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Who Is Porfirio Díaz A Hero?

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Porfirio Díaz, born in Oaxaca had to participate in the Mexican- American War of 1848 at the age of 18. The Americans won the battle as they annexed approximately half of Mexico’s territory. The Mexicans encountered a large amount of invaders and had to defend their own land. Díaz fought and became a hero after the war defending themselves against the French occupation during 1860s. Afterwards he was qualified as a commander in Benito Juarez’s Central Army (Tellas, Raymond, The Storm that Swept Mexico). Porfirio Díaz was well known during the time and was elected as a president. However, he has disappointed many who considered him a hero after dictating Mexico for 35 years (Mexconnect, The Mexican Revolution). Several social issues led citizens of Mexico to start a revolution against Díaz and his long-term dictatorship. …show more content…

His ambition led him to remake Mexico City into the great European cities as he admired Europeans. He eliminated the influence of their indigenous culture and disappointed many citizens as they disapproved Díaz’ action. He worked on building factories, dams, and roads taking up farmers land and freedom. “The rural workers and peasants suffered greatly” (Glover, PBS). After Díaz realized the amount of people that disliked him, he reigned and maintained his own power sending a campaign of bullying and intimidated citizens to support him. The citizens had absolute no power. The amount of rebellions were too high, Díaz’ office known as the “Porfiriato” was heavily armed to defend president from the rebellions. Any freedoms of speech or complaints were not tolerated in his office. Citizens especially the peasants’ freedom was limited and minimal but were too afraid of confront as Díaz scares his own citizens to support

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