Everybody has heard about Pancho Villa and his bandoliers, and certainly, most people have heard about Emiliano Zapata and his formidable mustache. These two heroes of the Mexican Revolution became cultural icons mainly due to cinema (Pancho Villa actually starred in his own Hollywood film); however, the story of the Mexican Revolution goes beyond these two leaders, and in such a convulsed story, it’s only natural to have that many equally conflicted protagonists. One of them, and the one who basically started the whole movement, was Francisco I. Madero. What most people don’t know is that Madero, known as the ‘Apostle of Democracy,’ had a very interesting relationship with spiritism, to the point that he even believed spirits had guided and inspired him to start the revolution.
Francisco I. Madero was born in northern Mexico, in the state of Coahuila, to a wealthy family of landowners. He had a privileged education in Mexico, the US, and Paris in business and economy. During his life, Madero and his family had a terrible loss, his little three-year-old brother died tragically in an accident; this loss would haunt Madero for the rest of his life. Madero wasn’t really a religious person, on the contrary, one would say he was more inclined to the positivist philosophy that prioritized science. However, one day while looking at his father’s books he came across a magazine about spiritism.
Spiritism had a major outbreak in the world during the 19th century, mainly thanks to Allan Kardec, a french author known as the founder of spiritism. For him, spiritism was the middle ground between science and belief, and coming from a positivist school of thought, like Madero, he researched and theorized about the science behind the existence of spirits and how they communicated with the living. These ideas would be highly accepted in Mexico during that time when the country had just experienced a big schism from the church. People were eager to rely upon their beliefs in something, and spiritism fit perfectly.
Let’s go back to Madero. As he wrote in his memories, the discovery of that magazine, edited and written by Kardec himself, open up a new life perspective he wanted to fully experience. It was in France where he attended his first sessions and where he discovered he had been gifted with the ability to communicate with the spirits. He was what in the spiritist circles was known as an automatic writer, a kind of medium that translated the messages of the spirits through involuntary writing.
By 1900, Madero was already hosting his spiritist sessions in Mexico through a secret group. During these first sessions, Madero claimed to have his first contact with his little brother, who would play an important role in his political pursuits. Up to now, Madero was some sort of a party boy and a player, and according to the story, it was the communication with his brother Raul that made him change his lifestyle, even becoming a vegetarian. For Madero, spirits had access to full knowledge, and in the spheres they existed, there was no room for inequality. Spiritism actually encouraged equality at all levels, including gender equality. So this message would resound in Madero’s political agenda, and he was eager to bring these ideas into the earthly world.
One of his main standards would be the moral improvement of society. At some point, he would even claim to have conversations with former president of Mexico, Benito Juarez (or as the spirit would sign, ‘BJ’). From these conversations with the spirit, he adopted the ideas of implementing a commonwealth for all people and respect for the laws. This would also represent a new period in Madero’s spiritist ideas. So far, his sessions were attended by people who witnessed each of his communications, but now he opted for having individual sessions to pursue a political career and achieve national liberation and transformation. Spiritism didn’t really meddle with political issues, and for many of his followers, this change in his spiritism didn’t really represent the movement.
It was during this time, that Madero would meet another spirit, José Ramiro, who historians think might’ve been an uncle who died in 1833 during the cholera pandemic. His uncle had been governor of Coahuila and a renowned politician. José Ramiro told Madero he had been chosen to lead the transformation of the country. By 1905, Madero ran to become governor of Coahuila already with his motto of ‘no reelection.’ According to the legend, José even predicted dictator Porfirio Díaz was going to announce in an interview that he would organize free and democratic elections. With some time ahead, Madero started preparing his candidature for Presidency.
Porfirio Díaz, who had been in power for thirty years, did actually say later on in an interview for an American newspaper that Mexico was ready for democracy and free elections. As he had done so in the past three decades, he thought he could just simply rig the results, but as the day of the election was approaching, he realized that his opponent, Madero, was gaining a lot of popularity, so he had him arrested under the accusations of plotting an armed insurrection. Which he eventually did.
Long story short, he was bailed by his father and sent to Texas. During this time, he wrote his famous San Luis Potosí Plan where he called for a revolution to start on November 20. The word spread, and that day of 1910, spontaneous uprisings took place all over the country. Porfirio was sent to exile, and one year later, aided by other revolutionaries like Villa, Zapata, Obregón, and Huerta, Madero assumed the Presidency. Madero was an idealist more than a practical politician, and eventually, his ideas failed to come to reality.
A terrible massacre in the north of the country against the Chinese community on his name stained his image; his failure to fulfill all the promises he had done to his revolutionary allies turned him into the enemy; his not-so-very-smart move of using the military to repress the opposition made him a villain in the eyes of the people, and all these encouraged by the free press he impulsed, ended up with his political career.
He became the target of mockings on the press and naturally, his spiritist beliefs were the main excuse used by his detractors. There was even an article talking about the Chinese massacre called “Spirits also vote” mocking the president, and all in all, he would be seen as a madman. Spiritism in Mexico, which had once enjoyed great popularity, was seen as a negative philosophy, and even when Madero did his best to publish and impulse spiritism in the country, it ended up fading.
Madero’s Presidency and life came to an end in 1913 when he was betrayed by one of his closest allies, Victoriano Huerta. After an armed coup d’etat in Mexico City known as the 10 Tragic Days, Madero was arrested and murdered. The revolutionary cause lasted many more years of convulsion and betrayals. So, even when Madero’s image and political quest ended soon, he is still regarded as the one who made it all happen, and one of Mexico’s greatest heroes whether he was encouraged by spirits or not.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons
