Pedro Villaseñor political papers
Finding aid prepared by Gina C Giang and Clay Stalls.
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
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The Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Pedro Villaseñor political papers
Inclusive Dates: 1925-1990
Collection Number: mssVillaseñor
Collector:
Villaseñor, Pedro
Extent:
3 boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The papers consist of materials that Pedro Villaseñor, a Mexican Roman Catholic nationalist, created and assembled that document
the troubled church-state relations of Mexico and their effect in Los Angeles, chiefly in the 1930s.
Language of Material: The records are in Spanish.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information,
please go to following
web site .
Publication Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and
obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Preferred Citation
Pedro Villaseñor political papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Lucila Villaseñor Grijalva, María Elena Villaseñor, and Alicia O. Colunga, August 2017.
Biography
Pedro Villaseñor was born on October 29, 1907 in Coeneo, Michoacán, Mexico. Villaseñora, a Mexican Roman Catholic nationalist,
was the Los Angeles leader of the Sinarquistas, a staunchly right-wing, nationalistic, and Roman Catholic organization. Before
he worked with the Sinarquistas (which were founded in 1937 in León), he worked with the Asociación Católica de la Juventud
Mexicana (founded in Mexico in 1913) in Los Angeles, and he established the Comité Popular de la Defensa Mexicana in Los Angeles
in 1935. These too were Mexican right-wing Roman Catholic organizations opposed to the Mexican government's suppression of
Roman Catholic practice and education. These activities reflect the impact of Mexico's Cristero War in Los Angeles, for Villaseñor's
correspondents clearly had Cristero sympathies.
Pedro Villaseñor married Celedonia Meza (1908-2001) on September 20, 1931. The couple had four daughters: Maria (b. 1932),
Lucila (b. 1935), Alicia (b. 1939), and Maria (b. 1948). Villaseñor worked in several industries. He was a laundry-worker,
retail grocer in East Los Angeles, and a supporter of Spanish-language theater in the 1970s. He passed away on April 29, 1996.
Scope and Content
This collection consists of materials that Pedro Villaseñor created and assembled that document the troubled church-state
relations of Mexico and their effect in Los Angeles, chiefly in the 1930s. It documents transnational politics between Mexico
and Los Angeles as well as politics and political organizing and activities within the Mexican community of Los Angeles in
the 1930s. It also documents the intellectual and political thought of Mexican conservative Roman Catholicism in Los Angeles
and beyond through correspondence from Mexico, Cuba, Peru, and throughout the United States; newsletters; poetry; books; essays;
and flyers. Holdings in United States research libraries and archives related to Roman Catholic political resistance to the
Mexican government, an important part of twentieth-century Mexican church-state history, are extremely rare. Of particular
interest is the large amount of literary material that Mexican conservative Roman Catholics in this collection authored.
Books accompanying this collection are assigned call number RB 646900.
Indexing Terms
Personal Names
Villaseñor, Pedro
Corporate Names
Catholic Church -- California -- History -- 20th century
Catholic Church -- Mexico -- History -- 20th century
Unión Nacional Sinarquista (Mexico)
Subjects
Nationalism -- Mexico -- History -- 20th century
Synarchism -- Mexico
Church and state -- Mexico
Geographic Areas
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- History -- 20th century
Genre
Essays
Letters (correspondence)
Newsletters
Photographs
Poems
Box 1
Correspondence (letters), documents, and printed matter
Folder 1
Photographs -- Sinarquista meetings
(1930-1941)
One at La Placita church
Included: Three photocopies for identification
Folder 2
Letters (correspondence) -- Incoming
(1931-1935)
Incoming correspondence to Pedro Villaseñor regarding building of school, subscriptions to newsletter “Pro Patria,” meetings
of Asociación Católica de la Juventud Mexicana, plan for protest march, and circulation of “Pro Patria” in Mexico. Includes
correspondence from Mexico and throughout the U.S.
Folder 3
Letters (correspondence) -- Incoming and outgoing
(1962-1972)
Incoming and outgoing correspondence re personal matters and politics to Pedro Villaseñor from José Aurioles Díaz, Ignacio
Martínez Aguayo, and Rodolfo Cabrera
Folder 4
Essays -- Anonymous
[undated]
Anonymous history on Mexican Revolution, persecution of Mexican Roman Catholic Church, and Cristero movement. José Aurioles
Díaz essay on the Virgin of Guadalupe and Mexican identity. Poem on religious persecution by Mexican government
Folder 5
Clippings (information artifacts), poems, and writings (documents) -- Licenciado Rafael Trujillo
(1963-1988)
Folder 6
Poems -- Lucila Villaseñor Grijalva and Pedro Villaseñor
(1961-1990)
Folder 7
Letters (correspondence) -- Incoming and outgoing
(1930-1936)
Pedro Villaseñor incoming and outgoing correspondence re church/state relations in Mexico, the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico,
and subscriptions to “Pro Patria”
Folder 8
Letters (correspondence) and publications (documents) -- Unión Nacional Sinarquista
(1930)
Included: “Patria y Raza” journal
Folder 9
Miscellaneous -- Pedro Villaseñor
(1944-1965)
Included: José Aurioles Díaz political essay, liquor licenses, and Rodolfo Cabrera letter
Folder 10
Letters (correspondence) -- Incoming
(1956-1976)
Pedro Villaseñor incoming correspondence from Sinarquisatas
Included: Roster of Sinarquistas in Southern California?
Folder 11
Letters (correspondence) -- José Villa Barro
[undated]
Folder 12
Essays, fliers (printed matter), letters (correspondence), and poems -- Miscellaneous
(1965-1985)
“Teatro Intímo” and unsigned correspondence
Folder 13
Clippings (information artifacts), essays, and poems -- Rafael Trujillo Herrera
(1976)
Folder 14
Clippings (information artifacts), essays, and letters (correspondence) -- Pedro Villaseñor
(1925-1971)
Incoming correspondence regarding personal matters, activities of the Comité Popular de la Defensa Mexicana (including newsletter),
and newspaper clippings. Letter of 6 January 1935 announces formation of the Comité Popular de la Defensa Mexicana and its
list of officers. Essays: (1) Masons, and (2) the Asociación Católica de la Juventud Mexicana relationship with parents
Folder 15
Letters (correspondence) -- Incoming
(1971-1981)
Pedro Villaseñor incoming correspondence from Rafael Trujillo Herrera. Pedro Villaseñor incoming correspondence from Juan
Aguilera Azpeitia and José Aurioles Díaz
Included: Rafael Trujillo Herrera poems
Folder 16
Essays, letters (correspondence), and poems -- Pedro Villaseñor
(1976-1986)
Note: Some poetry and essays lack attribution
Folder 17
Letters (correspondence) -- Outgoing
(1982-1983)
Pedro Villaseñor outgoing correspondence
Folder 18
Clippings (information artifacts) and poems -- Pedro and Celedonia Villaseñor
(1981)
Folder 19
Pamphlets -- “Mártires de Zamora: Joaquin de Silva y Manuel Melgarejo”
[approximately 1926]
Box 2
Newsletters -- Comité Popular de Defensa Mexicana
(1935-1936)
50 items
Included: Letter from Pedro Villaseñor to Papa, 1944
Newsletters removed from album
Folder 1
Newspapers -- Sinarquista (Orden)
(1940-1988)
Included: Other political newspapers from Mexico
Folder 2
Broadsides (notices) -- Asociación Católica de la Juventud Mexicana and Catholics in Los Angeles rally
(1925-1926)
Folder 3
Posters -- Anita Pompa de Trujillo poetry contest
[undated]
