WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.160 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We are so glad 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:04.900 you're here because today we are looking at a 00:00:04.900 --> 00:00:07.379 figure who is, and I mean this quite literally, 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:10.679 everywhere in Mexico. Everywhere. If you have 00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:13.000 been to Mexico, you have definitely handled his 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.140 face. He is on the 20 peso note. He is on the 00:00:16.140 --> 00:00:18.960 500 peso note. You might have flown into an airport 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.199 named after him in Mexico City. You could have 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:23.679 walked down a street named after him. And, you 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:25.460 know, not just in Mexico either. There are statues 00:00:25.460 --> 00:00:29.920 of him in Chicago, in Washington, D .C. I think 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:31.579 there's even a street named after him in New 00:00:31.579 --> 00:00:33.979 Delhi, India. There's even a species of snake 00:00:33.979 --> 00:00:37.460 named in his honor. It is genuinely hard to find 00:00:37.460 --> 00:00:40.679 a corner of the Mexican map or really Latin American 00:00:40.679 --> 00:00:43.219 history that doesn't bear the mark of Benito 00:00:43.219 --> 00:00:46.500 Juarez. Exactly. But the thing is, when someone 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:49.380 becomes that ubiquitous, when they become like 00:00:49.380 --> 00:00:52.200 a marble statue or just a face on a crumply bill 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:54.799 in your pocket. Yeah. We tend to forget the actual 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:56.979 human story underneath. Right. We forget there 00:00:56.979 --> 00:00:59.299 was a person there. And in this case, the story 00:00:59.299 --> 00:01:01.520 is almost impossible to believe. I mean, if you 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:04.120 pitch this as a movie script, Hollywood would 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:05.819 probably tell you it's just too unrealistic. 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:08.879 It really, really defies the logic of the time 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:13.200 period. We are talking about a monolingual Zapotec 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:16.219 shepherd boy from a tiny village of maybe 200 00:01:16.219 --> 00:01:19.439 people who didn't speak a word of Spanish until 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:22.769 he was 12 years old. And he somehow rises to 00:01:22.769 --> 00:01:25.469 become the president of Mexico, defeats a European 00:01:25.469 --> 00:01:28.730 empire and completely redefines his nation's 00:01:28.730 --> 00:01:31.209 identity. It's a trajectory that, frankly, shouldn't 00:01:31.209 --> 00:01:33.129 have been possible in the 19th century. If you 00:01:33.129 --> 00:01:35.730 look at the caste system, the economic structures, 00:01:35.989 --> 00:01:39.010 the racial hierarchies of the time. Everything. 00:01:39.030 --> 00:01:41.489 Everything was designed to keep a person like 00:01:41.489 --> 00:01:44.689 Benito Juarez in that village forever. And today 00:01:44.689 --> 00:01:46.890 we are going to look at the sources, you know, 00:01:46.890 --> 00:01:49.370 extensive biographical records, historical accounts 00:01:49.370 --> 00:01:50.810 of the Reform War and the French. intervention 00:01:50.810 --> 00:01:53.769 to try and understand how on earth he did it. 00:01:53.890 --> 00:01:56.489 So the mission today is to move past the statue. 00:01:56.730 --> 00:01:59.730 We want to understand the man who famously said, 00:01:59.849 --> 00:02:02.709 among individuals as among nations, respect for 00:02:02.709 --> 00:02:05.230 the rights of others is peace. We're going to 00:02:05.230 --> 00:02:07.849 unpack his impossible rise, his radical reforms, 00:02:08.069 --> 00:02:10.710 and the brutal wars he fought to defend the Constitution. 00:02:11.050 --> 00:02:12.949 Okay, so let's start at the very beginning. Where 00:02:12.949 --> 00:02:15.270 does a story like this even start? It starts 00:02:15.270 --> 00:02:17.689 in the mountains of Oaxaca, specifically in a 00:02:17.689 --> 00:02:20.270 village called San Pablo, Guelito. And when we 00:02:20.270 --> 00:02:23.090 say humble beginnings, we really need to emphasize 00:02:23.090 --> 00:02:25.590 what that meant in 1806. Right. This wasn't a 00:02:25.590 --> 00:02:28.550 town. No, not at all. This was a settlement of 00:02:28.550 --> 00:02:32.310 maybe 200 people, tops, mostly living in straw 00:02:32.310 --> 00:02:35.270 and mud huts. It was incredibly isolated. It 00:02:35.270 --> 00:02:37.729 was located on the edge of a mountain pond known 00:02:37.729 --> 00:02:41.229 as La Laguna Encantada, the Enchanted Pond. That 00:02:41.229 --> 00:02:43.610 sounds incredibly picturesque, almost like something 00:02:43.610 --> 00:02:47.090 out of a fable. The Enchanted Pond. It does sound 00:02:47.090 --> 00:02:49.550 lovely, but the reality was just incredibly harsh. 00:02:49.789 --> 00:02:52.610 This was subsistence living. Benito Juarez was 00:02:52.610 --> 00:02:55.909 born there on March 21st, 1806, to Zapotec peasant 00:02:55.909 --> 00:02:58.689 parents, Marcelino Juarez and Brigida Garcia. 00:02:59.069 --> 00:03:01.909 And he described his parents later in his own 00:03:01.909 --> 00:03:04.889 writings as, I think, Indians from the primitive 00:03:04.889 --> 00:03:07.490 race of the country. He did. But the tragedy 00:03:07.490 --> 00:03:09.710 is that he barely knew them. They both died when 00:03:09.710 --> 00:03:11.729 he was just three years old. So he's an orphan 00:03:11.729 --> 00:03:13.870 in a remote village almost immediately. That 00:03:13.870 --> 00:03:16.500 is, that's a rough start. It gets rougher. His 00:03:16.500 --> 00:03:18.259 grandparents took him in for a bit, but they 00:03:18.259 --> 00:03:20.120 died shortly after that. So he was eventually 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:23.699 raised by an uncle, Bernardino Juarez. And his 00:03:23.699 --> 00:03:26.460 life was defined entirely by labor. There was 00:03:26.460 --> 00:03:29.900 no school, no real playtime. He worked in the 00:03:29.900 --> 00:03:32.240 cornfields and he worked as a shepherd until 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:34.960 he was 12. And this is the part, the crucial 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:37.199 detail that just sets the stakes for this whole 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:40.479 story. Go on. Up until the age of 12, Bernardino 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:43.639 Juarez was illiterate. And he could not speak 00:03:43.639 --> 00:03:46.719 Spanish. He only knew Zapotec. That's the fact 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:49.379 that always floors me. Me too. 12 years old. 