Porfirio Díaz, who ran Mexico for more years than any other president, was born in Oaxaca and was 18 years old when the Mexican-American War of 1848 started. He watched while the U.S. annexed about half of Mexico’s land as a result of winning that war. Mexico continued to fight foreign invasions and wars throughout the century. The last of the foreign occupiers were the French. The French had installed an emperor and controlled the country throughout the 1860s.. Portfirio Díaz became a hero fighting against the French occupation, but he wasn't always successful. In 1863, the French captured and held him as a prisoner of war. However, he soon escaped and became a commander in Benito Juárez’s Central Army.
In this capacity, he led several victories against the French, including the very important Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Does this date sound familiar? Maybe if you hear it in Spanish, the date will sound familiar. This is the event which is celebrated on Cinco de Mayo each year. This battle was the turning point of the war for Mexico and for Portfirio Diaz. In that battle, Diaz became a war hero. He became so loved by many Mexican citizens who honored him by naming their streets and their babies after him.
Porfirio Díaz stayed loyal to Benito Juárez until the French were repelled and order was restored. However, his loyalty failed when Benito Juárez became President of Mexico in 1868. Soon after Juárez’s election, Díaz decided that he himself should be President, so he led a revolt against the Mexican president. The revolt failed, but Diaz and allowed to serve in Congress as a delegate from Veracruz. He persisted in his fight to gain control of the central government. And finally, in 1876, he was able to defeat the federal troops. He declared himself President of Mexico soon after.
Díaz’s original presidency lasted only one term (four years) from 1876 to 1880, and disappointed many who had considered him a hero. Almost immediately, people understood that his plan was to remain in power by the use of corruption and violence, especially against the poor. Instead of serving a second term, he made sure that the new president, elected in 1880, would be his puppet. Thus Manuel González continued the corruption and repression that was Díaz’s hallmark – so much so that Díaz was able to get re-elected in 1884 by a populace disgusted even more with González.
Díaz then served as president, uninterrupted, from 1884 to 1910, for a grand total of 30 years. The irony of the so-called Porfiriato, the time when Díaz was president, was that it represented 30 years of relative peace and stability in Mexico, including economic stability. But both the peace and the economic stability came at a price. Díaz wanted Mexico to emulate the sophistication of Europe – and to that end, he re-made Mexico City in the image of the great European cities, virtually eliminating the influence of indigenous culture. He surrounded himself with rich advisors, the científicos, who dominated Mexico as a privileged upper class. Díaz so dissociated himself from his own indigenous roots, and so admired Europeans, that he would sometimes paint his face to make it look whiter than it actually was.
Though Porfirio Diaz was so hatted that November 20 celebrates his removal, he remains popular in Oaxaca only because he is a native son. The name Portfirio remains popular a street name and a a name for male children.
The Mexican Revolution sparked the Constitution of 1917 which provided for separation of Church and state, government ownership of the subsoil, holding of land by communal groups, the right of labor to organize and strike and many other aspirations.
No comments:
Post a Comment