Porfirio Diaz
From Philosopedia
Diaz, Porfirio [President] (15 September 1830 - 2 July 1915)
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori became Mexico's long-lived 19th century president, was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, one of seven children in a Mixtec Indian family. Educated at a Catholic Mexican seminary and intended for the Church by his family, Diaz renounced Catholicism and church corruption by age 16.
Diaz became an attorney and early leader of anti-cleric progressives. He became a celebrated fighter and general in the War of Reform to overthrow dictator Santa Anna, then led the fight against the French invasion of Mexico by Emperor Maximilian in the 1860s.
He served as president of Mexico from 1877 to 1880 and was so popular that a law forbidding second terms was revoked so that he could run again. He was president from 1884 to 1910. While some view him as a tyrant and others hail him as a hero, history records that under his autocratic rule Mexico saw peace and improved prosperity. He became the most famous leader of the anti-clericals.
Because of his efforts, Mexico became a much safer place for freethinkers and other non-believers, and he drastically checked the corrupt Church in Mexico. In addition, the number of public schools rose from two to six thousand. A rationalist who believed in the scientific method, Diaz saw that railroads, roads, and telegraph lines were constructed.
During the last decade of his rule, he was fraudulently re-elected, sparking a revolution by Francisco I. Madero. In 1911, Diaz fled the country, dying in exile.