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:52.860 In 1818, if you are a 12 -year -old indigenous 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:55.039 boy in the mountains who doesn't speak the colonial 00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:57.939 language, your life path is usually set in stone. 00:03:58.180 --> 00:04:01.159 Absolutely. You are going to live and die in 00:04:01.159 --> 00:04:03.879 that village. So what was the catalyst? How do 00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:05.639 you get from shepherding in the mountains to 00:04:05.639 --> 00:04:08.659 the state capital? Well, history often pivots 00:04:08.659 --> 00:04:12.360 on a mix of necessity and luck. There is a famous 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:14.020 legend, you'll probably hear it if you take a 00:04:14.020 --> 00:04:16.579 tour in Mexico, that he lost a sheep and ran 00:04:16.579 --> 00:04:18.319 away because he was afraid his uncle would beat 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:21.279 him. The lost sheep theory. Right. But the more 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:23.420 likely driver, based on the historical records, 00:04:23.620 --> 00:04:26.480 was actually his sister. She had already moved 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:31.009 to Oaxaca City to work as a cook. In 1818, Juarez 00:04:31.009 --> 00:04:33.790 left the village to find her. He literally walked 00:04:33.790 --> 00:04:35.850 out of the mountains. He did. It's about a 40 00:04:35.850 --> 00:04:38.589 -mile trek over rough terrain. He walked into 00:04:38.589 --> 00:04:41.050 the city with the goal of attending school. He 00:04:41.050 --> 00:04:43.610 found his sister, and she was working in the 00:04:43.610 --> 00:04:46.350 household of a wealthy family, the Mazas. And 00:04:46.350 --> 00:04:48.009 this is where that luck part comes in, right? 00:04:48.089 --> 00:04:50.230 He gets a job there. He does. He becomes a domestic 00:04:50.230 --> 00:04:52.569 servant. He's tending the animals, cleaning. 00:04:53.050 --> 00:04:55.850 But he also finds a patron. He started working 00:04:55.850 --> 00:04:58.750 for a man named Antonio Salenueva. Okay. Who 00:04:58.750 --> 00:05:02.069 is he? Salenueva was a bookbinder and a lay Franciscan. 00:05:02.069 --> 00:05:05.129 And he saw something in this young boy intelligence, 00:05:05.629 --> 00:05:08.709 a spark, some kind of potential, and he decided 00:05:08.709 --> 00:05:11.589 to sponsor him. So the classic patron -protege 00:05:11.589 --> 00:05:14.819 dynamic. Yeah. But given that Solon Reva was 00:05:14.819 --> 00:05:17.199 a lay Franciscan, I mean, very religious man, 00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:19.300 you have to assume the path he laid out for Juarez 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:21.420 wasn't president of the republic. Oh, definitely 00:05:21.420 --> 00:05:23.740 not. It was the priesthood. Of course. That was 00:05:23.740 --> 00:05:26.120 the only real ladder available back then. If 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:28.439 you were poor and wanted an education in Mexico 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:31.160 in the 1820s, you joined the church. So Juarez 00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:34.040 entered the seminary in 1821. And note the timing 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:36.550 on that. That is the same year Mexico finally 00:05:36.550 --> 00:05:39.009 wins its independence from Spain. A great point. 00:05:39.170 --> 00:05:41.610 The country is being born just as Juarez is beginning 00:05:41.610 --> 00:05:44.470 his formal education. He studied theology for 00:05:44.470 --> 00:05:46.769 six years. He learned Latin. He learned philosophy. 00:05:46.990 --> 00:05:49.610 But, and this is the first major pivot in his 00:05:49.610 --> 00:05:53.050 life, he realized he did not want to be a priest. 00:05:53.269 --> 00:05:55.829 Which, in 1820s, Mexico was a huge decision. 00:05:56.430 --> 00:05:58.029 Walking away from the church was walking away 00:05:58.029 --> 00:06:00.629 from guaranteed stability, right? It was. He 00:06:00.629 --> 00:06:02.750 wrote later that he felt a cruel distaste for 00:06:02.750 --> 00:06:05.350 theological studies. But luckily for him, the 00:06:05.350 --> 00:06:07.910 world was changing. The state legislature in 00:06:07.910 --> 00:06:10.550 Oaxaca had founded a new institution in 1826 00:06:10.550 --> 00:06:13.170 called the Institute of Arts and Sciences. A 00:06:13.170 --> 00:06:15.910 secular institution. Exactly. The conservatives 00:06:15.910 --> 00:06:18.230 at the time called it a house of prostitution 00:06:18.230 --> 00:06:20.769 for the mind because it taught things like science 00:06:20.769 --> 00:06:23.410 and law without a religious filter. Juarez transferred 00:06:23.410 --> 00:06:26.660 there in 1827 to study law. So this was the moment 00:06:26.660 --> 00:06:29.259 he stepped out of the religious sphere and into 00:06:29.259 --> 00:06:32.759 the secular political world. Precisely. By 1834, 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:35.279 he was a graduated lawyer admitted to the bar. 00:06:35.500 --> 00:06:38.019 OK, so he is a lawyer now. But let's just pause 00:06:38.019 --> 00:06:40.720 and contextualize this. An indigenous Zapotec 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:44.480 man practicing law in the 1830s. He isn't just 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:46.639 taking on corporate contracts, I assume. No, 00:06:46.779 --> 00:06:48.680 not at all. He goes back to his roots almost 00:06:48.680 --> 00:06:51.279 immediately. And this early career period is 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:53.660 so vital for understanding his later politics. 00:06:54.060 --> 00:06:56.639 What did he do? One of his first major actions 00:06:56.639 --> 00:06:59.040 as a lawyer was representing indigenous villagers 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:02.019 from Loxicha. They were denouncing a priest who 00:07:02.019 --> 00:07:04.600 they accused of abuses, things like charging 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:07.540 excessive fees for masses and baptisms. That 00:07:07.540 --> 00:07:10.560 is an incredibly bold move. A young indigenous 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:14.300 lawyer challenging the church in the 1830s. Very 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:17.360 bold. And it had immediate consequences. Juarez 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:19.560 didn't win. In fact, he was thrown into jail 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:21.779 along with the community members he was representing. 