Ortiz Rubio, Pascual (1877–1963)

Pascual Ortiz Rubio (b. 10 March 1877; d. 4 November 1963), Mexican president. He was elected in a hotly contested presidential race with José Vasconcelos in 1929, after president-elect Álvaro Obregón was assassinated before taking office. Some analysts believe he actually lost to Vasconcelos. During his administration (5 February 1930 to 4 September 1932), former president Plutarco Elías Calles (1924–1928) remained so powerful behind the scenes and his influence so openly pervasive that Ortiz Rubio resigned in protest against his lack of presidential sovereignty and authority. Ortiz Rubio was the second of three presidents to fill out the first six-year presidential term, 1928–1934.

Ortiz Rubio was born in Morelia, Michoacán, the son of lawyer Pascual Ortiz, from a landowning family, and Leonor Rubio. He was related by marriage to President José López Portillo. He attended preparatory school at the famous Colegio de San Nicolás in Michoacán, and as a student leader opposed the reelection of Porfirio Díaz in 1896. He completed his topographical engineering degree at the National College of Mines (later the National School of Engineering) in 1902 and returned to Morelia, where he soon involved himself in local politics. Elected to the 1912–1913 federal legislature after Madero's victory, he became a member of the "Renovation Group." After Madero's murder, Victoriano Huerta imprisoned him in 1913.

After his release, Ortiz Rubio joined the Constitutionalists as a colonel of engineers. In 1914, he was in charge of enemy properties for the Mexican government and directed the federal stamp bureau. By 1915, he had risen to the rank of brigadier general, responsible for engineering supplies. He later directed the department of military engineers for the secretariat of war before becoming governor of his home state (1917–1920). He served presidents Adolfo de la Huerta and Obregón as secretary of communications and public works (1920–1921) and president Calles appointed him ambassador to Germany and then Brazil. He became the National Revolutionary Party's presidential candidate in 1929. After resigning the presidency in 1932, the only Mexican to do so since 1913, he went to the United States. He returned to Mexico in 1935.

See alsoMexico: Since 1910; Mexico, Political Parties: National Revolutionary Party (PNR).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John W. F. Dulles, Yesterday in Mexico: A Chronicle of the Revolution, 1919–1936 (1961).

Pascual Ortiz Rubio, Memorias, 1895–1928 (1963).

Lorenzo Meyer, Historia de la Revolución mexicana, vols. 12 and 13 (1978).

Tzvi Medin, El minimato presidencial: Historia política del maximato (1982).

Additional Bibliography

Mijangos Díaz, Eduardo Nomelí. La Revolución y el poder político en Michoacán, 1910–1920. Morelia: Univerisdad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, 1997.

Mijangos Díaz, Eduardo Nomelí. Pascual Ortiz Rubio: Compendio de vida y obra. Morelia: Archivo Histórico, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, 1997.

Oikión Solano, Verónica. El constitucionalismo en Michoacán: El periodo de los gobiernos militares, 1914–1917. Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1992.

                                             Roderic Ai Camp