 A warm welcome to the Latin American Library and to the public opening of the recently acquired Rafael Imelgar collection, an event that we are co-hosting with the Center for Inter-American Research and Policy. And I want to thank everyone for joining us this afternoon. First and foremost, I want to welcome our guest speaker, Dr. Javier García Diego, noted Mexican historian and president of El Colegio de México, who accepted our invitation to provide some historical contours of the extraordinary period of Mexican history in which General Rafael Imelgar lived. Professor García Diego will speak on Rafael Imelgar and 20th century Mexican history. And my colleague Ludovico Feoli will introduce our speaker in a few minutes. I also want to welcome several generations of the Imelgar family who have also traveled from Mexico to be with us today. They are Licenciado Daniel Imelgar, son of General Rafael Imelgar and his wife, Doña Carmen Alicia Cordero Imelgar, Licenciada Luis María Imelgar, granddaughter of General Imelgar, and the great grandchildren, Axel Ternitsky and Juan Jose Aguilar. I am so glad that you can be with us today to mark this special occasion. And Licenciado Imelgar will offer some biographical comments on his father after Dr. García Diego's talk. But before moving on with our program, I want to say a few words on the context of the General Rafael Imelgar collection and what it means to our libraries. And, you know, a great research collection is not about the numbers of books or the numbers of manuscripts that it contains. It's not about one or two particular items or treasures either that it has. Rather, collections are more like mosaics where each piece of the individual pieces together form a larger picture of a geographical region or of a historical period or of an event or of a person. And the greatness of a library has more to do with how the various collections and documents and books, how they interrelate to each other, how they speak to each other, and how the different pieces collected over time complement each other and form a network that documents human life. And this is why I'm absolutely thrilled with the acquisition of the Imelgar collection. It complements the holdings of the Latin American Library on many levels. Although today, the library is broad in regional scope and historical depth covering all of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Latin American Library has a long-standing and kind of special connection with the southern states of Mexico. And this is one of the focuses of the Imelgar collection. A native of Oaxaca, General Imelgar was as active on the national as on the regional stage and thus the Imelgar collection is rich in primary sources on these states. Beginning in 1913, when Imelgar served as a soldier in the state of Oaxaca, he then served as a five-turn congressman and later a senator for the state of Oaxaca. He was campaign director for the Yucatan during Lázaro Cárdenas' successful run for the presidency and later served as governor of the territory of Quintana Roo also under Cárdenas. The Imelgar collection is complemented by what is arguably, I like to think, is the strongest collection perhaps in the world on the southern states of Mexico. The collection with which our library was founded, the William Gates collection acquired in 1924, is well recognized as a very rich collection in native indigenous languages, especially Mayan languages. But William Gates, the eccentric collector as we were speaking about this afternoon, also amassed a wealth of newspapers and broadsides and other printed ephemera about the Mexican Revolution, some of which are displayed and I'll tell you in a moment. And he also in the process inserted himself in the thick of Mexican politics of the time. I could also mention in this regard the Chapas and the Viceroyal Collections, the Rudolph Schuler collection of photographs of the Mexican Revolution and casting the net more broadly to encompass the region. There are many, many collections that deal with the southern states of Mexico. I could go on and name all of these collections, but better yet I would like to invite all of you to look at our exhibit after the program today because we have exhibited in various places collections from the Latin American library that complement the Melgar collection. And last but definitely not least, I wanted to acknowledge the work of several people who made this event possible. I want to thank Ludovico Feoli and the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research for co-hosting this event. And I also want to acknowledge the help of librarians Annie Peterson and Lisa Hooper for their contributions to this evening's event, this afternoon's event, but especially the untiring efforts of the Latin American Library staff, Maria Dolores Espinoza, Emma Marshall, Rachel Robinson, Veronica Sanchez and most especially Dr. Cristina Hernández, our curator of special collections for their hard work in bringing about this event today. And so without further ado, here is Ludovico Feoli. Thank you. Thank you, Ortezga, and I'd like to add my thanks to all of the personnel at the Latin American Library for their hard work during this collection together and extend my own welcome to the Melgar family. It's great to have you here. And thank Ortezga for allowing me the opportunity to co-sponsor this wonderful event. Everybody must run in the library when they see me cross the door because I always mean work in one form or another. But I always bring visitors to Tulane first to the Latin American Library because I think it's one of the jewels that we have, one of the greatest resources for Latin American studies. But most of all, I'd