D쟠de la RevoluciRevolution Day )

[Smokie Bear]

I see the mongering value in your post. Well I knew of a guy who would combine Mexican history with Mexico's prostitution as a theme. I learned a lot from the guy and your posts like this bring back great memories. I can't seem to find a book I lost that talks about all this great stuff and thanks to your post I won't give up just yet. If anybody knows of books that combine Mexican history with Mexico's prostitution let me know. You'll know I read it when you read some of my posts LOL!

 

[_smiles n cries_]

Dيa de la Revoluciَn (Revolution Day ) – Third Monday in November

In the past some have enjoyed my cultural and historical posts. Others have not wondering what they have to do with mongering. I suggest they skip what follows.

Personally I find the cultural and history of Mexico interesting. (This post is made for those sharing that viewpoint.) I also find that speaking Spanish and knowing something about Mexican history and cultural has furthered my mongering (especially with civilians) so I don't consider to this posts to be without some degree of "mongering value."

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Dيa de la Revoluciَn (Revolution Day) – Third Monday in November
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The Mexican Revolution of 1910 brought about social and cultural changes which mark the beginning of modern Mexico. The revolution started as a rebellion against President Porfirio Dيaz Dيaz was an accomplished general and the President of Mexico from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N. Mendez as interim president, and a four-year term served by his political ally Manual Gonzalez from 1880 to 1884.

The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarian movements. Over time the Revolution changed from a revolt against the established order to a multi-sided civil war. This armed conflict is often categorized as the most important sociopolitical event in Mexico and one of the greatest upheavals of the 20th century.

After the death of Benito Juلrez in 1872, Porfirio Dيaz became Mexico’s leader. Juلrez and Dيaz, as allies, had fought against the French in the Battle of Puebla. Initially Dيaz was a liberal, but changed his views after Juarez took office. With the support of conservation factions in Mexico, which were opposed to the liberal reforms instituted by Juلrez, Dيaz tried to unseat him.

Porfirio Dيaz began his reign as president in 1876, and ruled until May 1911 when Franciso I. Madero succeeded him, with Madero taking office in November 1911. Dيaz's regime is remembered for the advances he brought in industry and modernization, at the expense of human rights and liberal reforms. He worked to reduce the power of the Roman Catholic Church and expropriated some of their large property holdings.

Dيaz is commonly considered by historians to have been a dictator and is a controversial figure in Mexican history. The period of his leadership was marked by significant internal stability (known as the "paz porfiriana"), modernization, and economic growth. However, Dيaz's conservative regime grew unpopular due to repression and the failure of the poor to improve their economic conditions. The years of 1876-1910, in which Porfirio Dيaz ruled Mexico, are referred to as the Porfiriato.

Initially, Dيaz had a strict “No Re-election” policy in which presidents could not serve consecutive terms in office. He followed this rule when he stepped down in 1880 after his first term and was succeeded by Manuel Gonzلlez. Gonzalez was controlled by Dيaz and was commonly known to be Diaz’s puppet. Gonzلlez’s tenure was marked by political corruption and incompetence. When Dيaz ran in the next election, in 1884, he was a welcome replacement. In future elections Dيaz conveniently put aside his "No Re-election" slogan and ran for president in every election.

While Dيaz’s presidency was characterized by promotion of industry and the pacification of the country, it is usually seen as coming at the expense of the working class. Farmers and peasants both claimed to have suffered exploitation. The economy took a great leap during the Porfiriato, with his encouraging the construction of factories, roads, dams, industries and better farms. This resulted in the rise of an urban class and the influx of foreign capital (principally from the United States). Part of his success in maintaining power came from mitigating U.S. influence through European investments, primarily from Great Britain and Imperial Germany. (German influence can still be seen today in Mexican music.) Progress, however, came at a price however, with basic rights, such as freedom of the press, being suspended under the Porfiriato.