00:07:22.100 --> 00:07:23.680 Wait, he was the lawyer and they threw him in 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:28.360 jail? Yes, for inciting the people. He later 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:30.939 wrote that this experience, seeing the collusion 00:07:30.939 --> 00:07:32.339 between the church and the state authorities, 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:36.120 it strengthened his resolve. He realized that 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:39.060 the game was rigged. He wanted to destroy what 00:07:39.060 --> 00:07:41.300 he called the pernicious power of the privileged 00:07:41.300 --> 00:07:43.839 classes. So that jail cell was basically the 00:07:43.839 --> 00:07:46.360 incubator. For his entire political philosophy. 00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:49.040 He saw firsthand that the playing field wasn't 00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:51.519 just uneven. It was two different fields entirely. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:54.139 Exactly. He realized that as long as the church 00:07:54.139 --> 00:07:56.060 and the military had their own special courts 00:07:56.060 --> 00:07:58.560 and privileges, what were called fueros, there 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:01.259 could be no equality before the law. But despite 00:08:01.259 --> 00:08:04.600 that setback, his career continued to rise. He 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:08.279 became a judge. And then in 1843, he made a very 00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:10.980 significant match in his personal life. He married 00:08:10.980 --> 00:08:13.319 Margarita Maza. Maza, wait, let's connect the 00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:15.079 dots here. That's the family his sister worked 00:08:15.079 --> 00:08:17.199 for, the house where he was a servant. The very 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:19.660 same. She was the adoptive daughter of his sister's 00:08:19.660 --> 00:08:22.019 patron. Margarita was 20 years younger than him 00:08:22.019 --> 00:08:25.060 and part of Oaxaca's upper class European descended 00:08:25.060 --> 00:08:28.259 society. So for an indigenous man, a former fervent 00:08:28.259 --> 00:08:30.399 in that very household, to marry the daughter 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:33.990 of the family was a massive social leap. It just 00:08:33.990 --> 00:08:36.669 defied all the unwritten rules of the caste system. 00:08:36.789 --> 00:08:38.850 It sounds like something out of a novel. Did 00:08:38.850 --> 00:08:41.190 the family object? The record suggests it was 00:08:41.190 --> 00:08:43.289 accepted, though it was certainly viewed as unusual 00:08:43.289 --> 00:08:46.309 by society at large. Margarita famously said 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:49.529 of him, he is very homely, but very good. Oh, 00:08:49.649 --> 00:08:51.809 I love that. And it turned out to be a partnership 00:08:51.809 --> 00:08:54.220 of incredible strength. She wasn't just some 00:08:54.220 --> 00:08:56.860 trophy wife. She would become a pillar for him 00:08:56.860 --> 00:08:59.200 during the incredibly difficult years ahead, 00:08:59.340 --> 00:09:01.899 managing the family while he was in exile or 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:05.120 fighting wars. So he has the education, the career, 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:08.379 and now the social standing. And eventually this 00:09:08.379 --> 00:09:10.799 path takes him to the governor's palace in Oaxaca 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:14.539 in 1847. Yes. And his time as governor is really 00:09:14.539 --> 00:09:16.860 the proof of concept for his administrative ability. 00:09:17.259 --> 00:09:19.539 He didn't just give speeches. He took over a 00:09:19.539 --> 00:09:22.139 state with chaotic finances. He balanced the 00:09:22.139 --> 00:09:24.240 budget. He built roads and schools. Education 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:27.679 was always his top priority. Always. And he created 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:31.039 a civil and penal code. Oaxaca became known as 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:34.299 a model state. He proved that a civilian secular 00:09:34.299 --> 00:09:37.399 government could actually work and work efficiently. 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:40.600 But in 19th century Mexico, you couldn't just 00:09:40.600 --> 00:09:42.700 be a good administrator and live happily ever 00:09:42.700 --> 00:09:45.340 after. The national politics were just so volatile. 00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:48.039 You had this internal struggle between the liberals 00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:49.860 and the conservatives. We really need to break 00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:51.879 this down for the listener because these terms 00:09:51.879 --> 00:09:54.159 mean something very specific in this context. 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:57.320 Right. We shouldn't map modern American or European 00:09:57.320 --> 00:10:00.139 politics onto this. Not at all. To simplify it, 00:10:00.220 --> 00:10:03.700 liberals, like Juarez, wanted a secular state. 00:10:04.019 --> 00:10:06.360 They looked to the United States and France for 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:09.429 inspiration. They wanted individual rights, capitalism, 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:11.889 and equality before the law. And the conservatives. 00:10:12.169 --> 00:10:14.789 They generally wanted to maintain the old Spanish 00:10:14.789 --> 00:10:17.590 colonial hierarchy. They believed that the Catholic 00:10:17.590 --> 00:10:19.649 Church should be the supreme authority in education 00:10:19.649 --> 00:10:22.029 and spiritual life, and that the military should 00:10:22.029 --> 00:10:24.809 enforce order. Basically, they believed Mexico 00:10:24.809 --> 00:10:27.389 was too chaotic for democracy and needed a strong 00:10:27.389 --> 00:10:29.590 hand. So it's a battle between the past and the 00:10:29.590 --> 00:10:32.750 future, essentially. And Juarez was firmly on 00:10:32.750 --> 00:10:35.360 the liberal side. which meant that when the conservatives, 00:10:35.580 --> 00:10:38.240 specifically the dictator Santa Ana, came back 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:41.679 into power in 1853, Juarez was in deep trouble. 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:44.600 Big trouble. Santa Ana was the perennial bad 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:46.960 penny of Mexican history. He just kept turning 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:49.679 up. And when he returned in 1853, he had not 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:52.000 forgotten that Juarez had denied him refuge in 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:55.440 Oaxaca years earlier. Santa Ana was petty. Very. 00:10:55.620 --> 00:10:58.399 He had Juarez arrested, confined in the fortress 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:01.639 of San Juan de Ulua, a truly horrific dungeon, 00:11:01.879 --> 00:11:04.740 and eventually exiled. Where did he go? Paris? 