Mexican Cristero War and the Modern United States: A Historical Comparison

A great deal has already been said about the Cristero War of the 1920s in Mexico, so I am not trying to add anything entirely new here. Instead, I want to look at Mexican history during this period and explore the analogy between the past and the present-day United States.For anyone without much historical background, let’s take a brief look at what led to the war.Around 1857, a new constitution was enacted that limited the power of the Catholic Church and made church property subject to the state. Although the law was poorly enforced, it still troubled the church establishment. In 1917, a revised constitution introduced even stricter boundaries and made the separation of church and state more explicit. Clergy were barred from voting or running for office, education was declared secular in both private and public schools, political speech from the pulpit was prohibited, and religious events outside the church were banned. These measures created serious tension between the church and the state.By the mid-1920s, tensions escalated. The message from the church to the faithful was essentially: “The government wants to take away your religion and the Virgin from you.” People took up arms, and a guerrilla movement led by the Catholic Church against the government began. That was the start of the bloody Cristero War.The modern-day United StatesThe United States has long seen itself as a religious nation. There are many signs that the separation between state and religion is more symbolic than real. Congress has chaplains in both chambers, the president has religious advisers, and elected officials often swear on the Bible.Over time, especially from Ronald Reagan onward, the country’s political future became more closely tied to religious institutions. Since then, political candidates have increasingly sought the approval of evangelical churches, and government policy has become more aligned with that branch of the religious establishment.Unlike the Mexican conflict, in the United States the religious establishment has claimed persecution not from the government itself, but from citizens who want stricter boundaries between church and state. The right wing of government and the church have formed an alliance to fight what they call “the left,” suppress dissent, pass laws aligned with religious priorities, and remove laws seen as threatening “freedom of religion.” In this effort, the religious establishment has found support across major branches of government, including the Supreme Court.As I write this, the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense have called for the deployment of the army against “the left.” Long ago, when I first thought about the similarities between Mexico’s past and the United States today, I never expected events to move so quickly. Even a couple of weeks ago, this still did not seem likely in the short term. Now, things have changed, and we may see a civil war or revolution sooner than expected.

In my home...

In My Home...

       

    There are places where the wind does not blow,

    and  light beams are glittered by dust.       

    A silent place ...

with a few whispers falling down 

straight to my heart.

    And now, you are in there,

    walking slowly by its rooms,

    Looking at its walls,

    touching with your hands.

   There is nothing to fear about,

                      nothing for you to hear,

                            to see...

                                 But me.

Julio Torri Cervi... in memoriam.

I read your article (here)  about Julio Torri Cervi for the second time. The first time was several years ago. 

Somehow his name came back to my memories and after doing a google search I found what you wrote about him. All in all, you’re right about him, but to me, he never struck me as someone who wanted to die in anonymity, but more or less like someone that wanted to go through history as the “Buddha of Tulancingo”. 

   He ran around claiming that he didn't want to use his uncle ‘s name to gain notoriety, but in the same breath he tried to portrait him as a pillar of the mexican intellectualism. We have to remember that Julio Torri’s (the uncle) literary production was rather squalid and his resume consisted mainly of his friendship with Vasconcelos. 

I don't want to take anything away from Julio my friend, he was well educated, spoke several languages, artist, writer and a philosopher of sorts… but he was not humble, nor shy about his qualities or qualifications nor the things he wanted out of this life. I don’t want to say that he was a con man, but he came to Tulancingo selling ‘snake oil’ and we bought it! Instead of blowing up his cover and showing up what he really was... a pretender. 

When we met he must have been in his early forties, but I thought he was something like seventy because that was the image he wanted to portray… ‘an old wise man sacrificing himself out of the glory of this world just to save poor Tulancingo from its ignorance’

   When I heard that he became a clergy it didn't surprise me, it made total sense with the kind of persona he wanted to portray himself… A mystic ascetic holder of a secret knowledge. In reality, he was an atheist with little respect for organized religion and his contact with the church had the only purpose of securing a contract to paint the murals of the cathedral. I guess along the way he found that becoming a priest would secure his future at the age of retirement

.

