The Parallel Lives

Porfirio Díaz assumed the office of President of Mexico, on November 28, 1876, and for the next thirty-four years, he acted as the nation’s Strong Man, a tyrant, a despot, an autocrat. He won elections in 1877, 1884, 1888, 1892, 1896, 1900, 1904, and 1910. 

     Díaz’s rule was by force. His slogan was “Pan o palo,” meaning “Bread or Bludgeon.”

     The Latin-American historian from California, Lesley Bird Simpson, wrote this about Porfirio Díaz, in his book Many Mexicos, “The benefactors of Díaz’s tyranny and strong-armed rule were to enjoy the most efficient despotism ever seen in the western world.” How did he do that? 

     Simpson says, “He gave his generals little jobs and restored them to their rightful place at the public trough; he kept them apart and played them off against each other.”

     Díaz set up the Rurales, a national police force composed of gunmen from the cities and towns loyal to him only. “They were given showy uniforms, good salaries, and the power to shoot on sight, and no questions asked.” 

     By them, he eradicated the bandits. “Mexico was now the best policed country in the world.”

     Díaz next encouraged foreigners from the United States, England, and France to bring money to Mexico, to build railroads, mines, smelters, and to set up massive plantations where the well-healed hacendados grew coffee, sugar, and bananas. “The foreigner was king.”

     Soon, “There was no law but the will of Porfirio Díaz. Elections were such a farce that hardly anyone took the trouble to vote.”

     Then, “Between 1883 and 1884, Díaz gave away to foreigners and friends 134,500,000 acres of the public domain, about one-fifth of the entire area of the Republic. Only a smattering of the Indian communities had any land whatsoever.” Foreigners clamored to grab even that land.

     This was a massive plunder, “a denial of elementary justice to a large part of the population.”

     In essence, Porfirio Díaz was skillful at political manipulation. He kept the church under his control. He pampered foreign investors. He crushed and silenced all opposition. He controlled the generals. He protected the wealthy, the families that owned the huge haciendas.

     Simpson writes, “As the years rolled by, Mexico lay quiet in her straight jacket.”

     In 1908, a young businessman from a wealthy family in Coahuila, just south of Texas, named Francisco Madero, wrote a book, The Presidential Succession in 1910. In it, he asked an innocent question, “who would succeed Díaz?” What? Will Díaz not live forever?

     Although Madero stood only five feet, two inches tall, spoke in a squeaky voice, and lacked biceps, he dared to mobilize a political campaign for himself as Mexico’s next President. His slogan, Effective suffrage, No re-election! Enthusiastic crowds followed him across Mexico.

     On September 30, 1910, Porfirio Díaz won the election. His Rurales jailed Madero for four months, but while incarcerated the young man wrote his “Plan of San Luis Potosi,” calling for a revolt against Díaz. Madero escaped prison on October 6, 1910, and fled to San Antonio, Texas. 

     There, he learned that others—in pockets around Mexico—also wanted a revolution: two men from the state of Chihuahua, in northern Mexico, Pascual Orozco and a vicious bandit nick-named Pancho Villa; and also Emiliano Zapata, from the state of Morelos, south of Mexico City.

     Zapata urged the Indians to take back their land. His motto: Land and Liberty, and Death to the Hacendados! He wore a leather belt, slung over a shoulder, lined with bullet cartridges.

     Madero urged the armies to revolt against Díaz’s regime on November 20, 1910.

     Orozco and Villa’s armies pushed aside Díaz’s army at Ciudad Juarez, south of El Paso, and marched to Mexico City. Porfirio dated his resignation letter May 23, 2011, and fled to Paris.

     Mexico’s citizens celebrate November 20, the anniversary of when Mexico’s Revolution began. Next time, I will look at how Mexico’s Revolution progressed over the following decade.