A character thought to be based on Canabal, in the novel "The Power and the Glory", was called an "atheist and a puritan" by Peter Godman. Canabal was a fervent anticlericalist and anti-Catholic, who supported President Plutarco Elías Calles's war against the Cristeros, a rebellion opposed to the enforcement of anticlerical laws. He founded several organizations "that terrorized Roman Catholics", most notably the so-called "Camisas Rojas" or "Red Shirts", and as a result some have labeled him a "fascist", but he named one of his sons after Vladimir Lenin, a Marxist and anti-fascist, and considered himself a Marxist Bolshevik. The anthem of his Redshirts was The Internationale, widely considered to be the socialist anthem. Some scholars have argued that his authoritarian policies were more akin to European right-wing dictatorships, though he wished to turn the traditionally conservative state of Tabasco into a socialist model and fought for socialist causes and Tabasco has been called a "socialist tyranny" by Martin C. Needler, Dean of the School of International Studies at the University of the Pacific in California. He also invited the First Congress of Socialist Students to meet in the state of Tabasco and created a form of socialist education which he termed "Rationalist".