The Cristero period and "For Greater Glory"

The movie brought back some memories of my Garcia-Vallejo families stories of that era and how it affected them. Most of both familes left their towns during this horrific period. My parents were teenagers and left only 5 months before this war ended. I knew that they had been married a few days before they left for California to join their people here. My mother, when we ask, stated that they were married very quietly and secretively by a priest away from their home in Teocaltiche. She explained that it was a time when the churches were closed. Before the movie I took an interest and began Google searches to learn more. I saw pictures that moved me to tears and I began to realize what my family had survived. My mother's father Andres a few year later left to return to Mexico to seek his land that he had left who knows who in charge of things. Sadly the outcome was something he had feared; they had lost their land. He must have been heartbroken because he died there
shortly never to return to his family in Calif. I was not born yet. I feel such saddness realizing how they continued their life here, starting over. But I also better understood what made them so strong in their beliefs, in the future and of course their faith. I admire my ancestors so very much and try to live with the strength that I inherited.
As for the movie, I was glad I got to see it. It was so real, so passionate and an example of good and evil. Nothing justifies what Callas mandated, nothing.

Carmen Meraz Garcia Vallejo