Dيaz changed land reform efforts that were begun under previous leaders, especially under Benito Juلrez. Dيaz’s new land laws virtually undid all the work by leaders such as Juلrez. No peasant or farmer could claim the land he occupied without formal legal title. (95% of Mexico’s land was owned by only 5% of the Mexican population. Many of the workers on the Hacienda farms were beaten like slaves and were constantly being put into debt from their previous generations. Dيaz allowed this corrupt behavior to continue during the entire time as he was in power.) Helpless and angry small farmers felt a change of regime would be necessary if Mexico was to continue being successful. For this reason, many leaders including Franciso I, Madero, Pancho Villa, and Emiliano Zapata would in time launch a rebellion against Dيaz, escalating into the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

Dيaz became the dictator against whom he had warned the people. Through the army, the Rurales, and gangs of thugs, Diaz frightened people into voting for him. (The Rurales—Guardia Rural or Rural—was a mounted police force that existed from 1861 and 1914. It was established by Benito Juلrez to combat the widespread banditry that existed in Mexico during the 1860s and 1870s; a task at which it mostly failed under Juلrez. President Porfirio Dيaz expanded the Rurales from a few hundred to nearly 2,000 by 1889 as part of his program of modernization and eventually of repression.) When bullying citizens into voting for him failed, Dيaz simply rigged the votes in his favor. (Dيaz knew he was violating the constitution by using force to stay in office. He justified his acts by claiming that Mexico was not yet ready to govern itself (a claim that, because the pervious conflict between liberal and conservatives groups as well as the extensive banditry, was not without some merit.).

The gulf between the poor and rich grew wider under Dيaz, and the political clout of the lower classes declined. Diaz was once quoted as saying of his own people, "The Mexican people would amount to nothing without being driven by the whip." Opposition of Dيaz surfaced when Francisco I. Madero, who was educated in Europe and at the University of California, began to gain recognition and political power.

In a 1908 interview with the U.S. journalist James Creelman, President Porfirio Dيaz stated that Mexico was ready for democracy and elections and that he would step down to allow other candidates to compete for the presidency. Dيaz planned on retiring in Europe and allowing a younger man to take over his presidency. However, because of the unrest and dissension that occurred following this statement Dيaz decided to run again in 1910 for the last time, with an eye toward arranging a succession in the middle of his term.

Franciso I. Madero ran against Porfirio Dيaz in the 1910 election. Diaz thought he could control this election as he had the previous seven. Dيaz did not approve of Madero as his successor and had Madero jailed on Election Day in 1910. (Madero later escaped.) Dيaz was announced the winner of the election by a landslide, providing the initial impetus for the outbreak of the Revolution. When it became obvious that the outcome of the election was fixed a Madero supporter Torbio Ortega took up arms with a group of followers at Cuchillo Pardo, Chihuahua, Mexico on November 10, 1910 in support of Madero.

Diaz had Madero imprisoned, feeling that the people of Mexico just were not ready for democracy. During this time, several other Mexican folk heroes began to emerge, including the well known Pancho Villa in the north, and the peasant Emiliano Zapata in the south.

Dيaz was unable to control the spread of the growing insurgence and resigned in May, 1911, with the signing of the Treaty of Ciudad Juلrez, after which he fled to France. Franciso I. Madero was then elected president, but was opposed by Emiliano Zapata who did not wish to wait for an orderly implementation of Madero's desired land reforms. Zapata denounced Madero as president and took the position for himself. Zapata controlled the state of Morelos, where he chased out the estate owners and divided their lands to the peasants. Later, in 1919, Zapata was assassinated by Jesus Guajardo acting under orders from General Pablo Gonzalez.

Madero proved to be an ineffective leader and the Mexican Revolution quickly spun out of his control. He was deposed and executed by the Porfirista military and his aides, which he had neglected to replace with revolutionary supporters. His assassination was followed by the most violent period of the revolution in Mexico (1913–1917), lasting until the Constitution of 1917 and revolutionary president Venustiano Carranza achieved some degree of stability. Followers of Madero were known as Maderistas.

Emiliano Zapata was born in 1879 in the Mexican state of Morelos, the son of a farmer. He proved to be a natural born leader and his destiny soon revealed itself. His father died when he was 17 and shortly thereafter, Emiliano assumed the responsibility of providing for his family. Zapata was of Mestizo blood and he spoke Nahuatl, the indigenous language of central Mexico. Widely respected by his community, the village elected Zapata to be their leader in 1909. He quickly recruited an insurgent army of farmers from his village to protect the farms in their immediate community. Zapata and his men fought the government troops in the south of Mexico while Pancho Villa fought in the north.

