[1][2][3] Formed as a secret Catholic women's society that organized to support the Mexican Cristero War effort, they were affiliated with Unión Popular.
At its height, the brigade was composed of 56 squadrons, totaling 25,000 female militants, most active in Jalisco, Guadalajara, and Mexico City.
They also protested, boycotted businesses that discriminated against its employees based on religion and publicly criticized government action, including the expelling of priests.
They offered religious teaching and childcare to working women and their families, donated food and clothes to charities and the needy, supported seminars and vocations and opened Catholic schools and libraries.
They went underground to provide places for worship and sanctuaries for the Blessed Sacrament, and they hid wounded and fleeing Cristeros or families whose fathers died in war.
These women devised creative and clandestine ways to keep soldiers supplied, including special vests for smuggling ammunition out of federal factories and secret workshops for the production of homemade explosives, such as grenades made out of jelly tins.
In 1929, when two women were discovered in 1929 in Sahuayo wearing special munitions vests, the government started to become aware of their presence and the magnitude of their role in the Cristero war.
Doña Amada Diaz del Torre became the new director of a religious school that had been closed by the government in response to a misunderstanding about the Archbishop opposing anti-clerical laws being enforced, allowing it to continue running even after the previous leader fled.
As a result, mothers sent a telegram to Secretary of Government asking for religious equality rights, and the Damas of Guadalajara protested the school closing and sent petitions and letters.
When not in hostilities, the Feminine Brigades "turned their energy to Catholic social action under the direct supervision of Archbishop Pascual Díaz."
Minister of the Interior Adalberto Tejeda said to Sagrada Familia Church that if a similar case happened, he'd use firehoses on women and machine guns on men.
The government sent troops to close Church of the Sacred Family in Colonia Roma, because they thought foreign priests were working there.
They set up schools in the factories El Buen Toro (cigarettes) and Talleres Britania (shirts), teaching academics and Catholic faith.
Luis Beltran y Mendoza was a Liga representative who criticized the Feminine Brigades, saying it was unnatural and dangerous to have women following military orders, since they could show favoritism.
In response, they changed their name to add Saint Joan of Arc, and Gregorio Aguilar and Fr Rafael Davila Vilchis were added as leaders by the archbishop.
In the Plaza of San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, women passing out propaganda were detained by the chief of military operations and were threatened with rape by soldiers.
Carmen Torres Quesada wrote a letter to her cousin, saying that after the Calles Law was enforced, everything seemed to be dull, and people seemed to be sad.
Doña Luz Noriega de Reguer's house served as a Cristeros asylum and propaganda/local meeting center; she helped la Liga spread propaganda.
In Guadalajara, "Madre Anna" remembers her and her sisters having to remove their habits and disguise themselves in theater clothing to avoid being discovered by men sent by the government.
Sisters were encouraged by some superiors in Rome to leave Mexico, but U.S. bishops advised them not to because of the Great Depression and the language barrier for teaching.
She then taught Christian doctrine to children in San Jose de la Presa but had to flee when a first communion celebration they were having was attacked by federal troops.
Madre Rosita was also in Feminine Brigades, and as a member, carried munitions and equipment to soldiers in the field in special vests.
Refugio Goribar de Cortina, active propagandist and UDC leader, said they would keep teaching catechism, consoling the sick and visiting hospitals, but they would focus on strengthening the Christian family.
Historian Jean Meyer claims they controlled 54 towns of Jalisco, Colima, Durango, Nayarit and San Luis Potosí.
For saying that they would carry out the mission of restoring their religious practice and opposing the enforced Article 130, the women often faced "fines, confiscation of property, arrests, and imprisonment" in unhealthy conditions.
The UDCM focused on helping the poor and working class through education (while remaining within the Church-accepted realm of charity, children and the home).
Father Medina told women they couldn't be indifferent or retain wealthy egoism, but the señoras rewarded themselves as "generous" and believed their "altruism" would soften the poor's attitude towards the rich.
Historians have said that UDCM could be seen as the clergy's puppet organization, but others say that Father Leopoldo Icaza couldn't oversee all 15 regional sections.
Leobardo Fernandez and Roman Martinez Silva sent details to the Vatican, which created insecurities and inner divisions on the side supporting the Cristeros.
In June 1929, General Tesia Richaud (Luz Laraza de Uribe) was one of the women detained, captured, beaten and tortured.