- Gildardo Magaña
Gildardo Magaña Cerda (
March 7 ,1891 -December 13 1939 ) was a Mexican general, politician and revolutionary.Born 1891 in
Zamora ,Michoacán , to a Liberal trading family and was sent to study economy in the U.S. Back in Mexico he was involved in theanti-reelectionist movement and had to flee to the insurrectionary Zapatista country people inMorelos in 1911. He was immediately made use of as emissary to various revolutionaries in different parts of Mexico, among others toPancho Villa whom he is reported to have taught reading. In 1916 he was appointed chief of staff toEmiliano Zapata , because he was the only one who was able to make unruly sub-commanders of the movement cooperate instead of quarrel, using his personal charm as well as his outstanding diplomatic skill for the task.When Zapata was killed in 1919, he was elected his successor with 18 votes against 11 for
Jesús Capistrán . As commander-in-chief of the Zapastist army, he made it his supreme business to achieve a durable peace. To that purpose he cultivated various possible allies, in vain untilÁlvaro Obregón revolted in 1920. Magaña immediately declared his and his movement's support and provided Obregón with the army with which he conquered Mexico D.F. In return, the movement got the Ministry of Agriculture and its desired agrarian reform made law.Under Obregón's and his successors' presidencies, Magaña held several high military commands but also found time to found the Confederación Nacional Agraria, the Cardenist peasants’ union. In 1936 he was elected governor of his native state of Michoacán, a post he held until his death (by a heart attack) in 1939. Shortly before his death he was suggested as a candidate for
Lázaro Cárdenas 's successor as president but declined.Literature
* John Womack: Zapata and the Mexican revolution, Vintage 1968.
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