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Quite a number of individuals played important roles in the Mexican Revolution. This included men of all social classes. Porfirio Diaz himself came from humble origins, but rose to rule Mexico for three decsdes. There were upper-class land owners involved as well as peasant leaders and all classes in between Francisco Madero came from a landing owning family. A small unimposding man, he sated to challenge Díaz. He was no opolitican, but an idealist. That was why he woukd be the one to challenge Díaz and ultinarely led to huis untimely death. Huerta, one of the great villains in Mexican history, was of mestizo origins. Carranza came from a middle-class cattle ranching family. Obregón came from a formerly well to do family that had lost their wealth. He was a farmer with an interest in local politics when the Revolution broke out. Another scion of a wealthy family was Lucio Blanco who proved to be an effective military commander, but often found himself estranged from the better known Mexican leaders. A major factor in the campaign against Huerta were the two key peasant leaders, Emiliano Zapata in the south and Francisco (Pancho) Villa in the north. The are the two individuals that come to the popular mind in association with the Mexican Revolution. They played a major role in the defeat of Huerta, but they did not have the education or governing skills to form a government. And they were two very different people with widely different goals. While Zapata was fairly consistent in supporting the Plan de Ayala and land reform, Villa was much less committed to comprehensive social reform. This was in part because, Villa turned large estates over to his generals and not the peasants who worked them. They were used to finance his operations. The cowboys who rode with Villa were not committed to land reform like the peasants who backed Zapata. Most men were defeated and did not play a major role in the Revolution after the defeat of General Huerta. Zapata's Plan de Ayala, resonated throughout the Revolutionary period and influenced the Land Reform of the PRI Government which followed it. Villa left no permanent influence on Mexico except for his image in the popular imagination in confronting the United states.
Another scion of a wealthy family was Lucio Blanco who proved to be an effective military commander, but often found himself estrained from the better known Mexican leaders. Lucio was born in Nadadores, Coahuila (1879). Coahuila is one of the northern border states with the United States. Lucio was the son of Bernardo Blanco and Maria Fuentes. His father was a prominent landowner in Coahuila. He attended a primary school in muzquiz, Coahuila and then to Saltillo, the state capital for his secondary education. He went to Texas for a short time to learn Texas. He completed his secondary school education in Monterrey. He began university studies (1899), but did not complete the program. We are not sure why, but presumably he did not apply himself. He had a fling with radical politics. He went home to oversee his parent's land in Muzquiz. The Blanco's had family connections with the Madero family. He helped organize political clubs of Madero supporters in Coahuila. As a result, he supported Madero's efforts to out Porfirio Diaz and after Herta had Madero killed, he joined the opposition to Herta. He demonstrated considerable military skills despite a lack of training and experience. His most important achievement came relatively early in the campaign against Huerta. He achieved the the first major victory of the Constitutional forces when he took Matamoros (June 1913). Matamoros is the Tamaulipas city across from Brownville, Texas. Possession of a border town meant that the Constitutional ists had aay of importing sarms and military equipment. He also was the first Revolutionary leader to begin destributing land to the peasantry (August 1913). In this case it was Coahuila land holdings of the Diaz family. He was criticized for this by Caranza. He subsequently was one of the moderate generals who wanted to defuse conflict between onstitutional factions. The result of the Convention of Aguascalientes (October 1914). He had some military sucesses, but often found himself at odds with other leaders, includingh Carrabza, Obregon, and ecven Zaoata who had befriended him. Obregon had him arrested and almost had him shot. He spent time in Texas as a political exile, but continued to be involved in Mexican politics. It is generally believed that secret agents of the Obregon Government lured him across the border into Nuevo Lasredo where they shoyt him (1922).
Carranza came from a middle-class cattle ranching family. He was the oldest of the revolutionaroes and with his grey beard became a kind of father igure to the Revolution. Resistance to Huerta was organized by the Constituionalists. The most immportant figure here was Venustiano Carranza, a politician and rancher from Coahuila. He called his movement the Constitutionalists. He like Madero was a middle class lawyer. He wanted a kind of liberal reform that would install the middle-class formly in power in a democratic Mexico. He understood where Madero did not that this could only be realized by dismateling the Porfirio system and officials that Huerta was fighting to retain. He was not, however, in favor of any deep-seated reform program such as breaking up the large estates. Certainly not Zapata's Plan de Ayala. He received covert support from the United States. Carranza issued his manifesto--the Plan de Guadalupe (March 26, 1913). He refused to recognize Huerta and called for armed rebellion. Leaders such as Villa, Zapata, and Álvaro Obregón joined the fight against Huerta. Where Carranza led the liberal wing of the Constitutionalists, Obregón came to lead the Radical wing which did want major reforms. Obregón understood where Caranza did not that the dymamic of the Revolution required reform, although opinions as to the precise chracter of those reforms varied. Carranza brought organization to the fight against Huerta. Obregón brought a first class military mind.
Porfirio Diaz himself came from humble origins, but rose to rule Mexico for nerly four decsdes.
General Porfirio Díaz was a mestizo born in Oaxaca (1830). Oaxaca is a southern state aling the Guatemalan border with a large Native American population. His father, José de la Cruz Díaz, was a modest innkeeper in Oaxava, the capital of the province with the same name. His moyther was Patrona Mori. Porfirio was only 3 years old when his father died, leaving his mother to support Porfirio and his six brothers and sisters. His mother wanted Porfirio to be a priest and the boy was educated with this goal in mind. The Chirch had the tome still had immense influence and played a major role in the educational system. The teenage Porfirio life was changed by the Mexican-American War (1846-48). He began to hear stories of the War from soldiers returning to Oaxaca. He decided against the priesthood and he ran away from home to become a soldier and fight the Americans. there was no rail line to Mexico City yet and he did not have a hjorse, so he set out on foot to join the National Guard (1847). It was an epic 250-mile trek for the young man. He arrived too late because the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was signed ending the War (1848). Díaz returned all the way to Oaxaca and decided to study law. To finance his studies at the Law Institute and assist his widowed mother he began tutoring children. Díaz ran unsuccessfully against President Juarez (1871). When Juárez died (1872), Lerdo succeeded him as president. When Lerdo announced that he was seeking reelection in 1876, a the storm pf political protest broke.
Díaz came out if retirement and assumed command of the forces opposing President Lerdo. A series of hard-fought battles followed. Finally Díaz triumphantly entered Mexico city as provisional president (1876). He quickly assumed the full presidency. Díaz introduced a dictatorship which ruled Mexico for nearly 40 years. His iron-fisted rule, which lasted almost 40 years which Mexicans refer to as the Porfiriato. He and his Cientificos ruled Mexico under the banner of "Liberty, Order, and Progress". Díaz had a very specific interpretation of these terms. Liberty was extended to supportive landowners, industrialists, and entrpreneurs to make money. Order was enforced through a policy of pan y palo (bread and club). Progress was rapid economic development. Díaz negotiated arrangements with foreiners in which he and his associates profited personally. Any opposition or even criticism was supressed, often brutally. He formd the Científicos, the technocrats that advised Mexican president and dictator Porfirio Díaz.
