1. Jose Santiago Vidaurri Valdez was a controversial and powerful governor of the northern Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila between 1855 and 1864.
20 Facts About Santiago Vidaurri
1. 2.
Santiago Vidaurri sought advantageous trade relationships with the CSA, which bordered northern Mexico.
3.
Santiago Vidaurri broke with Juarez, who never went into foreign exile, but whose government did not effectively control territory.
4.
Santiago Vidaurri was one of several moderate liberals who joined the cabinet of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico in the Second Mexican Empire and served in early 1867 as the emperor's final First Minister.
5.
Santiago Vidaurri was born in Villa Punta de Lampazos, New Kingdom of Leon on July 24,1809, the oldest of the four sons of Pedro Jose Santiago Vidaurri de la Cruz and Maria Teodora Valdez Solis.
6.
Santiago Vidaurri is best known as the strongman of northeast Mexico during the 1850s and 1860s who defended that territory against outside intervention.
7.
Santiago Vidaurri promulgated a plan called "Restaurador de la Libertad", captured the main city of Nuevo Leon, Monterrery, in May 1855, and became both military commander in the state.
8.
Santiago Vidaurri supported the Revolution of Ayutla and had already seized the opportunity to create his own area of political control in northern Mexico.
9.
Santiago Vidaurri had overthrown the governor of Nuevo Leon and annexed Coahuila, eliminating any opposition.
10.
The forced merger of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon in April 1856 was opposed by President Ignacio Comonfort, with Santiago Vidaurri appealing to the federal congress for support.
11.
Santiago Vidaurri had an army, collected customs revenues, and was free of central government interference.
12.
Santiago Vidaurri was powerful and potentially dangerous, given the size and location of the territory he controlled in northern Mexico.
13.
At various points, Santiago Vidaurri attempted to force the family to sell him an hacienda, shook them down for a 10,000 pesos "contribution" to shore up the Santiago Vidaurri administration when it was short of funds, and sacked a family mansion in Saltillo.
14.
Santiago Vidaurri raised an army in his merged states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon.
15.
In September 1858, Santiago Vidaurri's forces were defeated by conservative general Miguel Miramon.
16.
Santiago Vidaurri did not wait for formal sanctioning of this policy, but implemented it in his territory, as did Jesus Gonzalez Ortega.
17.
Evaristo Madero, grandfather of Francisco I Madero, who challenged Porfirio Diaz for the presidency in 1910, was a successful businessman in Northeast Mexico, and was for a time an ally of Vidaurri; The elder Madero broke with Vidaurri and supported Juarez.
18.
Santiago Vidaurri believed that relations with the Confederacy could prove profitable for his territory and insure border peace, and he made his overture to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
19.
Republican troops drove him into Texas, but troops loyal to Santiago Vidaurri remained active in the region.
20.
The triumphant Santiago Vidaurri then headed towards the capital where he was made a councilor of Emperor Maximilian.