feliz cumpleaños, benito

No. Not that one. 

The birthday we celebrate this three-day weekend is not that of the late and not-lamented Il Duce, but that of President Benito Juárez.

The beaches and restaurants are filled with Mexican tourists. The orange juice guy on the highway has abandoned his customary post. And Dora messaged me that she would not be in today because she and her family are on their way to Manzanillo to celebrate the man known by some as "The Lincoln of Mexico."

The Mussolini-Juárez connection is not one of my inventions. Benito Mussolini's father was an avid socialist, just as his son would be, and admired Benito Juárez's commitment to humanism. So much so that he named his elder son Benito. Juárez most likely would be horrified at both comparisons.

There was much to respect about Juárez. He was the only full-blooded Indian (Zapotec, in his case) to serve as president of Mexico. Ironically, he would have disliked the label. As a leading liberal, he railed against what we now refer to as "identity politics." He found his blood line to be irrelevant. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., he believed people should not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

So, how did a young Zapotec overcome the class restrictions of early nineteenth century Mexico to climb to the top of the greasy pole? As is true with so many of these Horatio Alger tales, it was through the beneficence of one man.

Antonio Salanueva, a Secular Franciscan recognized that the young Juárez was intelligent and motivated, and assisted him in entering school to become a priest. That career did not happen because Juárez felt he had not been called to the priesthood. Instead, he became a lawyer. 

Even though Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, the country was divided over an existential question. How Mexicans would identify themselves.

There was a major political split between conservatives (who looked to Spain and Europe for political inspiration and favored a strong central government) and liberals (who looked north to the United States and to a mythical Aztec past for social and political ideals; they also favored de-centralized power). Each group argued their position was the true Mexican identity.

These battles were not merely intellectual. They were also physical fights for political control finally breaking out in the War of Reforma (1857-1861).

Prior to the war, Juárez married well, and became active in the liberal cause in his home state of Oaxaca where he joined forces with other liberals in challenging the power of the Catholic Church -- the very institution that had provided him with the opportunity to advance in Mexican society.

And rise he did. To become the governor of Oaxaca, where he came into conflict with one of Mexico's true scoundrels -- President (and dictator) Antonio Santa Anna -- the man who lost the northern half of Mexico to the United States. In fear of his life, Juárez went into exile in New Orleans in 1853, where he fleshed out several liberal principles that he would support when he returned to Mexico: that all Mexicans should be equal before the law and that the powers of the Catholic Church and the Mexican Army should be restricted. His activism eventually led to his election as Chief Justice of a newly-constituted Mexican Supreme Court.

When liberal President Comonfort was forced to resign in 1858, the constitution designated the chief justice as interim president. The "interim" label did not last long. Juárez would be elected to the office three times in his own right.

His terms as president were responsible for much of what we know as Mexico today. The church was stripped of its income-producing lands and some of its church buildings. The land was then distributed to the Indians from whom the church had taken the land.

Unfortunately, the reform did not last long. The new landholders eventually sold, or were forced to sell, their land to large landholders. When the next great land reform happened after the Revolution, the law entailed the Ejido holdings to prevent a similar failure.

Juárez also survived the years when a French emperor (Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew) put an Austrian archduke on the Mexican throne as Maximilio I -- forcing Juárez to flee for his life. Once again, he was in exile. This time in the portion of northern Mexico the French had not conquered.

Events in Europe and active opposition from the United States forced the French emperor to withdraw his troops from Mexico, leaving Maximilio to defend his throne with the support of Mexican conservatives. Juarez’s liberal Mexicans prevailed, Maximilio was executed, and Juárez resumed his position as president and continued the liberal reform movement.

Like far too many politicians who have faced tumultuous careers, Juárez probably stayed in office too long. He eventually turned on one of the defining elements of the liberals (decentralization of political power) and created a highly-centralized government in Mexico City.

Eventually, a young liberal general by the name of Porfirio Diaz revolted against him when Juárez declared he would once again seek reelection. Juárez put down the revolt, but he died soon after. The next 40 years of power would belong to that young liberal general (Porfirio Diaz) who also outstayed his worth becoming a notorious dictator.

For Juárez , it was a rather tragic ending to a career that held so much promise.

But it is not for the dreams that were not realized that we celebrate Benito Juárez's birthday. It is because he set Mexico on the modern path that we recognize today.

And certainly that is good enough to pause in our work week, to take off a Monday to thank and remember him.