Victoriano Huerta, one of the great villains in Mexican history, responsible fir the murder of President Madero. He is commonly called 'El Chacal' (The Jackal). He was of mestizo origins. Mexico's Revolution came a century after independence. General Victoriano Huerta, after killing President Madero, was forced to fight the Revolution on many fronts. He benefited from a strong central position. He incorporated the Rurales into his Federal military forces. He faced a formidable if tenuous alliance including Venustiano Carranza, General Álvaro Obregón, Emiliano Zapata (in the south) and Pancho Villa (in the north). These are many of the the most esteemed names in Mexican history and both Carranza and Obregón went on the be presidents. The Mexican Revolution was the bloodiest period in Mexican history since the Conquest. Resistance to Herta was led by Venustiano Carranza, a politician and rancher from Coahuila. He called his movement the ta, calling his forces the Constitutionalists. He received covert support from the United States. Carranza issued his manifesto--the Plan de Guadalupe (March 26, 1913). He refused to recognize Huerta and called for armed rebellion. Leaders such as Villa, Zapata, and Álvaro Obregón joined the fight against Huerta. While the United States supported Carranza, Huerta also had foreign supporters--the German Empire which was providing him arms and equipment. He also imported arms from other countries. U.S. opposition to Huerta developed to the point that the United States seized the port of Veracruz (April 1914). Veracruz was Mexico's primary port supplying Huerta's forces based in Mexico City. This cut off Huerta from the arms he needed. Cut off from foreign military supplies, Huerta's military situation rapidly deteriorated. He resigned and fled to Spain (July 1914). Eventually Huerta attempted to renter Mexican politics by organizing a counter-revolution. The Germans provided some funding, hoping that Huerta back in the presidency would distract the United States and discourage American intervention in World War I. Huerta attempted to enter Mexico through the United States. American authorities arrested him in El Paso as he tried to enter Mexico.
Francisco Madero came from a landing owning family, yet he woukld become a vuirtual crudading saint of the Revolution. Rather like Luther, he did not want a revolution, but a reformtion. His murder would turn what Díaz called The Tiger (aising of of the Mexican campesino class) lose. Madero would not do that, but his murder would. Madero was a small unimposing man, he dared to challenge Díaz. He was no opolitican, but an idealist. That was why he woukd be the one to challenge Díaz and ultinarely led to huis untimely death. Unfortunately for Diaz he had let the genie out of the bottle. A political unknown appeared on the Mexican scene. Francisco I. Madero was the son of a wealthy landowner. The Madero family was one of the richest in Mexico although not connected to Díaz. He was an of slight build and a sickly child. His marriage to Sara Pérez was childless. The desendents of Evaristo Masero has large families and make up some of Mexico's most influential families to this day. The young Francisco was a member of an extended and powerful northern Mexican clan with a focus on commercial rather than political interests. Madero received a through education. He studied at schools in Baltimore, Versailles, Austria and at the University of California, Berkeley. He was more of a scholar than a politican. He was an idealistic scholar with no political experience. He owned a hacienda owner and practiced law. He was deeply disturbed about Mexico's backward economy and the plight of the poor under President Diaz. He began to take an interest in politics. He joined the Benito Juárez Democratic Club (1904). Madero resented the Porfiriato (Diaz dictatorship) on constitutional and human rights grounds. Díaz was not the bloodiest of dictators by any means, but he was a dictator. He had done considerable good in modernizing the economy, but igniored the plight of the poor, especially the need for landreform. And he had not impeded hacendados from seizig communal lands. Madero was concerned that Diaz's conservative politics and alliance with wealthy industrialists and landowners would eventually lead to a bloody social revolution. Díaz at first dismissed him, callining the loquito--little crazy man. Than when it was clear that he was becoming an effective candidate, had him arrested.
