A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Albumen print Invented by the French photographer Louis-Désiré Blanquart Évrard in 1850 and the most widely made type of photographic print for some 60 years thereafter. Albumen prints are made on photographic paper coated with albumen (egg white) and salt and made light sensitive by treatment with silver nitrate solution. The prints range in tone from reddish to purplish-brown and are usually glossy.

Apache Nomadic Indians of the North American Southwest, including the states of Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico. Known as warriors and raiders, the Apache battled other tribes and the U.S. Army from 1861 until the surrender of Geronimo in 1886.

Ayala, Plan of Manifesto issued by Emiliano Zapata on November 27, 1911. Signed by 40 revolutionary leaders, it railed against Francisco Madero, called for land reform, and laid out terms for the establishment of a new government at such a time when the revolution was successfully concluded.

Aztec The indigenous people dominant in central and southern Mexico from the 12th-century collapse of the Toltec civilization until their conquest in 1521 by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.

Aztec calendar stone A carved, circular stone, weighing approximately 25 tons and measuring about 3.7 meters in diameter, used for calculating the Aztec calendar. It was discovered in Mexico City in 1790 and is currently housed in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City.

Francisco Léon de la Barra Born in Querétaro, Mexico, 1863. De la Barra, secretary of foreign relations under Porfirio Díaz, was provisional president from May 1911 when Díaz relinquished power until that November when Francisco Madero took office as the officially elected president. De la Barra later served as Victoriano Huerta's secretary of foreign relations, retiring to Europe upon Huerta's fall. He died in Biarritz, France, in 1939.

Achille-François Bazaine Born in Versailles, France, 1811. Under the command of Bazaine the French Foreign Legion recaptured Puebla from the Mexicans on May 8, 1862. Bazaine was promoted to Marshall and went on to become commander of the French expeditionary force in Mexico. He was sentenced to death in 1870 for surrendering to Bismarck during the Franco-German War, but escaped. He died in Madrid, Spain, in 1888.

Lucio Blanco Born in Múzquiz, Coahuila, Mexico, 1879. He was one of the first to join Venustiano Carranza’s rebellion against Victoriano Huerta in 1913. In 1913 General Blanco led the Constitutionalists in the capture of Matamoros from the Federalists. He was assassinated in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in 1922.

Cabinet card A mounted photograph measuring ca. 11 x 16.5 centimeters, with the photographer's imprint and decorative work on the card face or back. Introduced by F. R. Window in 1867, it replaced the carte-de-visite in popularity and was in use through the 1890s.

Campesino A farmer or farm worker in a Latin American country.

Carlota, Empress of Mexico (Marie-Charlotte-Amélie-Augustine-Victoire-Clémentine-Léopoldine) Born in Laeken, Belgium, 1840. Carlota was the daughter of Leopold I of Belgium and wife of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, whom she accompanied to Mexico in 1864. In 1866 after the French forces were withdrawn from Mexico she returned to Europe to seek assistance for Maximilian’s failing regime. Carlota suffered a nervous breakdown after Maximilian's death and spent the rest of her life in seclusion. She died in Brussels in 1927.

Venustiano Carranza Born in Cuatro Ciénegas, Mexico, 1859. In 1910, Carranza, then governor of Coahuila, joined Francisco Madero in opposition to Porfirio Díaz. He led the forces against Victoriano Huerta following Madero’s assassination in 1913. Next, he issued the Plan of Guadalupe declaring Huerta's regime illegal and establishing himself as the head of the Constitutionalist party. After his Constitutionalist army defeated Pancho Villa at the Battle of Celaya in 1915 Carranza first became provisional president, then constitutional president, holding the office until General Obregón deposed him in 1920. Carranza favored political reform over social reform and his nationalist sentiments pitted him against the United States on several occasions. He was assassinated in Tlaxcalantongo, Mexico, in 1920 as he fled from Obregón’s forces.

Carte-de-visite A small photograph mounted on a stiff card the size of a visiting card (ca. 11.5 x 6.5 centimeters), the carte-de-visite was patented by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri in 1854 and was popular until the late 1870s.

Collodion prints Photographs printed on baryta (barium sulfate coated) paper. The collodion printing-out papers popular in the 1880s had a highly glossy appearance.

