Part I
Benito Juárez was on-again off-again president of Mexico during the turbulent years from 1861 through 1872. His entire lifetime however, spanned a period of a country in the making, a time when Mexico was going to either disappear as a nation or become a sovereign state. Without Benito Juarez there may never have been a Mexico; for one, it may have been absorbed by European powers and become a permanent monarchy, with rule of Church and king.
To reinvent history as a “what might have been” is fraught with pitfalls, one can never be certain the alternative is truly what would have occurred. But one thing becomes clear, Benito Juarez was pivotal in the creation of modern Mexico—no other Mexican leader was more significant in the making of Mexico more than Benito Juarez. His ascent to the presidency, his exile, and finally his return as president of the nation is a fascinating story of intelligence, courage, and tenacity. A tale of rags to riches, not in the sense of wealth, but as the rise from lowliest to loftiest position.
The life story of Benito Juarez is filled with fairy-tale like elements, a fascinating yarn worthy of a Charles Dickens novel. He was born to Zapotec Indian parents who worked the fields in the state of Oaxaca, on March 21, 1806, four years before the start of the Mexican War of Independence. Both mother and father died when Benito was only three years old and at about the age of ten he was sent to live with his paternal uncle, who put him in charge of a flock of sheep. But he also taught him Spanish and the fundamentals of reading.
Every morning, Benito took the flock to a nearby spring to drink and graze, while he sat by the side fashioning flutes out of the reeds that grew by the water. People walked by—farmers with their wares, merchants on their way to the city, other shepherds with their flocks, and Benito loved to engage them in conversation. From them he learned about faraway places. He learned of cities with paved roads, big houses with interior gardens, people who had traveled to distant lands, and he was fascinated.
When he was around twelve, a circus passed by and he saw an acrobat, a circus strongman, and a bear. He was so enchanted, he began to follow the circus with his sheep in tow until he realized someone had stolen one of the lambs. Afraid of the consequences, he returned to his uncle’s home, put the sheep back in the corral and that very night left before anyone realized the loss of the one lamb, or his own disappearance.
He traveled to the city of Oaxaca where his older sister was working as a servant for a wealthy family. She was happy to see her little brother and presented him to the head of the family, Antonio Maza who was originally from Genoa, Italy, and had acquired considerable wealth in New Spain. Don Maza found the boy charming, and hired him to take care of their cochineal farm—an insect that when crushed produces a carmine dye used in coloring textiles. After a short time, the boy went to work for Antonio Salanueva, a Franciscan friar who hired him to do book binding, and impressed with the boy’s aptitudes became a sort of godfather to him, and sent him to school.
School was not a good place for young Benito. The boys, many of whom came from wealthy Criollo families, made fun of him because of his indigenous origins, his humble background, and his as yet, poor command of Spanish. There is no doubt that these mistreatments awakened his lifelong desire to combat discrimination based on wealth and origin, and the importance of education for the poor. He soon gave up the school, but definitely not learning. Benito immersed himself in the books in Salanueva’s library and devoured everything from ancient Greek and Roman texts to contemporary writing about Enlightenment ideals. In 1821 Salanueva enrolled him in the seminary in preparation for a life as a Franciscan friar. This also did not work out for Benito, his ideals were in direct contradiction to the orthodox teachings.
Instead, he enrolled at the Academia de Artes y Ciencias—the Academy of Arts and Sciences—which the clergy called “la casa de la prostitucion,” the house of prostitution. Why? Because it fostered ideas counter to those taught by the Catholic Church, and because it was independent of the Church. While a student at the academy, Benito Juarez became part of a liberal student group with dreams of independence and a federal, constitutional nation. He learned French, English, and Latin.
During one of the gatherings of the student group, Miguel Mendez the leader, addressed the group by pointing to Benito Juarez and saying: “And this fellow you see here…the quiet, reserved one…he will rise above all of you. He will become a great man, the glory of the nation.” Juarez became a lawyer in 1831, then judge, and eventually governor of Oaxaca, where he began funding of schools, and promoting the rights of Indigenous people. With these actions, he embarked on a life-long career in politics and the pursuit of better conditions for his fellow citizens.
At that time there were two forces battling for control of Mexico—the conservatives intent on creating a central government ruled by a monarch and the Catholic Church, with the support of the upper class; and the liberals who dreamt of a constitutional, federal government in which the individual states and citizens would dictate. There could be no greater disparity in these two divergent ideals.
While involved in all these political battles, Juarez found time to fall in love and get married. Antonio Maza had an illegitimate daughter whom he, and his wife, adopted as their own. Juarez was in his twenties when he first met Margarita while visiting the family. She was only a toddler at the time because there were twenty years difference between them. And yet, when she was 17 and he 37, the two formed a bond and were married.
Over the next 28 years of marriage, and 12 children, their love and devotion to each other was chronicled in the numerous letters they exchanged during their many separations. Throughout the social and political upheavals, Benito Juarez remained the rock on which the nation of Mexico was eventually built, and Margarita served as his personal polestar, always keeping him grounded and connected to his family.
We will continue with the rest of the story in the second part.
Comments