AKA José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori
Birthplace: Oaxaca, Mexico
Location of death: Paris, France
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Cimetière de Montpar
AKA José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori
Birthplace: Oaxaca, Mexico
Location of death: Paris, France
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Cimetière de Montparnasse, Paris, France
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: Hispanic
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Head of State
Executive summary: Twice President of Mexico
Porfirio Díaz, President of the republic of Mexico first from 1877-80 and second 1884-1911, was born in the southern state of Oaxaca, on the 15th of September 1830. His father was an innkeeper in the little capital of that province, and died three years after the birth of Porfirio, leaving a family of seven children. The boy, who had Indian and Spanish blood in his veins, was educated for the Catholic Church, a body having immense influence in the country at that time and ordering and controlling revolutions by the strength of their filled coffers. Arrived at the age of sixteen Porfirio Díaz threw off the authority of the priests. Fired with enthusiasm by stories told by the revolutionary soldiers continually passing through Oaxaca, and hearing about the war with the United States, a year later he determined to set out for Mexico city and join the National Guard. There being no trains, and he being too poor to ride, he walked the greater part of the 250 miles, but arrived there too late, as the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848) had been already signed, and Texas finally ceded to the United States. Thus his entering the army was for the time defeated. Thereupon he returned to his native town and began studying law. He took pupils in order to pay his own fees at the Law Institute, and help his mother. At this time he came under the notice and influence of Don Marcos Perez and Benito Juárez, the first a judge, the second a governor of the state of Oaxaca, and soon to become famous as the deliverer of Mexico from the priesthood (War of Reform). Díaz continued in his native town until 1854, when, refusing to vote for the dictator, Santa Anna, he was stung by a taunt of cowardice, and hastily pushing his way to the voting place, he recorded his vote in favor of Alvarez and the revolutionists. Orders were given for his arrest, but seizing a rifle and mounting a horse he placed himself at the head of a few revolting peasants, and from that moment became one of the leading spirits in that long struggle for reform, known as the War of Reform, which, under the leadership of Juárez, followed the overthrow of Santa Anna. Promotion succeeded promotion, as Díaz led his troops from victory to victory, amid great privations and difficulties. He was made captain (1856), lieutenant-colonel and colonel (1859), brigadier-general (1861), and general of division for the army (1863). Closely following on civil war, political strife, open rebellion and the great War of Reform, came the French invasion of 1862, and the landing of the emperor Maximilian in 1864. From the moment the French disclosed their intentions of settling in Mexico in 1862, Díaz took a prominent part against the foreign invasion. He was twice seriously wounded, imprisoned on three different occasions, had two hairbreadth escapes, and took part in many daring engagements. So important a personage did he become that both Marshal Bazaine and the emperor Maximilian made overtures to him. At the time of Maximilian's death (with which Díaz personally had nothing to do) he was carrying on the siege of Mexico city, which ended in the surrender of the town two days after the emperor was shot at Quérétaro between his two leading generals. Díaz at once set to work to pay up arrears due to his soldiers, proclaimed death as the penalty of plunder and theft, and in the few weeks that followed showed his great administrative powers, the officers as well as the rank and file receiving arrears of pay. On the very day that