Benito Juarez Mouse Mats

 

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The Zapotecs are an indigenous people of Mexico, concentrated in the state of Oaxaca but also with communities spread into some of the neighboring states. Present-day population may be estimated at approximately 300,000 to 400,000 persons, many of whom are monolingual in one of their native Zapotec languages and dialects (The Zapotec languages together with the near-relative Chatino language form a wider language group, called also Zapotecan.) In pre-Columbian times the Zapotec civilization was one of the highly developed cultures of Mesoamerica, which among other things, included a system of writing. ************************ The name Zapotec is an exonym coming from Nahuatl tzapotecah (singular tzapotecatl), which means "inhabitants of the place of sapote". The Zapotec call themselves always by some variant of the term "The People" (Be'ena'a). ******************** Though the Zapotecs are now largely Catholics, some of their ancient beliefs and practices, such as the burial of the dead with valuables, still survive. The first missionaries among the Zapotecs were Bartolomé de Olmeda, a Mercedarian, and Juan Díaz, a secular priest, who was killed by the natives in Quechula near Tepeaca for having "overthrown their idols". ********************* The most famous Zapotec person in modern times was Benito Juárez, generally regarded as Mexico's greatest President. *************************** Many people of Zapotec ancestry have emigrated to the United States over several decades, and they maintain their own social organizations in the Los Angeles, California area and Central Valley. ************************************************** Benito Pablo Juárez García (IPA [be'nit?o 'paß?lo 'xwa?es ga?'sia]) (March 21, 1806 – July 18, 1872) was a Zapotec Amerindian who served five terms (1858–1861), (1861–1865), (1865–1867), (1867–1871), and (1871–1872), as President of Mexico. For resisting the French occupation, overthrowing the Empire, and restoring the Republic, as well as his efforts to modernize the country, Juárez is often regarded as Mexico's greatest and most beloved leader. He is the only full-blooded indigenous national to serve as President of Mexico.---------------Juárez was born in the small village of San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca. His parents were peasants who died before his fourth birthday. He worked in the corn fields and as a shepherd until the age of 12. On December 17, 1818, he walked to the city of Oaxaca looking to educate himself and find a better life. At the time he was illiterate and could not speak Spanish, only Zapotec. In the city he had a sister who worked as a cook and there, he took a job as a domestic servant and eagerly made up for his lack of education. A lay Franciscan, Antonio Salanueva, was impressed with young Benito's intelligence and thirst for learning, and arranged for his placement at the city's seminary. He studied there but decided to pursue law rather than the priesthood. He graduated from the seminary in 1827 and went on to get a law degree.--------------------uárez became a lawyer in 1834 and a judge in 1842. He was governor of the state of Oaxaca from 1847 to 1853, at which time he went into exile because of his objections to the corrupt military dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna. He spent his exile in New Orleans, Louisiana, working in a cigar factory. In 1854 he helped draft the Plan of Ayutla as the basis for a liberal revolution in Mexico. -------------------- Faced with growing opposition, Santa Anna resigned in 1855 and Juárez returned to Mexico. The liberales (liberals) formed a provisional government under Juan Álvarez, inaugurating the period known as La Reforma. The Reform laws sponsored by the puro (pure) wing of the Liberal Party curtailed the power of the Catholic church and the military, while trying to create a modern civil society and capitalist economy on the North American model. The Ley Juárez (Juarez's Law) of 1855, for example, abolished special clerical and military privileges, and declared all citizens equal before the law. In 1857 the liberals promulgated a new federalist constitution. Juárez became Chief Justice and Vice-President of Mexico, under moderado (moderate) president Ignacio Comonfort. ------------------------------ The conservadores (conservatives) led by General Félix Zuloaga, with the backing of the military and the clergy, launched a revolt under the Plan of Tacubaya in December 1857. Juárez was arrested, but escaped to lead the liberal side in the Mexican War of the Reform, first from Querétaro and later from Veracruz. In 1859, Juárez took the radical step of declaring the confiscation of church properties. In spite of the conservatives' initial military advantage, the liberals, drawing on support of regionalist forces, turned the tide in 1860 and recaptured Mexico City in January 1861. Juárez was elected President in March for another four-year term, under the Constitution of 1857. ---------------------------- Faced with bankruptcy and a war-ravaged economy, Juárez declared a moratorium on foreign debt payments. Spain, Great Britain, and France reacted with a joint seizure of the Veracruz customs house in December 1861. Spain and Britain soon withdrew, but the French Emperor Napoleon III used the episode as a pretext to launch the French intervention in Mexico in 1862, with plans to establish a conservative regime. The Mexicans won an initial victory over the French at Puebla in 1862, celebrated annually as Cinco de Mayo (May 5). The French advanced again in 1863, forcing Juárez and his elected government to retreat to the arid northern city of Chihuahua. Meanwhile Maximilian von Hapsburg, a younger brother of a future Emperor of Austria, was proclaimed Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico on April 10, 1864 with the backing of Napoleon III and a group of Mexican conservatives. Before Juárez fled, Congress granted him an emergency extension of his presidency, which came into effect from 1865, when his term expired, until 1867, when the last of Maximilian's forces were defeated. --------------------------------------- In response to the French intervention and the elevation of Maximilian, Juarez sent General Plácido Vega y Daza to California to gather Mexican American sympathy for Mexico's plight. Maximilian, who personally harboured liberal and Mexican nationalist sympathies, offered Juárez amnesty, and later the post of prime minister, but Juárez refused to accept either a monarchy or a government imposed by foreigners. With its own civil war over, the United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine to give diplomatic recognition to Juárez' government-in-exile and supply weapons and funding to the Republican forces. Faced with this and a growing threat from Prussia, the French troops began pulling out of Mexico in late 1866. Mexican conservatism was a spent force and was less than pleased with the liberal Maximilian. In 1867 the last of the Emperor's forces were defeated and Maximilian was sentenced to death by a military court. Despite national and international pleas for amnesty, Juárez refused to commute the sentence, and Maximilian was executed by firing squad on June 19, his body was returned to Europe for burial. --------------------------- Juárez was controversially re-elected President in 1867 and 1871, using the office of the presidency to ensure electoral success and suppressing revolts by opponents like Porfirio Díaz. Benito Juárez died of a heart attack in 1872 while working at his desk in the National Palace in Mexico City. He was succeeded by Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, his foreign minister.-------------------Today Benito Juarez is remembered as being a progressive reformer dedicated to democracy, equal rights for the nation's indigenous Indian population, lessening the great power that the Roman Catholic Church then held over Mexican politics, and defense of national sovereignty. The period of his leadership is known in Mexican history as La Reforma (the reform), and constituted a liberal political and social revolution with major institutional consequences: the expropriation of church lands, bringing the army under civilian control, liquidation of peasant communal land holdings, and adoption of a federalist constitution.