00:11:05.559 --> 00:11:08.279 London? New Orleans. New Orleans. I love this 00:11:08.279 --> 00:11:10.679 detail. The future president of Mexico living 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:13.769 in the American South in the 1850s. What on earth 00:11:13.769 --> 00:11:15.909 was he doing there? He was rolling cigars. He 00:11:15.909 --> 00:11:18.330 found a job in a tobacco factory. He lived in 00:11:18.330 --> 00:11:20.970 exile for about 18 months, and it was not glamorous. 00:11:21.009 --> 00:11:22.990 He was struggling to make ends meet, living in 00:11:22.990 --> 00:11:25.009 cheap boarding houses. And his wife Margarita 00:11:25.009 --> 00:11:27.590 stayed in Mexico. She did. She looked after their 00:11:27.590 --> 00:11:29.409 children and sent him whatever funds she could 00:11:29.409 --> 00:11:32.330 scrape together. But New Orleans wasn't just 00:11:32.330 --> 00:11:34.730 a place to hide. It became a meeting ground. 00:11:35.230 --> 00:11:38.490 He met other radical exiles there, like Melchor 00:11:38.490 --> 00:11:41.090 Ocampo. So you have these brilliant Mexican minds 00:11:41.090 --> 00:11:43.830 sitting in New Orleans, hands covered in tobacco 00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:46.570 leaf, plotting the future of their country. Exactly. 00:11:46.610 --> 00:11:48.990 It was an ideological pressure cooker. They were 00:11:48.990 --> 00:11:51.769 refining the ideas that would become La Reforma. 00:11:51.769 --> 00:11:55.210 They were asking, why is Mexico failing? And 00:11:55.210 --> 00:11:58.139 their answer was... Because we are still a colony 00:11:58.139 --> 00:12:00.639 in every sing but name. The church owns half 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:02.960 the land. The army is above the law. We need 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:05.120 to break the system. And when the dictatorship 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:07.740 of Santa Ana was finally ousted by the plan of 00:12:07.740 --> 00:12:10.840 Ayutthaya in 1855, Juarez returned to Mexico. 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:13.679 He returned not just as a lawyer, but as a man 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:15.559 with a mission. And he didn't waste any time. 00:12:15.659 --> 00:12:18.220 He became the minister of justice. And this is 00:12:18.220 --> 00:12:20.059 where we get the first of the big reform laws, 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:22.769 right? The Lake Waters. Yes. The Lee Waters was 00:12:22.769 --> 00:12:24.850 revolutionary. It goes right back to his time 00:12:24.850 --> 00:12:27.490 in that jail cell. It abolished the Fueros, those 00:12:27.490 --> 00:12:29.710 special privileges for the clergy and the military 00:12:29.710 --> 00:12:32.950 regarding civil crimes. So all citizens were 00:12:32.950 --> 00:12:36.019 equal before civil law. That was the idea. If 00:12:36.019 --> 00:12:38.220 a priest committed a civil crime, like theft 00:12:38.220 --> 00:12:41.100 or fraud, he would face a civil judge, not a 00:12:41.100 --> 00:12:44.000 church court. It was a direct attack on the colonial 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.519 structure. It stripped the state within a state 00:12:46.519 --> 00:12:48.779 of its legal armor. And then came the Ley Lerdo. 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:51.460 Right. The Ley Lerdo was an economic reform. 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:54.139 It forced the sale of church and communal lands. 00:12:54.600 --> 00:12:57.679 The idea was to stimulate the economy by creating 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:01.570 a class of small property owners. Basically, 00:13:01.570 --> 00:13:04.009 trying to create a middle class similar to what 00:13:04.009 --> 00:13:06.190 the liberals saw in the United States. But this 00:13:06.190 --> 00:13:09.210 one backfired a bit, didn't it? This is a nuance 00:13:09.210 --> 00:13:11.440 we really need to get into. It did. And it's 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:13.539 a tragic part of the story. The law didn't just 00:13:13.539 --> 00:13:16.059 target the church. It targeted all corporate 00:13:16.059 --> 00:13:18.639 loan holdings. And in the legal language of the 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:21.679 time, indigenous communal lands, the ejidos, 00:13:21.940 --> 00:13:25.039 were considered corporate holdings. Oh, no. Yeah. 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:28.120 So the law forced indigenous villages to break 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:30.159 up their communal land and sell it to individuals. 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:32.659 The liberals thought they were freeing the land 00:13:32.659 --> 00:13:35.500 for individual ownership. But in practice, wealthy 00:13:35.500 --> 00:13:38.019 speculators bought up most of the land. So the 00:13:38.019 --> 00:13:40.919 unintended consequence was that. Many indigenous 00:13:40.919 --> 00:13:43.700 communities lost the territories that had sustained 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:47.000 them for centuries. Exactly. It paved the way 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.039 for the massive haciendas that would later be 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:52.799 a cause of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. It 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:55.179 is a profound irony that the first indigenous 00:13:55.179 --> 00:13:58.460 president oversaw a law that really hurt indigenous 00:13:58.460 --> 00:14:01.100 land tenure, even if that wasn't his intention. 00:14:01.340 --> 00:14:04.570 It's a very complex legacy. But these laws were 00:14:04.570 --> 00:14:08.190 all codified into the Constitution of 1857. This 00:14:08.190 --> 00:14:10.009 was the document that was supposed to modernize 00:14:10.009 --> 00:14:12.669 Mexico. Religious freedom, civil rights. But 00:14:12.669 --> 00:14:14.590 the conservatives were not just going to accept 00:14:14.590 --> 00:14:17.289 this lying down. Not at all. The backlash was 00:14:17.289 --> 00:14:19.269 massive. You have to understand, the church told 00:14:19.269 --> 00:14:21.509 people that if they swore allegiance to this 00:14:21.509 --> 00:14:23.909 Constitution, they were going to hell. Literally. 00:14:24.009 --> 00:14:26.570 The pope condemned it. The country was on the 00:14:26.570 --> 00:14:29.330 brink of civil war. And the moderate president 00:14:29.330 --> 00:14:32.710 at the time, Ignacio Comanford, He got cold feet. 00:14:32.769 --> 00:14:35.490 He looked at the chaos and thought, we went too 00:14:35.490 --> 00:14:39.409 fast. He staged a self -coup, basically. He tried 00:14:39.409 --> 00:14:41.649 to suspend the very constitution he had sworn 00:14:41.649 --> 00:14:44.789 to uphold. And he imprisoned his own cabinet, 00:14:44.929 --> 00:14:47.049 including Juarez, who was then the chief justice 00:14:47.049 --> 00:14:49.389 of the Supreme Court. Talk about a toxic workplace. 