Terrazas, Luis (1829–1923)

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Terrazas, Luis (1829–1923)

Luis Terrazas (b. 20 July 1829; d. 15 June 1923), governor of the state of Chihuahua, Mexico (1860–1873, 1879–1884, 1903–1904). A hero of the wars against the northern Indians and the French Intervention (1861–1867), General Terrazas was the political boss and governor of Chihuahua for much of the period from 1860 to 1910. He and his family came to own more than 10 million acres of land in Chihuahua with a half million head of cattle. He was also one of Mexico's foremost bankers and industrialists.

During the French Intervention, Terrazas stood with President Benito Juárez in Mexico's darkest hours, leading the forces that eventually pushed the French from the state. He maintained his alliance with Juárez, defending him against the revolt of La Noria, led by Porfirio Díaz, in 1872. Terrazas continued to oppose Díaz during the first decade of the latter's dictatorship. Díaz forced him out of power in Chihuahua from 1884 to 1892, but the overwhelming economic resources of the Terrazas family produced a stalemate. A reconciliation was achieved with the return of Terrazas to the governorship in 1903.

Because he and his sons and sons-in-law ran the state as a family fiefdom, occupying nearly all the important government posts, and used their positions to further their economic interests, they became the lightning rod for the discontent that erupted in the Mexican Revolution of 1910. After Terrazas fled to the United States, Pancho Villa confiscated his properties in 1913. The old general returned to Mexico in 1920 and two years later the federal government gave him 13 million pesos as compensation for the loss of his lands.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A critical examination of Terrazas's early career is found in Francisco R. Almada, Juárez y Terrazas: Aclaraciones históricas (1958). Although commissioned by the Terrazas family, the best biography remains José Fuentes Mares,… Y México se refugió en el desierto: Luis Terrazas, su historia y destino (1954). For a complete study of the Terrazas era in Chihuahua, see Mark Wasserman, Capitalists, Caciques, and Revolution (1984).