Transnational, Conservative, Catholic Mexicans: The Unión Nacional Sinarquista in Southern California during the late 1930s and early 1940s

This paper explores the creation and maintenance of the Catholic, anti-communist, and Mexican nationalist Unión Nacional Sinarquista (UNS or National Synarchist Union) in Southern California in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It is part of my larger book manuscript that follows the rise-and-fall of the UNS in the context of the United States between 1936 and 1966. Most scholars of the movement study it within the confines of Mexico, however this paper takes it beyond, emphasizing its transnational dimensions. Also, scholars of Mexican American History largely focus on those involved in left-wing and labor movements, leaving out the role of religious conservativism among the community in the U.S. This paper hones in on Southern California, showcasing the presence and organizing of conservative Catholic Mexicans in the region to transform the religious and political situation back home in Mexico.

The UNS held an inherently counter-revolutionary vision of Mexico, growing out of political and religious conflict in the country, centering on the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the “new” Mexico after the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to 1920. The Mexican Constitution of 1917 that emerged from the revolution, targeted the centuries-old privileges of the Church dating back to Spanish colonialism by stripping it of any rights in the Mexican public sphere, restricting its impact on education, worship, property, and legal standing. Both lay Catholics and clergy fought two wars – the Cristero Wars – in the Bajío of Western Central Mexico against the postrevolutionary Mexican government in the 1920s and 1930s to defend what they saw as attacks on Catholicism. The UNS developed in 1937 as the next iteration of Catholic resistance against the state, embracing politics while actively touting itself as nationalistic, moral, anti-communist, and dedicated to bringing Mexico back to its glory with Christianity as a main element. Even the organization’s name drew from the ancient Greek word “synarchy” meaning “with authority.” By the group’s height in the early 1940s, its membership was around half a million and the largest opposition force to the postrevolutionary state since its founding.

The UNS operated not only within the confines of Mexico, but in the U.S. as well, largely because of the mass emigration of Mexicans in the years before. Mexico’s Great Migration during and after the revolution consisted of the largest emigration from Mexico to the U.S. by this point. Between 700,000 and one and a half million Mexicans migrated to the U.S. between 1900 and 1930. The various violent conflicts in Mexico forced many into exile throughout the western U.S., including Los Angeles, yet they did not abandon their political views. A sizable portion of those who fled following the revolution were not in agreement with the ever-increasing left-leaning politics of the postrevolutionary Mexican government, which embodied anti-clericalism, a strict separation between church and state, secular education, and land reform, thus aligning them with UNS in the U.S. The Los Angeles sinarquista committee that emerged in 1937 fully embraced the anti-revolutionary sentiment of transnational sinarquismo.

The Los Angeles sinarquista committee built up its own membership as the years went on. Pedro Villaseñor migrated to the U.S. because of violence in Mexico due to the First Cristero War. He fled Coeno, Michoacán after being jailed for his pro-Church activities. The priest in his town wrote a letter to the priest of La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles (Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church) in Los Angeles at the center of the city’s Mexican community. He not only set up a new life as a shop owner in Boyle Heights, but continued his pro-Catholic activism as the founder of the Comité Popular de Defensa Mexicana (Popular Committee of Mexican Defense). As a devout conservative Catholic Mexican, participation in the UNS was the next natural step. Through his leadership, the Los Angeles sinarquista committee released its own publicity to recruit potential members, focusing on Catholicism and Mexican nationalism. The chapter reached out to area churches to bring in men and women who similarly felt like religious and political exiles from Mexico. As the committee grew from late 1937 into the early 1940s, it built up its membership among the hundreds, if not more. Sinarquistas regularly met at Townsend Hall in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood with a population of Mexicans living alongside people of Japanese and Jewish descent. The Los Angeles sinarquista committee hosted regular meetings among constituency groups – men, women, and children. In these meetings, they went over UNS nationalist and religious values, but also worked to raise funds and materials for the sinarquista cause in Mexico, including “colonization” efforts in the north of Mexico, establishing utopian societies espousing the group’s ideals.

The Los Angeles sinarquista committee also helped establish new chapters throughout Southern California. Through its efforts, the committee helped in the creation of chapters in Azusa, Claremont, La Verne, Ontario, Oxnard, Pacoima, Pomona, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Fernando, San Gabriel, Santa Paula, Van Nuys, and Watts. The UNS worked to established chapters where there were sizeable populations of conservative Catholic Mexicans. These chapters acted similarly to the Los Angeles committee, but on a smaller scale. Not only did the chapters maintain an organizational culture, but they also supported sinarquista efforts back home in Mexico.

Ultimately, this paper argues that the organization established a foothold among conservative Catholic Mexicans across Southern California, utilizing their collective power to attempt to transform the religious and political situation in Mexico from afar. Although ultimately unsuccessful, highlighting the role of the Unión Nacional Sinarquista in the region demonstrates the importance of politicized religion among the broader community in the first half of the twentieth century.