Revolutionary Mexicanist Action

Mexico City Pro-Race Committee meeting in 1930

At the start of the 1920s, racism in Mexico and xenophobic sentiments begun to intensify. Organizations such as the Pro-Race Committee and the Anti-Chinese and Anti-Jewish Nationalist League were created in response to a large influx of immigrants to Mexico. This was a result of growing economic concerns among the Mexican working and middle class. As Chinese-Mexicans, and Jews to a lesser extent, had come to constitute a considerable portion of the merchant class, many protests and boycotts against Chinese businesses were held. Mexican labor unions had put political pressure to restrict Chinese and Jewish immigration to Mexico.[1][2][6]

The Mexican government, both state and federal, actively enacted and enforced discriminatory laws targeting people of Chinese descent. Following the Great Depression, Jews had become subject to the same type of persecution. Notably in May 1931 where 250 Jewish merchants were expelled from the La Lagunilla Market in Mexico City.[2][6][5]

The government of President Pascual Ortiz Rubio faced intense political instability, exacerbated by the Great Depression. Droughts and floods heavily impeded agricultural production. By 1932, mass labor strikes in multiple industries were erupting throughout the country.[1][5]

Plutarco Elías Calles wished to "keep workers under control" in response to the support Vicente Lombardo Toledano had been garnering among laborers.[1][2][4] Ortiz Rubio would resign from the presidency in September 1932 as a result of Calles's influence and power in the government.[1][2][5]

As the result of labor strikes and the support Toledano had garnered, Calles wished to protect the business interests of industrialists from strikers. Under the protection of a Callista official, if not Calles himself, Nicolás Rodríguez Carrasco founded the Green Shirts (Camisetas Verdes) in 1932. Rodríguez Carrasco had joined the Pro-Race Committee a year prior. The Green Shirts were a paramilitary group which was characterized as anti-communist, anti-union, ultranationalist. Calles politically protected and financially supported the group. The Green Shirts's campaigned under the mantra of "Mexico for Mexicans". As Calles began to lose power under Abelardo Rodríguez, the group was shortly dissolved by Rodríguez after taking power in September of that year.[1][2][5]

Rodríguez Carrasco's Revolutionary Mexicanist Action portrait, circa 1934

The Revolutionary Mexicanist Action was founded on September 25, 1933, within the Pro-Race Committee of the Federal District. The organization declared its fundamental objective was the moral and aggrandizement of Mexico, stating that their struggle "was not an offensive against foreigners but rather a defense of national interests."[1][5]

The founders and early members were generals and other ex-military men.[5][4][1] Prominent members included Nicolás Rodríguez Carrasco, Roque González Garza (instrumental figure during the Mexican Revolution and former acting President of Mexico), Julio Madero González (brother of Francisco I. Madero and Gustavo A. Madero), Silvestre Terrazas (former Governor of Chihuahua), and Eduardo Dávila Garza (Head of the Mexican Catholic Apostolic Church). Other key members included Ovidio Pedrero Valenzuela and Andrés Morán.[2][8]

Roque González Garza led the group for a few months from its foundation until Nicolás Rodríguez Carrasco assumed the position of supreme leader.[2]

Rodriguez Carrasco in the hospital for the wounds he received during the riot.

Tensions between Calles and president Lázaro Cárdenas rose with the latter increasing the suppression efforts of the Gold Shirts. On November 20, 1935, a violent clash between communists and the Gold Shirts during the Revolution Day parade at the Zócalo resulted in 3 deaths and more than 40 injuries of which included Rodríguez Carrasco. Rodríguez Carrasco was stabbed twice in the abdomen and left critically injured.[9][10]

The incident sparked nation-wide public outrage against the Revolutionary Mexicanist Actiontion, mainly from labor orgainizations. The Mexican senate sought to ban the organization a day after the riot. On November 22, senators Ernesto Soto Reyes and Guillermo Flores Muñoz condemned the Gold Shirts for the incident and called for a commission to ban the group.[4][11] In his speech, Soto Reyes state the organization was composed of "irresponsible straw-men" and called into question the legitimacy of the group. He asserted the organization did not represent any union or worker's interests and therefore did not contravene any legal statue by requesting its prohibition.[4]

Rodríguez Carrasco in uniform and giving a customary Revolutionary Mexicanist Action salute November 20, 1935

Caricature of Nicolas Rodriguez Carrasco and Roque Gonzalez Garza on the front page of a communist magazine in 1935

In February 1936, the group participated in anti-communist rallies in Monterrey and in Puebla. The Monterrey rally was filmed by fascist film director and Gold Shirts supporter Gustavo Sáenz de Sicilia. Members of the ARM engaged in gunfire between police leaving 10 members dead. Following this incident, on February 27, 1936, Cárdenas ordered the dissolution of the group.[2][12]

On February 27, 1936, Cárdenas ordered the dissolution of the group. On August 11, Rodríguez Carrasco was arrested for promoting "inter-labor conflicts" and was set to be expelled from the country. He was detained in Pachuca where was driven to an airport and flown to Ciudad Juárez then to El Paso, Texas. Following his exile, Rodríguez Carrasco was classified as a non-threat by the Mexican government.[2][1][13]