Hernán Cortés Born in Medellín, Spain, 1485. Cortés was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition to Yucatán in 1519. He went south and founded Veracruz and thereafter moved into the interior of Mexico. Initially received with deference by the Aztecs, who believed him to be the incarnation of the god Quetzalcóatl, Cortés conquered the city of Tenochtitlán, capital of the Aztec empire, on August 31, 1521, overthrowing the Aztecs and winning Mexico for the crown of Spain. He died near Seville, Spain, in 1547.

Cuauhtémoc Born in Mexico, ca. 1495. Nephew and son-in-law of Montezuma II, Cuauhtémoc was the eleventh and last Aztec emperor, taking the throne in 1520. Hernán Cortés captured him in 1521 after a four-month siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. Cuauhtémoc's refusal to give in to torture inflicted by Spaniards seeking hidden Aztec treasure became legendary. During an expedition to Honduras in 1522 rumors of an Indian rebellion prompted Cortés to have Cuauhtémoc executed.

Decena Trágica (February 9–18, 1913) Ten days of fighting in Mexico City when federal troops led by Victoriano Huerta clashed with Félix Díaz's conservative rebel forces. The fighting caused terrible civilian casualties, until the two leaders met in U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson's office and signed the "Pact of Embassy" in which they agreed to conspire against Francisco Madero to install Huerta as president.

Félix Díaz Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, 1868. Nephew of Porfirio Díaz, Félix Díaz, along with Bernardo Reyes, convinced Victoriano Huerta to betray Francisco Madero, setting off the incident known as the Decena Trágica. Díaz later fought against Carranza's regime. He died in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1945.

Porfirio Díaz Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, 1830. Originally a follower of Benito Juárez, Díaz was president of Mexico from 1877 to 1880 and from 1884 until he was overthrown by liberals in 1911. His increasingly authoritarian regime was known as the "Porfiriato". He died in Paris in 1915.

French Intervention, 1861–1867 The period encompassing the French invasion and occupation of Mexico, that resulted in the crowning of Maximillian, archduke of Austria, as Emperor of Mexico.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, Jr. Born in Melbourne, Australia, 1887. The grandson of the Italian liberator Giuseppe Garibaldi. Known in Mexico as "Jose," this soldier of fortune fought in Francisco Madero's forces from 1911. He died in 1950 in Rome.

Gelatin silver print Glossy black-and-white prints that came into use in the 1880s with the development of printing papers containing gelatin and silver salts. Gelatin silver prints had replaced albumen prints in popularity by 1895, and still constitute the most frequently used analog black-and-white process.

Abraham González Born in Ciudad Guerrero, Mexico, 1865. Governor of Chihuahua and a leading Maderista, González was assassinated on the orders of President Huerta in 1913.

Guadalupe, Plan of In 1913 Venustiano Carranza issued the Plan of Guadalupe in which he declared Huerta's regime to be illegal and established himself as the head of the Constitutionalist party.

Eulalio Gutiérrez Born at the Hacienda de Santo Domingo, Mexico, 1881. General Gutiérrez fought against Porfirio Díaz's forces. After the fall of Huerta, Villa and Zapata installed Gutiérrez as provisional president. He later turned against Villa, Zapata, and Carranza. He died in Saltillo, Mexico, in 1939.

Hacienda A large landed estate used as a farm or ranch throughout Spanish-America from the colonial period through the 20th century. The hacendados or landowners functioned as squires, controlling the land, the peasant workers, and the local government. Much of the Mexican Revolution was fueled by revolt against the hacienda system.

Hieroglyphs Writing systems such as Mayan and ancient Egyptian that, for the most part, are composed of pictographic characters.

Victoriano Huerta Born in Colotlán, Mexico, 1854. General Huerta, who had a long military career under Porfirio Díaz, went on to serve as Francisco Madero’s army chief of staff. During the Decena Trágica Huerta conspired with the American Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson and Félix Díaz to overthrow Madero and assume the presidency for himself. Huerta then established a military dictatorship, causing the often-disparate revolutionary factions to unite against him. He was forced to resign in 1914 and fled first to Spain and then to the United States, where he was arrested for inciting rebellion in Mexico. Huerta died in custody at Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1916.

Agustín de Iturbide Born in Valladolid, Viceroyalty of New Spain (now Morelia, Mexico), 1783. Iturbide was a Royalist leader during the Mexican independence movement, but briefly united with revolutionary forces to gain independence from Spain. On May 19, 1822, he crowned himself Agustín I, Emperor of Mexico, but abdicated under pressure less than a year later. He was executed in Padilla, Mexico, in 1824.

Benito Juárez Born in San Pablo Guelatao, Mexico, 1806. As a liberal who advocated political and social reform, Juárez was exiled to New Orleans in 1853. Returning to Mexico in 1855, he fought against the French occupation and sought constitutional reforms to create a democratic federal republic. Juárez was president of Mexico from 1861 to 1872. He died in Mexico City in 1872.

Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada Born in Jalapa, Mexico, 1827. Lerdo, a liberal, sided with Benito Juárez during the French intervention, becoming president of the Supreme Court and vice president of the Mexican Republic after its restoration in 1867. After Juárez's death in 1873, Lerdo became president of Mexico. In 1877 he was driven into exile by Porfirio Díaz, and died in New York in 1889.

Jack London (pseudonym of John Griffith Chaney) Born in San Francisco, 1876. Author of numerous novels and short stories, London traveled to Veracruz, Mexico, in 1914 as a war correspondent for Collier's Weekly, a popular mass-circulation news magazine. He died in 1916 in Glen Ellen, California.

Francisco Madero Born at the Hacienda El Rosario, Parras, Mexico, 1873. Madero was a moderate liberal from the landed gentry class. Following the rigged elections of 1910 he issued the Plan of San Luis Potosí, declaring Porfirio Díaz's regime illegal and himself the legitimate president. When Díaz capitulated following the capture of Ciudad Juárez, Madero was elected president. However, attacked by both conservatives and liberals, Madero was soon unable to keep intact the alliance he had formed with the various revolutionary factions. He was betrayed during the coup that resulted in the Decena Trágica and executed along with his vice president, José María Pino Suárez, in Mexico City in 1913.

Raúl Madero Born at the Hacienda El Rosario, Parras, Mexico, 1888. The younger brother of Francisco Madero, Raúl left the family hacienda to join the revolutionary forces. He participated in the capture of Ciudad Juárez and fought with Villa against Orozco. In 1913 Madero intervened when Victoriano Huerta ordered the execution of Pancho Villa for insubordination.

Maximillian, Emperor of Mexico (Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph)
Born in Vienna, Austria, 1832. Maximilian was the archduke of Austria, a rear admiral in the Austrian navy, and governor general of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. He accepted Napoleon III’s offer of the Mexican throne in 1863 and ruled as emperor of Mexico until he was executed in Querétaro in 1867.

Maya Meso-American Indians of Yucatán and Central America who reached their cultural peak in the 4th-8th centuries a.d. Before the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America, the Maya had developed one of the greatest civilizations in the Western Hemisphere.

Mexican-American War, 1846–1848 War between Mexico and the United States over the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845 and the determination of the precise location of the Texas border. The United States' victory resulted in its acquisition of more than 500,000 square miles of Mexican territory.

Mexican Revolution, 1910–1920 A long and bloody struggle among several factions with constantly shifting alliances that began with the overthrow of Porfirio Diaz's 30-year dictatorship. While it led to the establishment of a constitutional republic under Venustiano Carranza in 1917, the Revolution did not end until 1920, with the election of Álvaro Obregón as president.

Miguel Miramón Born in Mexico City, 1831. Miramón was a conservative general who briefly became provisional president of Mexico following its civil war. After a period in exile Miramón returned to Mexico in 1863 as Maximilian’s grand marshal. He was assassinated in Querétaro along with Maximilian and General Tomás Mejía in 1867.

Mixtec American Indian population living in the northern and western sections of what is now the state of Oaxaca and in its neighboring areas of the states of Guerrero and Puebla. The Mixtec had achieved a high degree of civilization in Aztec and pre-Aztec times.

Miguel Mondragón Born in Ixtlahuaca, Mexico, 1859. Mondragón served in the military under Porfirio Díaz and participated in the rebellion against Francisco Madero. He was later exiled by President Huerta and fled to Spain. He died in San Sebastián, Spain, in 1922.

Montezuma II Born in Mexico, ca. 1466. The ninth Aztec emperor, Montezuma was taken captive by Hernán Cortés in Tenochtitlán. The Aztecs revolted at Montezuma’s perceived capitulation, and, according to Spanish accounts, Montezuma was fatally wounded by stones and arrows when he attempted to speak to the mob. The Aztecs, however, believed that the Spaniards had murdered their emperor, and Cortés was forced to flee.

Álvaro Obregón Born at the Hacienda de Siquisiva, Álamos, Mexico, 1880. General Obregón supported Francisco Madero against Pascual Orozco's rebellion in 1912, and then joined Venustiano Carranza’s forces after Francisco Madero was assassinated. He was a dominant voice at the constitutional convention of 1917 and served as president of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He was assassinated by a Catholic militant in Mexico City in 1928.

Pascual Orozco Born at the Hacienda Santa Isabel, Chíhuahua, Mexico, 1882. General Orozco initially supported Francisco Madero, and along with Pancho Villa, captured Ciudad Juárez in 1911. He later rebelled against Madero and issued his Plan de Empacadora on March 12, 1912, which, along with personal attacks on Madero, called for labor and agrarian reform. Orozco then allied himself with General Huerta, fleeing to the United States when Huerta was deposed. He was captured and assassinated by Texas Rangers in Big Bend, Texas, in 1915.

Toribio Ortega Ramírez Born in Cayame, Mexico, in 1870. Ortega was a businessman who positioned himself against the caciquismo (depotism) of the Creel and Terrazas families in Chihuahua. An adversary of the Díaz regime, Ortega took up arms early in the revolution. He supported Madero and fought with the Constitutionalists. He later organized the González-Ortega brigade of the División del Norte and participated in the attack on Chihuahua, the takeover of Juárez, and many other battles. He died a supporter of Pancho Villa in 1916.

John J. Pershing Born in Laclede, Missouri, 1860. Pershing fought for the United States army in the Indian wars, the Spanish-American War, and in the Philippines. After Pancho Villa’s 1916 raid on Columbus, New Mexico, Brigadier General Pershing commanded the punitive expedition against Villa, pursuing him well into Mexican territory. Pershing commanded the American Expeditionary Force during World War I and ended his military career as the army’s chief of staff. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1948.

José María Pino Suárez Born in Tenosique, Mexico, 1869. Pino Suárez was a radical writer and journalist from Yucatan. He met Francisco Madero while Madero was campaigning for president, becoming an ardent supporter and ultimately his vice president. He was assassinated with Madero under orders of General Huerta in Mexico City in 1913.

Porfiriato, 1877–1911 Term used to describe the period under the presidency of Porfirio Díaz. The Porfiriato was characterized by a strong, but increasingly repressive, centralized government. Díaz's later years in office were essentially a dictatorship that favored the upper class.

Pre-Columbian Term used to denote a wide range of indigenous cultures present in Meso-America and the Andes prior to the 16th-century arrival of Spanish and other European explorers and conquerors.

Bernardo Reyes Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, 1850. Reyes was a general under Porfirio Díaz. After Díaz left office Reyes went to the United States but soon returned to help depose Madero. Reyes died in 1913 in the attack on the National Palace in Mexico City that started the Decena Trágica.

Rurales The Rurales were established in 1861 by Benito Juárez as a federal corps of rural police to combat the banditry that threatened travel and commerce in Mexico. The power of this paramilitary force was greatly increased under Porfirio Díaz. The Rurales were disbanded after the Revolution.

San Luis Potosí, Plan of The plan issued by Francisco Madero on October 7, 1910, following the reelection of Porfirio Díaz. The plan declared Díaz's regime illegal, naming Madero provisional president of the Republic, and sought to restore constitutional order. It called for a countrywide insurrection to begin on November 20, the date now considered the start of the Mexican Revolution.