00:14:49.409 --> 00:14:52.190 The president arrests his own team. But then 00:14:52.190 --> 00:14:54.409 Cominfor realized he had unleashed a monster 00:14:54.409 --> 00:14:57.419 he couldn't control. He realized. The conservatives 00:14:57.419 --> 00:14:59.779 didn't want him. They wanted a full rollback 00:14:59.779 --> 00:15:02.480 of all the reforms. And the liberals were in 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:05.639 revolt against his betrayal. So in a moment of 00:15:05.639 --> 00:15:08.299 panic, Commonfort released Juarez from prison 00:15:08.299 --> 00:15:10.720 and then fled the country. And here is where 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:12.720 the legal machinery clicks into place. According 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:16.039 to the Constitution of 1857, who succeeds the 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:18.519 president if he resigns? The chief justice of 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:20.299 the Supreme Court. Benito Juarez. Benito Juarez. 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:22.700 So suddenly, this cigar -rolling lawyer from 00:15:22.700 --> 00:15:25.500 Oaxaca is the legitimate president of Mexico. 00:15:26.029 --> 00:15:27.690 But he doesn't have a capital. He doesn't have 00:15:27.690 --> 00:15:30.029 an army. And the conservatives hold Mexico City. 00:15:30.250 --> 00:15:33.789 And that sets the stage for the War of the Reform 00:15:33.789 --> 00:15:37.909 or the Three Years War, a brutal civil war. Juarez 00:15:37.909 --> 00:15:40.230 and his cabinet were essentially a government 00:15:40.230 --> 00:15:43.370 on the run, nomads. They had to flee to Guanajuato, 00:15:43.429 --> 00:15:45.929 then to Guadalajara. And it was in Guadalajara 00:15:45.929 --> 00:15:48.049 where we get one of the most cinematic moments 00:15:48.049 --> 00:15:50.289 in Mexican history. If you're visualizing this, 00:15:50.409 --> 00:15:54.490 picture a chaotic palace, smoke shouting. This 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:56.940 is... The brave men do not assassinate moment. 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:59.019 Let's unpack that. It is an incredible scene. 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:02.399 So Juarez was in the government palace in Guadalajara. 00:16:02.500 --> 00:16:05.379 A garrison of soldiers mutinied. They switched 00:16:05.379 --> 00:16:07.980 sides to the conservatives. They stormed the 00:16:07.980 --> 00:16:10.100 room and took Juarez and his minister's prisoner. 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:12.879 The situation was chaotic and the commander of 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:15.720 the mutineers, a Colonel Landa, ordered the prisoners 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:18.360 to be shot. So Juarez is standing there facing 00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:21.750 a firing squad. The rifles are raised. This is 00:16:21.750 --> 00:16:23.649 it. It should have been. The soldiers raised 00:16:23.649 --> 00:16:25.350 their rifles. They were aiming at his chest. 00:16:25.490 --> 00:16:28.750 But then the liberal poet and minister, Guillermo 00:16:28.750 --> 00:16:30.970 Prieto, who was in the room with him, he jumped 00:16:30.970 --> 00:16:33.070 in front of Juarez. He physically put his body 00:16:33.070 --> 00:16:35.970 between the president and the guns. Yes. And 00:16:35.970 --> 00:16:38.470 he shouted at the soldiers, brave men do not 00:16:38.470 --> 00:16:42.409 assassinate. Los valientes no asesinen. He just 00:16:42.409 --> 00:16:44.250 started speechifying to them about their duty 00:16:44.250 --> 00:16:47.519 as patriots. and it worked it worked the soldiers 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:49.659 hesitated maybe they were moved by the courage 00:16:49.659 --> 00:16:52.720 or maybe just confused by the sudden poetry slam 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:55.539 in the middle of a mutiny but they lowered their 00:16:55.539 --> 00:16:58.460 weapons wow juarez was saved and eventually they 00:16:58.460 --> 00:17:00.320 were allowed to leave the city it just gives 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:02.419 you chills if those soldiers had pulled the trigger 00:17:02.419 --> 00:17:04.440 modern mexico would look completely different 00:17:04.440 --> 00:17:07.420 absolutely Juarez survived, but they had to keep 00:17:07.420 --> 00:17:09.859 moving. They eventually made their way to Veracruz, 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:12.799 the port city on the Gulf Coast. And this was 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:14.960 crucial because holding the port meant they could 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:17.599 collect customs revenue taxes on trade, which 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:19.519 gave them the money they needed to fund the war. 00:17:19.700 --> 00:17:22.319 And while he was holed up in Veracruz, looking 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.980 out at the ocean, Juarez didn't moderate his 00:17:24.980 --> 00:17:27.579 position. He actually doubled down, didn't he? 00:17:27.660 --> 00:17:29.940 He did. He decided that there was no going back. 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:32.819 This is when the laws of reform became truly 00:17:32.819 --> 00:17:36.839 radical. In 1859, from Veracruz, he decreed the 00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:40.180 nationalization of all church property. Not just 00:17:40.180 --> 00:17:42.940 a forced sale nationalization. Total nationalization. 00:17:43.180 --> 00:17:46.059 He established civil marriage and the civil registry 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:48.880 of births and deaths. He secularized the cemeteries. 00:17:49.019 --> 00:17:51.039 Basically, he stripped the church of its role 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:53.299 as the gatekeeper of life and death. Exactly. 00:17:53.930 --> 00:17:56.029 Before this, the church recorded your birth, 00:17:56.130 --> 00:17:58.829 married you, and buried you. If you weren't a 00:17:58.829 --> 00:18:01.109 Catholic, you legally didn't exist and couldn't 00:18:01.109 --> 00:18:03.710 be buried in a proper cemetery. Juarez said, 00:18:03.869 --> 00:18:05.809 no, the state does that. The state records your 00:18:05.809 --> 00:18:08.529 existence. It was a complete separation of church 00:18:08.529 --> 00:18:11.309 and state. Now, we do have to address a controversial 00:18:11.309 --> 00:18:14.569 moment from this period in Veracruz, the McLean 00:18:14.569 --> 00:18:17.809 -Ocampo Treaty. This is often used by Juarez's 00:18:17.809 --> 00:18:20.170 critics to say he was willing to sell out the 00:18:20.170 --> 00:18:22.569 country to the Americans. What was the deal there? 