Background: Vicente Guerrero

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Background Vicente Guerrero

• narrowly lost the elections of 1829
• liberal elite backed Guerreros decision to take
  up arms
• Guerrero appealed to sympathetic Creole officers
  like Santa Anna
• also appealed for popular support among the
  Indian majority!
• Guerreros victory hailed as an Indian triumph
• the reconquest of this land by its legitimate
  owners
• abolished slavery during his first months in
  office
• sent Santa Anna to fight Spanish invasion in 1829

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Reaction against Vicente Guerrero

• Anastasio Bustamante leads convservative
  military coup against Vicente Guerrero
• Guerrero retreated to the south and continued
  fighting
• Bustamante hired an Italian sailor, Francisco
  Picaluga, to betray Guerrero
• Picaluga invited Guerrero to dine on board his
  ship, and then took him prisoner
• Picalugo received 50,000 pesos for handing
  Guerrero over to the conservatives
• Guerrero was executed on Febrary 14, 1831

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Santa Anna

• Hero of Tampico (Spanish Invasion)?
• Guy who lost Texas, 1836
• Hero of Vera Cruz (Pastry War)
• Dictator of Mexico 1841-1842
• Dictator of Mexico 1853
• Driven out of office by liberals, 1854

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Remember the Alamo!
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A Story of Good vs. Evil!
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Remember the Alamo!
In 1954 Davy Crockett's legend was again
popularized by Walt Disney, who made four movies
and a television series about him (starring Fess
Parker) the Ballad of Davy Crockett and coonskin
caps like the one he wore in those films were all
the rage for young boys for a time. After that
fad had waned, John Wayne starred as Crockett in
the 1960 feature film The Alamo (the first film
he also directed).
Today, Crockett's legend still lives strong and
the story of the Alamo is one of the most filmed
subjects in the History of Cinema with Crockett
bein portrayed by Charles K. French (1909),
Allan Sears (1915), Dustin Farnum (1916), Cullen
Landis (1926), Jack Perrin (1937), Lane Chandler
(1937), Robert Barrat (1939), George Montgomery
(1950), Trevor Bardette (1953), Fess Parker
(1954), Arthur Hunnicutt (1955), James Griffith
(1956), John Wayne (1960) Brian Keith (1987),
Merrill Connally (1988), Johnny Cash (1988), Tim
Dunigan (1988 1989), David Zucker (1991), John
Schneider (1995), Scott Wickware (2000), Justin
Howard (2002), Billy Bob Thornton....and many
more!
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Real Issues at the Alamo

• Taxes
• Religion
• Slavery

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Benito Juárez

• Born 1806, son of Zapotec Indians
• Orphaned at age of 3
• Moved to Oaxaca to educate himself
• Worked as household servant in return for
  education
• Entered seminary in order to receive education
• Finished studies of Latin in 1823
• Finished studies of Philosophy in 1827
• Entered Oaxaca Institute of Arts Science
  studied law
• Began practice of law in 1831
• Represented poor Indian landowners
• Became town councilman, then judge, then deputy
  to federal legislature
• Married Margarita Mazza, daughter of weatlhy
  Creole landowning family

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Benito Juárez

• 1846 - Liberal party took power in Mexico
• During Mexican American War, Juárez served the
  liberals as federal deputy and then as Governor
  of Oaxaca
• Juárez became director of Institute of Arts and
  Science
• 1853 Santa Anna exiled B.J. to New Orleans
  joined revolutionary junta
• 1855 Liberals assume power again, Juárez made
  Minister of Justice
• 1857 Helps draft liberal Constitution of 1857
  rises to Chief Justice of Supreme Court
• 1858 1861 War of the Reform
• Liberals held Veracruz
• Conservatives held Mexico City
• 1860 Liberal Victory Juárez elected
  President of Mexico

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Benito Juárez

• LA REFORA
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of press
• Freedom of assembly
• Freedom of religion
• Eliminate fueros of army and church
• LAND REFORM conversion of Indian ejidos and
  Church lands into haciendas
• CRISIS 1862 Mexico bankrupt
• Juárez suspends debt payments to U.S., Britain
  and France
• Blockade of Veracruz to force payment
• U.S. Britain leave w/ money
• French army stays...