Obregón came from a formerly well to do family that had lost their wealth. He was a farmer with an interest in local politics when the Revolution broke out. He was the military thinker behind the Constitutionalist military victoty and the new Federal Army that defeated the more radical Zapata and Villa. Carranza appointed General Álvaro Obregón as Minister of War and of the Navy. Caranza and Obregón led the more moderate elements within the Constitunionlista. Carranza led the Liberal wing which was focused on narrow, legalistic reform. Carrabza wanted a liberal, democratic government, but not extensive sicial reform. Obregón was more realistic in seeing that the dynajmic of the Revolution made reform inevitable. He was not, however, for the wide-spread reform advocated by Zapata in the Plan de Ayala. Obregón decisively defeated Zapata at the Battle of Ayala (1916). Zapata was forced back into the rugged north. He was, however, no longerca force in narional politics. Obregón managed to eliminate Zapata (1919). Carranza after his first term attempted to hold power by backing the election of a supporter (1920). When it became clear that Obregón would win the election, Carranza attempted a coup. Obregón escaped and organized a military campaign against Carranza. He was supported by most leading generals, including Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta. As Obregón's forces approached the capital, Carranza fled, trying to reach the port of Veracruz where he could leave the country, the traditional route for failed Mexican leaders, There Obregón's forces arrested and shot him (May 21, 1920). Obregón served as the next president (1920-24). Historians debate just when the Revolution ended. The execution of Carranza is the most commonly accepted end of the military phase of the Revolution. The social reforms that Madero has cought, however did not come until later.
Francisco 'Pancho' Villa was one of two peasant leaders that would define the revolution into a social revolution. The are the two individuals that most come to the popular mind in association with the Mexican Revolution. Villa would lead what came to be called the Division del Norte (The Division of the North). He and Zapata played a major role in the defeat of Huerta, but they did not have the education or governing skills to form a government. And they were two very different people with widely different goals. While Zapata was fairly consistent in supporting the Plan de Ayala with a focus on land reform. Villa was much less committed to comprehensive social reform. This was in part because, Villa turned large estates over to his generals and not the peasants who worked them. He was willing to provide land to the men that fought with him, but not comprehensive land reform. His gebnerals and the hacindas he tur over to them were used to finance his operations. The cowboys who rode with Villa were not committed to land reform like the peasants who backed Zapata. Both men were defeated and dultimately killed and did not play a major role in the Revolution after the defeat of General Huerta. Villa left no permanent influence on Mexico except for his image in the popular imagination in confronting the United States.
Most of the Revolutionary leaders were men commited to replascing Díaz, but not to a social revolution. Emiliano Zapara Pancho Villa were peasant leaders who wanted more. A major factor in the campaign against Huerta were the two key peasant leaders, Pancho Villa in the north and Emiliano Zapata in the south. Emiliano Zapata in the south. Emiliano Zapata is perhaps the figure modern Mexicans most think of as aymbol of the Revolution. (Americans tend to think more of Villa because Villa operated in the north and conducted a campaign against Americans.) Zapata was born in San Miguel Anencuilco in the southern state of Morelos (1879). His father was a farmer. Zapata was an intitove leader and he spoke Náhuatl, the local Native American languae. (In fact it was the language of the Aztecs and related tribes.) He was elected leader of his village (1909). He proceeded to organize an army to challenge Díaz before Madero launched his rebellion against Díaz. Zapata was disapointed with the palid reforms promoted by Madero. Instead he issued his pronouncement--the Plan de Ayala (November 1911). Zapata joined the Constinuionalist cause after Huerta killed Madero and attempted to restanlish a new Porfiriato. After Huerta's defeat, Zapata and radical even ararchist elements dominated the Convention in Aguascalientes which was to decide the future of Mexico. There the Zapatistas demanded 'tierra y libertad' - land and freedom. - for their people. This was not the vision of of Mexico that the more conservative Constitutioinalists (Carranza and Obregón) held. Zapata was strongly supported by the pesantry of Morelos in their mountaneous stronghold. The peasant soldiers of the Army of the South was, however, unwilling to venture far out of their bastion. They were defeated by the more moderate Constituionlists led by Carranza and Obrgón. Actually destroying Zapata in his Morelos stronghold proved much more difficult. Zapata continued to resist the Caranza Government. Eventually he was trecherously led in to an ambush (1919). TZapata was killed, but became the soil of the Revolution. Zapata's reforms (especially land reform) were not achieved during the Revolution itself. They came during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas (1930s). Zapata's Plan de Ayala, resonated throughout the Revolutionary period and influenced the Land Reform of the PRI Government which followed it.
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