Mexican History

Many towns, streets and even subway stops in Mexico are named after the events and personalities that shaped the country?s history from the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century to modern times. The following list summarizes the significance of some of these figures and dates.

A?Ignacio Allende (1769-1811): Ignacio Maria de Allende was one of the major leaders in the War of Independence against Spanish rule, although his efforts did not bear fruit until 10 years after he died. Alongside Juan Aldama and Miguel Hidalgo, Allende led an attack against the Spanish the morning of September 16, 1810 in Dolores, Guanajuato, and following several struggles, triumphantly reached Monte de las Cruces, where the famous Battle of Monte de las Cruces was fought and won on October 30. In 1811, Allende became a war prisoner, was killed and his head displayed in the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in the city of Guanajuato. Allende?s remains now rest at the Column of Independence constructed in 1910 in Mexico City, and his birthplace, San Miguel el Grande in Guanajuato State, was later named San Miguel de Allende in his honor.

B?Bucareli, Antonio Maria de (1717-1779): Antonio Maria de Bucareli was the 47th viceroy of Mexico, from September 2, 1771, until his death. Bucareli's administration was one of the most successful in the country. Three great institutions were founded under his leadership: the Monte de Piedad, a government institution offering loans to the poor, accepting personal possessions as collateral; the Hospicio, a home for the poor; and the Casa de la Cuna, a religious sanctuary. He also established the country?s mining court and obtained permission from the king of Spain to use quicksilver from Mexican mines. An important Mexico City promenade bears his name and his remains are buried in the Colegiata of Guadalupe in the Basilica.

C?Hernan Cortez (1485-1547): synonymous with the conquering of Mexico, Hernan Cortez, together with his army, discovered the Valley of Mexico and succeeded in destroying the powerful Aztec empire in the 1520s. Cortez was born in Medellin, in the southwestern Spanish province of Extremadura. In 1519, the 34-year-old led a band of 550 sailors and explorers on an unauthorized expedition from Cuba to what is now Mexico. Cortez first landed in Yucatan, where he met a priest named Jeronimo de Aguilar. Aguilar had been shipwrecked in 1511, lived among the Mayans, and learned their language fluently. Aguilar accompanied Cortez as his force moved southwest. In Tabasco, after winning a battle against a local tribe, Cortez received a gift from the chiefs ? a multilingual Indian woman, Malinche, who became his consort, translator and advisor, responsible for the diplomatic maneuvering that was as much a part of the conquest as the fighting. They later became intimately involved and she bore his child, Martin. Following additional conquests and victories, Cortez was named governor, captain-general and chief justice of New Spain, the territory covering not only modern-day Mexico but also much of Central America and the southwestern United States.

D?Porfirio Diaz (1830-1915): a notorious dictator, Diaz was born in the city of Oaxaca of Mixtec Indian and Spanish ancestry. As an army officer, he became a hero due to his participation in the war against the French, where he won several important victories including the celebrated Battle of Puebla of 1862. In 1876, he overthrew President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada and appointed himself president; he served one term and then stepped down in favor of Manuel Gonzalez, one of his underlings, who followed with a four-year period marked by corruption. This set the platform for Díaz to return for the next election, which he won through vote manipulation, violence and assassination of his opponents, which as a result were very few. Although Diaz?s programs of modernization, including the development of railroads and telegraph lines across the country and factory construction were successful, the poor suffered greatly under Diaz?s dictatorship, while half the rural population was reduced to debt slavery -ultimately giving rise to a revolution headed by Francisco Madero. In 1911, Diaz was forced to leave Mexico and died in France in exile.

E?Juan Escutia (1827-1847): born in Tepic, Nayarit, Juan Escutia was a military student up until his premature death. On the morning of September 13, 1847, while Escutia was on guard at the Chapultepec Military School in Mexico City, he faced the invasion of U.S army and resisted against their intrusion. As the invaders continued to move in to the territory, Escutia rapidly grabbed the Mexican flag to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, wrapped it around himself and threw himself off the cliff of Chapultepec Castle. His remains, along with those of other heroic children, were honored in a ceremony held at the Palacio Nacional and the main plaza in Mexico City. The crystal and silver urns that held the remains of the children were taken through the streets of Mexico to their final destination, the Monument of Heroic Children, located in Chapultepec Park.

