Mexico’s Revolution Day (Dia de la Revolucion) is a national public holiday that celebrates a 10-year revolution that began in 1910 to end the struggle against dictator José de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori. It is celebrated on the third Monday in November, near the official day on November 20.
On this date, in the year 1910 the revolutionary war to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Díaz, began.
Porfirio Díaz first made a name for himself at the 1862 Battle of Puebla. In an event celebrated every Cinco de Mayo, he helped the undermanned Mexican Army defeat invading French troops. Then, after trying and failing to get elected president democratically, Díaz seized power in an 1876 coup. Both liberals and intellectuals began to challenge the regime of dictator Porfirio Díaz, who had been in power since 1877, a term of 34 years called El Porfiriato, violating the principles and ideals of the Mexican Constitution of 1857.
David Alfaro Siqueiros painting on Mexican Revolution (Archive)
The Mexican Revolution was a complex and bloody conflict which arguably spanned two decades, and in which 900,000 people lost their lives. Historians estimate that approx. 1,000,000 people died during the Mexican Revolution. Some sources even say it was more than 2,000,000 people.
The exact date that the Mexican Revolution ended is hard to pin down. The fighting did not end abruptly.
The Mexican Revolution’s aftermath lasted until 1940. The initial goal of the Mexican Revolution was simply the overthrow of the Díaz dictatorship, but that relatively simple political movement broadened into a major economic and social upheaval that presaged the fundamental character of Mexico’s 20th-century experience.
Jose Guadalupe Posadas drawing on the Mexican Revolution (Archive)
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