00:18:22.920 --> 00:18:25.019 It's a very sensitive topic. You have to remember 00:18:25.019 --> 00:18:27.619 Juarez was desperate. The conservatives were 00:18:27.619 --> 00:18:30.359 winning on the battlefield and he needed U .S. 00:18:30.380 --> 00:18:33.440 recognition and funds. So his government negotiated 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:35.700 a treaty that would have granted the United States 00:18:35.700 --> 00:18:38.220 perpetual transit rights across the Isthmus of 00:18:38.220 --> 00:18:40.319 Tehuantepec. A route between the Atlantic and 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:42.960 Pacific Oceans. Right. And crucially, the right 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:45.400 to intervene militarily to protect that transit. 00:18:45.500 --> 00:18:48.609 That sounds huge. perpetual transit rights. That 00:18:48.609 --> 00:18:50.950 is a massive concession of sovereignty. It was. 00:18:51.009 --> 00:18:53.329 It shows just how desperate the situation was. 00:18:53.609 --> 00:18:56.210 He was willing to risk U .S. influence to defeat 00:18:56.210 --> 00:18:58.329 the conservatives. However, and this is the key 00:18:58.329 --> 00:19:01.450 historical footnote, the treaty was never ratified. 00:19:01.630 --> 00:19:04.329 The U .S. Senate rejected it. Why would the U 00:19:04.329 --> 00:19:07.430 .S. Senate reject that deal? Because the U .S. 00:19:07.430 --> 00:19:09.910 was about to have its own civil war. The northern 00:19:09.910 --> 00:19:12.269 senators did not want to give the South, the 00:19:12.269 --> 00:19:14.609 slave states, more territory or influence in 00:19:14.609 --> 00:19:17.759 Mexico. So the treaty died. But it remains a 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:20.000 point of debate about how far Juarez was willing 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:21.980 to go. But in the end, the liberals turned the 00:19:21.980 --> 00:19:24.660 tide. They won on the battlefield. And in January 00:19:24.660 --> 00:19:29.000 1861, Juarez reentered Mexico City. The war was 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.200 over. The Constitution was safe. Time to relax. 00:19:32.380 --> 00:19:34.910 Right, right. If only. The country was in ruins. 00:19:35.150 --> 00:19:37.529 The treasury was completely empty. The infrastructure 00:19:37.529 --> 00:19:40.869 was destroyed. And this financial ruin led directly 00:19:40.869 --> 00:19:43.250 to the next even greater crisis. The debt crisis. 00:19:43.509 --> 00:19:47.809 Yes. In July 1861, Juarez suspended payments 00:19:47.809 --> 00:19:51.089 on all foreign debt for two years. He just said, 00:19:51.170 --> 00:19:53.349 we can't pay right now. We need to eat. We need 00:19:53.349 --> 00:19:55.569 to rebuild. And the European powers, Britain, 00:19:55.769 --> 00:19:58.490 Spain, and France did not take that well. No. 00:19:58.589 --> 00:20:00.710 They signed the Convention of London and sent 00:20:00.710 --> 00:20:03.369 fleets to Veracruz to demand payment. It was 00:20:03.369 --> 00:20:06.509 essentially a debt collection agency with battleships. 00:20:06.529 --> 00:20:08.410 But Britain and Spain eventually negotiated. 00:20:08.630 --> 00:20:11.289 They did. Juarez's diplomats convinced them that 00:20:11.289 --> 00:20:13.990 Mexico would pay eventually. They realized Mexico 00:20:13.990 --> 00:20:16.289 was broke and that whore wasn't worth it. So 00:20:16.289 --> 00:20:18.819 they went home. But France, France had other 00:20:18.819 --> 00:20:22.140 ideas. Enter Napoleon III. Napoleon III saw a 00:20:22.140 --> 00:20:24.420 huge opportunity. He didn't just want his money 00:20:24.420 --> 00:20:27.059 back. The United States was distracted by its 00:20:27.059 --> 00:20:29.460 own civil war, so they couldn't enforce the Monroe 00:20:29.460 --> 00:20:32.420 Doctrine. He had these grand imperial ambitions. 00:20:32.700 --> 00:20:35.240 He wanted to establish a monarchy in Mexico that 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:37.539 would serve as a client state and a buffer against 00:20:37.539 --> 00:20:40.180 U .S. expansion. He used the debt as a pretext 00:20:40.180 --> 00:20:42.579 to launch a full -scale invasion. And this brings 00:20:42.579 --> 00:20:46.799 us to the famous Cinco de Mayo. Right. May 5th, 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:50.420 1862. The French army, considered the best in 00:20:50.420 --> 00:20:52.539 the world at the time battle, hardened, well 00:20:52.539 --> 00:20:55.119 -equipped to march on the city of Puebla. They 00:20:55.119 --> 00:20:57.599 expected an easy walkover. They literally brought 00:20:57.599 --> 00:20:59.900 their dress uniforms to wear for the parade in 00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:02.480 Mexico City. They did. But the Mexican forces 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:04.980 under General Zaragoza repelled them. It was 00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:07.480 a stunning victory. It's so important to clarify, 00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:11.299 though, Cinco de Mayo didn't win the war. wasn't 00:21:11.299 --> 00:21:13.720 the end. No, not at all. It delayed the French 00:21:13.720 --> 00:21:16.799 advance by about a year. But the morale boost 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:19.299 was incalculable. It showed that the Republic 00:21:19.299 --> 00:21:21.960 could fight. It created this national myth of 00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:24.960 resistance. But the French were serious. Very. 00:21:25.259 --> 00:21:27.940 Napoleon sent reinforcements, 30 ,000 troops. 00:21:28.140 --> 00:21:31.119 They eventually took Puebla. And by 1863, they 00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:34.109 took Mexico City. So Juarez is on the run. Again. 00:21:34.150 --> 00:21:37.009 Again. But this time, the enemy isn't just a 00:21:37.009 --> 00:21:39.549 domestic political party. It's a foreign superpower 00:21:39.549 --> 00:21:42.309 backed by Mexican conservatives. And they brought 00:21:42.309 --> 00:21:45.609 in an emperor. Maximilian of Habsburg. Yes. A 00:21:45.609 --> 00:21:48.069 European prince, the brother of the Austrian 00:21:48.069 --> 00:21:51.329 emperor Franz Josef. The Mexican conservatives 00:21:51.329 --> 00:21:54.210 went to Europe and pitched him the throne. They 00:21:54.210 --> 00:21:56.329 told him the people of Mexico were clamoring 00:21:56.329 --> 00:21:59.390 for a savior. And he believed them. He did. He 00:21:59.390 --> 00:22:01.849 was a bit of a romantic, maybe a bit deluded. 00:22:01.970 --> 00:22:05.250 He arrived in 1864 with his wife Charlotte, or 00:22:05.250 --> 00:22:08.190 Carlotta. They set up court in Chapultepec Castle. 