Múgica, Francisco José (1884–1954)

Francisco José Múgica (b. 3 September 1884; d. 12 April 1954), Mexican revolutionary and presidential candidate. Múgica served as a deputy to the constitutional convention of 1916–1917, where he established his reputation as a radical ideologue. A close friend of Lázaro Cárdenas, he joined his cabinet as secretary of public works (1935–1939) and became a precandidate in 1939 for the presidential nomination of the government party against Manuel Ávila Camacho. Because Múgica was so strongly identified with radical elements in the party, Cárdenas, despite their close friendship, chose the moderate Camacho to succeed himself.

Born in Tinguindín, Michoacán, Múgica studied in the Zamora seminary until 1904, after which he taught school. Politically active in his home state, he joined Francisco Madero's forces as a second lieutenant in 1910. He served as an assistant to Venustiano Carranza and in 1913 joined the Constitutionalists. Becoming a career officer in the new revolutionary army, he commanded numerous military zones in the 1930s. He served as governor of his home state (1920–1922) and of Baja California del Sur (1940–1946). In 1952 he supported the presidential bid of General Miguel Henríquez Guzmán.

See alsoCárdenas del Rio, Lázaro; Carranza, Venustiano.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armando De María y Campos, Múgica: Crónica biográfica (1939).

Magdalena Mondragón Aguirre, Cuando la Revolución se cortó las alas (Intento de una biografía del General Francisco J. Múgica) (1967).

Francisco J. Múgica, Hechos, no palabras (1982); Francisco J. Múgica: Compromiso histórico con la Revolución mexicana (1985).

Additional Bibliography

Boyer, Christopher R. Becoming Campesinos: Politics, Identity, and Agrarian Struggle in Postrevolutionary Michoacán, 1920–1935. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.

Navarro, Aaron William. Political Intelligence: Opposition, Parties and the Military in Mexico, 1938–1954. Ph.D. diss., 2004.

                                      Roderic Ai Camp