Pancho Villa was born Doroteo Arangol in Durango on June 5, 1878, the son of a field laborer. As an adolescent Villa became a fugitive after killing a man who assaulted his sister. Fleeing to the mountains, he changed his name and became a bandit. In 1910 he joined the rebellion led by Francisco Madero, which was successful. When Madero was assassinated in 1913 Villa formed an army several thousand strong which came to be known as the Division del Norte - the Division of the North. He fought on the side of Venustiano Carranza and the Constitutionalists.

José Victoriano Huerta Mلrquez (December 22, 1850, – January 13, 1916, who died in El Paso, Texas) was a Mexican military officer and president of Mexico from 1913-14. Huerta’s supporters were known as Huertistas during the Mexican Revolution. Huerta is still vilified by modern-day Mexicans, who generally refer to him as El Chacal (the Jackal).

During the Porfirio Dيaz administration Huerta rose to the rank of general and fought to subdue the Chan Santa Cruz Maya peoples of the Yucatan and against the rebels of Emiliano Zapata. On the eve of the 1910 Revolution Huerta was involved in the innocuous project of reforming the uniforms of the Federal Army for the Dيaz administration.

After Dيaz went into the exile Huerta initially pledged allegiance to the new administration of Francisco I. Madero I., and he was retained by the Madero administration. Huerta successfully crushed anti-Madero revolts. However, Huerta secretly plotted with United States ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson, the dismissed general Bernardo Reyes, and Feliz Dيaz's, Porfirio Dيaz's nephew, to overthrow Madero. This episode in Mexican history is known as La decena trلgica.

Following a confused few days of fighting in Mexico City between loyalist and rebel factions of the Army, on February 18, 1913 Huerta had Madero and vice-president, José Marيa Pino Suلrez, seized and imprisoned in the National Palace. The conspirators then met at the United States Embassy to sign el Pacto de la Embajada (The Embassy Pact), which provided for Madero and Pino Suلrez’s exile and Huerta’s takeover of the Mexican government.

Venustiano Carranza de la Garza, (December 28, 1859 – May 21, 1920) was one of the leaders of the 1910 Revolution. He ultimately became President of Mexico following the overthrow of the dictatorial Huerta regime in the summer of 1914. Carranza made land reform an important part of administration. This resulted in the ejido, or farm cooperative program, that redistributed much of the country’s land from the wealthy land holders to the peasants. The ejidos are still in place today and comprise nearly half of all the farmland in Mexico. During his administration he organized a convention that produced the Constitution of 1917, which is still in effect today. He was assassinated near the end of his term of office at the behest of army generals resentful at his insistence that his successor be a civilian.

The 1910 Revolution is generally considered to have lasted until 1920, although the country continued to have sporadic, but comparatively minor, outbreaks of warfare well into the 1920s. The Cristero War of 1926 to 1929 was the most significant relapse of bloodshed.

The Cristero War (also known as the Cristiada) of 1926 to 1929 was an uprising and counter-revolution against the Mexican government then in power. The rebellion principally resulted from Mexican government’s persecution of Roman Catholics and was exacerbated by the strict enforcement of the provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 which had expanded anti-clerical laws. After a period of peaceful resistance, a number of skirmishes took place in 1926. The formal rebellions began on January 2, 1927, with the rebels were called Cristeros because they felt they were fighting for “Cristo Rey” (Christ the King). The rebellion ended by diplomatic means brokered by the then United States Ambassador to Mexico, Dwight Whitney Morrow.

The 1910 Revolution, together with the end of the 1926-29 Cristero War, triggered the creation of the National Revolutionary Party in 1929 (renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in 1946). Under a variety of leaders, the PRI held power until the general election of 2000 in which Vicente Fox, of the PAN political party was elected president of Mexico and the PAN gained majority control of the Mexican Congress.

November 20th is the traditional date on which the Dيa de la Revoluciَn is celebrated, but sin(ce 2006 it has been celebrated on the third Monday in November. The Dيa de la Revoluciَn is a Mexican federal holiday; workers are entitled to a day off with pay.