Antonio Lopéz de Santa Anna
Born in Jalapa, Mexico, 1794. Santa Anna was an army general and politician who fought against the Spanish attempt to regain Mexico in 1829 and against the French in Veracruz a decade later, briefly becoming dictator of Mexico. He was deeply involved in the revolt of Texas against Mexico in 1836 and the Mexican-American War of 1846–48, defeating the American forces at the Álamo. He died in Mexico City in 1876.

Ramón V. Sosa Sosa was a Constitutionalist and colonel under General Obregón. Sosa supported Obregón’s campaign against Huerta. His forces took the city of Irapuato in 1914.

Stone of Tizoc A large cylindrical carved sacrificial stone commemorating the exploits of the Aztec warlord Tizoc, who ruled as emperor between 1481 and 1486.

Luís Fuentes Terrazas Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1829. Terrazas was an administrator in the Chihuahua government, becoming governor of the state. He opposed the French Intervention in Mexico, and gave asylum to Benito Juárez. He also opposed Porfirio Díaz's rebellion against Juárez. As a leading member of the powerful Terrazas-Creel family, he went into exile in the United States after Chihuahua fell to Pancho Villa in 1913. Terrazas returned to Mexico in 1920, selling a large part of his land to the federal government for 123 million pesos. He died in Chihuahua in 1923.

Toltec An indigenous Nahuatl-speaking people who dominated what is now Central Mexico from 900 to 1200 a.d. The Toltecs were a warrior society known for their metalwork and large-scale stone sculpture.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The treaty between the United States and Mexico signed on February 2, 1848, that ended the Mexican-American War. It drew the boundary between the Unites States and Mexico at the Rio Grande and the Gila River. Under the treaty, Mexico ceded Upper California and New Mexico (including Arizona) to the U.S. and recognized its claims to Texas. The U.S. paid Mexico $15 million, assumed the claims of American citizens against Mexico, recognized prior land grants in the Southwest, and offered citizenship to Mexicans residing in the area.

Veracruz Incident, April 21–November 14, 1914 The occupation of Veracruz, the chief port on the east coast of Mexico, by military forces of the United States during the Mexican Revolution.

Francisco (Pancho) Villa Born at the Hacienda de Río Grande, Mexico, 1878. Villa was a revolutionary and guerrilla who fought with Madero against the regimes of Porfirio Díaz and Victoriano Huerta, and against Venustiano Carranza. In 1913 he became governor of Chihuahua. He formed the Divisíon del Norte following Madero's assassination, and, except for a brief occupation of Mexico City in alliance with Carranza in 1914, he mostly engaged in guerrilla warfare in northern Mexico. Villa was assassinated in Parral in 1923, three years after he had retired from political life.

Wet Collodion Process A technique for making glass plate photographic negatives invented in 1848 and prevalent from the mid-1850s through the 1880s. The negatives were used to produce albumen prints.

Henry Lane Wilson Born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1857. A diplomat and active member of the Republican party, Wilson served as the United States ambassador to Mexico beginning in March 1910. A Porfirian who shepherded big business interests, Wilson joined in the call for President Madero’s resignation, unsuccessfully asking the U.S. government to recognize a new regime. Wilson helped orchestrate the betrayal of Madero and President Woodrow Wilson forced his resignation as ambassador. He died in Indianapolis in 1932.

Woodrow Wilson Born in Staunton, Virginia, 1856. Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States (1913–1921). He led the U.S. into World War I, and his advocacy of the League of Nations won him the Nobel Peace Prize. Wilson refused to recognize Victoriano Huerta's regime and supplied Victoriano Carranza with arms. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1924.

Yaqui An Indian people living in southern Sonora on the west coast of Mexico. Settled agriculturalists, the Yaqui stubbornly resisted the first Spanish invaders in the 16th and 17th centuries. Yaqui warriors fought with revolutionary forces in northern Mexico.

Emiliano Zapata Born in San Miguel Anenecuilco, Mexico, 1879. Zapata was a revolutionary who served under Francisco Madero to oust President Díaz, and then fought to depose Victoriano Huerta after he seized power. Zapata was concerned with agrarian reform, as represented in his Plan of Ayala. He opposed the transitional government of Venustiano Carranza and was active with his Zapatistas or Liberation Army of the South until he was ambushed and killed by Carrancista soldiers in Chinameca in 1919.