If this doesnt belong here please delete it.




First picture is my Great Great Grandfather Abraham Marcelino De Avila, he was a Methodist Minister in Mexico (Born 1869 died 1961)

Our family came with Cortes.
His father(Felix De Avila) started one of the first Methodist Churches in Mexico, it started in his house and eventually built the Methodist church that is still standing in Miraflores. Abraham pushed for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and Education. He started "Hijos De Hidalgo" a school in Miraflores. He also helped 30+ towns receive communal farming land from the government. He played a big part of the revolution, and I have more pictures of him at some of the big churches in Mexico city as well at the "Templo De Metodista" in Nuevo Leon during a revolution day parade.
He was and still is a very prominent figure to many people in Mexico according to the people who have reached out to me via facebook after posting these pictures.  

He wanted to give his son a different name but his wife said "He was going to be given a mexican name" so she grabbed him and brought him to the church and named him Carlos.
Carlos became a Pastor in Gallup, NM. Springfield, VT. Holyoke, MA. And Franklin, CT. There's a few other churches but I can't recall
Some more history, Carlos told me when I was very young that he met Emiliano Zapata when he was a child.

Great story!

Thanks for sharing it.

How did things work out during the "Cristero War", 1926-29? Many people are not familiar with this immense tragedy in Mexico.

I can ask some of my cousins and the pastors at the churches, I've just now connected with a few that are telling me more about my families history.

I do know there was an assassination attempt against Abraham, I wonder if it was during that time.

Thanks!

As Mexico entered the mid-twentieth century the more violent oppression of earlier in the century, 1926-1929,  had waned, but the Church remained severely suppressed. By 1940 it "legally had no corporate existence, no real estate, no schools, no monasteries or convents, no foreign priests, no right to defend itself publicly or in the courts, and no hope that its legal and actual situations would improve. Its clergy were forbidden to wear clerical garb, to vote, to celebrate public religious ceremonies, and to engage in politics," but the restrictions were not always enforced. (Wiki)