Benito Juárez was a Mexican attorney and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim president, and presidential terms of 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872.  He resisted the French occupation, fought to overthrow  Maximilian I who Napoleon III was instrumental in making Emperor of Mexico, restored the Republic, and used liberal reforms to modernize the country.  Juárez’s reforms were the triumph of Mexico's liberal, federalist, anti-clerical, and pro-capitalist forces over the conservative, centralist, corporatist, and theocratic elements of the old colonial system.  Benito Juárez is the only person of indigenous origins to have served as president of Mexico.  Manuel Hidalgo started the revolution that result in Mexico’s independence from Spain.  However, following independence Mexico was ruled by those of pure Spanish blood born in Mexico (often termed Creoles).  The reforms of Benito Juárez opened many doors for Mestizo (those of mixed Spanish and Indian blood) and those of indigenous (Indian) blood to become the legal equals of the Creoles and well as furthering their economic prospects.  His impact on Mexican society is probably greater than that of any other Mexican president.  It is not improper to see him as a second George Washington in Mexican history as his reforms so transformed Mexico that in essence it became a different country.  Prior to 2006 Benito Juarez’s Birthday was celebrated on March 21st.  Thereafter it has been celebrated on the third Monday in March.  Benito Juarez’s birthday is a Mexican federal holiday.  Employees are entitled to a day off with pay.  Banks, schools, government offices and many businesses will close for the holiday.

Benito Pablo Juárez García (1806–1872) was born on March 21, 1806 in a small adobe home in the village of San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca, located in the mountain range now known as the "Sierra Juárez".  His parents, Marcelino Juárez and Brígida García, were indigenous (Indian) peasants who both died of complications of diabetes when he was three years old.  Shortly thereafter, his grandparents died as well, and his uncle then raised him.  He described his parents as "indios de la raza primitiva del país," that is, "Indians of the original race of the country." He worked in the corn fields and as a shepherd until the age of twelve, when he walked to the city of Oaxaca de Juárez to attend school.  At the time, he was illiterate and could not speak Spanish, only Zapotec.In the city, where his sister worked as a cook, he took a job as a domestic servant for Antonio Maza.  A lay Franciscan, Antonio Salanueva, was impressed with young Benito's intelligence and thirst for learning, and arranged for his placement at the city's seminary.  In 1843 Benito married Margarita Maza.Juárez became a lawyer in 1834 and a judge in 1841.  He was governor of the state of Oaxaca from 1847 to 1852.  In 1853, he went into exile because of his objections to the corrupt military dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna.  He spent his exile in New Orleans, Louisiana, working in a cigar factory.  In 1854 he helped draft the Plan of Ayutla as the basis for a liberal revolution in Mexico.Faced with growing opposition, Santa Anna resigned in 1855 and Juárez returned to Mexico.  The winning party, the liberals (liberals), formed a provisional government under General Juan Álvarez, inaugurating the period known as the Reform (La Reforma). The Reform laws sponsored by the pure (puro) wing of the Liberal Party curtailed the power of the Catholic Church and the military, while trying to create a modern civil society and capitalist economy based on the U.S. model. Juárez's Law (Ley Juárez) of 1855, declared all citizens equal before the law, and severely restricted  the privileges of the Catholic Church.  All the reform efforts ended on the writing of the new federalist constitution.  Juárez became Chief Justice, under moderate (moderado) president Ignacio Comonfort.The conservatives led by General Félix Zuloaga, with the backing of the military and the clergy, launched a revolt under the Plan of Tacubaya on December 17, 1857. Comonfort did not want to start a bloody civil war, so made an auto-coup d'état, dissolved the congress and appointed a new cabinet, in which the conservative party would have some influence, assuming in real terms the Tacubaya plan.  Juárez, Ignacio Olvera, and many other deputies and ministers were arrested.  The rebels wanted the constitution revoked completely and another all-conservative government formed, so they launched another revolt on January 11, 1858, proclaiming Zuloaga as president. Comonfort re-established the congress, freeing all the prisoners and resigned as president.  Under the new constitution, the chief justice immediately became interim president until proper elections could be held.  Juárez took office in late January 1858. Juárez then led the liberal side in the Mexican War of the Reform, first from Querétaro and later from Veracruz. In 1859, Juárez took the radical step of declaring the confiscation of church properties.  In spite of the conservatives' initial military advantage, the liberals drew on support of regionalist forces.  They had U.S. help under some terms of the controversial and never approved McLane–Ocampo Treaty.  This turned the tide in 1860; the liberals recaptured Mexico City in January 1861.  Juárez was elected president in March for another four-year term, under the Constitution of 1857.  