  I met Julio when I was sixteen years old. I was a student at the Preparatoria Numero 2 and he came to give a lecture. It must have been about literature, I think, because when he finished I approached him andI asked if he would be willing to read some of my poetry. He agreed but asked me if he could take my poems with him and we could talk later. I said yes and we agree to meet at the Colonial hotel later that week. I don't remember what poems I gave him, but I'm sure they weren't good at all. I remember that  one of my poems was titled “Soneto” and he read it and said “this is a poem, but not a soneto” and  proceed to explain to me what a soneto was.

   From then on we met frequently and had long talks about philosophy and the meaning of life. I met his friend Otto and his girlfriend and for what i can infer now, I can tell that they either met through the dianetics or they introduced him to the dianetics (nowadays known as scientology) I always had the feeling that otto and his girlfriend were more interested in finding gold hiding in old houses using the dianetics methods. Meanwhile, Julio was painting and Otto would do the rounds through the art galleriesi n Mexico city.

   One day my mother asked me to invite Julio out for dinner in our home We lived in El Paraiso, which, at the time, was just a rural town with no running water, sewer or electricity, the roads (we used to call the streets) were just a trail path through the nopal cacti and my house was just a shack or a hut . He 

said yes and came over. My mother made some chicken and rabbit Mixiotes but they turned out to be too

spicy for Julio who had some heart problems at the time. Nevertheless, the dinner was a success and

my mother (an intellectual of sorts) had a great conversation about art and music with him. We had a 

dog with a litter of puppies and he took one with him and name her Pascuala.

   After that,against my mother's wishes (I was a minor at the time) I spent several weeks at his house in

“Cerro verde”. That was the time when he was starting his series of ‘Retablos’ and if you happen to see 

one of them you'll see a puppy next to Santa Pascuala and her missing foot, that was the puppy we gave 

him, He later gave her away because his lifestyle did not aloud him to take care of her.. He was making a 

portrait of a woman who was the daughter of a factory owner in tulancingo, and a nopal cactus landscape 

that was fascinating because it looked like it was photographed from above… I wish I had that one.

   We continued to be friends. We have dinner often at the archidiocesis of Tulancingo because he was 

lobbying the archbishop to aloud him to paint the cathedral murals. 

   At some point I was admitted in the school of Veterinary medicine at the Universidad Metropolitana and 

soon after I moved to Mexico city. After that we  saw each other less often but one day we had a very 

agitated conversation about something. It must have been politics or something in between. He used to 

dream of the old times when the intelectuals used to rub elbows with ‘la creme de la creme’, and I was a 

a young dreamer os a better world with social justice and equality of wealth and rights.We argued and I 

stormed out of the cafe very uneasy. Couple weeks after I read something he wrote in ‘El Sol de Hidalgo. 

In that article he was talking about what we talked about that night. He didn't mention my name, but he 

said that ‘someone who thinks that just because he is very good at playing chess, can have an opinion 

about…’ I can't say with certainty, I just know it was me who he was talking about…

   We never saw each other again. Life took me all the way to chicago and just recently, in the last year I 

have some contact with some pieces of my past life in tulancingo. I know he is dead, I know many 

people have no respect for him, but for bad or for good he left a mark in my life.

   One day he saw something I wrote and told me “It reminds me of a poem by my uncle Julio Torri: 

This is the poem by his uncle:

¡Circe, diosa venerable! He seguido puntualmente tus avisos. Mas no me hice amarrar al mástil 

cuando divisamos la isla de las sirenas, porque iba resuelto a perderme. En medio del mar 

silencioso estaba la pradera fatal. Parecía un cargamento de violetas errante por las aguas.

¡Circe, noble diosa de los hermosos cabellos! Mi destino es cruel. Como iba resuelto a 

perderme, las sirenas no cantaron para mí!

 I Don't remember what I wrote back then… But at this point, it doesn't matter anymore… Ironically, that 

poem of his uncle has been the compass of my life.

