Ju�rez, Benito (Pablo) 1806-72
Mexican national hero and statesman

A Zapotec Indian, he was a clerk and lawyer and then Governor of Oaxaca (1847-52). Exiled by Conservatives under Santa Anna (1853-55), he then returned to join the new Liberal government. Proposing fundamental change, he abolished the fueros, seized control of Church lands, and passed the anticlerical and Liberal constitution of 1857. During the civil war of 1857-60 he assumed the presidency, upholding a free Church in a free State. He was elected President on the Liberal victory (1861), a post he held until his death. The French invasion under Maximilian forced him to the far north, from where he directed resistance until Maximilian's defeat in 1867. He then restored republican rule, creating the basis for the regime of Porf�rio D�az.

Bibliography: Ralph Roeder, Ju�rez and His Mexico (2 vols, 1947)