User:PALOND03/Cristero War

Mexican Diaspora Resistance.

While the war was raging on in Mexico, Cristero exiles and other Mexican immigrants and refugees would attend sermons by banished Cristero priests denouncing President Plutarco Elías Calles' regime and the Cristero War. These attendees would also help generate sympathy in the United States for the Cristero War by printing newspaper articles about the war and would create religious nationalistic organizations such as Unión Nacionalista Mexicana (Nationalist Mexican's Union in English) to gather funds for the war effort. There were some within these groups that would contribute more military aid to the Cristeros, with actions including smuggling arms across the U.S.-Mexican border, providing espionage against the Mexican government, recruiting new troops to aid the Cristeros, and inciting armed revolts within Mexico. Despite all of these efforts, their contribution to the war was largely limited due to distrust from the United States government who saw an armed Catholic movement as dangerous and would send more troops to the border, which would cause more persecution and discrimination to Mexican Catholics, Cristero exiles, and refugees.

Knights of Columbus.

Created in Massachussets in 1882, the Knights of Columbus would establish its first chapter in Mexico called Caballeros de Colón (Knights of Columbus in Spanish) in Mexico City in 1905. Established by California railroad mogul and Knight John B. Frisbie, a resident of Mexico City, the first chapter would be made up of mostly Irish and Irish-Mexicans before more Mexicans would join the organization. The Knights of Columbus would eventually become one of Mexico's biggest and most monumental Catholic organizations, with a total of 5,102 members across 45 councils nationwide. The Knights of Columbus would start out in western states, an area where the Catholic Church was widespread, such as Puebla, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Guanajuato and Jalisco, before spreading to Nayarit, Veracruz, Coahuila, Durango, and Chihuahua. Mexican members of the Knights of Columbus would also be involved with other Catholic organizations such as the Young Men's Catholic Association and La Liga Nacional Defensora de la Libertad Religiosa (National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty in English) . The Knights of Columbus would create religious schools throughout Mexico in 1923 as a way to create a "National Crusade in Defense of Catholicism". Furthermore, La Liga would create a popular, nationwide boycott in 1925 to protest the government's treatment of Catholics and the ongoing anti-religious sentiment present throughout the government. The Knights of Columbus also helped to generate propaganda and support for the Cristero War, framing the war as a story of martyrs and heroes, standing up for their religion in the face of an oppressive government.

Aftermath.

The war would lead to refugees and exiles to flee to the United States, mostly from the central-Pacific region, as state-enforced violence towards Catholics would lead religious Mexicans from states such as Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, and Guanajuato to leave for the United States. Within these new arrivals, there were 2,500 exiles with positions within the Catholic Church in Mexico, creating a Cristero Diaspora alongside other refugees, immigrants, and non-clergy exiles. Most of these refugees were also farmers, ranchers, and laborers, and due to increased transportation services between the United States and Mexico, immigration was easier than ever before. These immigrants would take industrial and labor-intensive jobs within the United States, particularly in California, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico.