Díaz Soto Y Gama, Antonio (1880–1967)

Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama was a distinguished Mexican political figure whose influence began with the founding of the Ponciano Arriaga Liberal Club in 1901 and culminated in the defeat of Ezequiel Padilla in the 1946 elections. He was born on January 23, 1880, in San Luis Potosí, the son of Conrado Díaz Soto and Concepción Gama Cruz. An attorney by profession, he fought as a member of the Liberal Party against the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship, together with Camilo Arriaga, the Flores Magón brothers, Juan Sarabia, and Antonio I. Villarreal, with whom he spent a brief period in exile. He was one of the founders of the Casa del Obrero Mundial (House of the International Worker) and worked closely with Emiliano Zapata, in whose name he gave a speech at the Aguascalientes Convention.

In 1920 Díaz Soto y Gama founded the Partido Nacional Agrarista (National Agrarian Party) and pursued an illustrious parliamentary career until 1929. He was involved in the agrarian program of his ally, President Álvaro Obregón, and worked for his reelection. Upon Obregon's death, he broke with General Plutarco Elías Calles. He collaborated with presidential candidates Antonio I. Villarreal (1934), Juan Andreu Almazán (1939), and Ezequiel Padilla (1946). An anticommunist Catholic, he was a critic of the agrarian program of President Lázaro Cárdenas. In 1948 a student movement designated him "rector by popular acclaim," a position he held for a short time. Until his death on March 14, 1967, he was a professor at the Law School of the National University of Mexico, a writer, and an editorial contributor to the national newspaper El Universal.

See alsoAguascalientes, Convention of; Almazán, Juan Andréu; Calles, Plutarco Elías; Cárdenas del Río, Lázaro; Casa del Obrero Mundial; Flores Magón, Ricardo; Mexico, Political Parties: Partido Liberal Mexicano; Mexico, Wars and Revolutions: Mexican Revolution; National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM); Obregón Salido, Álvaro; Zapata, Emiliano.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cockroft, James D. Precursores intelectuales de la Revolución Mexicana. Mexico: Siglo XXI Editores, 1979.

Díaz Soto y Gama, Antonio. La Revolución Agraria del Sur y Emiliano Zapata, su Caudillo. Mexico: Centro de Estudios Históricos del Agrarismo en México, 1983.

Díaz Soto y Gama, Antonio. Historia del Agrarismo en México. Mexico: Ediciones Era-UAMI-FONCA, 2002.

                                   Roderic Ai Camp

                                      Pedro Castro