Office of the Historian

File No. 812.404/52.

Consul Letcher to the Secretary of State.

[Extract.]
No. 575.]
American Consulate,
Chihuahua, January 26, 1915.

Sir: Referring to Department’s January 14, 1915, I have the honor to report that I have made a careful investigation of all cases of indignities and molestations alleged to have been visited upon nuns, priests and other persons because of their avowal of the Catholic faith since the occupation of this city by the Constitutionalist military force under the command of General Villa on December 8, 1913, with the result that the following authentic concrete cases have been found, all of which in respect to the main facts can be substantiated by witnesses and proven by the testimony of persons of the highest credibility.

1.
On December 11, 1913, written orders were sent to every priest in the city demanding the immediate payment by each priest of 1,000 pesos. Since this sum could not be got together on such short notice, the priests appeared before Villa to beg a reduction in the sum demanded of them; upon so appearing they were treated in the most insulting and abusive manner; one of their number, Father José Guadalupe Arriola, being borne to the penitentiary, probably for the purpose of intimidating the others. After a short detention he was set free, his persecutors apparently convinced that they could not secure the sum demanded. All the other priests, fearing imprisonment or even worse, finally after much effort raised the 1,000 pesos; from Father José Morales, a Paulist monk, rector of the seminary and Vicar General, they demanded 5,000 pesos, but when lie could not raise more than 3,000 and carried the sum to the military chief he was treated with many indignities.
2.
[Description of the expulsion of six Paulist monks on December 8, 1913, by Villa, and the closing of their seminary.]
3.
[Expulsion on December 8, 1913, of nine nuns, devoted to nursing and other works of charity, and confiscation of their house which at the date of this dispatch was being used as a public brothel.]
4.
[Flight of nine women teachers in the Sacred Heart school induced by a statement by the municipal president to the Mother Superior that all nuns and priests were to be driven out of the country. The school “was one of the best in the city and was attended by the girls of the leading families. The school has not been reopened [Page 1015] and the building was occupied soon after the flight of the teachers by soldiers and is now being used as a barracks where prostitutes are allowed to live openly with the soldiers and officers.”]
5.
It is stated that the bishop of this diocese is not allowed to return to resume his work, and that thereby has been caused the complete disorganization of all religious endeavor in the State.
6.
Father Salvador Gambino * * * conducted an orphan asylum at Santa Cruz de Rosales, where fifty orphans were provided for. He had acquired the property through his own efforts and had greatly improved the land * * * In order to make these improvements Father Gambino * * * incurred heavy debts subject to his personal liquidation. He was everywhere regarded as a pious and most useful man. [Account of the confiscation of this property and expulsion of Father Gambino.] He fled the city on the 26th January, 1914, without having been able to make any appropriate provision for the disposition of the orphans or nuns under his care.
7.
[Confiscation of the episcopal palace, the house of the Workingwoman’s Friend, the seminary, etc.] Subsequently, however, it was arranged that the Church should be allowed to have the use of these several properties free of rent.
8.
[Confiscation of a valuable property that had been willed to the Church, together with its movable contents.]
9.
[Expulsion of three priests and four monks conducting a mission among the Indians.]
10.
[Confiscation of two chapels, services being permitted.]
11.
[Expulsion of three Spanish priests.]
12.
[Occupation of a church as a barracks.]
13.
As a result of molestations, indignities, or the fear of abases of this character, priests have fled from the following parishes in this State, many of which still remain without religious guidance of any kind: Rosales, Saucillo, Villa Lopez, Eio Florido, Satevó, San Francisco de Borja, San Buena Ventura, Batopilas, San Pablo Balleza, and Casas Grandes.
14.
[Confiscation of the house of Father Joaquin Holguin, Vicar General of the diocese.]

As supplemental to the foregoing and based only on rumor, which, however, because of its persistence seems to merit some consideration, the following is submitted: [That Rodolfo Fierro, Villa’s inseparable companion, notorious as a ruthless murderer, had seized a handsome young nun from a convent at Zacatecas, sent her by special train to Chihuahua, and is holding her in the residence of Rodolfo Cruz, occupied by Fierro.] There is no possible means of substantiating the story, but similar acts affecting persons other than nuns have recently occurred, according to what should be regarded as fair evidence, and under present conditions the story does not appear particularly remarkable or extraordinary.

All the other facts set forth herein were secured from the highest possible sources of authority and can be substantiated by sworn affidavits if necessary.

I have [etc.]

Marion Letcher.