Aristeo Pedroza

Aristeo Pedroza was a Mexican Roman Catholic priest of the early 20th century, who is known for his pivotal leadership role in the Cristero War in Mexico during the 1920s.

Role during the Cristero War

Cristero Brigadier General who participated in the Cristero War. Known as the "Pure One" for his moral discipline, Father Pedroza was one of the few combatant priests in the Cristiada. Despite his lack of military training, Pedroza proved to be an adept leader. On April 5, 1929, Father General Pedroza, along with General Lauro Rocha, led Cristeros in one of the last major Cristero victories of the Cristero War in the battle of San Francisco del Rincón, in the area that is today known as Colonia Cuauhtemoc.

Father Pedroza controversially was the one who ordered the execution of the Cristero General Victoriano Ramirez (nicknamed "El Catorce"), a ranchhand-turned-general admired among the Cristeros. In order to avoid dissent among the Cristeros, Pedroza resolved to execute the sentence immediately, but before the sentence could be carried out, General Ramirez tried to escape and was killed in the process.

Death

Father General Pedroza was killed on July 3, 1929, just days after the Cristero War ended, during the government's strategic purge of former Cristero leaders. After his death, hundreds of other Cristero officers were likewise found and killed, including the Cristero heads of the state of Guanajuato (like Luciano Serrano, Primitivo Jimenez and Jose Padron) and almost all of the Cristero officers in Zacatecas (including Pedro Quintanar and Majorcan Porfirio).

In film

For Greater Glory (2012), includes Father Pedroza as one of the four main generals, along with Enrique Gorostieta, Father General Vega, and Victorian Ramirez. Pedroza is played by Jose Carlos Montes.