Cross over Mexico - Experiences and deeds of Miguel Torquemada
Cross over Mexico - Experiences and Deeds of Miguel Torquemada is a parabolic adventure novel about the Third Reich by Alfons Kirchgässner , a Catholic priest, set in Mexico in 1926 . It is about the persecution of the Catholic Church in the Cristero Civil War from 1926 to 1929.
In 1935 the author was targeted by the Gestapo because of articles critical of the regime in the Frankfurter Katholische Kirchenzeitung . He was arrested for the first time in November 1938 and arrested again in 1941. In order to process these experiences, he began to write the novel in 1942, which he distributed chapter by chapter to the faithful in his parish after his sermons during the Nazi dictatorship .
In the post-war period , the novel was censored by the French because of its political content and by the American occupation authorities because of the portrayal of the persecution of the churches in Mexico under the Calles presidency , initially not because of the possible endangerment of the bilateral relations between the USA and Mexico.
The novel was published by Verlag Herder in 1949 , reached its 13th edition in 1966 and was one of the most successful young people's books of the 1950s and early 1960s , not least because of its didactic quality.
action
In the midst of the unrest and fighting that began in Mexico in 1926 with the persecution of the Catholic Church, stands Miguel, a Mexican boy. He belongs to a Catholic youth group , but also attends the meetings of the new state youth organization. But he cannot make friends with their anti-church ideas and refuses solemn oaths of loyalty, which for him are just empty words.
Miguel takes up the fight against all who want to exterminate Christ and his Church. In the most adventurous way he frees a captured priest and helps him to escape. He has to flee himself and is chased across the country by his persecutors. Everywhere he is the brave helper of those who are loyal to the Church who are oppressed by the regime. When it comes to delivering secret messages, storming prisons, saving a ship from sinking, defending churches and helping prisoners to escape: Miguel is there.
Persecution, prison, beatings, heat, hunger and thirst, Miguel suffered. But no hardship or danger of death can deter him. He is not only the brave fighter for the cause of Christ in daring adventures, but also an enthusiastic teacher of the faith for his younger comrades.
epilogue
Dear boy!
(Or are you a girl? - Or should I already say you?)
When I sat at the typewriter week after week (in 1942) to write something for the next parish lesson, I never dreamed that I would ever do that should be printed (especially by such a famous publisher!). The boys then were no different from you today. They liked to play and laugh, like to hear exciting stories - but they should only be allowed to do that in the “State Youth”. In the church youth it was only allowed to work “purely religiously” (can you imagine anything clever?). Those were the times. Yes, and finding a book that was religious and yet also exciting and funny, that wasn't easy. And after I couldn't find anything anymore, I started to write something myself. There is a lot of personal experience in it, some heard and also some read (especially from Mexican travel books - of course, because just imagine if I had declared in the middle of the war: “I want to travel to Mexico quickly”).
The children who hadn't fallen on their heads noticed quite well that the story could have played almost exactly as it did in Germany, and that it wasn't actually aimed at Mexico. Can you imagine that I kept the book in hiding? It happened that a Gestapo man could have been clever enough to notice what it was meant to be.
Incidentally, a copy of the story also wandered through some Frankfurt parishes, and a boy heard it during the parish hour who the Gestapo later put in prison for a few days. When he was out again, he said to his chaplain: "You, when they interrogated me, I kept thinking about Miguel." He is said to have done quite well.
Now I do not wish you that you have to go through something like Miguel. But who knows? As is well known, the earth rotates. Should you ever get into such situations, then you might think of Miguel. After all, he was a loyal fellow, that's for sure.
By the way, what happened to him? Dear me, he's already 36 years old today! I want to inquire about that. And when I find the time, I go back to the typewriter and report.
Greetings from your
A.K. (1949)