like to extend a welcome back to our speaker today, President of the Colegio de Mexico with whom he just told me is united with Tulane in a long, long friendship. He might tell you something more about that, so I won't be a spoiler. But, well, we co-hosted a conference on Mexico here last year, a very successful conference with scholars from the Colegio and Tulane. And in his parting words, President Cowan and President García Diego talked about the initiation of a friendship, but then he discovered that, in fact, going back to the 40s, the early 40s, Tulane had given an honorary doctorate to the first president of the Colegio de Mexico. So we're building, as always, standing on the shoulders of the people who came before us. So President García Diego, as I said, is a professor and researcher at the Colegio de Mexico since 1981. He has served there as director of the Center for Historical Studies at the Colegio and director general of the Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana. Professor García Diego holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México UNAM, a master's degree in Latin American history from the University of Chicago, a PhD in Mexican history from our Colegio de México, and a second PhD in Latin American history from the University of Chicago. His field of specialization is the Mexican Revolution, particularly its political and cultural aspects, and a timeline that stretches from the late 19th to the mid 20th century. His first doctoral dissertation was entitled and loosely translated because I only found the title in Spanish. Constitutionalist revolution and counterrevolution reactionary movements in Mexico 1914-1920. His second doctoral dissertation was the National University and the Mexican Revolution 1910-1920. He has taught at the UNAM and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, but has been most active as a professor at El Correjo de México. He has been a visiting professor and lecturer at universities worldwide. He has received numerous awards and recognitions, and I'll mention a few. El Salvador Asuela award, The Biografías para Leerse Contes, the Grand Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica, a career recognition from the Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución de México, the Prestigios Julio Cortaza Chair at the Universidad de Guadalajara, membership in the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores and in the Academia Mexicana de la Historia, and two honorary doctorates, one from the Universidad Nacional de General San Martín in Argentina and the other from the National University in Athens, Greece. He has authored many articles and books, and I won't list all of them. I'll say that his most recent one is an anthology of essays on the sociopolitical history of the Mexican Revolution published last year. Professor García Dieg was also the main speaker for the weekly radio program Conversaciones sobre Historia, broadcast nationwide by the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio. Incidentally, if you'd like to listen to them, they're available on the Colegio website as podcasts. Without further ado, it gives me great pleasure to give the podium then to Javier García Dieg. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. First of all, I have to thank the University for this invitation and second, even though I made my PhD in Chicago, it was about 30 or 35 years ago, so my English has become very rusty. My pronunciation is terrible, but I'll do my best to explain these two topics. First, the Mexican Revolution in general, and then Melgar, the integration into the Mexican Revolution. For me, it really is an honor to speak here at the President, especially in this library, so I really appreciate the invitation. Again, with a very broad argument, the Mexican Revolution was a very complex social movement, and it was complex in sociological terms. Persons were involved in the revolution, also of course, workers, not as much as persons. Mexico was a rural country, then middle classes, mainly rural middle classes, but also urban middle classes, and even some elites. For example, Madero. Madero was a member of one of the richest families in the Northeast, part of Mexico, so yes, we had a mix in the Mexican Revolution. Politically, it was also complex, because some, especially in the first period of the Mexican Revolution, demanded democratic changes. I'm speaking, I'm talking, I'm thinking in Francisco in Madero, but then after Madero's failure from 1913 upon, the political demand changed, and instead of democratic reforms, they demand, revolutionaries demand, a strong state. I'm speaking in Carranza, in Obregon, Calles, and even Cardenas, of course. Geographically, it was very complex. The Mexican Revolution began in the northern states, Sonora, Chihuahua, and Pabuila. We had at least one other region, Morelos, which is in the central part of Mexico, south-central part of Mexico, but some other regions followed the revolution, but some others even opposed the revolution, rejected, and this is very important because Bajaca was one of these states, and it's crucial to think this way to understand the Nicaragua's first years in the Mexican Revolution. Or, logically, the Mexican Revolution can be divided. When I'm talking about the Mexican Revolution now, in this talk, I really prefer it until 1940. I'm talking about the first half of the 20th century, because in the second part we have another process, but in the first half of the 20th century, we have some periods in the Mexican Revolution. The first one, the precursory phase, the crisis of the porfigliato, we can say that it, from 1908 till 1910, more or less, then we have the