Reapping the gifts of God from the giving hands of the devil!

A word of caution 

It is not without saying that we all recognize that most of the religion is corrupt to a certain level. We know how tricky they are when it comes to money. When it comes to that, they all use the most unimaginable con schemes to get people to donate to them and that is on top of them not paying any taxes out of that money! 

   Recently, “last week tonight with John Oliver” made a comedy like dissection of how the religious leaders suck people into give them money. (And here I make a parenthesis just to mention how many churches are there so we can think of the proportion of this scheme. I looked up Illinois, Round Lake Park, and I got 3 churches. Now there is Round Lake, Round Lake Park, Round Lake Beach and Round Lake Heights.  and I know as a Mather of fact that there are more than 50 churches in that community, which is not bigger than 25 000 people all three together So, whoever is trying to figure out the magnitude of this fraud, for sure falls short of reality since many churches are not accounted for and most of the census only count Christian churches, leaving out many spiritual congregations like Muslims, Hindi, Buddhist, Native Americans, Pagans, etc. Etc. Even many Christian churches that somehow skipped the census) and the ways they find to scam money out of their followers is not just immoral, but it should be consider criminal under any people's common law or constitution. In America (the USA), most religions enjoy a status only compared to a political party, even when the constitution claims a separation between church and state! And that is when it comes to money.  

   This post is not about the money scam which is has been analyzed often by many people. This post is about the FAITH scam and hypocrisy. So, let's get into it! 

How can you be so blind! 

    Just like in politics, religion tends to turn their own followers blind when it comes to their internal issues. That blindness makes it easy to justify any action or statement that their leaders or the organization itself endorse. And when it comes to a discussion of the issue there is no room for a dialogue. That opposition to dialogue come from the very core of the religious teachings where you are always told ‘don’t listen! It is the devil trying to lure you!’ That in itself could be a deterrent for people to mix in politics but no, it doesn’t work that way. 

   When it comes to politics, it’s not the devil trying to lure them, no. In that case they argue it is the Lord guiding them to do his will. We could spend the whole week trying to argue whether God needs human help to achieve his purpose or whether whatever he wants to achieve is any of our business! We are going to cut short to the chase and start talking like intelligent adults. This is the list of some of the things we are going to live for a different discussion: 

• If he really exists 
• If the holly book was really inspired by him 
• If the prophets were not merely some schizophrenic individuals 

• If the bible is more prove of an advanced ancient civilization than the creation 
• All the contradictions in the bible’s stories 
• Etc. Etc. 

You want to have it both ways! 

   Let's use, just for the sake of argument, climate change and abortion. When you ask the pro-life people why they are so adamant about stopping abortion, the majority argue that it is a life that god has created and that terminating that pregnancy would be a murder. They would say that it is something God hates and they have to protect that life in the name of God. But when you talk about climate change if they happen to agree that there is a problem there, they will argue that they don’t have to worry because God is going to fix it. The question is, why they don’t apply the same logic when it comes to abortion rights.  

   You would think that they would leave it to God and since he is going to resuscitate everybody then all those poor souls are going to be brought back. So why worry?  

   The problem is that they have an agenda that has nothing to do with the bible or the Koran or whatever book they read. It is all about power (and money of course) but never about the real spiritual healing that people are looking for. 

   Here is where I come to the point I want to make. Donald John Trump is the most ignorant, immoral and corrupt president the United stated had in a recent history. Many politicians and businessmen try to stay away from him. His speech inflames even the most moderate groups and his knowledge of any religious matters equal zero. Nevertheless, in order to win the favor of the religious people he has adopted some religious positions. For instance, he now pretends to care about religious rights, abortion right and mostly anything, anything that the religious evangelicals claim, he claims. The evangelical leaders had found a myriad of excuses for their endorsement. They had claimed that his name is on the bible, that his presence was a prophecy that God put him in this place because that was his will.  

