Porfirio Díaz

President of Mexico (1876-1880, 1884-1911)

• Born: September 15, 1830
• Birthplace: Oaxaca, Mexico
• Died: July 2, 1915
• Place of death: Paris, France

During more than three decades as president of Mexico, Díaz developed his nation’s economy by encouraging foreign investment that brought major railroad construction and expanded the mining industry and oil production, but this success came at a great cost to the average citizen. Corruption was rampant during his administration and the extent of foreign control of Mexican land and resources was unprecedented.

Early Life

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz (DEE-as) was born into a Mexican family of modest means. His parents operated a small inn, while his father worked as blacksmith to supplement their income. Díaz’s father died while he was still young, and his mother was forced to sell the inn. The young Díaz and his siblings were forced to work at whatever jobs they could find. His mother wanted him to become a priest, but he left his seminary to study law. However, his public criticisms of government policies and accusations of corrupt electoral politics were resented by President Antonio López de Santa Anna, and he was not allowed to practice law upon completing his studies.

Fearing imprisonment for his continued criticism of Santa Anna, Díaz became a guerrilla fighter on the side of the Liberal Party faction that was trying to overthrow the government. When the Liberals captured Oaxaca in 1855, Díaz was rewarded with a minor government post. He used the position to create a political base that would later support him in his own political and military endeavors. Meanwhile, as the civil war progressed, Díaz rose in the military ranks, serving as a governor and eventually as a brigadier general. When it appeared that the Liberals had won the civil war, members of the Conservative Party invited the French government to establish a monarchy in Mexico. Díaz and his army temporarily stopped the French army at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862—a date still celebrated as Cinco de Mayo—but the French regrouped and eventually took Mexico City.

Díaz passionately fought against the armies of France until he was captured in 1865. No prison could hold him, however, and he escaped. After he rebuilt his army, Díaz marched victoriously into Mexico City, effectively ending any possibility of a French empire in the country. Now a national hero and a frontrunner for the presidency, Díaz retired from the military to campaign for the 1871 presidential election.

Díaz’s presidential hopes were dashed in what turned out to be another corrupt election, this time by his former friend President Benito Juárez. Angry and outraged by what he called “the forced, and violent reelection” of Juárez, Díaz began organizing to overthrow the government. Over the next four years, he quietly organized a private army, consolidated his strong position with leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico, and reassured anti-Juárez Conservatives that he would serve their interests. When Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, Juárez’s former vice president, declared victory in the presidential election of 1876, Díaz overthrew the government and declared himself president.

Life’s Work

Except for a single four-year term during which his friend Manuel Gonzalez held the title of president, Díaz served as president of Mexico from 1876 until 1911. After campaigning in favor of term limits in 1876, he decided it was probably a politically wise move to seek election in 1880. However, after he was again elected in 1884, he began to reveal his own corrupt nature and amended the national constitution so he could remain in office.

Díaz ruled by rewarding his friends and killing his enemies. Those who supported him were rewarded with bribes, appointments to public office, promotions, and pensions. Through the Liberal Party organization in each state, Díaz controlled government at every level. In an effort to maintain control of the army he divided Mexico into military zones, rotating generals among the zones to prevent them from building independent power bases that might threaten his hold on the central government. The army, which he reduced in size considerably after 1876, was led by men personally loyal to him. Taking kickbacks from gambling, prostitution, and other lucrative criminal endeavors allowed Díaz and his supports to acquire massive wealth while most of the poor of the country lived in squalor. The national army suppressed riots and rebellions led by opponents who demanded reforms.

Although Díaz ruled by force, he could not have remained in power as long as he did had he failed to expand Mexico’s economy. The United States and European nations turned a blind eye to the excesses of his dictatorship, so long as he protected and encouraged entrepreneurs from their countries. By encouraging foreign investment, which brought considerable capital into the country, he paid off Mexico’s national debt and balanced the national budget for the first time in Mexican history. He revised real estate, banking, and labor laws to make the country more attractive to foreign investors. He also amended the constitution to allow foreigners to own mineral and oil rights, thus opening mines and oil fields to foreign ownership.

