Salvador Alvarado

Salvador Alvarado was born on September 16, 1880, in Culiacán, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa to Timoteo Alvarado and Antonia Rubio. His family moved to a Yaqui pueblo, known as Pótam, in Sonora when Alvarado was around eight years old. As a young man, he moved to the port of Guaymas and worked in the pharmacy of Don Luis G. Dávila. He later moved to Cananea, where he opened his own pharmacy and worked for several years as a pharmacist and merchant. In 1906, he joined the Partido Liberal Mexicano (Mexican Liberal Party) whose members were against the re-election of President Porfirio Díaz and began participating in clandestine activities for Díaz's opponent Ricardo Flores Magón. In 1910 Alvarado joined the Anti-Reelectionist Party in Sonora, which had been established by, Benjamín G. Hill. Later that same year, he and other young idealists with revolutionary fervor attacked a military barracks in Hermosillo, Sonora. Their failed assault resulted in some of the rebels being executed and others, like Salvador Alvarado, escaped into Arizona. ==Military career==

In 1911, when Francisco I. Madero who had also been exiled into Texas, wrote the Plan de San Luis Potosí calling for the election to be declared null and void, and for Díaz to be overthrown, Alvarado recrossed the border into Mexico. He joined the revolutionary army as a captain, fighting Porfirio Díaz, The conflicts kept Alvarado busy and he steadily climbed the military ranks from Major to Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel and finally General. Madero sent General Victoriano Huerta in 1912, to quash their revolt and he quickly defeated Orozco and sent him into exile. With the events known as "La Decena Trágica" (Ten Tragic Days), which occurred from 9 to 19 February 1913, Mexico City was under siege and bombardment, Huerta gained control of the military, staged a coup d'état, had Madero, his vice president and most loyal officers killed and declared himself president. Within days of the murder of Madero and Gonzalez, Venustiano Carranza took over as the revolutionary leader, calling himself "First Chief of the Constitutionalist Forces". Alvarado did not recognize the presidency of Huerta and immediately joined the constitutionalist revolution led by Carranza, By June 1914, José María Maytorena, Maderista Governor of Sonora, whose government was being undermined by Alvarado, Calles, Obregon and Carranza, gave his support to Villa in the struggle against Carranza. Maytorena's Yaqui generals Francisco Urbalejo and Jose Maria Acosta then stated they would shoot Alvarado if he led an attempt to remove Maytorena from office or command of his forces. In July, Alvarado was sent to the port of Guaymas, was captured and imprisoned in July by Maytorena, but was able to escape in late September. He made his way to join Carranza in the center of Mexico and was ordered to proceed to Puebla to organize the Constitutionalist troops of Puebla and Tlaxcala. With the triumph of the constitutionalists, Carranza dispatched many of his officers to bring order and establish governments in various states. ==Governorship==

Alvarado took six months after arriving in Mérida to evaluate the conditions he found, gathering data from all social levels assisted by local Yucatecos. He staffed his bureaucracy with a mix of "conservative planters and radical intellectuals" and forged a coalition One of his first actions was to address the situation of the Maya peasants and liberate them from serfdom, prohibiting their confinement, forced guardianships, retention of their children, and whipping as well as other corporal punishment. He canceled their indenture debts with the landowners Alvarado established "Tribunals of the Revolution" in each of the 16 partidos (districts) of the state to ensure that courts were accessible to everyone. Lawyers were prohibited, only the commander and secretary of the military court were allowed to participate, so that judgments were quickly obtained and unintimidating to the ignorant or poor. The military commanders resolved more than 3,600 cases ranging from reparations of robbery to abandonment to payments for rape or loss of honor. Alvarado claimed that he had passed over 1,000 decrees during his three-year tenure as governor. One of his first acts reformed what was known as the "Five Sisters" – labor, land, property title registration, state treasury and municipal governance. In addition to freeing the Maya from debt servitude, to oversee land and farm worker issues. Alvarado also established the agente de propaganda, a proto-ombudsman position, who was responsible for reporting abuses against common people by the landed class and merchants or violations of law. These local "agents," like Felipe Carrillo Puerto, a later Yucatán governor, spoke both Spanish and Maya and helped create a sense of local justice and access in even the most remote or smallest village. as well as prohibiting employers from forcing their religious beliefs on workers. Alvarado had studied both European and United States feminist theory and socialism Alvarado's prohibition law was one of the most restrictive in Mexico and even made drunkenness sufficient grounds for divorce. He did not pass laws criminalizing prostitution, but instead required regular health inspections for prostitutes. Anti-vice legislation aimed to eliminate bordellos and pimps, and fined men who used prostitutes or passed on venereal disease. and a law which created an office of Public Works. When Alvarado was recalled for military duty in other parts of Mexico in 1918, he appointed Carlos Castro Morales to succeed him and Felipe Carrillo Puerto as head of the Partido Socialista de Yucatán, the Yucatecan Socialist Party. ==Carranza appointment and exile==

In 1917, Carranza appointed Alvarado Chief of Military Operations for Southeast Mexico, which required that Alvarado spend many months away from Mérida. Dissolution of support created factionalism and one of the most powerful factions was Los Sonorenses (The Sonoran Men), which included Adolfo de la Huerta, Alvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles, Benjamín G. Hill, and Salvador Alvarado. Alvarado founded a newspaper in 1919, El Heraldo de México, which he used as a platform to discuss intellectual ideals. Some, including Obregón, felt that the paper was a stage for Alvarado to gain national exposure for a presidential bid, but the claim was denied by Alvarado. Obregón remained skeptical of the denial and tensions between the two slowly began escalating. Alvarado's political activities also angered Carranza, who had him arrested. He was released in January, 1920 and exiled to the United States. Returning from exile, Alvarado and other of Los Sonorenses joined Obregón's Plan of Agua Prieta in April, 1920. == Secretary of the Treasury and rebellion ==

Following Carranza's assassination and Adolfo de la Huerta's election as the Interim President of Mexico on 1 June 1920, Alvarado was named Secretary of the Treasury. and Alvarado left the Treasury and began working as the Director of Free Ports and Secretary of the Advisory Board of Petroleum. In 1922, Alvarado was in Yucatán and U.S. newspapers were reporting that he was meeting with leaders who were in opposition to Obregón and his chosen successor, Plutarco Elías Calles. By 1923, open rebellion between de la Huerta and Obregón was declared with Alvarado supporting his childhood friend, de la Huerta. == Persecution and death ==

De la Huerta was driven into exile in Los Angeles, California on March 7, 1924. Though Alvarado tried to flee to Canada, the United States, and then Guatemala, he was relentlessly pursued by Obregón's men. A few months after de la Huerta's escape, Alvarado was ambushed while fleeing from Obregón's force at El Hormiguero ranchero, between Tenosique, Tabasco and Palenque, Chiapas and was killed on 10 June 1924. ==Published works==

Alvarado published three works, in Spanish, during his lifetime: • Salvador Alvarado, Mi Actuación Revolucionaria en Yucatán (My Revolutionary Performance in Mexico), 1918. • Salvador Alvarado, (1879-1924) La Reconstrucción de México (The Reconstruction of Mexico), 1919. • Salvador Alvarado, Carta al pueblo de Yucatán: Mi Sueño (Letter to the People of Yucatán: My Dream) ==References==