Álvaro Obregón

Alvaro Obregon was born near Alamos, in the Mexican state of Sonora, to a family of poor farmers (one story is that his grandfather was an Irish immigrant railroad worker named O'Brien, which would account for Obregon's pale complexion and reddish hair, traits uncommon in Mexicans; supposedly, his father "Mexicanized" the family name to Obregon). In 1911 he was elected mayor of Huatabampo, as a supporter of reformist President Francisco I. Madero, who was engaged in putting down a rebellion led by renegade Gen. Pascual Orozco. Later Madero was overthrown and assassinated by Gen. Victoriano Huerta--who had originally helped Madero put down Orozco's rebellion but who soon turned against him--and Obregon joined such notable Mexican figures as Gen. Venustiano Carranza and former bandits Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata in the fight to overthrow Huerta, which was accomplished on July 24, 1914. Obregon was appointed by Carranza to be Minister of War and Secretary of the Navy; when Villa and Zapata later rebelled against Carranza, Obregon supported him and helped to lead Carranza's forces in putting down the revolt. Although Villa had a reputation for daring and imaginative tactics, Obregon was a trained soldier--which Villa wasn't--and that paid off in two famous battles later to become landmarks in Mexican history: the battle of Guanajuato and a week later the battle of Celaya, both of which resulted in defeats for Villa's forces (and, in the case of Celaya, very heavy casualties; he lost 3000 dead in one day). Two weeks later Villa again attacked Obregon, this time at the battle of Trinidad and Santa Ana del Conde, and was again soundly defeated (it was in this battle that Obregon lost an arm). Villa waited until mid-July to try another attack on Obregon, this time at Aguascalientes, but was decisively defeated again (although these battles took place over a period of four months and were fought at different locations, they are known collectively as the Battle of Celaya). Obregon's foresight in seeing the advantages of field artillery for offense and the use of masses of machine guns and successive layers of heavily fortified trenches for defense, and his skillful tactical use of them, was in large part responsible for his victory and had the effect of turning the battlefield advantage to the defenders. A good example of that principle took place at the second battle at Celaya, in which Villa's troops made a direct assault on Obregon's front line, which was defended by ascending and interlaced rows of machine guns, resulting in the loss of hundreds of Villa's men while Obregon's casualties were minimal. After helping to defeat the Villa/Zapata rebellion--Villa finally gave up the fight and returned home to Durango, while Zapata was assassinated by men looking to collect the bounty Carranza had placed on him--Obregon returned to political life. When it came time to pick a successor to Carranza, Obregon--who had wanted the job himself--discovered that Carranza had picked one of his own men rather than Obregon. This, in conjunction with many of Carranza's land and social reforms that had angered the powerful Catholic church and the country's wealthy landowners, resulted in Obregon organizing a revolt against Carranza (ironically, he found support among his old enemies when the remnants of Emiliano Zapata's forces joined him). Carranza's army was eventually defeated and in 1920 Carranza himself was ambushed and killed while trying to reorganize his forces in the state of Puebla. Gen. Rodolfo Herrera was appointed provisional president until elections could be held in December, which resulted in Obregon being elected as Mexico's president. Obregon's four years as president were marked by widespread agrarian reforms and the resumption of good relations with the US, due in large part to Mexico's sale of oil to its giant neighbor to the north. He put down a revolt by Gen. Adolfo de la Herrera, who rebelled when he found that Obregon was going to pick Plutarco Elías Calles to succeed him as president, a job that Herrera believed should be his. Herrera's revolt was quickly put down, and soon afterward Obregon stepped down and Calles took office. Calles' administration believed that the Catholic Church wielded far too much power in Mexico and had too much control over the people (the country was approximately 98% Catholic), and instituted policies designed to strip the Church of much of its power and influence. This resulted in what became known as the Cristero War, a period from 1926-929 marked by widespread revolts and rebellions by many of the country's Catholics, a revolt spurred on by the Church itself, which branded Calles and his administration as "atheistic" and "Communists". In 1928 Obregon ran for re-election and won; he returned to Mexico City to celebrate. On July 27 he was shot and killed in Mexico City by a Catholic fanatic who believed Obregon was trying to destroy the church.