From my point of view, it all boils down to the story when Jesus temped for the second time “Luke 4: 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.” … he said NO!... THE EVANGELICAL LEADERS SAY OK, NO PROBLEM. AS LOG AS IT IS THE WILL OF GOD!  

They live a life of luxury buying expensive jets and they say that they do it “to make the devil jealous”. Like that makes any sense! They share the dining table with high profile politicians and rich people and claim that is it because “they are a conduit to spread the word of the lord”. I could go on and on, but lest take a second to consider all this. 

They lobby to appoint conservative judges because they claim those judges will overture any liberal agenda with respect to the abortion issue, but at the same time they exercise pressure on them to help them with labor disputes, tax regulations and government grants so they can increase the size of their coffers. 

When questioned about their cozy relationship with that people they claim that all they are doing is pursue the expansion of the word of God. It doesn't matter how corrupt or immoral that a person is. All the African dictators, individual of the like of Rodrigo Duterte and many others! 

Here in the united states IS the president. They call him a steward of the Christian values when they know that he doesn't know which ones are those. The person that can’t recite one single verse of the bible is considered by the Christian leaders a person sent by God to bring the glory of his kingdom... They know all that is not the truth but they can’t help it, the lure of the power and the economic benefit that it brings is too much to fight, so in their minds they make a trade: “we can turn a blind eye on all those thing because he is doing the work of God”. There is not such a thing, Jesus never say “Oh! With all this power and wealth, I can further my father’s agenda! So I guess if I do it only once would be OK!” 

So, No! You can’t reap the gifts of God from the giving hands of the devil! 

  

give me your time

I used to say that I have nothing but time

Now this life is almost over

An I want to take it back.

So...

If you have a moment

give it to me

I thought I have nothing but time, 

But I am running out of it

My life is almost over

I live my life to the fullest

Wasted it all

I gamble it and lost it

Long nights of drinking

Wandering the world

Live my life to the fullest

Wasted it all.

All I have to give...

All my dreams...

Everything would come through

If you just gave me a moment

A tiny little moment

Whatever you don't have a use for

That's all... Just a moment.

I don't care if I die, I don't

I don't want to live my life again

I wasted it all

I gamble it and lost it

Wasted it all.

All I need is a moment

Just one moment that's all

Then I can tell you that I love you

Right before I go.

snow

Look at the snow falling

Floating on the air!

All the dancing,

The flirting and rage!

Look at it closer! 

Closer! (In case you don't know)

It is nothing but rain!

Self care! A case for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@ocasio2018) twitted her need for self care time the conservatives went nuts and started treating her like she was a spoiled winning little girl not knowing that self care is a basic human need. It is not just a woman thing, any human needs time for self care.
   Ocasio-Cortez is not the inventor or creator of the concept of self care. As Elaine Olen from the Washington post already explained here, self care has deep roots in the american culture, though in some other culture there is an old tradition of saunas and massages, such as the eastern European countries. The Russian Banya for example or the turkish Hamam where man went to relax and get massaged. In america (meaning the continent from Alaska to Chile) exist the 'Temascal' which is more or less an sauna for medicinal purposes.
   Many time a trend may elude me just because the fact that I spend so little time on Facebook or Snapchat but I got a back and forth with my friend Julie Heinz when she posted a story on Facebook mentioning her need for a self care time, so, when I heard Ocasi-Cortez talking about it, I knew right away what she was talking about. After the conversation with Julie, a realized that the self care trend is mostly a liberal issue. conservatives do the same thing, but they call it many other ways. The concept of "self Care"is basically a liberal issue, and that is why conservative pundits reacted so quick to @Ocasio2018 comment.
   Now, as I mentioned before, She is not the creator of the concept, but in this instance she has had a hold of the pennant and ran with it and that make her a leader in thet subject for the time been. She mentioned how bad she need a face mask with a couple cucumbers and a towel wrapped around her head. Probably that includes some exfoliation, manicure and eyebrows as well as a deep massage. Her diet is a plus! Back to the veggies and avoid dead animals as much as possible and the Yoga!
   No, I am not been sarcastic about all of this. I truly believe that this is a basic human need and it should be included in the "Health Care for all"plan so people can have this things the same way that the can take an aspirin when they have a headache. So the yoga!
   Yoga, in the ancient times was a way to meditate and every different position had a purpose in the practice of meditation. The yoga that we practice now days has evolved more into some kind of sport or a workout routine putting aside any mental or spiritual aspect of it. and that is way I am recommending miss Alexandria (or congresswoman elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @Ocasio2018) to include some kind of meditation in her schedule. Not just for this self care time but in her everyday schedule... she really deeds it!
   She hasn't fight any round yet of this the 24 first rounds of her political career and she has thrown so many punches already! Meditating before the fight would give her the insight to have mental control when the fight starts and that way follow the advice of her corner.
And here I insert this (which for a an agnostic person could sound hypocritical)

