Adolfo Ruiz Cortines
Adolfo Tomás Ruiz Cortines[1] (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈðolfo ˈrwis koɾˈtines] 30 December 1889 – 3 December 1973) was a Mexican politician who served as President of Mexico from 1952 to 1958. A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), he previously served as Governor of Veracruz and Secretary of the Interior. During his presidency, which constituted the Mexican Miracle, women gained the right to vote, and he instigated numerous public health, education, infrastructure, and works projects.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ruiz and the second or maternal family name is Cortines.
Adolfo Ruiz Cortines
Miguel Alemán Valdés
Ernesto P. Uruchurtu
Ernesto P. Uruchurtu
Óscar Fano Viniegra
Antonio Pulido
3 December 1973 (aged 83)
Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico
Revolutionary Forces
A member of the Constitutional Army, Ruiz Cortines was the last Mexican president to have fought in the Mexican Revolution.
[2] He worked at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce during the administration of Adolfo de la Huerta and served as an official in the Department of Statistics from 1921 to 1935. Ruiz Cortines joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party and became Senior Official of the Government of the Federal District in 1935 and member of the Chamber of Deputies for Veracruz in 1937. In 1939 he was appointed treasurer of the presidential campaign of Manuel Ávila Camacho and worked as Governor of Veracruz from 1944 to 1948, a position he left to become Secretariat of the Interior during the administration of Miguel Alemán Valdés.[3]
Ruiz Cortines protested as presidential candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1951 and was elected a year later, after winning the disputed 1952 elections. During his administration, he put forward a reform to Article 34 of the Mexican Constitution, giving women the right to vote, and proposed several infrastructure bills, leading to the creation of the National Housing Institute and the National Nuclear Energy Commission. His social policies included the implementation of aguinaldos. Unlike previous administrations from the PRI, he was an advocate of fiscal austerity. His administration was noted for increased transparency in contrast to his predecessor.
One of the oldest presidents of Mexico, Ruiz Cortines has been credited with leading a strong economy during the period known as the "Mexican miracle", and has been praised for personal integrity and increasing confidence in the government through his anti-corruption policies.[4][5] He was criticized for slower implementation of reforms than some of his predecessors.[4] He has been ranked among the most popular Mexican presidents of the 20th century.[6][7]
Military career[edit]
During the Mexican Revolution[edit]
In 1909, Ruiz read the book La sucesión presidencial de 1910 (The Presidential Succession of 1910) published that year by Francisco I. Madero, the leader of the opposition against President Porfirio Díaz. This book motivated Ruiz's interest in politics. In 1910, the Mexican Revolution started and he became inspired by several of its main players such as Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa. Because of this influence, in 1912 at the age of 23, he moved to Mexico City. During his stay in Mexico City, President Madero was assassinated and General Victoriano Huerta took power. Since Ruiz Cortines was opposed to the Huerta government, considered by a broad group of Mexicans as a usurper, he volunteered alongside other former students of the Instituto Veracruzano, under the command of Alfredo Robles, a right hand of the leader of the Constitutionalist faction, General Venustiano Carranza. Robles was in charge of the anti-Huerta forces in the south and center of Mexico.[3] Ruiz Cortines did see military action in the Battle of El Ébano, but his main task was as a bookkeeper and paymaster. In 1920, Carranza was attempting to flee the country after his defeat by Sonoran generals Adolfo de la Huerta, Álvaro Obregón, and Plutarco Elías Calles, who rejected Carranza's attempt to impose his successor, and took with him a large amount of the national treasure (150 million pesos in gold). When the generals captured his train and the national treasure's gold, it was the young and trusted officer, Major Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, who received it and delivered it safely and in presence of a notary to General de la Huerta in Mexico City.[11]
Personal life[edit]
In 1915 he married his first wife, Lucía Carrillo Guitiérrez, the daughter of Veracruz's then-governor, Lauro Carrillo. Ruiz Cortines and Lucía later divorced.[67] Their first child, María Cristina Ruiz Carrillo, was born on December 6, 1917.[68] Their second child, Lucía Ruiz Carrillo, was born on May 1, 1919. Their third child, Adolfo Ruiz Carrillo, was born on November 28, 1922.[69]
He married his second wife, an old girlfriend named María de Dolores Izaguirre, in 1941, who would serve as his First Lady.[67] She would become the first woman in Mexico to cast a vote after her husband passed the constitutional amendment promised during his campaign.[70]
Ruiz Cortines was known to frequntly play domino games.[35][59][71]