F? Ricardo Flores Magon (1873-1922): reformist turned anarchist, Magon was legendary in inspiring the people to rise up, gradually paved the way for the Mexican Revolution. Magon founded the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM) which organized two uprisings against Diaz. Flores Magon was later exiled and during this period, Flores Magon?s vision evolved into anarchism, influenced by the infamous Emma Goldman. Flores Magon did not believe that the liberalists would in fact address the issue of property rights. Among his famous quotes, Flores Magon said, "..the emancipation of the workers must be the work of the workers themselves." Flores Magon was arrested several times in the U.S. and died in prison, apparently beaten to death. His legend lives on in the Zapatista movement.

G?Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores): Miguel Hidalgo's cry of Dolores was the crucial, impulsive action that catalyzed Mexico?s bloody struggle for independence from Spain. Although a movement toward Mexican independence had already been in progress since Napoleon?s conquest of Spain, Hidalgo?s passionate declaration "Mexicanos, Viva Mexico!" in the city of Dolores in Guanajuato State was what really set things off. The cry (El Grito) is shouted every year at midnight on September 15 in the central plazas of cities around Mexico; Mexico?s president does the honors from the balcony of the Presidential Palace in Mexico City.

H?Miguel Hidalgo (1753-1811): before the historic moment when his voice cried out "Mexicanos, Viva Mexico!" to demand Mexico?s independence from the Spanish crown, Miguel Hidalgo was an old priest from a parish in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato. His radical ideas led him to join forces with a group of liberals, including Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama and Mariano Abasolo, who planned an overthrow of Spanish rule for October 1810, a date later moved up to September 16, 1810 because they were discovered. In 1811 Hidalgo was sentenced and shot to death, but his fight was not in vain, as Mexico gained its independence on September 21, 1821.

I?Agustin de Iturbide (1783-1824): Iturbide, the revolutionist and emperor of Mexico (1822?23), was born in the city of Valladolid (known today as Morelia) of a Spanish father and a Mexican mother. Though Iturbide claimed his entire life that his mother was a creole (Mexican-born but of pure Spanish descent), the rumor persisted that she had Indian blood. An officer in the royalist army, he was sympathetic to independence. In 1820, Iturbide was commissioned by Viceroy Apodaca to lead royalist troops against Vicente Guerrero. In 1823, Iturbide was forced to abdicate and go into exile in Europe. Congress decreed him a traitor and an outlaw, forbidding his reentry into Mexico. Iturbide, ignorant of the decree, sailed back to Mexico in 1824, where he was captured, tried and shot. Iturbide has been regarded by conservatives as the champion of Mexican independence, more so than Hidalgo or Morelos y Pavon. In 1838 a conservative government placed his remains in Mexico City?s National Cathedral.

J?Benito Juarez (1806-1872): a heroic figure and referred to as "Mexico?s Lincoln," Juarez was born in the village of San Pablo Gueletao in Oaxaca State, of Zapotec Indian heritage. His strong inclination towards politics led him to become a defender of Indian rights and serve as Oaxaca city councilman between 1831 and 1833, even before receiving his law degree. In 1841, he became a civil judge and after a stint as a federal deputy, he served as governor of Oaxaca between 1847-52, after which he became director of his alma mater, the Institute of Science and Art. In 1853, Juarez, along with a group of liberal thinkers, was exiled from Mexico by the dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna. Juarez moved to New Orleans or a period from Mexico, along with a group of liberal thinkers, but returned some years later to eventually become president of Mexico. Juarez is most famous for his reforms to separate the powers of Church and State and remains one of the most popular and beloved figures in Mexican history.

K?Enrique Krauze (1947-present): Krauze is a renowned Mexican writer whose short biographies of Mexican leaders have sold over a million copies. In 1997, he published the internationally acclaimed "Mexico: Biography of Power - A History of Modern Mexico 1810-1996." He served for twenty years as co-editor of the intellectual journal Vuelta whose editor was Nobel prizewinner Octavio Paz, and has also written for the New York Times, Time, Wall Street Journal, New Republic and other leading publications. He is now editor-in-chief of the intellectual monthly magazine Letras Libres and is a leading advocate of democratic reform in Mexico.

L?Lopez de Santa Anna, Antonio (1794-1876): one of Mexico?s most egotistical dictators and notorious for wild extravagance, betrayal and lies, Lopez de Santa Anna was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, and decided early on in his childhood that we wanted to be a military leader. As an adult, Lopez de Santa Anna fought in the royalist army, but later joined Iturbide in the struggle (after he was offered the title he desired) that won independence for Mexico. In February of 1836, Santa Anna led the forces that overwhelmed the Alamo, and was involved in a host of other uprisings, losing his leg in the process. He served as president on several occasions, emptying the national treasury every time; and was also exiled on several occasions.

