[This is the third of a 4-part post: Prologue and Beginning; Civil War and Ending; Scorecard; US Interventions. This part, “Scorecard”, focuses on names and I found it to be of much help in “matching” names to timeframes and events. Americans are well-advised to be more cognizant of the major events of our neighbor to the south — RMB]
Scorecard of the Revolution
It’s hard to follow the events and participants of the revolution without a scorecard. Hopefully this will help answer the questions raised in the prologue.
[Mike’s prologue asks whether the Mexican Revolution advanced the interests of the Mexican people. See Part 1 for more — RMB]
Presidents in Chronological Order After Porfirio Diaz beginning in 1910:
1) Francisco Madero — In office 1911-1913. From Mexico’s wealthiest families, from the State of Coahuila. Educated in UC Berkley. Assassinated by Victoriano Huerta in 1913. Resting place: Monument of the Revolution, Mexico City
2) Victoriano Huerta — In office by coup 1913-1914. From the state of Jalisco. Military Career. Presidency not recognized by US as legitimate. US President Woodrow Wilson ordered troops to Vera Cruz and into Mexico City. Huerta fled the country to Jamaica, UK, Spain, and the US, continuing to plan another coup until his death in El Paso Texas. Viewed with great disdain then and now.
[Huerta is indeed viewed very negatively. But, as usual, there is more to the story, especially the catastrophic effect of Woodrow Wilson’s supposedly moralistic approach to foreign policy and his responsibility behind Huerta’s actions. If interested, The United States and Huerta, by Kenneth Grieb is a good resource — RMB]
4) Venustiano Carranza — 1915-1920. Wealthy land owner from the state of Coahuila-Northern Mexico. A shrewd politician and Primer Jefe of the constitutionalists. A pragmatic governing style did not win him many friends at the time but history has been kind to him. His assassination in 1920 marks the ending of the Revolutionary Period in Mexico.
Noteworthy Combatants:
1) Alvaro Obregón — From the State of Sonora (Northern Mexico). Most successful of all the Constitutionalist Revolutionary Generals. A practitioner of Modern Warfare used in WW1, he was able to defeat all his enemies including Huerta, Villa, and Zapata. In his fight against Villa his right arm was blown off, which nearly killed him. His severed arm was recovered, embalmed, and put on display at the Parque de la Bombilla in Mexico City. Obregón was the first post revolution president from 1920-1924. In 1928 he was again elected president but assassinated shortly after his reelection.
[Obregón chose Plutarco Calles (see below) as his successor. He is rarely held accountable for this nefarious decision, but ought to be — RMB]
2) Emiliano Zapata — From the state of Morelos (south of Mexico City). A champion of the peasants and agrarian reform, Zapata was a fierce fighter and feared by many which resulted in his assassination in 1919, ordered by Carranza.
3) Jose Doroteo Arrango Arambula, aka Pancho Villa — Northerngeneral allied with Zapata against Carranza in a full-fledged civil war. Lost to Obregón. In 1916 invaded Columbus New Mexico to goad the US into war with Mexico. Was assassinated in 2023. In 1976 his remains were reburied in the Monument to the Revolution.
4) Pascual Orozco Vázquez, Jr. — Army General who led forces that ended Diaz’s presidency by first raiding government garrisons. In 1911 after ambushing federal troops, he ordered their uniforms to be removed and sent to the President with a note which read, “Ahí te van las hojas, mándeme mas tamales” (Here are the wrappers; send me more tamales). He later joined Huerta in planning a coup to overthrow Carranza supported by the Germans circa WWI years. He exiled himself to the US from whence he, with Huerta, sought financial assistance to take power in Mexico. He was arrested along with Huerta in Texas, but escaped. He and three of his men were ambushed and killed in 1915. In 1925 his remains were returned to Chihuahua.
5) Plutarco Elias Calles — Northern General under Obregón; later became president in 1924-28. Responsible for the Cristeros War.
[Plutarco Calles was born in poverty; his mother and alcoholic father were not married, at a time when such was keenly disapproved of. After his mother’s death, he was reared by his uncle, an ardent atheist and fanatical anti-Christian. Unsurprisingly, Calles was vehemently anti-church and worked tirelessly to eliminate her. No public religious services were held for three years, until 1929, after he left office, although his influence persisted for over half a decade more. Upon the election of Lázaro Cárdenas — even more leftist than Calles — in 1934, he was exiled and lived in California until 1941, when he was allowed to return to Mexico where he died in 1945 — RMB]
6) Enrique Gorostieta — Huerta’s youngest general who fled to Cuba after Huerta was defeated. Later, he returned as General of the Cristeros even though he was a Mason and anti-cleric.
[Andy Garcia played the role of Gorostieta in the film, For Greater Glory, in which Ruben Blades played a credible Plutarco Calles — RMB]
The 1917 Mexican Constitution
There were four constitutions before 1917. The 1917 constitution created a minimum wage, the right to strike, and an eight-hour workday. It also implemented a strict separation of church and state, land reforms, and term limits for the president and the legislature. It also contained a statute limiting the amount of land that a person could own and legalized the federal government’s expropriation and redistribution of land.
Articles 3, 5, 24, 27, and 130 were anticlerical and restricted the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico.
Article 3 — According to the religious definitions established under article 24, educational services shall be secular and free of any religious orientation.
Article 27 Places of worship are owned by the state, not the church
Article 130 Gave the right of the federal government to regulate church services. President Plutarco Elias Calles issued an executive decree to strictly enforce this article that led to the Cristeros war.
Like Mexican slavery, most Mexicans do not know much about the Cristeros war; it was shamefully covered up.
[Calles’ power continued for over half a decade beyond his presidency. He named his ally, Tomás Garrido Canabal, to serve in Lázaro Cárdenas’ cabinet. Garrido, like Callas, was a virulent atheist. He named his son, Lenin, because he (Lenin) was an enemy of God. He had a farm with a bull named God, a cow named Mary, and a donkey named Christ. He zealously pursued the anti-church policies of Callas, even years after the official end of the Cristeros War. After he ordered the murders of Christians in Mexico City, in 1935, Cárdenas sent him to Costa Rica. He died in Los Angeles in 1943 — RMB]
[Unsurprisingly, both Calles and Garrido ceased to be atheists upon their respective deaths — RMB]
The constitution was amended 62 times from 1917-1979 and 137 times from 1980-2016.