military, 1910, 1920. The years of moral violence, the years of the Calvillos, in the elites of the middle classes, we have Madero and Carranza, and from the lower classes, from the rural classes, from the popular classes, we have Villa and Zapata. And of course, at the end of that second phase, second period of the Mexican Revolution, we had the constitution of 1917. Then we have the reconstruction. From 1920 to 1933, 34, what do we have in that second third process of the Mexican Revolution? First of all, the end of social violence, with the exception, with the exception of the Cristiano Rebellion in the worst part of Mexico from 1926 till 1929. I don't know if you're reading this PowerPoint of dirt, yes? Can you read it? Okay. So we are talking about the end of the social violence with the exception of the Cristiano. What was the Cristiano? What's some religious, mainly religious rebellion? This is the best example of a region that rejected the revolution. I mentioned Oaxaca, this is probably the most important example of a region that opposed the revolution. They were opposed to the new state, supposedly against Catholicism. Cristiano also had some other, some other reasons, not only religious, religious process, but let us say that. Then we had the assimilation of former rebels. Since we're talking over the end of social violence, we have to understand that the former revolutionaries got integrated into the new state. We have former revolutionaries that became peaceful people in the 1920s, coming from the revolutionary sectors, people that had fought with media, with sediments, at least for to see, please, to not mix it with the other sediments in the last part of the 20th century. But we also had the assimilation of former rebels that had fought not with the revolution, but against the revolution. And this is the case of Manuel Peliz, who fought, supposedly he was paid by the oil companies, and he fought in the Gulf of Mexico from 1914 to 1920. Also, we had the Felicistas. Felicistas means the followers of Felicias, the nephew of Felicias, who fought against the revolution in Veracruz, in Puebla, in the central eastern part of Mexico. Then we had Chiapas. Chiapas had two armies, one in the upper region of Chiapas, and others in the lower sections of Chiapas, was Mapaches. And then we had Oaxaca. I don't know why Oaxaca, because we're going to deal with Rafael Melgar, and he was born in Oaxaca. Oaxaca also fought against the Mexican revolution from, let us say, 1914 until 1920. Basically, there were two rebel armies in Oaxaca, one in La Mistaca, in La Montana, and the other in La Sierra. What order of teachers had the Mexican history in the reconstruction period? The beginning of social benefits. In order to integrate former Bequistas, excuse me, former Bequistas and former Zapatistas to the new state, you have to offer them social benefits. So we had the beginning of a grand reform in the 1920s, and we had also the beginning of concessions to the workers. There was no way to get peace in Mexico, to integrate these former revolutionaries without social concessions. This is really a stepping stone to understand Mexico's modern history. Strong holds in some regions and among certain sectors. What I'm trying to say is that even though we were constructed a new state, there were some aspects, really strong, difficult to manage, and especially I'm thinking in the military. Military were a sector, you know, difficult to manage, at least until 1927-26. Another feature of Mexico in the 20s and early 30s, we call it política bronca. I don't know the translation, but good politics or brutal politics, something like that. We had pre-electoral rebellions in 1920, 1924, and 1929. What do I mean by pre-electoral rebellions? There were no rebellions because of the outcome of the election. There were rebellions because of the decision of who was the man selected to become the candidate. In 1920, De La Huerta, of Regón and Calles, revolved against Beno Tiano Carranza because he was, he had chosen Ignacio Bonillas as his successor. In 1924, De La Huerta and other journals revolved against Obregón because he had selected Calles as his successor. And in 1928, we got something very special. Just, I will mention just to see how strong good was Mexican politics in those days. The three candidates to the presidency were killed within eight months. I'm talking of General Serrano who was killed, yes, in October, early October of 1927. Then, two months later, Egon Fuerregobis, he was fusilado, he was, what did I say, fusilado, executed, yes. And then we had Obregón who was already elected president who had been killed by a radical Catholic. His name was Egon Fuerregobis. What did the political do to solve this political problem? In order to resolve these problems, they create the PNR in early 1929. The PNR, we call it the grandfather of the Greek. I don't like that name. I think really that there were three different parties, PNR in 29, PRM in 38, and then PRI in 1946. I don't really, I really don't see that they were the same party. I see three different parties or at least three different processes in Mexican history. But the PNR in 1929 was created to solve these problems, the electoral remedies, just to give discipline, rules to the revolutionary elite in order that they accept the subsurface or elected, or not elected, chosen by the former president. So they created the PNR. And Rafael Magad was involved in this process. Also, in order to finish with the política bronca, we had very important reforms inside the art, to professionalize, to institutionalize the art. It was very important. And it was done in the same years, 1929, 1928, just to have a more modern