The last Cristeros laid down their arms at the end of September 1929, ‘and have quietly returned to their homes without bothering with the formality of a surrender … to work on the farms from which they originally came’. ‘It was expected that after the religious warfare was ended a number of the Cristeros would turn bandit. This has not resulted.’

For the Cristeros, who were received as victors in their villages, the festivities of the summer of 1929 had a taste of ashes, despite the renewal of public worship, despite the good relations between Church and state. Although the mass of the people rejoiced without a second thought in what they sensed as a victory, the Cristeros felt that the Church had robbed them of a victory which they thought they were about to achieve with their rifles, and refused to believe in the good faith of the Government.