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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2005 
Mexico Celebrates the Birthday of Benito Juárez
 PVNN
| Benito Juárez by Luis Mena
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Mexico - March 21 is a Mexican National Holiday, with banks, government offices and many businesses closed as people around Mexico celebrate the 199th anniversary of the birth of Benito Juárez, who rose from humble origins to occupy the Presidency of the Republic on several occasions during the turbulent second half of the 19th century.
Born in the small Oaxacan village of San Pablo Guelatao in 1806, his is the classic folk-tale of the underdog who makes good; of an orphaned shepherd-boy who walked the 35 rugged miles to Oaxaca, speaking only Zapotec; of a liberal whose perseverance and unswerving vision won him an education, a career and a place in history as a reformer and statesman of note.
From an early age Juárez was interested in politics. Between 1831-33, even before receiving his law degree, he served as a city councilman in Oaxaca and was a strong defender of Indian rights. In 1841 he became a civil judge and two years later married Margarita Maza, the daughter of his patron. After a stint as a federal deputy, he served as governor of Oaxaca between 1847-52.
As Governor of his home state, Juárez sought to establish a balanced economy and carried out numerous public works: he built roads; was responsible for the reconstruction of the Government Palace and the foundation of high schools; he commissioned a geographic chart and a map of the city of Oaxaca; he reorganized the National Guard and he left the Treasury with a surplus.
When the Mexican general Antonio de Santa Anna seized the national government in 1853, Juárez was one of a group of liberals expelled from the country. He escaped to New Orleans, Louisiana, but returned to Mexico in 1855 to take part in the revolution that overthrew Santa Anna. Don Benito Juárez became minister of justice in the new government and instituted a series of liberal reforms that were embodied in the constitution of 1857.
The following year Don Benito Juárez became provisional president after the outbreak of a revolt led by conservative elements. Soon afterward he was forced to flee the national capital, Mexico City, and established a new seat of government at Veracruz, where he initiated a number of sweeping reforms, including the reduction of the civil power of the Roman Catholic church by confiscating ecclesiastical property. He defeated the conservative forces in 1860 and 1861, when he established his government in Mexico City and was constitutionally elected president.
Facing financial chaos caused by five years of civil war, Don Benito Juárez suspended payments to foreign creditors in 1861. France, Spain, and Great Britain intervened, however, and landed troops at Veracruz. Don Benito Juárez reached a settlement with Great Britain and Spain; those countries withdrew from Mexico, but the French remained and captured Mexico City. Maximilian, archduke of Austria, the puppet of Emperor Napoleon III of France, was crowned emperor of Mexico in 1864. Don Benito Juárez moved his capital to the north and continued military resistance.
When Maximilian's government fell in 1867, Don Juárez returned to Mexico City and was re-elected president. He spent his time organizing the economic situation of the country, he reduced the size of the army, organized an educational reform, ordered and end to military uprisings, and sought to overcome the division of the liberals. He was always respectful of the organization of workers and artisans.
In 1871 the statesman Porfirio Diaz, an unsuccessful political candidate against Don Juárez, began a revolt that eventually was quelled, but Don Juárez died of apoplexy on July 18, 1872, in Mexico City, before the end of the uprising. Don Juárez is regarded as one of the greatest heroes in Mexican history, and is pictured on the Mexican twenty peso bill. |
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