Rodríguez Carrasco moved to Laredo, Texas, with his wife, Leonor Gutiérrez.[2] Rodríguez Carrasco established a Revolutionary Mexicanist Action headquarters in Mission, Texas. Rodríguez Carrasco approached wealthy Texan oilmen whose assets in Mexico were negatively affected by worker strikes and government policies for funds. Other donors he personally received funds from included Reverend P.L. Delgado, William H. Wood, and a wealthy farmer only known as Smithers.[1] Throughout this time, Rodríguez Carrasco drafted numerous manifestos against the Mexican government, Jews, communists, and President Cárdenas in The McAllen Monitor.[1]

Rodríguez Carrasco also met with Henry Allen in 1937. Allen was a prominent figure of an American anti-Semitic fascist group known as the Silver Legion. Allen offered Rodríguez Carrasco protection and both directly received funds from the Nazi Party.[1]

By March 1937, Rodríguez Carrasco was receiving $2000 to $3000 a month in donations from American and Mexican nationals alike for the Revolutionary Mexicanist Action. The money was given to contacts that would regularly travel between Brownsville and Nogales.[2][1]

Approximately just under a year after moving to Texas, Rodríguez Carrasco met young woman named Emilia Herron. Herron belonged to a very wealthy family El Paso. Herron and Rodríguez Carrasco developed an affair and then divorced his wife Leonor Gutiérrez. Rodríguez Carrasco contacted immigration services to have Gutiérrez deported back to Mexico. A distraught Gutiérrez brought with her a great volume of documents containing sensitive information regarding the Revolutionary Mexicanist Action. She notified the police of Mexico City of Rodríguez Carrasco's activities. She made many public declarations regarding the organization's activities against the government and named many public figures who supported the paramilitary group. This caused serious internal conflicts within the organization with some prominent members no longer supporting Rodríguez Carrasco.[2]

Since at least 1935, the organization had been plotting a rebellion against the Mexican government. Carlos Walterio Steinman, a former colonel in the Mexican Army residing in New York, told Rodríguez Carrasco he had raised over 4 million dollars to help in a "change of government" in a letter dated July 3, 1935.[1]

The Gold Shirts received funds to purchase armament from former governor of San Luis Potosí and very close friend of Rodríguez, Saturnino Cedillo. Cedillo, who by 1937 had close alleged ties to German Nazis, had developed major political and personal grievances with Cárdenas. Cedillo had several private meetings with members of the Revolutionary Mexicanist Action.[1]

The Mexican Government had received various reports on Rodríguez Carrasco's plot and purchases of weapons. On November 13, 1938, the rebellion was launched in Tamaulipas. Troops had been already dispatched at the request of Tamaulipas governor Marte R. Gómez.[2][1]

Following the thwarted rebellion, Rodríguez Carrasco lost a considerable amount of financial support as well as support from the Gold Shirts. He remained exiled in Texas while continuing to publish articles for The McAllen Monitor.[2]

By 1940, Rodríguez Carrasco developed a blood illness, most likely aplastic anemia.[14][2] Following the quick deterioration of his health, Rodríguez Carrasco effectively stepped down as leader of the Gold Shirts. In August of 1940, Rodríguez Carrasco requested a pardon from President Cárdenas to be allowed to return to Mexico stating he wished to pass in his mother's house citing his illness. The request was approved and he returned to Mexico on August 5th. He died 6 days later on August 11 in his mother's house from his illness.[2][14]

The inauguration of Manuel Ávila Camacho seemingly ended the Revolutionary Mexicanist Action ban. Following the death of Nicolás Rodríguez Carrasco, two separate factions led by Aniceto López Salazar and Joaquín Rodríguez Carrasco (brother of Nicolás) emerged from the Gold Shirts. Both figures laid claim to be the true heirs of the organization. López Salazar and Joaquin's factions were based in Mexico City and Chihuahua respectively. Joaquín Rodríguez Carrasco's faction retained the organization's original objectives as the more radical and militant members comprised this group.[2] López Salazar's faction was noted to have developed anti-fascist sentiments, less xenophobia and anti-Semitism, while remaining implacably opposed to communism and labor-strikes. This faction also was noted to have been much more amendable with the government with López Salazar consistently publicly disavowing the group's past violent actions. López Salazar and other members of his faction routinely met with government officials to discuss the paramilitary's role in "maintaining national interests".[2]

On International Workers' Day, 1952, the "Golden Shirts" attacked contingents of the Communist Party and the Peasant Workers Party in front of the Palace of Fine Arts in Alameda Central. In the confrontation Luis Morales Jiménez, a student of the IPN, and Lucio Arciniega, a shoemaker artisan, members of the Communist Youth, died.[15]

By the 1960s, membership reached 500,000 in Mexico and the United States. A significant amount of members belonged to the Mexican Army or law enforcement. The Mexican government routinely hired the paramilitary group to combat leftwing paramilitaries. However, the group had issues with funds and by the 1970s the Gold Shirts seemed to have dissolved with no notable activity from the Gold Shirts.[2]

The council of the Gold shirts were known as the Mesa Directiva.[1]

Revolutionary Mexicanist Action zone chiefs. Individuals not identified.

By 1934, the organization had branches registered in: Villa Union, Mazatlan, Concordia, Culiacan, Saltillo, Torreon, Coahuila, Durango, Chiuahua, Juarez, Toluca, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Sabinas, Hidalgo, Puebla Texmelucan, Tehuacan, Guadalajara, Orizaba, Veracruz, Iguala Guerrero. Each of these chapters had leaders referred to as Chiefs.[1]