Abraham González Casavantes

Abraham González Casavantes (Guerrero, Chihuahua; June 7, 1864-Bachimba, Chihuahua; March 7, 1913) was a prominent Mexican politician and revolutionary, the main leader of the National Anti-Reelectionist Party, head of maderismo and trusted man of Francisco I. Madero in the state of Chihuahua. He was a mentor and recruiter for the Mexican Revolution of Francisco Villa and Pascual Orozco.

Family origins and training

He was born to a family originally from Basúchil, municipality of Guerrero, Chihuahua. Her family was one of the wealthiest and most educated in the state. He educated at the University of Notre Dame, in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. On his paternal side she was originally from Teocaltiche, Jalisco, related to the González de Hermosillo, Sonora and to the Gómez Rendón family corroborated with Y-DNA records with other González families from Hermosillo and Jalisco. He studied with Professor Mariano Irigoyen, in his hometown. He then went on to the Scientific and Literary Institute of the Chihuahua capital. He finished his high school studies at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. After finishing his university career he dedicated himself to managing large-scale cattle raising. Abraham was tall, strong morally and physically, rich and single, he spoke English well. He was 46 years old at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. His father was from Casa Roque, in the Cerín neighborhood, Bañugues town, Gozón municipality, Asturias, Spain.

Like Madero, being the scion of one of the richest landowning families in Coahuila and educated abroad, Abraham González also suffered under the favoritism of Porfirio Díaz in the political system. In Chihuahua, the dominant party was the key political party Terrazas-Creel, owners of extensive areas of land and with strong political connections with Díaz. González "was incapable of staying out of the competition of the large estates, mainly from the Terrazas-Creel clan." After Madero wrote his book, the Presidential Succession of 1910 and the political movement of the elites against the new election of Porfirio Díaz, González was the main head of the Anti-reelectionists Club in Chihuahua.

Political career

Beginnings

From the beginning of his activities he characterized himself as a staunch opponent of the government of Porfirio Díaz and his representatives in Chihuahua, Luis Terrazas and Enrique C. Creel; When Francisco I. Madero began to spread his ideas he immediately joined him, and at the Congress of the National Anti-Reelectionist Party held in Mexico City it was he who proposed the electoral formula Francisco I. Madero-Francisco Vázquez Gómez as candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the Republic. It should be noted that Madero, Moya and González were members of powerful northern families and with similar educations, which is how they united causes and prestige as democrats. He accompanied Madero during his tour of Chihuahua and gave a speech at the Noriega Theater defending democratic ideas. He became Madero's most trusted friend and collaborator. When Madero proclaimed the Plan of San Luis in San Luis Potosí, where he incited rebellion against Díaz after the fraudulent election of 1910, he relied on González and others for the uprising.

The Revolution

When the legitimate vote was carried out in the 1910 elections, Abraham González went underground and prepared the revolutionary struggle in Chihuahua. It was he who integrated leaders such as Luis Moya, Francisco Villa and Pascual Orozco into the Revolution, and became, when the Mexican Revolution broke out, the political leader of the struggle in his native state and one of the main advisors of Francisco I. Madero; Faced with this fact, he also took up arms with the rank of colonel in the Anti-Reelectionist Army. During the early phases of the Revolution, González was provisional governor of the State of Chihuahua in October 1910 by Francisco I. Madero. After the success of the Madero Revolution in 1911, he was named interim governor in June 1911 pending elections. He was elected governor in his own right on August 14, 1911, taking oath on October 4 of that year.

In October 1911, González was granted a leave of absence by the Chihuahua legislature, from the Governor's office. in order to join and serve Madero's cabinet in Mexico City. On November 6, 1911, he was appointed Secretary of the Interior. As one of the Ministers of the Maderista cabinet, he intervened in the revolution against Díaz, and González was a frequent target of the conservative press. He worked with all his capacity until February 1912, when he returned to Chihuahua, due to the serious problems caused by Pascual Orozco's rebellion against Madero. He served as governor of the state until his arrest and murder by officers of General Victoriano Huerta's regime in March 1913.

Death

When the armed insurrection of February 1913 and the Tragic Decade broke out, Abraham González remained in the government of Chihuahua, from where he tried to help President Madero. However, when the president and vice president resigned, the armed insurrection spread to Chihuahua, where the Head of the Military Zone, General Antonio Rábago, betrayed him, occupied the local Legislature, forced it to dismiss González and appoint him himself as his substitute.

Rábago illegally arrested Abraham González and his nephew Colonel Fernando González y González (paymaster of the 5th Northern Division and a direct relative of Abraham), and informed the former that he would be transferred to Mexico City, for written order of General Victoriano Huerta. However, majors Benjamín Camarena and Hernando Limón, Lieutenant Federico Revilla and Captain Manuel Rodríguez, head of the train escort, during the transfer on the Mexican Central Railway, on the night of March 6, 1913 between the Horcasitas stations and the Bachimba Canyon, 65 km south of Chihuahua, they took him off the train and shot him, thus being murdered by forces loyal to Victoriano Huerta.

Some time later, Colonel Fernando González y González, his nephew under the direct orders of Francisco Villa, recovered his remains, returning them to the city of Chihuahua, where they gave him a funeral with the maximum honors of a revolutionary hero. Several revolutionary leaders such as Plutarco Elías Calles and Villa himself attended his funeral. Several of his murderers, after the fall of Huerta; Among them, General Antonio Rábago, who was his trusted man, were imprisoned; In this last case, Rábago was captured by General Álvaro Obregón who gave orders to Villa to imprison him in Chihuahua, where he would die of a heart attack on March 22, 1915. In 1966 it was proposed that his name be placed with letters of gold in the grounds of the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro. He is buried in the Rotunda of the Illustrious Chihuahuenses under the monument of the Angel of Liberty in the Plaza Mayor in the City of Chihuahua.