conflict. And of course, we had the beginning of an economic world. After 10 years of violence, at least we could invest in economic aspects, trade routes, works, factories, whatever, instead of sending the money to the army. That was very important change. The next process, the next phase of the Mexican Revolution, was the Garden as Years, 1934 until 1928. I understand. I tried to explain the Garden as Presidency as an offspring of the 1929 crisis. That's my explanation. It's not only mine. Some other historians do the same. After the 1929 crisis, there began in Mexico social crisis, a lot of protests, strikes in the rural sector of the country, of course, industry. So the Mexican political elite decided that Mexico had to respond to this social consequence, social offspring of the economic crisis of 1929. So the Garden as Presidency can be seen in this way. Second feature of the Garden as Presidency was the National Exe. Nationalism has two aspects and we're going to see it again with Melgar, Nationalism, flourishing during the Garden as Presidency because some politicians in Mexico and some social leaders understood or at least they thought that the Great Powers had a great responsibility in the 1929 crisis. So they were thinking in Mexico as an alternative country that should have a future without the link to the Great Power. In order to survive, these young and weak nations had to find an alternative and Calvinist ideology is something like this. Of course, in order to understand this Presidency, we have to see that Calvinist gave more social possessions than his predecessors than the previous Presidents. Let's move to the last period, fifth phase of the Mexican Revolution, what we call institutionalization. From the 1940 till 1970s probably, then began the period of the crisis. What I say here is that due to World War II and especially World War, Mexico had to align itself to the United States. It's easy to understand, right? So the Garden as ideology had to put an end to it. So Mexico really moved change its main features and we have a country much more moderate in terms of social reforms, the ideology of a radical and very popular country also moderate itself. We have an institutionalization of the political throne. What do I mean by institutionalization? We had a formal democracy. We had oppositionist parties. The PAN was created in 1939. The left party, the Partido Popular, was created in 1948. We had all the institutions besides the strong Presidents, as Gaios, Aragon and Cardenas. We had Congress. We had cameras and others. And of course in order to institutionalize the political throne, the great Cardenas had to be managed. Cardenas was in Mexico, but in a very low position. Cevillo was still. Almasán was in the position. Garrido Panabal was also excited. Mexico really, what are the features we have in the 1940s economic development in a way due to World War II? We have a modern country. Mexico became urban, industrialized, integrated. And just to finish with this, with this part of the talk we had from the 1950s and 1960s an acceptable revolution. What do I mean by that? A non-radical revolution in comparison to Cuba. Since Cuba merged in the late 1950s and early 60s, Mexico's revolution became, as the good one, the moderate, the reasonable revolution, a revolution capable of creating a modern country. So this is what I see in the first half of the 26th. I have two maps here. This map comes from one of my books. What you see here is the revolution of 1913, 1914 against Ecuadorian over. As I was saying, Mexican revolution was a northern social movement. We have the revolution in the northwest of Regón, revolution in the central north, Pancho Villa, and revolution in the northeast, Venustiano Carranza. The revolution was not a national movement. We don't see Morelos, Zapatista in the central part of Mexico, but in the south and southeast, we don't see important battles. We don't see important armies. Oaxaca here, we cannot see it as a revolutionary state. These are the armies that fought against the Carranza regime. We have some that were revolutionaries before, the Ceregistas, and of course the Zapatistas in this. But we have here number seven soberanistas in Oaxaca, then the Oaxacas, the Oaxaca state, but participate. Not in the previous years, not in the fort against Huerta, but yes, in the fort against Carranza. Let's move now to Rafael Melgar. What was Melgar in the next kind of revolution? But most important, what was Melgar in the first half of the 20th century, and mainly from the years 1920 until his death in late 1930s. As I was saying, Melgar was born in the state of Oaxaca during the Porphyrian era. Oaxaca was a non-revolutionary region, dominated by a network of Porphyrian local authorities. Easy to understand. Oaxaca is the state where Porphylias had been born in 1830. So most of the local authorities in Oaxaca by 1910 were loyal to Porphylias, and they remained loyal during the revolution of 1910, 1911, and then rejected the triumph of Carranza from 1914 until 1920. Melgar was a very prominent member of this army, the Sovereignist Army, or the Sovereignist Affection. But the Sovereignist Affection was one of the factions that was integrated to the new Mexican Revolutionary State in 1920. So Melgar benefited a lot from different formations. For me, this is the first crucial shift in his life. He was, as I was saying, part of this social, military, and political movement, the Sovereignist Affection, and then he was integrated in 1920 when Melgar and the other members of the Sovereignist Affactions recognized Obregón. In order to get peace in Mexico, Obregón understood that had to integrate former revolutionaries that were fighting