Hebrews 12:11

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

A lesson on boxing now! 
 Everyone needs to know a little bit about boxing if you are planing in making a living of politics, and in your case you need to know whether what happened to you was a "sparring gone wrong" or true skills (click here for an example) . You KO a champion but you don't know if that was a lucky punch or your real skills.
 Every boxer needs to master a technique based in their natural skills. For example, she needs to decide whether she is going to be a Swarmer, Out-Boxer or Slugger.  . All of them can win you the championship but very rarely a boxer can be both. Once your trainer evaluate your skills then you can decide if you are going to a be: Julio Cesar Chavez, Floyd Mayweather or Mike Tyson.

   When you responded to Alex Shapiro : "Foll: ::Just like catcalling, I don’t owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions.And also like catcalling, for some reason they feel entitled to one." That answer was very intelligent and measured... all you needed a that point was to keep your mouth shut. But no, the response you got back from your crowd gave you a sugar rush and then you started answering a every cat caller out in the street. Which make me thing of something "DO NOT FOLLOW THE MAGA GUY STEPS" a) you don't have to take off running every time somebody says 'squirrel!'. b) tell your truth with out offending the other party and c) don't make enemies from inside your allies: I mean, you came after the election trowing punches right and left and demanded your own territory! it is ok... it's just too early. For somebody that has never fought a real fight you still need to come over and kiss couple rings, the protection of those old dogs would give you time and exposure to gain real experience and the fight for your territory. Look at the maga guy! made plenty of enemies very fast, a fool of himself and gain nothing in the process.

You think that Nancy is too old to leader? Take on meditation, meditate, get to know yourself and then comeback.

Moving up

It's been said that
                love has ups and downs.
Yesterday...
        I saw you with someone
                 going up.
                 ... I get it now.   

Taxi driver

   Do I get paid to talk!? no!
I don't get paid to talk,
I get paid to drive...
                             so I drive.
   But if you wanna talk, you start.
My conversation is not included in your fare,
then, if you don't like my conversation
                                             don't complaint!

Border wall... Please let him build it!

A whole election was won on the promise that the new president would build a wall alongside th Mexican border, and so far there is no signs os such a wall being built.
The Trump administration has said that the wall is being built in a form of improvements and fix, but we all know that that is not what he promised... It is more like a kid saying "it didn't hurt" after he felt.
Many people has gone over all the things that makes it imposible to complete this project, but we will still mention some of them to put things in context. for instane, we have to bring back the 2017 border patrol budget... 13.7 billion... cost of the wall? around 20 billion. That is without mentioning that th wall has to be protected from been destroyed, has to be maintained and repair
   If the cost of building thee wall upsets that of the border patrol budget, the we could just build the wall and fire the roughly 30 thousand people that agency employs. Then, all that people can take the jobs that all the illegals come here ton steal from them. Maintaining the wall and implementing technology to prevent people from crossing will cost a fraction of the actual budget.
 The government could implement a program to re train all that personal so they can fulfill al th vacancies in the farming industry, the service sector and some other like construction. maybe they coul even displace the other 11 million illegals here in the country. I am positive that when they find imposible to fin a job at a factory or landscaping they eventually will go back to their country of origin, giving back all the jobs they have been stealing from the American labor force.