00:22:08.410 --> 00:22:10.970 So while Maximilian was playing emperor, organizing 00:22:10.970 --> 00:22:13.549 balls, and writing etiquette manuals, what was 00:22:13.549 --> 00:22:16.029 hard as doing? This is the period of the Wandering 00:22:16.029 --> 00:22:18.529 Republic. This is really the core of the Juarez 00:22:18.529 --> 00:22:22.029 legend. He refused to surrender. He refused to 00:22:22.029 --> 00:22:24.329 leave the country. He moved his government north, 00:22:24.650 --> 00:22:28.069 city by city, San Luis Potosi, Saltillo, Monterey, 00:22:28.109 --> 00:22:30.269 Chihuahua. I have read descriptions of this time 00:22:30.269 --> 00:22:32.869 where the entire government of Mexico was essentially 00:22:32.869 --> 00:22:35.869 contained in a black carriage. Juarez carrying 00:22:35.869 --> 00:22:38.509 the National Archives, the seal of the nation, 00:22:38.730 --> 00:22:41.069 just moving through the desert dust. And that 00:22:41.069 --> 00:22:43.829 image is so powerful because it was true. He 00:22:43.829 --> 00:22:46.069 argued that the republic wasn't a place. It was 00:22:46.069 --> 00:22:48.289 the law. It was the Constitution. As long as 00:22:48.289 --> 00:22:50.230 he, the constitutional president, was on Mexican 00:22:50.230 --> 00:22:53.130 soil, the republic lived. He eventually ended 00:22:53.130 --> 00:22:55.250 up in Paso del Norte, right on the border with 00:22:55.250 --> 00:22:58.230 the U .S., a place we now call Ciudad Juarez. 00:22:58.569 --> 00:23:01.720 He was literally at the edge of the map. He couldn't 00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:03.599 go any further north without leaving the country, 00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:06.440 and he was facing internal threats, too. Being 00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:09.200 on the run creates power vacuums. Right. One 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:11.680 of his own generals, Gonzales Ortega, argued 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:14.380 that Juarez's term had technically expired during 00:23:14.380 --> 00:23:17.019 the war and that he should step down. And technically 00:23:17.019 --> 00:23:20.680 it had. But Juarez used emergency powers to extend 00:23:20.680 --> 00:23:23.849 his own presidency. He argued, quite rationally, 00:23:23.950 --> 00:23:26.150 that you can't hold an election when half the 00:23:26.150 --> 00:23:28.829 country is occupied by a foreign army. He said, 00:23:28.930 --> 00:23:31.049 I will hold the office until we can have a vote. 00:23:31.329 --> 00:23:34.509 It was controversial. Some called it dictatorial. 00:23:34.630 --> 00:23:36.829 But he held the line. He kept the resistance 00:23:36.829 --> 00:23:39.450 united under his command. So what turned the 00:23:39.450 --> 00:23:41.930 tide? How does a government in a carriage defeat 00:23:41.930 --> 00:23:44.930 an empire backed by France? Geopolitics shifted 00:23:44.930 --> 00:23:48.690 again. In 1865, the U .S. Civil War ended. The 00:23:48.690 --> 00:23:51.890 Union won. And suddenly... the United States 00:23:51.890 --> 00:23:54.269 could look south again. And they were not happy 00:23:54.269 --> 00:23:56.150 about a French puppet state on their border. 00:23:56.349 --> 00:23:59.349 Not at all. They began supplying arms to Juarez 00:23:59.349 --> 00:24:02.150 and massing troops on the Rio Grande. They cited 00:24:02.150 --> 00:24:05.359 the Monroe Doctrine. No European empires in the 00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:07.619 Americas. That puts massive pressure on Napoleon. 00:24:07.900 --> 00:24:10.619 Huge pressure. And Napoleon was also facing the 00:24:10.619 --> 00:24:12.839 rise of pressure back in Europe. He needed his 00:24:12.839 --> 00:24:16.039 troops back home, so he cut his losses. He began 00:24:16.039 --> 00:24:19.819 withdrawing French troops in 1866. Maximilian 00:24:19.819 --> 00:24:22.640 was left alone. And Maximilian had a chance to 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:25.019 leave, didn't he? He did. The French urged him 00:24:25.019 --> 00:24:27.420 to abdicate. But he felt the sense of honor, 00:24:27.559 --> 00:24:29.980 a delusion perhaps, that he should stay and share 00:24:29.980 --> 00:24:32.480 the fate of his supporters. And he also made 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:36.400 a fatal mistake back in 1865. He signed the Black 00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:39.799 Decree. What was that? It was a decree that ordered 00:24:39.799 --> 00:24:42.799 the summary execution within 24 hours of anyone 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:45.339 found with arms fighting for the Republic. It 00:24:45.339 --> 00:24:47.240 treated the Republican soldiers not as prisoners 00:24:47.240 --> 00:24:50.480 of war, but as bandits. So thousands were shot 00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:52.740 under this order. Thousands. And that enraged 00:24:52.740 --> 00:24:54.859 the Republicans and made the war deeply personal. 00:24:55.099 --> 00:24:56.740 It meant that when the tables turned, there would 00:24:56.740 --> 00:24:59.819 be no mercy. Republican forces besieged Maximilian 00:24:59.819 --> 00:25:04.210 at Querétaro. He was captured in May 1867. And 00:25:04.210 --> 00:25:07.509 the world watched this. European monarchs, Victor 00:25:07.509 --> 00:25:10.630 Hugo, the Pope, they all wrote to Juarez pleading 00:25:10.630 --> 00:25:13.509 for Maximilian's life. He's a prince. Spare him. 00:25:13.569 --> 00:25:16.589 Just exile him. But Juarez was immovable. Utterly. 00:25:16.650 --> 00:25:20.089 And this is so important. He wasn't killing Maximilian 00:25:20.089 --> 00:25:22.789 out of personal spite. He believed he needed 00:25:22.789 --> 00:25:25.170 to send a message that would echo through history. 00:25:25.250 --> 00:25:28.190 He said, I must demonstrate that Mexico is a 00:25:28.190 --> 00:25:30.829 sovereign nation. Any foreigner who tries to 00:25:30.829 --> 00:25:33.359 conquer it will pay with their life. He wanted 00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:35.720 to end the cycle of foreign interventions once 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:39.960 and for all. So on June 19, 1867, Maximilian 00:25:39.960 --> 00:25:42.319 and his top generals were executed by a firing 00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:45.079 squad on the Hill of Bells. A harsh justice, 00:25:45.299 --> 00:25:47.839 but it effectively ended the era of European 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:52.039 intervention in Mexico. In July 1867, Juarez 00:25:52.039 --> 00:25:54.839 returned to Mexico City. The republic was restored. 00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:56.799 This period is called the Restored Republic. 00:25:57.119 --> 00:25:59.079 Juarez is back in the National Palace. But the 00:25:59.079 --> 00:26:01.079 story doesn't end with a happily ever after montage. 00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:03.240 The last few years were actually quite difficult, 00:26:03.319 --> 00:26:04.940 weren't they? They were. There's a saying that 00:26:04.940 --> 00:26:07.299 you campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose. 00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:09.740 And the prose was very dry and very difficult. 