against Carranza, but also all the other groups that were fighting in the country for different reasons, for different reasons. And this is why the Oaxacans were integrated in 1920. Then in 1924, Melgar made another very important shift. He abandoned the army, he quit the army, because he had been integrated in 1920, and became a full-time civil politician. Okay, an administrator, civil politician, and then I think he discovered his real location, his nature. And he became really a very important politician, not only in Oaxaca, but mainly in national terms. He was in the foundation of the PNR in 1929, and then we can say that he became part of the Mexican political movement. Another very important feature in his life is that in 1929, when he was a member of the elite that created the PNR, the party created by his dargoyas carries, he also organized, in that same year, the Campana Nacionalista. The Campana Nacionalista was an answer to the crisis, to the economic crisis of October, but it was not only that, it was much more than an economic response to the crisis. Yes, the main topic of the Campana Nacionalista was to consume what Mexico produces, but it has something else. The Mexican Revolution had produced a new culture, Mexican moralism, Mexican music, new literature, many, many things. So the Campana Nacionalista is linked also to this new culture. And this is one of the reasons the Campana Nacionalista also promotes Mexican literature like Sharedia, but I really underline that you have to understand this Campana Nacionalista in the scope of the new culture that had been produced, that had been created with the Mexican Revolution. Besides what I say here is that the Campana Nacionalista was also very timely because it was parallel to the birth of modern cinema. In 1929, it began the El Cine hablado, El Cine Mudo, and of course we have the radio broadcasting. So it was, it's another aspect of the modernization of the conflict, and we have really two underlying importance of Melgar in this aspect of Mexican history. But his nationalist attitude explains the identification and the support to President de Cardenas. So what we have to say here is that he was one of the many politicians in Mexico that abandoned Calles and then moved to Cardenas. It was not only a personal aspect. No, the problem is that the reason was that these politicians understood that the future of the country, the well-being of the country was linked to Cardenas, was a better response to the crisis and to the new international context that the one that was fought by Lutankas Calles was much more conservative. With the presidency of Cardenas, Melgar was sent as governor to a, I cannot say, state of Tana Rovitos. It was not a state. It was a federal territory, didn't have enough population, so it wasn't a state. But it was very important because Cardenas had a governor in Ducatán, of course, and he made a lot of changes, a lot of political and social changes. A very important agrarian before in Ducatán was sponsored by Cardenas, against the Eniquineras, but in order to help the reforms in Ducatán, Melgar was sent to Tana Rov. There were two problems in Tana Rov. First, to organize from the state, not inside an autogenous organization, from without organization, from the state, to organize the Chiclero workers, the Maya Indians, and to oppose the frontier with Belizeo or Dura-Tritánica. So it was very important to have a very nationalistic governor in the region of Tana Rov. The other interpretation, or possible way to see it, is that Melgar was linked to Calles. Remember, he was one of the founders of the PNR, so probably Cardenas wanted to have him and to have him away. I do choose the previous interpretation, the first one. I think Cardenas wanted a real nationalistic and important governor in Tana Rov. President Cardenas end his term in 1944, and after President Cardenas, we had Amida Camacho and Alemán. Melgar was known as a cardenista, and Mexico had to do some changes for the 40s. Remember that we were talking about the decade of the violence, 1910, 1920, the reconstruction, 1929, 1934, the varical years of Cardenas, and then we were talking about the nationalization after 1940. We had Amida Camacho and Alemán. Mexico made another great move. As I was saying, due to the outcome of the Second World War, the cardenismo was no longer the best way to solve the problems of the country and to solve the problems of the international aspect of Mexico. So the cardenismo in general became anodic in Mexican politics. Nationalism was played by pan-Americanism. It was a response to the Second World War, and it was a response to the Cold War, and Mexico became, of course, an ally of the United States, and even an ally of Great Britain in spite of the fact that we had expropriated oil in 1938. In the 1940s, as a cardenista, Melgar had no longer a really good place in Mexico, so then he was sent as diplomat to some other countries, and then returned to Mexico in the 1950s. Of course, he was elected again as representative of Oaxaca, but he was no longer a part of the Mexican political elite, because Amida Camacho and principle, Alemán, had basic and strong differences to be national cardenas as president. Besides Melgar, I don't say that he was old, but the Mexicos, let's say, around 50, he was past middle age, and especially politics has been dominated by the university of Alemán, so since 1950, those former revolutionaries, the former cardenistas, the former callistas and the revolutionistas have no place for the new state that began in the second part of the 20th century Mexico. That's the way I see the history of Mexico in those years, and that's the way I see the Melgar intervention