- Benito Juárez
On July 18th, 1872, Mexico’s president Benito Pablo Juarez Garcia passed away. It was rembembered by some facts of his life, mainly, because He was president when France supported Maximiliano of Habsburg as mexican emperor and during US Civil War. But also because was one of the few indigenous people who had been president in 200 years of independent life of the country.
One of the most recognized facts of his presidency was the effective separation between Church and State; previous to the Civil Register Office who he created, all the borns, marriages and deaths was registered only on the Catholic Church offices, so all the people from other denominations was not allowed to do a living easily. But also, Juarez was a migrant worker to the US, who lived in New Orleans working on tobacco factories, rolling cigars -even when he was a lawyer in Mexico, he had to do that kind of work.
He was one of the most important free markets and liberal revolutionary in Mexico’s history. But for some this part of his biography is not as important as to be anticlerical. I think his main legacy was to promote Mexico’s economic development in interesting and new ways.