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The Zapotecs are an indigenous people of Mexico, concentrated in the state of Oaxaca but also with communities spread into some of the neighboring states. Present-day population may be estimated at approximately 300,000 to 400,000 persons, many of whom are monolingual in one of their native Zapotec languages and dialects (The Zapotec languages together with the near-relative Chatino language form a wider language group, called also Zapotecan.) In pre-Columbian times the Zapotec civilization was one of the highly developed cultures of Mesoamerica, which among other things, included a system of writing. ************************ The name Zapotec is an exonym coming from Nahuatl tzapotecah (singular tzapotecatl), which means "inhabitants of the place of sapote". The Zapotec call themselves always by some variant of the term "The People" (Be'ena'a). ******************** Though the Zapotecs are now largely Catholics, some of their ancient beliefs and practices, such as the burial of the dead with valuables, still survive. The first missionaries among the Zapotecs were Bartolomé de Olmeda, a Mercedarian, and Juan Díaz, a secular priest, who was killed by the natives in Quechula near Tepeaca for having "overthrown their idols". ********************* The most famous Zapotec person in modern times was Benito Juárez, generally regarded as Mexico's greatest President. *************************** Many people of Zapotec ancestry have emigrated to the United States over several decades, and they maintain their own social organizations in the Los Angeles, California area and Central Valley. ************************************************** Benito Pablo Juárez García (IPA [be'nit?o 'paß?lo 'xwa?es ga?'sia]) (March 21, 1806 – July 18, 1872) was a Zapotec Amerindian who served five terms (1858–1861), (1861–1865), (1865–1867), (1867–1871), and (1871–1872), as President of Mexico. For resisting the French occupation, overthrowing the Empire, and restoring the Republic, as well as his efforts to modernize the country, Juárez is often regarded as Mexico's greatest and most beloved leader. He is the only full-blooded indigenous national to serve as President of Mexico.---------------Juárez was born in the small village of San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca. His parents were peasants who died before his fourth birthday. He worked in the corn fields and as a shepherd until the age of 12. On December 17, 1818, he walked to the city of Oaxaca looking to educate himself and find a better life. At the time he was illiterate and could not speak Spanish, only Zapotec. In the city he had a sister who worked as a cook and there, he took a job as a domestic servant and eagerly made up for his lack of education. A lay Franciscan, Antonio Salanueva, was impressed with young Benito's intelligence and thirst for learning, and arranged for his placement at the city's seminary. He studied there but decided to pursue law rather than the priesthood. He graduated from the seminary in 1827 and went on to get a law degree.--------------------uárez became a lawyer in 1834 and a judge in 1842. He was governor of the state of Oaxaca from 1847 to 1853, at which time he went into exile because of his objections to the corrupt military dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna. He spent his exile in New Orleans, Louisiana, working in a cigar factory. In 1854 he helped draft the Plan of Ayutla as the basis for a liberal revolution in Mexico. -------------------- Faced with growing opposition, Santa Anna resigned in 1855 and Juárez returned to Mexico. The liberales (liberals) formed a provisional government under Juan Álvarez, inaugurating the period known as La Reforma. The Reform laws sponsored by the puro (pure) wing of the Liberal Party curtailed the power of the Catholic church and the military, while trying to create a modern civil society and capitalist economy on the North American model. The Ley Juárez (Juarez's Law) of 1855, for example, abolished special clerical and military privileges, and declared all citizens equal before the law. In 1857 the liberals promulgated a new federalist constitution. Juárez became Chief Justice and Vice-President