into our history. It's great to have its archive here, and I really appreciate his patience. Thank you very much. Thank you for that presentation, and now we have Daniel Melgar, who will say a few words on General Rafael Melgar, his father. This might be a little more than a few words, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, I want to express my sincere gratefulness to the University of Chile. I'm sorry that Dr. Michael Burstein, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost of this prestigious university is up with us today, but I want to thank our very good friend, Dr. Spencer Calvo, general director of the Latin American Library, who became very much interested in the contents of my father's documents when she read about it, and to Dr. Ludovico Beoli, director of the Center for American Policy and Research, the host of this so important event for me. I also thank Dr. Javier García-Dejo for his thoughts about the participation of my father in the Mexican Revolution and the post-revolutionary years, although I don't agree completely. To talk about my father's public life would not be impartial on my part, but I think I must mention some of his actions from 1913 when he was elected captain by the people of his hometown and other towns of the Mestezon in the state of Oaxaca, in order to fight Governor Boranio Scacho, who recognized the traitor, Victoriano Huerta, until the last deeds of my father at the center in 1958. The contents of the General Rafael del Garco collection are here now, as I understand, to serve as a source for students, researchers, historians, and scholars interested in the period of 45 years of Mexican history in which he participates very actively first in the revolution, then 10 years as federal congressman, six as governor of the territory of Quintana Roo, three and a half years as extraordinary envoy and plenipotentiary minister of Mexico at Queensville and Mina and Juliana's courts in Holland, and six years as senator representing the state of Oaxaca. At the end of his participation in the revolution, since the state of Oaxaca declared itself a sovereign state until the constitutional order was restored, all Oaxaca generals were declared outlaw. With a dead penalty on sight, my father came to the United States next slide, where he worked in a hardware company in St. Louis, Missouri, there, due to his dedication, he became manager of the Latin American division. He also learned English, which helped him very much in his years in Mexico's diplomatic service. I must make some more words about this period. The period in which the Oaxaca state declared its sovereignty, it's important. It has not been totally studied, and I cannot agree with the doctor that said Diego that the generals of this movement in Oaxaca opposed the revolution. They went into the revolution. I had the honor of meeting some of the generals, especially General Guillermo McHway, who was the governor of the state of Oaxaca in this period, the secretary, the attorney at law, and General Conasimo Mercedes, one of the division generals, equivalent to a four-star general of the state, General Isaac Guevara, from the Sierra of Juarez, and others. Even I met General Almazán, who later betrayed the political system of Mexico, running against the candidate of the Revolutionary Party against Cardenas, against Abelacamento. I remember my father telling me why. Why did the Revolutionary generals and government of Oaxaca became sovereign again? The biggest problem was many defectors, groups of defectors from Patrobilla, for instance, from Carras, invaded towns of the high mystic area and assaulted towns, small towns, burned towns, robbed the people, raped the women. So the forces of Oaxaca, including my father, of course, who was in that area, had to fight against these groups. That's why it's mentioned here that the sovereign state was declared until the Constitution order was restored. Part of the war, in the Isthmus of the Wentevek, that's the southern part of Oaxaca, the brother of Ernestiano Carras, that was murdered, had nothing to do with the sovereign of Oaxaca, or the generals of Oaxaca that were fighting in the Revolution. They did not oppose the Revolution. What happened is that when Usterro Carranza sort of had them as responsible for the killing of his brother, they had nothing to do with that. So he sent forces to Oaxaca and General Jesus Agustin Castro, and he did there, in the name of Carranza, outlaw all the errors. They continued fighting, of course, not against the Revolution, but against when Usterro Carranza. What happened is that they didn't have good armament ammunition. I remember him telling me how he could get 300 prisoners of a group of intravenous forces, and he was so happy then, because they really had good armament from the States, and lots of ammunition, and he even invited some of them to join his forces. This theory has to be really studied. I cannot agree that General Oaxaca, including my father, opposed the Revolution on the country. They raised their arms against the trait of its own inner world. If we believe, or if we agree, that the Mexican Oaxaca generals opposed the Revolution, we have to agree also that the generals strong sonora, including Obregón Talles, also opposed the Revolution. They did not oppose the Revolution. They opposed the Usterro Carranza. I might even say that when Usterro Carranza was linked to the Porphyriato in some way, but I'm sorry, but I had to make an idea about this. After that, after the exile, when the plan of Agua Prieta was given to the nation, the generals from Oaxaca and others had to go back. One had to go back and went back to Mexico. I can't agree, Dr. Garzadillo, that he