Juan Soldado

Juan Soldado, the name given to Juan Castillo Morales by his devotees, is a folk saint revered by many in northwestern Mexico and in the southwestern United States. 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, Baja California. 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. A private in the Mexican army from Jalisco, 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 Lázaro Cárdenas.

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 and Arizona 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 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.

External links

* [http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/religion/juan-soldado.htm Residents along U.S.-Mexican border find strength in local folk saints]
* [http://www.xicano.com/juansoldado/index.html Art installation centered on Juan Soldado]
* [http://vpea.utb.edu/folk/folksaints.html#Juan%20Soldado Website devoted to folk saints of Mexico and Central America]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230381/ IMDB listing for 1938 movie entitled "Juan Soldado"]

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.