The other solution is to leave things the way they are and build the wall, then increase the budget of the border patrol agency so they can protect the wall and rebuild it... maybe in the future even build a second wall to protect the first one... as long as the American people wants to spend their money why should the rest of the world care... that's the american people's wish,...  let them build their wall!

To all those Republican that claim to be so religious I have this to say"

‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? To keep kicking against the goads* makes it hard for you.’

Acts of Apostles
26:14

Rain

Your last kiss tasted earthy... 

                          like morning dew...

It was October already. 

   Raggedy clouds hung from the sky, 

   cranes flying south sang a song for us...

                      Asking us to stay together.

You asked me to hold your hand 

             Instead I gave you was a rainy day.

Tomorrow... Tomorrow you are going be back to dust... 

                        the day after we will be rain.

Can you say I love you with a song?

It is rather common for people in love to send each other songs they favorite and deem romantic o have a message they want to say themselves but find it easier to let the song say it for them.

   The risk in using this method to conquer somebody's heart is that many times songs have two sides and we don't know which part of the song the other person is going to listen or pay attention to. 

   Let's take for example the song 'We Should Be' by Trey songs that recently a girl I was talking to sent me:

When I listen to the songs first paragraph:

                                                 Baby, you're lookin' so lovely,

                                                 I'm thinkin' bout you lovin' me.

                                                 Kissin me, touchin' me.

                                                 Lookin' so lovely, 

                                                 I'm thinkin bout you lovin' me.

                                                 Kissin me, touchin' me.

My immediate assumption was that she wanted to get close so we could have some fun sex... but judgin by her attitude next day I realized she was focusing in the second paragraph:

                                                 I promised you

                                                 I'd take you out.

                                                 Enjoy your night,

                                                 out on the town.

                                                 Light dinner and

                                                 some champagne.

                                                 You deserve the best

                                                 of the finer thangs.

                                                 Girl tonight you couldn't look

                                                 any better.

                                                 Amazingly irresistable.

                                                 I can see it in my mind,

                                                 baby you and I,

                                                 later on tonight

                                                 makin love.

Here, I realized she was thinking more in the romantic aproach to a relationship, which implies a nice romatic dinner. But as you can see, the same song sent two different messages and who is to tell which one is the one the person who receives the song is thinking about.

Another example I came across Was when I was flirting with a girl. As we talked she sent me a text with this "If I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?" (from Poetic Justice of Kendrick Lamar) and right after a link to YouTube to Johnny Rain's LLWH.
 So, I'm listetening to the song and I hear this part:

                                                You have my love
                                                You have my heart
                                                You've got everything that tore us apart
                                                This is why I neveAnnotater learn to trust correctly
                                                We both know you could never just forget me
                                                I'd love you if you ever really let me
                                                Would you let me?

So I think 'well, we are into each other, things are looking great' But as I continue listening this part hits me:

                                                You're standing there
                                                With an empty look of envy
                                                You ain't come prepared
                                                You don't have to see what's in me
                                                Girl, I'm one to care
                                                And I'm ridin' where the simps be
                                                I swear they tryna get me
                                                Woah
                                                Fuck you think this is?
                                                Look what you did to me
                                                You fucking piece of shit
                                                I'm everything that you pretend to be
                                                I thought that we were meant to be
                                                Now just
                                                             ... Fuck you

So here I got confused again... Does she love me or she thinks I am a piece of shit?

As you can see in those two examples, a song can send different message than the one you were thinking about. You might get lucky and the other person would get the one you intended, but chances are is not going to work like that. For some reason when is about love relationships we get to sensitive, either about falling to hard or been too skeptical. As in any case, when we send a song or when we receive it we only hear what we want to hear and we don't think of how the other person is going to perceive it.

I am not saying that you should stop using songs to express your feelings, but if you are going to do it, better analyze the whole song and think how the other person is going to read it before you send it... that way you know that the right message was delivered.