Benito Juárez García, former president of Mexico, has been one of the most prominent characters in the history of Mexico, more specifically, of the second half of the 19th century.
He was in front of the country when the second French intervention took place, which led to the Second Empire of Mexico, led by Maximilian of Habsburg and his wife Carlota from Belgium, from 1864 to 1867. It was also Juarez who decided that the emperor should be shot when he was captured at the Cerro de las Campanas, in Querétaro. In addition, it removed privileges from the church and separated it from the state.
Juarez was married to Margarita Maza, who, in addition to being his wife, supported and advised him during the difficult times of his life. Together they had 12 children: nine women and three men. Of these, three women and two men died when they were little. Because of this, only one of his sons survived, who was named Benito Juárez Maza, who died on a day like today, April 20, 1912.
Juárez Maza was a controversial character. He grew up surrounded by women, and in some way, intimidated by the presence of his brothers-in-law, including Pedro Santacilia, who was a close friend of his father. He was married to a Frenchwoman named Maria Klerian, with whom he had no children.
It is said that he used his father's name to profit. He always signed as Benito Juárez, without the Maza. He followed in the footsteps of his father, who died when he was 20, so he had the opportunity to live for a while in the National Palace and to participate in the high honors of the Merciful of the Americas. This marked him for the rest of his life.
After studying in the United States, during a family exile, Juarez Maza enrolled in the National Preparatory School, and like his father, he would take a career in law, from which he dropped out.
Although Porfirio Díaz questioned the government of Benito Juárez, through the Plan de la Noria, he always recognized what it represented, so he later admitted Juárez Maza and sent him as a diplomat to several countries in Europe: Italy, Germany and France.
The son of the expressant also dabbled, like his father, in Freemasonry. There are a couple of documents, one in which you are given the appointment to grade 13 and another that gives you grade 32. However, both are from the same day: April 16, 1893, although the ascent in a lodge was not immediate, something that suggests that its name influenced certain aspects.
Apparently, he had good relations with President Porfirio Díaz, who favored him with several concessions in his business, and as a deputy he had an ally. In the House, he was one of the deputies, along with his friend José Peón del Valle, who refused to accept Diaz's resignation in 1911.
His membership in the Liberal Party and his closeness to Bernardo Reyes separated him from the Porfirian regime. This is manifested in that he was not the candidate in the state of Oaxaca, on the part of Diaz, but that he launched himself from the Liberal Party, which led him to lose the governorship, to his rival Emilio Pimentel.
Already with Diaz out of the country, when he went into exile in France after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, Díaz Maza would manage to reach the government of Oaxaca, however, with the armed conflict that was going on in the country, he was unable to understand this process.
He died on April 20, 1912, suddenly and unexpectedly, at the age of 59, in his rooms in the Government Palace of Oaxaca, due to an apparent heart condition.
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