Victoriano Huerta's Dictatorship and Women's Participation in the Mexican Revolution

Victoriano Huerta and the Mexican Revolution

Victoriano Huerta (born December 23, 1854, Colotlán, Mexico—died January 13, 1916, El Paso, Texas, U.S.) was the dictatorial president of Mexico from February 18, 1913, to July 15, 1914. His repressive regime inadvertently united disparate revolutionary forces in common opposition to him.

Rise to Power and the Coup

Born of Indian parents, Huerta trained at the Chapultepec Military College and eventually rose to the rank of general in the army during the rule of the dictator Porfirio Díaz. Though an admirer of Díaz, Huerta served his successor, the liberal president Francisco Madero, as chief of staff of the army.

When part of the army in Mexico City rebelled against Madero in February 1913, Huerta joined forces with the rebels, compelled Madero to resign, and assumed the presidency himself. Madero was shot a few days later on Huerta’s orders.

Dictatorship and Downfall

Huerta dissolved the legislature and established a military dictatorship. His rule was both inefficient and severely repressive. He was almost immediately confronted with opposition from Constitutionalist forces led by:

• Venustiano Carranza
• Álvaro Obregón
• Pancho Villa
• Emiliano Zapata

These forces won the support of Woodrow Wilson, the newly elected U.S. president, who refused to recognize Huerta. Wilson sent troops to occupy Veracruz and permitted arms to reach the rebels. Defeated by the Constitutionalist forces, Huerta resigned on July 15, 1914, and fled to Spain. He went to the United States in 1915, was arrested on charges of fomenting rebellion in Mexico, and died in custody at Fort Bliss.

The Role of Women in the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)

Women played a significant but, until recently, largely overlooked role in the complex and destructive civil war known as the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920.

Their involvement spanned several distinct groups:

• Educated Activists: A number of women trained and educated in vocational and normal schools, and molded by the incipient feminist movement of the Porfirian era, actively sought involvement in the struggle during its various phases.
• Lower Class Participants: A much larger number of women of the rural and urban lower classes found themselves caught up in the struggle and had no choice but to become actively involved, especially in the military aspects of the Revolution.
• Victims and Casualties: Still others, numbering in the hundreds of thousands and including women of every class, were among the victims and casualties of that conflict.
• Anti-Clerical Opposition: Lastly, women of primarily, but not exclusively, middle and upper class origins who strongly identified with the Catholic Church became active and bitter enemies of the decidedly anti-clerical leadership of the Revolution.