Porfirio Diaz became president of Mexico in 1876. Mexico’s new president was born in 1830, the son of a modest mestizo innkeeper and an Indian mother. The turmoil in the decades after his birth permitted social mobility. He followed the career path of his fellow Oaxacan Benito Juarez and began studying for the priesthood. Also like Juarez, he later studied law at the Institute of Arts and Sciences in Oaxaca City.112
Diaz practiced law briefly, but was forced into hiding in 1854 for opposing Santa Anna. He joined a group of Indians combating the dictator and proved to be a brilliant guerrilla fighter. During the War of Reform, Diaz fought on the liberal side. In 1862, his reputation reached almost mythical proportions when as a young general he led a cavalry charge during the Battle of Puebla. This maneuver forced an already retreating French army to break in disarray. Diaz added to his reputation by twice escaping from the French after being captured. By the time the thirty-six-year old Diaz took Mexico City for Juarez in 1867, he had fought thirty-seven battles.113
When President Lerdo de Tejada announced his intention to stand for reelection in 1876, Diaz responded with his Plan of Tuxtepec, which emphasized “No reelection.” Diaz’s manifesto claimed that Lerdo de Tejada had trampled on the constitutional rights of Mexican citizens. He claimed that by preventing Lerdo de Tejada from serving another term, he would spare Mexico another experience with prolonged one-man rule.114
Di'az obtained the support of the army, which disliked Lerdo de Tejada’s anti-military policies. Caciques who joined his effort early on saw their control over their respective states confirmed. A wide range of Diaz’s personal acquaintances rallied to his cause since they felt he would further their own careers. Others backed Diaz due to Lerdo de Tejada’s persecution of the Church. At the time, Diaz was considered to be a radical opposed to the elite.115
For symbolic reasons Diaz named his plan for the small Oaxaca town of Tuxtepec, even though his revolt began early in 1876 in Brownsville, Texas. Some Texas landowners and U. S. railroad tycoons, bankers, and holders of Mexican bonds, who felt Diaz would pave the way for their future operations in Mexico, openly supported him with arms and cash. In the United States, Diaz obtained cash contributions of at least $500,000, 300 rifles, 350 carbines, 250,000 rounds of ammunition, horses, mules, uniforms, cattle, and forage to start his revolt. Additional support came later. Americans made up as many as half of the armed force that Diaz led into Mexico. With this support, for six months Diaz sustained his revolt along the Rio Grande between Nuevo Laredo
And Matamoros.116
Diaz’s ability to wage prolonged guerrilla warfare undermined the already bankrupt Lerdo de Tejada government, which was unable to obtain loans to purchase arms. Given the multiple centers of rebellion, Lerdo de Tejada’s government could not suppress the revolt. As members of the provincial elite saw that he could not suppress the revolt, they began to jump on Diaz’s bandwagon.117
Ignacio Mariscal, Mexico’s ambassador in Washington, strongly protested the use of U. S. soil to stage a revolt against a government with which the United States enjoyed cordial relations. The U. S. government not only allowed Diaz to continue receiving supplies from north of the Rio Grande but permitted him to retreat back to Texas after he met unexpected resistance in Mexico. Diaz then traveled to New Orleans and sailed to Oaxaca to continue his revolt.118
In November 1876, Lerdo de Tejada resigned, and Diaz assumed power as a hero of the popular resistance to the French intervention. The general, who enjoyed the support of various regionally based movements that had grown up in the power vacuum left by Maximilian, then called for elections to legitimize his rule. Diaz, who ran unopposed, was elected to serve the 1877—1880 term. As president, he faced the challenge of establishing peace and stability in a nation plagued by poverty, illiteracy, social inequality, political turmoil, financial penury, and a woefully inadequate infrastructure—the same problems Juarez and Lerdo de Tejada had faced. In theory, the federal government was supreme, though in practice many state governors and local political bosses with their own militias governed independently and in defiance of the federal government.119
At the end of his term, Diaz abided by his “no reelection” pledge. He did, however, promote a stand-in to succeed him in 1880. He showed his political savvy by choosing not a distinguished liberal general who might build his own independent power base but General Manuel Gonzalez, one of his least able proteges. Since Gonzalez had fought as a conservative during the War of Reform, his position depended entirely on Diaz’s favor.120
Diaz’s selection of Gonzalez inaugurated the dedazo, the practice of the incumbent president handpicking his successor and ensuring his election. This practice would dominate presidential politics in the last half of the twentieth century.
During Gonzalez’s term, the first rail line to the United States was completed, linking El Paso and Mexico City. Various trends emerged during his administration that would characterize Mexico for the rest of the century. The executive became increasingly important, eclipsing Congress. The press and political opponents came under increasing attack, and the economic elite’s influence over the government increased. Finally, foreign investment began to enter Mexico at an ever-increasing rate.121
In 1881, after his first wife died in childbirth, Diaz married seventeen-year old Carmen Romero, who was thirty-four years his junior. She was the daughter of Manuel Romero Rubio, Lerdo de Tejada’s minister of foreign relations. She devoted herself to imparting social graces to Diaz and managed to covert him from a rough country soldier into a polished gentleman who could mix freely with the cream of Mexican society. This proved to be an invaluable skill, especially after Diaz returned to the presidency and increasingly relied on Mexico’s elite for support.
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