Juan Soldado
Encyclopedia
Juan Castillo Morales, known by many as Juan Soldado (Juan the Soldier), was a convicted rapist and murderer who later became a folk saint
Folk saint
Folk saints are dead people or other spiritually powerful entities venerated as saints but not officially canonized. Since they are saints of the "folk", or the populus, they are also called popular saints...
to many in northwestern Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and in the southwestern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A private in the Mexican army, Castillo was executed on February 17, 1938 for the rape and murder of Olga Camacho Martínez, an eight-year-old girl from Tijuana
Tijuana
Tijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...
, Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
. His adherents believe that he was falsely accused of the crime and have appealed to his spirit for help in matters of health, criminal problems, family matters, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and other challenges of daily life.
His death
Relatively little is known about Castillo, while accounts of his death vary widely, he was a private in the Mexican army from JaliscoJalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
. In 1938, while serving in Tijuana, Mexico, he was accused of the rape and murder of Olga Camacho Martínez, an eight-year-old girl who disappeared on February 13, 1938 and whose decapitated body was found shortly thereafter. The girl's father, by some accounts, was involved in a labor dispute arising out of the closing of a local casino by President
President of Mexico
The President of the United Mexican States is the head of state and government of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces...
Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940.-Early life:Lázaro Cárdenas was born on May 21, 1895 in a lower-middle class family in the village of Jiquilpan, Michoacán. He supported his family from age 16 after the death of his father...
.
Castillo was arrested and allegedly confessed; other accounts claim he maintained his innocence until his death. A crowd, perhaps led by the girl's parents and others connected with the labor dispute, attempted to seize him while he was in custody, setting fire to the police station and the city hall and preventing firefighters from responding to the fires. The local authorities turned him over to the army, which proceeded to sentence him to death after a summary court martial.
Castillo was executed pursuant to la ley fuga, in which he was taken to a cemetery and given the opportunity to flee, while being shot at by a firing squad as he fled. Had Castillo escaped he would have been a free man.
He was not, however, so fortunate. He was buried at the site of his execution.
His cult
Shortly after his execution the story began circulating that he was innocent and had been framed by a superior officer who was guilty of the crime. Residents began reporting strange events associated with Juan Soldado's gravesite shortly after his death, including blood seeping from his grave and ghostly voices. Others began leaving stones at his tomb, attributing miraculous occurrences to them.In the old Puerta Blanca cemetery there are now small chapels dedicated to Juan Soldado. The first one is the edge of the pantheon where he died. The second chapel is for all to enter and is where it says he is buried; both chapels are regularly visited and prayed at by people who have problems crossing the border into the United States or who are involved in the trafficking of people in the borderland. Devotees have also claimed that he has interceded for them in other areas, such as health and family problems.
Other shrines to Juan Soldado can be found elsewhere throughout the region, while votive candles, ex voto cards and other religious items devoted to him are sold throughout northwestern Mexico and the areas of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
where immigrants passing through the region have established communities. Similar cults have arisen around the gravesites of other victims of injustice who met a violent death and who are believed to have the power to intercede on behalf of those who pray for them.
Juan Soldado's cult reflects, in some ways, the unsettled community that Tijuana was and is. The Catholic Church had no well-established local saints in the Tijuana region and was itself compromised in the eyes of many by its association with the powerful interests against whom the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
had been fought. Juan Soldado, a humble, nearly anonymous emigrant from the countryside who was allegedly wrongly accused by the authorities, was a fitting symbol of the upheavals that the people of that era and region confronted.
In popular culture
- Juan Soldado, ayúdame a cruzar ("Soldier John, help me across") – supplication voiced by undocumented migrants at the tomb of Juan Soldado, prior to attempting a border crossing.
Further reading
- Griffith, James S., Folk Saints of the Borderlands. Tucson, Arizona: Rio Nuevo Publishing 2003 ISBN 1-887896-51-1.
- Vanderwood, Paul J., Juan Soldado: Rapist, Murderer, Martyr, Saint. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press 2004 ISBN ISBN 0-8223-3404-6.