Juárez stopped making Mexico’s foreign debt payments to Spain, Great Britain and France.  Spain, Great Britain, and France reacted with a joint seizure of the Veracruz customs house in December 1861.  Spain and Britain soon withdrew after realizing that the French Emperor Napoleon III used the episode as a pretext to launch the French intervention in Mexico in 1862, with plans to establish a conservative regime in which Maximilian I was installed as Emperor of Mexico.  The Mexicans won an initial victory over the French at Puebla in 1862, celebrated annually as Cinco de Mayo (May 5th). The French advanced again in 1863, forcing Juárez and his elected government to retreat to the north, first to San Luis Potosí, then to the arid northern city of El Paso del Norte, present day Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and finally to the capital of the state, Chihuahua City, where he set up his cabinet and government-in-exile.  There remained for the next two and a half years. Meanwhile Maximilian von Habsburg, a younger brother of the Emperor of Austria, was proclaimed Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico on April 10, 1864 with the backing of Napoleon III and a group of Mexican conservatives.  Before Juárez fled, Congress granted him an emergency extension of his presidency, which would go into effect in 1865, when his term expired, and last until 1867 when the last of Maximilian's forces were defeated.In response to the French intervention and the elevation of Maximilian, Juárez sent General Plácido Vega y Daza to the U.S. State of California to gather Mexican American sympathy for Mexico's plight.  Maximilian, who personally harbored liberal and Mexican nationalist sympathies, offered Juárez amnesty, and later the post of prime minister, but Juárez refused to accept either a government "imposed by foreigners", or a monarchy.  A monarchy, founded by Emperor Augustine I, was Mexico’s first form of government after Mexico independence achieved it independence from Spain in 1821.  The monarchy was  abolished only a year later, during a domestic crisis.  When the United States Civil war ended, U.S. President Andrew Johnson invoked the Monroe Doctrine to give diplomatic recognition to Juárez' government and supply weapons and funding to the Mexican Republican forces.  When Andrew Johnson was unable to obtain support in Congress, he supposedly had the Army "lose" some supplies (including rifles) "near" (across) the border with Mexico.  He would not even meet with representatives of Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico. U.S. General Philip Sheridan was sent to take command of the U.S. military forces in Texas.  He wrote in his journal about how he "misplaced" about 30,000 muskets close to Mexico.  The United States informed France that the presence of French troops in Mexico was a matter of grave concern.  Faced about 50,000 veteran U.S. troops on its border under the command of a very competent general and with a growing threat from Prussia, the French troops began pulling out of Mexico in late 1866. Mexican conservatism was a spent force and was less than pleased with the liberal Maximilian.  In 1867 the last of the Emperor's forces were defeated and Maximilian was sentenced to death by a military court.  Despite national and international pleas for amnesty, Juárez refused to commute the sentence, and Maximilian was executed by firing squad on June 19, 1867 at Cerro de las Campanas in Querétaro. (Maximilian paid the firing squad in gold coins not to shoot him in the face so his mother could see his body.  They took his money, but broke their promise by shooting him in the face.)  His body was returned to Europe for burial.  His last words had been, '¡Viva México!'Juárez was controversially re-elected President in 1867 and 1871, using the office of the presidency to ensure electoral success and suppressing revolts by opponents such as Porfirio Díaz.  Benito Juárez died of a heart attack in 1872.  He was succeeded by Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, his foreign minister.Today Benito Juárez is remembered as being a progressive reformer dedicated to democracy, equal rights for his nation's indigenous peoples, his antipathy toward organized religion, especially the Catholic Church, and what he regarded as defense of national sovereignty. The period of his leadership is known in Mexican history as The Reform of the North (La Reforma del Norte), and constituted a liberal political and social  revolution with major institutional consequences: the expropriation of church lands, bringing the army under civilian control, liquidation of peasant communal land holdings, the separation of church and state in public affairs, and also led to the almost-complete disenfranchisement of bishops, priests, nuns and lay brothers.The Reform (La Reforma) represented the triumph of Mexico's liberal, federalist, anti-clerical, and pro-capitalist forces over the conservative, centralist, corporatist, and theocratic elements that sought to reconstitute a locally-run version of the old colonial system.  It replaced a semi-feudal social system with a more market-driven one, but following Juárez's death, the lack of adequate democratic and institutional stability soon led to a return to centralized autocracy and economic exploitation under the regime of Porfirio Díaz.  The Porfirist (Porfiriato) era, in turn, collapsed at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. (Which I hope to cover in greater detail in a post regarding the November 20th Día de la Revolución holiday.)