M?Francisco I. Madero: famous liberal political leader with a foreign education, Madero denounced President Porfirio Díaz and headed an armed revolt to overthrow Diaz?s dictatorship in November of 1910. In a span of six months, Madero was successful and Díaz was forced to resign fled to France in exile, while Madero was elected president in November of 1911. In 1913, Madero was overthrown by his own general, Victoriano Huerta, and murdered.

N?Nueva España (New Spain): the fall of the Aztec Empire and capture of its ruler Cuauhtemoc in 1521 left Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez in charge of a vast land known as Nueva España (New Spain) in 1522. Cortez promptly founded Mexico City on the ruins of the majestic Tenochtitlan, building a European-style colonial capital with the rubble left from Aztec pyramids, temples and palaces. Soon Cortez dispatched his lieutenants in every direction to explore and conquer more territory and search for riches, while he himself set off south towards Honduras on an expedition that would last nearly two years. In 1535, Antonio de Mendoza was appointed the first of 61 viceroys who were to rule over Nueva España for the next three centuries. During Mendoza's 15-year rule the dimensions of colonial territories continued to grow, eventually expanding as far south as Honduras, as far north as modern-day Kansas and as far east as today's New Orleans. Nueva España was later divided into regions, including Nueva Galicia founded in 1548; Nueva Vizcaya in 1562; Nuevo Leon in 1579; and Nuevo Mexico in 1583.

O?Alvaro Obregon (1880-1928): born in Sonora, Alvaro Obregon was a schoolteacher and garbanzo bean farmer turned general and later president of Mexico. Obregon joined Carranza in the overthrow of Victoriano Huerta, and was later a commander against Francisco "Pancho" Villa and other opponents. An enlightened leader, Obregon became Carranza?s minister of war and was elected president twice, but was assassinated in 1928 by a religious Roman Catholic fanatic fanatic before taking office.

P?Puebla: founded on April 16, 1531, Puebla de los Angeles was the only city in New Spain conceived as a "republic of Spanish agriculture." The region was originally populated by Toltec, Chichimec and Xicalanca Olmec Indians. Nahua groups arrived in the area around the 10th century A.D. and by the 15th century, the Mexica dominated virtually all of what is now the state. When the Spanish conquerors arrived, they introduced the famous Talavera ceramics and regional food, which resulted in a unique blend of Spanish and Indian influences. Today, Puebla is known for its magnificent artisans and unique craftwork, as well as its optimal location with abundant natural resources and annual folkloric manifestations in its temples, convents and religious schools. But in the history of Mexico, Puebla is most famous for the Battle of Puebla against French rule which took place in 1862 ? the reason why Mexicans celebrate "Cinco de Mayo."

Q?Andres Quintana Roo (1787-1851): born in Merida, Yucatan, Quintana Roo was a notable writer and politician who published articles in support of Mexico?s independence in several newspapers, including Seminario Patriota Americano and El Ilustrador Americano. When Mexico won its independence, Quintana Roo became mayor, senator and head of the Supreme Court. He was later named Secretary of Foreign Relations and the state that bears his name is home to the Mexican resort destinations of Cancún and Cozumel.

R?Revolucion Mexicana (1910): in the early 20th century, Mexico, suffering the effects of Porfirio Diaz?s long dictatorship, was a country marked by poverty, illiteracy and injustice, with the majority of wealth in the hands of a few powerful leaders ? paving the way to protest and uprisings by the people. The Mexican Revolution was initiated by liberalist leader Francisco Madero and his army in 1910, who denounced Diaz and successfully overthrew the dictatorship in a question of months. Madero was later elected president.

S?Fray Junipero Serra (1713-1784): born in Spain, Serra arrived to New Spain in 1749, as a missionary. After the Jesuits were expulsed from New Spain in 1767, the viceroy Carlos Francisco de Croix sent Serra to California where he founded several missions, including San Fernando and San Diego (1769), San Carlos de Monterrey (1770), San Luis Obispo (1772), to name a few.

