas must have intervened, because a man who was never able to receive a promotion for his military exploits, after the Mezquitic tragedy, was promoted, ¿perhaps as a prize for murder... Have there not been some promotions among revolutionaries due to the same cause? One of the girls reports that, while going through the dark ravine of Mezquitic, she heard two soldiers talking to each other: "But what a barbarian!" Why did you put dirt in the woman's mouth? —Well, because she didn't want to die...!

The girls were released a few days later. The sacred remains of Carmelita have been searched in vain... They have not been found so far...

But hope is not lost of finding them one day, when the process of their beatification is attempted... 

When will that be?

 

 

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