00:26:09.940 --> 00:26:11.839 Governing is harder than fighting. Much harder. 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:14.640 Juarez had to reconstruct a shattered nation. 00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:17.799 He focused heavily on agitation. He appointed 00:26:17.799 --> 00:26:20.539 a man named Gabino Bereda to reform the school 00:26:20.539 --> 00:26:24.000 system based on positivist ideals, science, and 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:27.119 logic over religious dogma. He tried to stabilize 00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:29.779 the economy. He reduced the size of the army. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:32.359 Which made a lot of soldiers angry. Very angry. 00:26:32.519 --> 00:26:34.880 And his personal life took a massive hit. Right. 00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:37.519 Margarita Maza, his partner through all the exile 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:41.180 and war, died of cancer in January 1871. It was 00:26:41.180 --> 00:26:43.599 a devastating blow to him. They had already lost 00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:46.150 five of their children young. And now he lost 00:26:46.150 --> 00:26:48.109 her. He was a man who had won the war but was 00:26:48.109 --> 00:26:50.569 losing his personal world. And politically, the 00:26:50.569 --> 00:26:53.289 hero shine started to wear off. It happens to 00:26:53.289 --> 00:26:55.849 all long -serving leaders. He ran for re -election 00:26:55.849 --> 00:26:58.690 in 1867, which was expected. But then he ran 00:26:58.690 --> 00:27:01.349 again in 1871. By then, he had been in power 00:27:01.349 --> 00:27:03.650 either as president or de facto leader for over 00:27:03.650 --> 00:27:06.529 a decade. And many liberals, including his old 00:27:06.529 --> 00:27:09.109 general, Porfirio Diaz, felt he was becoming 00:27:09.109 --> 00:27:11.369 autocratic. Right. The slogan of the liberals, 00:27:11.490 --> 00:27:13.470 the very slogan they used against Santa Ana, 00:27:13.650 --> 00:27:16.119 had been, Effective suffrage, no re -election. 00:27:16.259 --> 00:27:19.059 And here was Juarez re -electing himself. Exactly. 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.359 Porfirio Diaz actually launched a revolt, the 00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:24.759 Plan de la Noria, accusing Juarez of holding 00:27:24.759 --> 00:27:27.920 onto power indefinitely. And it is a profound 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:30.619 irony because Diaz would later become a dictator 00:27:30.619 --> 00:27:33.400 who stayed in power for 30 years. But at that 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:36.720 moment, in 1871, he was the one calling Juarez 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:39.420 a tyrant. He was. Juarez suppressed the revolt, 00:27:39.559 --> 00:27:42.599 but his health was failing. Yeah. On July 18, 00:27:42.839 --> 00:27:46.079 1872, Benito Juarez died of a heart attack in 00:27:46.079 --> 00:27:47.960 the National Palace. And there's this moving 00:27:47.960 --> 00:27:50.299 detail that he was working until the very end. 00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:52.059 He had chest pains, but he was still reading 00:27:52.059 --> 00:27:54.920 dispatches, trying to manage the country. A quiet 00:27:54.920 --> 00:27:57.700 end to a truly thunderous life. He was given 00:27:57.700 --> 00:28:00.259 a state funeral, and his legacy was almost immediately 00:28:00.259 --> 00:28:03.150 cemented. Even his rival, Porfirio Diaz, eventually 00:28:03.150 --> 00:28:05.509 helped build the Juarez myth to legitimize his 00:28:05.509 --> 00:28:08.569 own rule. He became the Benemerito de las Americas, 00:28:08.890 --> 00:28:10.930 the distinguished of the Americas. So when we 00:28:10.930 --> 00:28:12.750 look back at this incredible arc from the ship 00:28:12.750 --> 00:28:15.250 pasture in Guadalupe to the presidency, what 00:28:15.250 --> 00:28:17.430 is the key takeaway? Why does he still matter 00:28:17.430 --> 00:28:19.990 so much today? I think it's the triumph of the 00:28:19.990 --> 00:28:21.990 concept of the rule of law over the rule of men. 00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:26.150 Before Juarez, Mexico was run by carios, by charismatic 00:28:26.150 --> 00:28:28.690 generals on horseback, by the church. It was 00:28:28.690 --> 00:28:31.650 about personal power. Juarez wasn't a military 00:28:31.650 --> 00:28:34.369 leader. He was a civilian lawyer in a black suit. 00:28:34.549 --> 00:28:37.250 Exactly. He believed that the law, the Constitution, 00:28:37.329 --> 00:28:39.329 was the only thing that could make a nation out 00:28:39.329 --> 00:28:41.269 of a chaotic collection of regions and classes. 00:28:41.609 --> 00:28:44.089 He proved that the Mexican state could exist 00:28:44.089 --> 00:28:46.130 independently of the church and independently 00:28:46.130 --> 00:28:48.769 of Europe. He forced the world to take Mexico 00:28:48.769 --> 00:28:51.589 seriously as a sovereign entity. Precisely. And 00:28:51.589 --> 00:28:54.130 he proved that an indigenous man could lead that 00:28:54.130 --> 00:28:56.490 nation, shattering the colonial caste system 00:28:56.490 --> 00:28:59.809 that had said otherwise for 300 years. embodies 00:28:59.809 --> 00:29:02.130 the idea that the nation belongs to its citizens, 00:29:02.349 --> 00:29:05.069 not to a crown or a cross. But there is that 00:29:05.069 --> 00:29:07.390 lingering question from his later years, isn't 00:29:07.390 --> 00:29:09.970 there? That friction. There is. And it raises 00:29:09.970 --> 00:29:12.829 a really provocative thought. When does the necessary 00:29:12.829 --> 00:29:15.990 man become an obstacle to the democracy he saved? 00:29:16.630 --> 00:29:18.910 Juarez saved the Constitution by keeping a tight 00:29:18.910 --> 00:29:21.470 grip on power during the war, but he struggled 00:29:21.470 --> 00:29:24.130 to let go of that grip when the peace came. It's 00:29:24.130 --> 00:29:25.990 a tension that runs through all of political 00:29:25.990 --> 00:29:29.019 history. knowing when the battle is over and 00:29:29.019 --> 00:29:31.779 when it's time to step aside. It really is. That 00:29:31.779 --> 00:29:34.319 is a thought worth holding on to. Next time you 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:36.440 look at a 20 -peso bill, don't just see the face. 00:29:36.779 --> 00:29:39.779 See the cigar maker in New Orleans, the prisoner 00:29:39.779 --> 00:29:42.279 facing the firing squad in Guadalajara, and the 00:29:42.279 --> 00:29:44.440 man in the black carriage refusing to surrender 00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:47.880 a republic. Thanks for listening to this deep 00:29:47.880 --> 00:29:49.160 dive into Benio Juarez.