of Mexico, under moderado (moderate) president Ignacio Comonfort. ------------------------------ The conservadores (conservatives) led by General Félix Zuloaga, with the backing of the military and the clergy, launched a revolt under the Plan of Tacubaya in December 1857. Juárez was arrested, but escaped to lead the liberal side in the Mexican War of the Reform, first from Querétaro and later from Veracruz. In 1859, Juárez took the radical step of declaring the confiscation of church properties. In spite of the conservatives' initial military advantage, the liberals, drawing on support of regionalist forces, turned the tide in 1860 and recaptured Mexico City in January 1861. Juárez was elected President in March for another four-year term, under the Constitution of 1857. ---------------------------- Faced with bankruptcy and a war-ravaged economy, Juárez declared a moratorium on foreign debt payments. Spain, Great Britain, and France reacted with a joint seizure of the Veracruz customs house in December 1861. Spain and Britain soon withdrew, but the French Emperor Napoleon III used the episode as a pretext to launch the French intervention in Mexico in 1862, with plans to establish a conservative regime. The Mexicans won an initial victory over the French at Puebla in 1862, celebrated annually as Cinco de Mayo (May 5). The French advanced again in 1863, forcing Juárez and his elected government to retreat to the arid northern city of Chihuahua. Meanwhile Maximilian von Hapsburg, a younger brother of a future Emperor of Austria, was proclaimed Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico on April 10, 1864 with the backing of Napoleon III and a group of Mexican conservatives. Before Juárez fled, Congress granted him an emergency extension of his presidency, which came into effect from 1865, when his term expired, until 1867, when the last of Maximilian's forces were defeated. --------------------------------------- In response to the French intervention and the elevation of Maximilian, Juarez sent General Plácido Vega y Daza to California to gather Mexican American sympathy for Mexico's plight. Maximilian, who personally harboured liberal and Mexican nationalist sympathies, offered Juárez amnesty, and later the post of prime minister, but Juárez refused to accept either a monarchy or a government imposed by foreigners. With its own civil war over, the United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine to give diplomatic recognition to Juárez' government-in-exile and supply weapons and funding to the Republican forces. Faced with this and a growing threat from Prussia, the French troops began pulling out of Mexico in late 1866. Mexican conservatism was a spent force and was less than pleased with the liberal Maximilian. In 1867 the last of the Emperor's forces were defeated and Maximilian was sentenced to death by a military court. Despite national and international pleas for amnesty, Juárez refused to commute the sentence, and Maximilian was executed by firing squad on June 19, his body was returned to Europe for burial. --------------------------- Juárez was controversially re-elected President in 1867 and 1871, using the office of the presidency to ensure electoral success and suppressing revolts by opponents like Porfirio Díaz. Benito Juárez died of a heart attack in 1872 while working at his desk in the National Palace in Mexico City. He was succeeded by Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, his foreign minister.-------------------Today Benito Juarez is remembered as being a progressive reformer dedicated to democracy, equal rights for the nation's indigenous Indian population, lessening the great power that the Roman Catholic Church then held over Mexican politics, and defense of national sovereignty. The period of his leadership is known in Mexican history as La Reforma (the reform), and constituted a liberal political and social revolution with major institutional consequences: the expropriation of church lands, bringing the army under civilian control, liquidation of peasant communal land holdings, and adoption of a federalist constitution.

created by theredsun (8/14/2007 5:38 PM)

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