Benito Juarez

About the Benito Juarez

Benito Pablo Juarez Garciawas a Mexican politician, military commander, and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. Of Zapotec ancestry, he was the first indigenous president of Mexico and the first democratically elected indigenous president in the postcolonial Americas. A member of the Liberal Party, he previously held a number of offices, including the governorship of Oaxaca and the presidency of the Supreme Court. During his presidency he led the Liberals to victory in the Reform War and in the Second French intervention in Mexico.

Born in Oaxaca to a poor, rural, Indigenous family and orphaned as a child, Juarez passed under the care of his uncle, eventually moving to Oaxaca City at the age of 12, where he found work as a domestic servant. Sponsored by his employer who was also a lay Franciscan, Juarez temporarily enrolled in a seminary and studied to become a priest, but he later switched his studies to law at the Institute of Sciences and Arts, where he became active in Liberal politics. He began to practice law and was eventually appointed as a judge, after which he married Margarita Maza, a woman from a socially distinguished family in Oaxaca City.

Juarez was eventually elected Governor of Oaxaca and became involved in national politics after the ousting of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna in the Plan of Ayutla. Juarez was made Minister of Justice under the new Liberal president Juan Alvarez. He was instrumental in passing the Juarez Law as part of the broader program of constitutional reforms known as La Reformais celebrated as a national public and patriotic holiday in Mexico. Many cities (most notably Ciudad Juarez), streets, institutions, and other locations are named after him. He is considered the most popular Mexican president of the 19th century.