In 1911, After three decades of a dictatorial regime based on terror, former President Porfirio Díaz was ready to set sails to Europe to escape the Revolution against him. His infamous government, known as ‘Porfiriato’, was known for the constant and violent suppression of uprisings. Diaz’s regime was one full of contradictions. While he attracted foreign investment as Mexico had never seen before in its history, the ‘Porfiriato’ also waged a low-profile war and extermination against Yaquis, Mayas, and other native peoples in Mexico. His government gave its last breaths in the form of lavish inaugurations in the framework of the Centennial of Independence, whole persecuting the press and opening a gap of inequality that is still unbridgeable.
Six months after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, Diaz was forced to resign as president and leave the country immediately. He departed from Veracruz and never set foot in Mexico again. Once established in Paris, where he lived until his death, Díaz traveled around Europe with his wife, Carmen Romero Rubio, alternating his Parisian residence, located at number 26 Foch Avenue, with French country houses during the cold winter. On most occasions, his presence went unnoticed by the European society, yet on some lesser occasions he was recognized, and unlike in Mexico, he was received with honors by various European diplomats.
From dictator to celebrity
It happened first when he visited Les Invalides. General Gustave Niox accompanied him to Napoleon’s tomb, and according to some versions, he was offered, as a token of respect, the sword used by the Emperor at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805.
In April 1912, Díaz and Carmen arrived in Madrid. The news soon reached the ears of King Alfonso XIII, who sent him an invitation to visit the Palace of Zarzuela and the Escorial, where he met with various diplomats and nobles, who offered him land and property so that he could spend the rest of his days on the peninsula.
Later, after learning that a military exhibition would be held in Mainz, Germany, Díaz contacted Mexican diplomatic authorities in Frankfurt to attend the parade. After witnessing it discreetly in the company of his wife and an attaché of the German consulate, he had a brief interview with Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Upon his return to France, Porfirio Diaz also traveled to Italy, in addition to the Principality of Monaco, from where he embarked on a trip that would take him to Alexandria and Cairo. In 1915, Díaz died in Paris as a respected man, more than 9,000 kilometers away from Mexico, a country that experienced firsthand the hardest face of his infamous regime, one of repression, censorship, and genocide.
The remains of Porfirio Diaz in Paris are now at risk as his relatives have not renewed the lot at the cemetery. Would he go back to his home country? Who knows, what’s true, is that he probably won’t be received with great fanfare.
Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards
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