The Revolutionary Becomes a Martyr

From a Leftist Zapatista revolutionary to a Martyr for the Faith, his journey was a fascinating one! He was eventually shot by his Revolutionary comrades.

From One Peter Five

By Theresa Marie Moreau

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. 
– Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Brigadier General Manuel Reyes Nava (1887-1927) initially joined the Mexican Revolution (1910-20), in 1912, serving alongside his brother Colonel Gabino Reyes Nava (?-1988), directly under the authority of another brother, Major General Valentin Reyes Nava (1884-1923), who led the 2nd Southern Division of the Liberation Army of the South, commanded by the handsome and charismatic caudillo, General Emiliano Zapata Salazar (1879-1919).

Brigadier General Manuel Reyes Nava

Colonel Gabino Reyes Nava

Major General Valentin Reyes Nava

General Emiliano Zapata Salazar

The brothers had always worked together, whether hunting in the rugged forests filled with pine and oak, or toiling in the fields, shoulder to shoulder, under the watchful eyes of their father, Gabino Reyes Jimenez, and mother, Maria Piedad Nava Rios, in their home village of Santo Tomas Ajusco, one of the 11 Tlalpan Original Settlements.

In the early days of the Revolution, Manuel strongly believed in the Ayala Plan, the manifesto issued, on November 28, 1911, by Zapata, demanding land reform, social justice and the resignation of Mexican President Francisco Ignacio Madero Gonzalez (1873-1913).

Spurring his horse through fields and villages, Manuel was feared as just another sociopathic Revolutionary who perversely indulged in extreme violence, pillaging property, executing men, raping women and senselessly killing children, just the type of intellectually, morally and spiritually corrupt miscreant sought by paramilitary generals to terrorize the nation.

Because of his meritorious service during the heat of battle in countless conflicts through the war years, he moved up the ranks to colonel, in 1914, and then to brigadier general, in March 1917, promoted by Zapata himself.

With the conclusion of the Revolution, following the assassination of Mexican President Jose Venustiano Carranza de la Garza (1859-1920) and the triumph of the Plan de Agua Prieta, he joined the regular troops of the Federal and Permanent National Army, in 1920.

But the new regime was the same as the old regime. Just one more criminal clique, the Sonoran Triumvirate consisted of three Revolutionary generals: Plutarco Elias Calles (born Francisco Plutarco Elias Campuzano (1877-1945), Alvaro Obregon Salido (1880-1928) and Felipe Adolfo de la Huerta Marcor (1881-1955).

And then something happened.

His brother Valentin – who had segued from an officer in the military to the mayor of Talalpan – was executed, in Toluca, on December 27, 1923, as per the orders of then-President Obregon, after tensions arose between the regime’s warring factions. Unable to obtain a pardon for his brother, Manuel, subsequently, suffered disillusionment and no longer trusted the government. Demoralized, he mulled over his discontent for several years.

Then his life changed forever when he met Concepcion “Mother Conchita” Acevedo de la Llata (1891-1979) – a nun with the Order of the Capuchin Poor Clares of the Blessed Sacrament and mother superior of the Daughters of Mary Convent.

After Acevedo catechized him, Manuel rejected his former ways, purged the corruption from his soul and chose virtue over vice, truth over lies.

In 1927, he joined the Cristero War (1926-29), as did his brother Gabino, who also had received religious instruction from the nun.

For Manuel’s official, early morning swearing-in ceremony, Juan Manuel Bonilla Manzano (?-1927) – president of the Tlalpan branch of the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth – presented a national flag, read the manifesto of Rene Capistran Garza (1898-1974), then faced Manuel and said:

General Don Manuel Reyes, do you swear on your honor as a man, a soldier and a Catholic to uphold and defend, even at the cost of your life, the manifesto that has just been read, to defend the cause of the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion, and to avoid, as far as possible, causing damage to the property or lives of peaceful citizens?

“Yes, I swear!” responded Manuel, with tears in his eyes, as he kissed the flag, while those around him cheered, “Viva Cristo Rey y la Virgen de Guadalupe! Viva General Reyes!”

With bravado, the onetime Revolutionary and persecutor of the Church attacked his former comrades, as he fought for religious and personal freedom. Charging on horseback toward his enemies, all the while shouting, “Viva Cristo Rey!” he led his Cristero soldiers into skirmishes in Michoacan, Morelos, Puebla, Mexico City, Tenancingo and Valle de Bravo.

However, in the Valle de San Martin Obispo, in the midst of a bloody fray, he lost his horse and was unable to flee, hindered by an old combat injury to his leg, which had earned him the nickname “Gimpy.”

Enemy soldiers surrounded their old comrade, grabbed him and dragged him the forty miles east to Toluca. Ordered to face his executioners, he stood in front of the atrium wall of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and its Convent of the Immaculate Conception of the Discalced Carmelites.

Calmly, he removed his neck chains, crucifix and ring, and handed his personal belongings to a friend. With his sombrero still on his head, he made a simple request, that he not be blindfolded.

Once a Revolutionary, the convert stood before the wall a confirmed Cristero, executed by firing squad, on August 21, 1927.

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Miscellanea and facts were pulled from the following:

“21 de Agosto, Fusilamiento del Gral. Manuel Reyes,” by Israel Tapia.

“Diccionario de Generales de la Revolucion: Tomo II M-Z,” by the Instituto Nacional de Estudios Historicos de las Revoluciones de Mexico.

Findagrave.com

“Los Zapatistas del Sur: La Estatua de Emiliano Zapata en Huipulco,” by Jaime Orozco Barbosa.

“Mejico Cristero: Historia de la ACJM 1925 a 1931,” by Antonio Rius Facius.

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Martyrologist Theresa Marie Moreau is an award-winning reporter and the author of Martyrs in Red China; An Unbelievable Life: 29 Years in Laogai; Misery & Virtue; and Blood of the Martyrs: Trappist Monks in Communist China.