didn't see any future in the Mexican army. We must understand that there are two kinds of military in Mexico in this stage. The revolutionary people, like my father, who were started in, elected by the small towns, by the people of the small towns, against the governor, and the army, formal army that existed, which was a federal army, an army based with career people, people that studied in the military college and force armies that were organized under General Amaro. So he didn't expect to make a military career at all. He was not a military actually. He had to be because of the Revolution. So his raid as Brigade General was recognized, and then he immediately requested the license to become candidate as a federal congressman from Oaxaca. He already had been a congressman during the revolution or in the state of Oaxaca, but also he requested the license to continue fighting the revolution. During his 10 years in the House of Representatives, he participated in many important political roles, not only in key laws such as the labor and monetary ones, but in fundamental decisions that in my view are the most important for the political, economic, and social development of Mexico. One of my father's most significant initiatives as Dr. Aciaro de Igual told us a long time ago was the Campañaneso de Alista, the nationalist campaign. His idea was to ease the consequences in Mexico of the Wall Street crack of 1949. So well known and expressed by Dr. Bernstein in his study, The Great Depression, Delay Recovery, and Economic Change in America in 1949-1930. The initiative was anonymously accepted by Congress and Congress Melgar was appointed as president of the campaign as such. He called all industrial and commercial chambers, whether federal or regional, to support and participate in it under the motto, consume a local país, produce, consume what the country produces. This motto was later used many years by Bennett, our national petroleum company. He called the Mexicas to buy only Mexican products during one week every month. This campaign succeeded and lasted from 1931 to 1935. General Melgar published his nationalist calendar from 1932 to 1935, of which one copy is available in the collection here. Not a cent of government funds was spent on the campaign. All expenses were made by dimension chambers. In this library, two books dedicated to this campaign published in 1953 and 1964 can be consulted. It is important to mention my father's relationship with General Lázaro Carden as a friend, not only as a friend, but in his very important actions as president of the National Revolutionary Bloc of Congress, to organize members of the House and Senate to support the candidacy of General Carden as to the presidency of the country and sign a manifest for that purpose, which was published in all newspapers, some of the regions of which are included in this collection. I may also say that the meetings for this purpose were at my home, and after the manifest was signed by congressmen and senators, and of course my father was appointed there as president of the Cardinalista Bloc of Congress. At midnight, General Caiz called my father and told him, General, I have heard what you are doing, you have to stop. My father answered, you know, it's all in your paper. What happened later is that General Caiz had to support Congress. Why did my father disease, did that? We must remember that my father named Caiz Jente Maximo de la Revolución, in spite of that, when General Caiz wanted to impose General Pérez Trevino as a candidate for president, my father's political group could accept and of course he had the relation political and friend the relation with General Caiz. As we know now, General Caiz became the best president of Mexico in the 20th century. From 1935 to 1940, as governor of the 10th territory of Quintana Roo, my father gave the best years of his life to redeem such a abandoned region of Mexico, which is now the most important for tourism. He organized its economy by establishing production and consumption cooperatives, thus avoiding monopolies that existed in almost every activity. Under the agrarian reform, whose main executor was President Cardinal, Governor Magarex appropriated two very large latifundius, huge extensions of land which were owned by the Bank of London and Mexico or the National Bank of Mexico, and distributed such land among Mayan peasants who had been exploited under human conditions with very low wages and who, by the cooperatives for them organized, could negotiate directly with the fires of Chitle, in Chicago, the chewing gum manufacturers. They got much better prices for the production. Governor Magarex also renamed towns which bore the names of saints or British people with the names of natural heroes for Quintana Roo to become more nationalist and more of a part of Mexico. My father also built schools, markets, government offices, roads, the first hotels in Chetumal, Cozumel and two long roads. All these buildings still exist. His government and deeds received the public recognition by the Senate of Mexico, something that, to my knowledge, no other governor ever received in Mexico. Even in this century, 70 years after his governorship ended, avenues, streets, schools, cultural buildings, statues, bear his name. And I must say that I can't go back any time to Quintana Roo with the pride of the recognition of everything he worked for in the territory in our state. I was the pride of being able to say that when my family left Quintana Roo, none of us had one single square meter for any other profit. I have to clarify again, but I can't be able why my father was sent to Quintana Roo. It's not because he was considered Callista. That's just