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Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico

• October 1863 Delegation of Mexican
  conservatives offers crown to Archduke Ferdinand
  Maximillian of Austria (a Habsburg)?
• Maximillian rules w/ French support
• Maximillian horrified the French and Mexican
  conservatives alike by reaching out to liberas to
  form a unity government
• Juárez rejected offer. Civil war ensued.
• French withdraw troops shortly after end of
  American Civil War, in 1866
• Maximillian is captured and executed in June 1867

"I forgive everyone, and I ask everyone to
forgive me. May my blood which is about to be
shed, be for the good of the country. Viva
Mexico, viva la independencia!"
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Benito Juárez

• Elected President again, 1867
• Confiscates Church lands
• Gives large landholdings to liberal friends
• Many Indians go from communal landholders to
  peons on haciendas
• Beneficiaries Wealthy liberal hacendados
• Losers Conservatives, the church, the military,
  and, ironically, many poor Indians
• Dies, 1872

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Lessons of Juárez La Reforma

• Persistant pursuit of ideals can change a nation
• Ideas matter in history
• Talent, work and persistence matter in personal
  destiny
• Money and power can corrupt even the best ideals
• Political labels--liberal, conservative--chan
  ge meaning over time don't assume that your
  present identification will determine your
  sympathies in the past or the future.
• Reform is in the eye of the beholder be
  sceptical and watch carefully how your leaders'
  words differ from their actions
• Progress is in the eye of the beholder
  economic advancement for a few does not
  necessarily help everyone
• Resentment - Mexican history encourages the
  stereotype that wealth is stolen rather than
  earned through merit in benefit of all
• Race and ethnicity are badges easily stolen
• Opportunity - Indians willing to
  acculturatethat is, to speak Spanish and
  adopt Hispanic culturecan move up in society
• Injustice Indians wishing to maintain their
  traditional ways get screwed, not just by chance,
  but as a matter of policy

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Porfirio Díaz

• Born in Oaxaca, 1830
• Mestizo of Mixtec Indian ancestry
• Father died when P.D. was only 3
• Mother was an innkeeper
• Educated in the seminary
• Joined military in 1846 to defend Mexico against
  U.S.
• A Liberal, Juárez personally tutored Díaz in Law
• Activist against Santa Anna dictatorship
• Hero of wars against French Max
• 1876 - Reformist campaign against Lerdo NO
  REELECTION
• Appointed himself President, 1876
• Stepped down in 1880, but ruled through puppet
• Returned to formal power in 1884

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El Porfiriato1876-1880, 1884-1910

• Modernization
• Los científicos
• Railroads increased tenfold
• Telegraphs
• Encouraged foreign investment
• U.S. investors industrialized country
• Grown of proletariat around Mexico City
• Tension between U.S. capitalists and Mexican
  hacendados
• Hacendados allowed to expand into Indian lands
  (Ley Lerdo)?
• More Indians become peons on haciendas
  resentment builds
• Poverty increases
• Resentment builds

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El Porfiriato1876-1880, 1884-1910

• Corruption A dog with a bone doesn't bite
• Assassination opponents who proved
  incorruptible tended to die
• Resentment slowly, even many middle class and
  wealthy Mexicans tire of the regime

Popular resentment Middle class
resentment Wealthy opposition
Revolution
The sixth meddle down from the left is ever so
slightly crooked.
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Francisco Madero

• Born in Parras, Coahuila in 1873
• Born into a wealthy landowing family
• Idealist, vegetarian, true democrat
• Ran for President against Díaz in 1910
• Was jailed, and then released on bail, after
  Díaz declared victor
• Skipped bail and fled to U.S.
• Led opposition to Díaz from U.S.
• Forced Díaz into exile in 1911
• Díaz retired comfortably in Paris
• Madero elected President in 1911
• Incapable of reconciling Mexico's many
  rebellious factions
• Overthrown and killed in revolt in 1913
• Be careful what you wish for

Díaz "Madero has unleashed a tiger lets see if
he can control him." Answer No. Lesson He who
laughs last...
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Pancho Villa

• One of Madero's officers
• Almost executed for insubordination
• Saved from firing squad at last second by
  Madero's order
• Led Mexico's rebels in north of the country
• Executed many female soldiers
• Feared cavalry Los Dorados
• A Robin Hood figure
• Accepted bribe from General Venustiano Carranza
  and retired peacefully to a nice hacienda in
  northern mexico in 1920
• Assinated in 1923

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Pancho Villa
We're here to pick up your daughter...
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Pancho Villa
Villa printed his own money. I bet merchants
accepted these bills very, very politely.
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Las Soldaderas
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Las Soldaderas
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Las Soldaderas
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Las Soldaderas
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Las Soldaderas
General Petra Herrera led an all-female force of
fighters.
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Emiliano Zapata

• Born 1879 in state of Morelos
• Zapotec Indian
• From middle-class farming family
• Known as valiant bullfighter
• When revolution broke out in 1911, Zapata led
  Liberation Army of the South
• Fought for right of peasants to own the land
  they worked
• Carranza regime put a bounty on Zapata's head
• Betrayed and executed by Col. Jesús Guajardo in
  1919
• Legacy Tierra y Libertad!

Es mejor morir de pie que vivir de rodillas.
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Emiliano Zapata