Benito Juárez - A True Mexican Hero?
A New Look at One of Mexico's Most Celebrated Historical Figures
May 3, 2009
Benito Juárez is a Mexican national hero, part of Mexican folklore and a man generally considered to be one of the country's 'untouchables', along with the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Catholic Church and the matriach.
Airports, towns, villages, cities, mountain ranges and universities all over Mexico bear the name of this great 'man-of-the-people', a man who came from the bottom and rose to the top.
But just how much of this adulation and hero-worship does he really deserve?
Benito Juárez - Born into Poverty in Oaxaca
Benito Pablo Juárez Garcia was born in the poor southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in 1806. Orphaned at the age of four, uneducated until the age of 12, he went on to become the first fully indigenous president of Mexico in 1858. He served five terms of office before his death from a heart attack, at his desk in the Presidential Palace, in 1872.
La Reforma Era in Mexico
During his time as president, he is probably best remembered for introducing a controversial new set of reforms pushed through by his Liberal administration to 'modernise' Mexico. The most famous of these was the Ley Lerdo which was designed to create a society free from church or miltary control, take away power from those in the church and declare everyone equal before the law.
This era in Mexican history is known as La Reforma, when Mexico went through a period of great social, economic and political change.
A Time of Great Change in Mexico
It would appear that Juárez had a strong dislike for what he saw as the 'special privileges' afforded to religious figures and for Catholicism itself, the religion practised by the majority of Mexicans. This is all the more interesting as he very nearly completed the training to become a Catholic priest himself, before opting out at the last minute to study law.
"He had seemed headed for the priesthood, then made a 180 degree shift in direction, and in the name of 'religious freedon', attacked the institution that had been the springboard that launched his career," writes Shep Lencheck in Benito Juárez: Hero or Heretic? These new laws were heavily criticised by the Archbishop of Mexico and even by the liberal governor of the state of Guanajuato, who said, with some justification: "Catholicism is the only binding force that keeps Mexico from anarchy." (taken from Benito Juárez: Hero or Heretic by Shep Lencheck).
Apart from the emotional support, the majority of Mexicans relied on the church for other things, such as free education, something that had now been taken away against their wishes. Ironically, those who suffered most were Juárez's "fellow Indians," most of whom were desperately poor and illiterate, just as he had once been. The poor also depended on the church to look after the land they had been given. Now this too had been seized by the government.
Benito Juárez's Legacy
Despite all this (and more), there is no doubt that history has been kind to Benito Juárez. While it can be argued that he did succeed to a certain extent in modernising Mexico and bringing a wider-reaching form of democracy to the troubled land, the reverberations caused by his 14 years in power, have continued to be felt to this day. The current Mexican government is even seeking to re-unify the state and the Catholic Church.
Part of the reason for Benito Juárez's continuing popularity is perhaps that he was a poor, uneducated, indigenous Mexican who went on to lead his country through a time of great change - a remarkable achievement.
But would Benito Juárez still be revered as much by the Mexicans of today if he had been a blonde-haired blue-eyed aristocrat? That's for us to decide.