the case. We have to consider Callistas, everybody in that area, our politicians. My father made him have a maximum of the revolution because he really was. He was the power behind the president of the Rubio, for the shield, of course, and Abelardo, the three presidents. And he actually governs Politica, the Republic of Mexico. My first father's house was only half a block away from the house of General Carter. And he told me that sometimes, since my father was the leader of the Congress, of the House of Representatives, at 7.30 in the morning, General Carter would call him and say, General, please come to my home. My father dressed immediately and went to see General Carter. And he said, well, I'm here. What can I do for you? And General Carter would say, in this occasion, Governor so-so, I don't remember the name, is against our party. So I asked you in Congress to, how do you say it in English, this? I don't know the context. That's what I said. That's what I said, too. I need the context. Well, to take out such governor. My father said, okay, we'll do it. Who do you want to be the new governor? And the guy said, that's up to you. This kind of power happened. When my father convinced United Congressmen and senators, including ones from Sonora, to manifest and declare General Carter as a candidate. General Carter had to accept it. And the next day, he also made some declarations to the press. My father was, as I pointed out, declare President of the Cardinalista Block of Congress. It's in the newspapers in the collection here that he was a good friend of Carter. So he wasn't sent there because he was a Callista. What happened is that since my father made the Nationalist Campaign, which was very important for Mexico, and since he knew all presidents or main executives of all the commercial or industrial chambers, and he led the first organizations to visit Costa Rica or Guatemala with these chambers, General Cardinal told him, you will be the next Minister of Economy. On December 1st, 1934, my father told me he was at interest to go to a ceremony where General Carter has to take power. On radio, they used to give the news of the new cabinet. So he heard the new cabinet and his name was not there. So he stopped dressing and he rushed back home. The next day, three senators came to see him and said, President Cardinal, I ask for you what he wants to see you. He said, I have nothing to visit. He said, it's the cabinet's door. I don't go. But one of the senators told him, well, you are a general. And the President of Mexico is the chief of all the military. You have to go. So he asked for an appointment and he was his own President of the colonists in the National Palace. When he arrived to see the President, President told him, well, I want you to help me becoming governor of the territory of Quintana. My father answered, Mr. President, no, I didn't make a mistake. And the President told me, well, please understand that I have many problems with General Acalles. I had to include some of his people in the cabinet. But this cabinet, I will change. Then I'll call you back. Six, eight months. And my father said, it's another. I have to go. Then he went to Quintana Roo. And from Merida, Yucatan, by Mewes, he went to the Maya zone to see the people of Cecilio Chi who had been in war, the war of castles. And from there, of course, to the capital city whose name was Palio Movispo then. And after he was there a few months, he saw what he could do. And he saw that he could do great things for these people and for the territory. So he stayed there. We went with him when I was three years old. And we stayed there six years. I'm sorry, it had taken much of his time. In 1944, 1945, he was appointed by President Tabela Camacho. He was invited to join the diplomatic service with a choice between the embassy in Holland for delegation in the Hague, Holland. And thinking of I held the program myself, he chose Holland so that we could learn languages. Besides his diplomatic work, he started negotiations for Pemex tankers to start supplying oil to Rotterdam for European customers. And also, he spent his free time studying comparative systems, especially those of Sweden and Denmark. Later he wrote many articles about comparative systems and international politics, which were published during 11 years in every never-selling newspaper. In 49, upon his return to Mexico, he immediately contacted his personal political friends to start working on the next campaign for the presidency of Mexico. In 1951, he founded and presided the Allianza Nacional de Grupo Nacional de Remusionales, which was the first political organization to launch the candidacy of Adolfo Riscortinis, who he had known for many years since Riscortinis was the congressman. Riscortinis won the election. General Melgar was elected as senator for the state of Oaxaca in 1952. Besides his participation in important issues such as the vote for women, he presented the initiative to establish the Belisario Dominguez Medal for citizens who participated in political, social, cultural, or professional actions for the good of Mexico, which is still granted by the Senate and presented by the president every year. General Rafael Melgar passed away on March 21, 1950. He was my father, my professor, my counselor, and of course, my best friend. As a father, he was strict, but very warm and loving. As a human being, he was kind, humble, always punctual, a hard worker, and especially getting always for the poorest thousands of people of his state at the time. I thank you all very much for your time and your great presence and patience in this ceremony, as I mentioned before, so important for me and my father. Thank you very much.