T?Tlatelolco (Plaza of the Three Cultures): once a great market precinct in the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan in the 15th century, Tlatelolco became the site where the last Aztecs who refused to give up were confined by the Spanish conquistadors. Now known as the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, the plaza was designed by Mario Pani and completed in 1964, named after the juxtaposition of Aztec, Spanish and Modern Mestizo architecture in the area. The site was home to a brutal massacre of students in 1968 by Mexican authorities.

U?Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico: founded in 1910, the National Autonomous University of Mexico is the largest university in the world, establishing a variety of reputable educational programs and achieving significant honors throughout the years. That same year, Leopoldo Zea, one of the University?s philosophers, received the Doctorate Honoris Causa from Universidad Nacional y Capodistriaca de Atenas ? a historical event in education marking the first time ever a Spanish-speaking professional was distinguished with such a degree. It is also home to some of Mexico?s most popular art movie houses, theaters and concert halls. The university buildings are decorated in mosaics, making it worth a visit.

V?Pancho Villa (1878-1923): referred to as Mexico's Robin Hood, Francisco ("Pancho") Villa was the rebel general of the Mexican Revolution who invaded U.S. territory and led American soldiers on a wild chase all over the Mexican countryside for months. Along with Emiliano Zapata and Francisco Madero, Villa led peasant armies to victory over the corrupt and repressive regime of Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz. Today, he is remembered as one of the greatest leaders of the most important military campaigns of the constitutionalist revolution, in which his troops were victorious as far south as and Mexico City, as far east as Tampico, and as far west as Casas Grandes. His Columbus escapade and subsequent evasion of U.S. troops are two of the reasons he is often cited as the only foreign military person to have ever "successfully" invaded continental U.S. territory.

W?Henry Lane Wilson (1857-1932): Henry Lane Wilson was a major conspirator against Mexican liberator Francisco Madero. From 1909 to 1912, during his post as U.S. ambassador to Mexico, he openly communicated his support for Dictator Porfirio Diaz and his contempt for Madero ? two common bonds with General Victoriano Huerta. In the following years, Wilson became an un-indicted co-conspirator in a significant international crime ? the plot to kill Madero. He ordered Huerta, who had been appointed by Madero as leader of the loyalist forces, to either banish Madero or put him in an insane asylum in an effort to "do what is best for the country." Immediately after Madero's deposition and murder, Americans believed Henry Lane Wilson's claim that Madero was "a man of disordered intellect" and Huerta "the Mexican Cromwell." Today, justice has prevailed and Madero shares honors with Juárez and Hidalgo in the pantheon of Mexican heroes, while Huerta is universally despised and Wilson is a figure of scorn on both sides of the border.

X?Xochimilco: located 17 miles south of Mexico City, the agricultural area of Xochimilco formerly served as the main water source for Mexico City up until the 19th century. Today, the area features well-preserved colonial and 16th-century structures, as well as a network of canals that date back to the Aztecs who built a lush habitat in the midst of an adverse environment. Many Mexican families and tourists now head to Xochimilco for boating picnics several times a year. Flat boats, called trajineras, are traditionally used to cross the canals for both work and pleasure and smaller trajineras pull up alongside the larger boats to offer food, drinks and handicrafts to visiting tourists.

Y?Yucatan: Yucatan has one of the longest recorded histories in the Americas. Reliable archaeological evidence suggests that human presence in the Yucatan stretches back as early as 10,000 B.C. Mayan civilization began to develop in what is now Chiapas and Guatemala in 500 B.C. The Spanish were the first European explorers in the Yucatan, arriving early in the 16th century. Hernan Cortez crossed the base of the peninsula in 1525 and by 1549, half the peninsula was under Spain's domination until the early 19th century, when Mexico and Central America won independence. Today, the Yucatan peninsula is comprised of the Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco and Quintana Roo.

Z?Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919): born in Anenecuilco, Morelos, Zapata was a sharecropper and horse trainer who became a sergeant and later president of the village council. In this capacity, he campaigned for the restoration of village lands confiscated by hacienda owners, using the slogan "Tierra y Libertad," (Earth and Liberty) and siding with Madero. Between 1910 and 1919, Zapata continued his fight for land and liberty, rebelling against anyone who interfered with his Plan of Ayala which called for the seizure of all foreign owned land, all land taken from villages, confiscation of one-third of all land held by "friendly" hacendados and full confiscation of land owned by persons opposed to the Plan of Ayala. On April 10, 1919, Zapata was tricked into a meeting with one of Carranza's generals who reportedly wanted to "switch sides." The meeting was a trap, and Zapata was killed as he arrived at the meeting.