During Díaz’s presidency, foreign investors owned much of the nation’s resources. New railroad construction increased the total mileage of tracks from fewer than four hundred to more than twelve thousand miles between 1876 and 1910. Foreign investors also built telephone and telegraph companies throughout Mexico, expanded the mining industry, built entirely new factories, and established Mexico as an exporter of oil. Foreigners made vast fortunes, but resentment against their wealth and increasing influence fostered political unrest and led to the eventual downfall of Díaz.

The Mexican Revolution of 1910, which brought an end to the corrupt Díaz regime, was led by presidential candidate Francisco I. Madero, a member of one of Mexico’s most prominent families. Just as Díaz had done many years earlier, Madero called on voters to rid Mexico of electoral fraud and demand limits on years in office for politicians. However, Díaz controlled the electoral process, the military, and almost everything else in Mexico. When his government announced the results of the 1910 presidential election, Díaz claimed that he had received one million votes and that Madero had received only 196 votes. The electoral fraud was so obvious that even international observers questioned the validity of the election returns. Meanwhile, Madero and his supporters feared for their lives and fled to the United States, where Madero issued the Plan de San Luis Potosí, which declared him the legitimate president of Mexico.

Within a few months, Emiliano Zapata, Pascual Orozco, and Pancho Villa were leading armies in open revolt against Díaz. The national militia found itself unable to suppress the rebellions springing up throughout the countryside. Díaz desperately tried to negotiate with Madero, promising reforms if he were allowed to remain in office, but this attempt only encouraged his opponents and intensified the political crisis. Finally, fearing for his own life, Díaz resigned in May, 1911, and fled to France, where he died five years later.

Significance

Porfirio Díaz is now considered by historians to have been one of the most ruthless and corrupt dictators in modern history. Although he was admired by other Latin American dictators of his time for his ability to hold power for more than thirty years, his legacy of cruelty, corruption, and selling the resources of his nation to foreigners places him among the ranks of the most despised men in the history of Latin America. Nevertheless, he is also in large part responsible for developing Mexico’s modern economy and helping to bring that nation into the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Beals, Carleton. Porfirio Díaz: Dictator of Mexico. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1932. This book contains almost endless amounts of information but it is painfully difficult to read. However, its 126 illustrations make the book worth consulting.

Garner, Paul. Porfirio Díaz. London: Longman, 2001. The text is an excellent political biography that deals primarily with the economic development of Mexico under Díaz. The chapter on Díaz’s approach to foreign policy is especially insightful. Includes an excellent glossary, bibliographical essay, chronology, and map of Mexico in the Díaz era.

Gil, Carlos B., ed. The Age of Porfirio Díaz: Selected Readings. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1977. Primarily concerned with the economic and political development of Mexico during the reign of Díaz, this collection of essays focuses on labor and social reforms of Díaz’s era.

Gonzales, Michael J. The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1940. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002. Broad history of the Mexican Revolution that opens with a discussion of the forces leading to Díaz’s overthrow.

Magner, James A. Men of Mexico. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1968. The chapter on the life of Díaz is one of the best brief overviews of Díaz’s life in print.

Tischendorf, Alfred. Great Britain and Mexico in the Era of Porfirio Díaz. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1961. Study focusing on economic and diplomatic relations between Mexico and Great Britain during the age of Díaz.

Villegas, Daniel Cosio. The United States Versus Porfirio Díaz. Translated by Nettie Lee Benson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963. Study of American-Mexican relations that exposes Díaz’s contradictory positions on foreign investment in Mexico.

Zayas Enriquez, Raphael de. Porfirio Díaz. Translated by T. Quincy Browne, Jr. New York: D. Appleton, 1908. Written by a longtime friend of Díaz and member of the Mexican congress while Díaz was still in power, this book does an exceptional job of objectively analyzing the life of the dictator and providing striking contemporary insights into the final days of Díaz’s reign. Contains wonderful period photos of the president and his wife.