Adelitas Adela Velarde Péres was only 13 years old when she joined Francisco Madero’s revolutionary army. She served as a nurse with such distinction that the Mexican government honored her (finally, a half-century later!) with a pension, a Revolutionary Merit Decoration, and even membership in the prestigious Legion of Honor. She died at the age […]
Streets of Mexico – August 2025 Read More »
Felipe Ángeles “I have had infinite tenderness and love for humanity and for all beings in the universe.” He was a humanist soldier, a philosopher general, a conciliatory revolutionary. Like Don Quijote (his hero), Felipe Ángeles had many impossible dreams: that well-educated officers would lead the Mexican military who, trusting their own inner free will
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Victoriano Huerta Mexicans still view Victoriano Huerta as one of their worst villains. Huerta believed only a “strong man” could save Mexico from itself. His hero was Napoleon, and he saw Porfirio Díaz as almost a modern reincarnation of him. He rose quickly in the ranks of Diaz’ army becoming a ruthless general who took
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Pancho Villa According to legend, José Doroteo Arango Arámbula was forced into a life of mountain banditry after murdering a wealthy hacienda owner who’d raped his sister. He changed his name to Pancho Villa (La Cucaracha, the cockroach, to his friends), became the leader of his gang, robbed from the rich, gave to the poor,
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Emiliano Zapata According to a perhaps apocryphal story, when Emiliano Zapata was but nine years old, he asked his father why so many families, unlike his, were landless and destitute. (As much as 90% of Mexican peasants and Natives had lost their lands during the Reforma and Porfirio Díaz’ long reign.) When his father answered
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Francisco Madero Francisco Madero inherited one of the five greatest fortunes in Mexico, so he and his family had done quite well under Porfirio Díaz’ three decades of dictatorship; and he had everything to lose by leading a revolution. But, lead one he did; and lose his life for it he did, too. Madero was
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Aquiles Serdán and His Sister, Carmen Carmen Serdán fired the first shot of the Mexican Revolution. And her brother, Aquiles, would become its first martyr. Their father had co-founded the Mexican Socialist Party, written an incendiary book about land reform, and then disappeared, probably murdered by Porfirio Díaz’ agents. So, both Carmen and Aquiles grew
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He ruined my life. I took a voice lesson with Timothy G. Ruff Welch. At first it thrilled me. Then, it made me very upset. You see, I realized afterward how it had affected so much more than my ability to sing. But it had come, in at least one painfully profound respect, too late.
José Vasconcelos He was known as the “cultural caudillo” (great cultural leader) of the Mexican Revolution and the “Apostle of Education.” A lawyer, philosopher, educator, and politician, he was a charismatic visionary; and, as with most Mexican leaders, he was very controversial. José Vasconcelos supported the liberals in the Mexican Revolution, lived in exile twice,
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Revolución It is difficult to comprehend the slaughter involved in the Mexican Revolution. A comparison to the United States’ Civil War may help. More soldiers died in the four-year “War Between the States” than in all the other nation’s wars (before or since) combined: approximately 600,000 men out of a total population of 181 million at
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