La Cruz Blanca Neutral: A Legacy of Humanitarian Aid in Mexico

La Cruz Blanca Neutral (The Neutral White Cross) is a social assistance institution founded by Elena Arizmendi Mejía in 1911 during the Mexican Revolution as a humanitarian medical relief association to aid the wounded that were refused treatment by the Mexican Red Cross because they were part of the revolting party. Mejía was at the School of Nursing of the Santa Rosa Hospital (now the University of the Incarnate Word Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing and Health Professions) in San Antonio, Texas, when the Mexican Revolution began. The ongoing news of casualties and the Mexican Red Cross’s refusal to aid citizens against Porfirio Díaz’s presidency, prompted her to return to Mexico City via train on April 17, 1911. Mejía wrote an open letter to Luz González Cosío Acosta de López, the president of the Mexican Red Cross, and called for the organization to help the wounded. Mejía met with de Lopéz that same day, but de Lopéz again refused to help the revolutionaries.  Dissatisfied with the Mexican Red Cross, Mejía and her brother Carlos formally established La Cruz Blanca Neutral on May 5, 1911. 

The association was established under the guidelines of the Geneva Convention. La Cruz Blanca Neutral sought membership from medical students and nurses. Mejía rallied her cause in front of 200 medical students at the Casino Nacional de Estudiantes:

These are brothers, who fight to spread political ideals, which, whatever they may be, we should not take them into account; Our brothers are the ones who fall wounded, and I consider it a sacred duty to go and give them the necessary help ....Who wants to help our wounded compatriots?

La Cruz Blanca Neutral gained more membership with the support of nurses from the newly-established Hospital General de México. Carmen Hernández, María Sánchez, Inocenta Díaz, Antonia Zorilla, Telésfora Pérez and Concepción Ibáñez requested fifteen days of leave so that could perform their duties as part of La Cruz Blanca Neutral. Mejía, Carlos, Dr. Ignacio Barrios, Dr. Antonio Márquez, and nurses María Avon, Juana Flores Gallardo, Atilana García, Elena de Lange, and Tomasa Villareal made up the first brigade of La Cruz Blanca Neutral.

By May 11, 1911, Mejía had fundraised enough money for a field hospital in Ciudad Juárez, where three brigades of doctors and nurses set up relief. The Maderistas’ triumphs in the city helped La Cruz Blanca Neutral establish itself with little interference. They took possession of the Hospital de Jesús, the Hospital Juárez, the Casino de Estudiantes, and pharmacies. La Cruz Blanca Neutral also worked closely with their American colleagues and the “Hospital Insurrecto,” a hospital established near the border of El Paso. 

La Cruz Blanca Neutral not only focused their humanitarian efforts in the north, they also aided victims of the great earthquake of June 7, 1911, in Iguala, Guerrero. By the end of the year, La Cruz Blanca Neutral had twenty-five branches across Mexico. In 1912 the Honorable Consul General of the Swiss Confederation presented Silver Medals of the International Red Cross to nurses María Sánchez, Concepción Sánchez, Jovita Muñiz, Rebeca Guillén, Antonia Zorilla, Telésfora Pérez, Loreto Vélez, and Basilia Vélez, as well as nurses from Sabina Arcos and the Brígida Pavón. 

After the revolution, La Cruz Blanca Neutral was supported by donations and voluntary work. The general public trusted La Cruz Blanca Neutral more than the Red Cross because people associated the latter with economic elites. However, in the 1930s the association experienced an economic crisis amongst the growing intervention of the state in social work. In the mid-1930s their one office was closed by the Central Department of the Federal District due to financial insolvency, but the organization did not dissolve because of a donation from a beneficiary. 

By 1940 the association changed its direction to that of a philanthropic one focused on care for underprivileged children. La Cruz Blanca Neutral created a children’s dining hall in the rural town of San Gregorio Atlapulco. At the end of 1946 they opened “Club Infantil,” a children’s shelter. A year later, they opened the Dr. Antonio Márquez Children’s Assistance Center in La Merced, a neighborhood in Mexico City. Even after it moved to the southern part of the city in the 1970s, the clinic continued to offer medical consultation, vaccinations, dental care, and minor surgery services.

While exiled in New York City, Elena Arizmendi Mejía befriended Rodulfo Brito Fourcher and his wife Esperanza Moreno de Brito. In 1942 Brito Fourcher became the benefactor of La Cruz Blanca Neutral. He was the president of the association until his death in 1970. Esperanza took over from 1970 to 1990. Her daughter, Esperanza Brito de Martí, succeeded her parents and led the association until her death in 2007.  

As of the 2020s La Cruz Blanca Neutral provides care and treatment for malnourished children from Mexico City.