B'VILLE PLAYED KEY ROLE IN MAKING PORFIRIO DIAZ DICTATOR

By Juan Montoya

Mexican Army general Porfirio Diaz had illusions of grandeur long before he became the 30-year dictator of that country.

But in his rise to power from his beginnings in Oaxaca, he took a detour to South Texas to gather support in northern Mexico and make war on the Benito Juarez administration by attacking federal forces in north Tamaulipas. Toward that end, he took massive monetary and material contributions from leading citizens on Brownsville, notably from James Stillman, the son of the "founder" of Brownsville.

Others included Sabas Cavazos, son of Doña Estefana Goseascochea Cavazos de Cortina, the daughter of Salvador De la Garza, who established the first ranch, now Rancho Viejo, Texas. Doña Estefana owned thousands of acres that included the present-day ranch down Carmen Road (named after her daughter) and abutted the Rio Grande River near what is now Military Highway.

Doña Estefana had another son, Juan Cortina, who also played a role in the rise of Diaz, and who was made a pawn by his American financial contributors to his revolt who promised him support in return for removing the pesky Cortina from the border.

Diaz's rise to power and his penchant for making himself the center of attraction started n 1862 at the Battle of Cinco de Mayo in Puebla when he led a cavalry column that destroyed the French army as it was in full retreat from the force under War Minister Ignacio Zaragoza. The accolades that were bestowed upon him by Juarez whetted his thirst for power. Ironically, Cortins was also present at Puebla making war on the French, too.

In 1868, he rallied troops in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Juarez. Then after he lost the presidential election to Juarez in 1871, he tried another golpe de estado in 1872. He failed again but Juarez let him survive, only to die himself later that year.

Juarez successor, Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada beat Juarez for the presidency in 1875 and Diaz again attempted to overthrow the government later that year. His followers were known as the "railroaders" for their support for modernization of Mexico and their slogans used during Diaz's try for the presidency.

They believed that American capital and technology would modernize and transform Mexico. During the war with the French, Diaz was the main recipient of American arms and shipments procured from U.S. bondholders. He kept those connections in his bid to overthrow Lerdo and those shipments were brought in through the port of Coatzacoalcos.

But before he launched his successful coup de etat in 1876, he courted American support in South Texas in 1872 and came to Brownsville to make his bid for their financial support by promising investors that he would grant concessions to coastal properties to develop them. In 1875, Diaz visited New York and met with National City Bank leaders headed by young James Stillman, heir to the Charles Stillman estate and protege of Zachary Taylor, who had met and befiriended Charles when he invaded northern Mexico and occupied Matamoros.

James Stillman sent lawyer Charles Sterling, the famed lawyer of the law firm of Spearman and Sterling. Sterling accompanied Diaz to the Rio Grande Valley "in order to represent" Stillman's interests. The law firm handled many of the needs of Taylor and the National City Bank.

While Diaz was in Brownsville he stayed in a house next to the Stillman House on Washington Street that now houses the Brownsville Historical Association Museum. The museum features an armored touring car tat is said to have been owned by Diaz when he was president of Mexico.

At the time Diaz was in Brownsville seeking funds and war materiel, his associate in the revolt General Fidencio Hernandez proclaimed the Revolution of Tuxtepec on January 15, 1876 to give it legitimacy it would not have if Diaz had proclaimed the revolution from a foreign country. Diaz owned an Hacienda in Tuxtepec.

Diaz began to mount attacks on the Mexican forces from the Texas side of the Rio Grande in the spring of 1876. The Texas financiers desperately wanted to regain their positions in Mexico and Diaz evoked their sympathy and praise, as well as their expectations.

At first, Diaz found the going rough, with only one member of the Matamoros garrison jumping over to his side when he took over the city. His force consisted of 1,600 men, including 800 Americans. Once he proved that he could stay in the field for several months, he began to gain enlistments from army officers, generals, state governors, congressional deputies, jurists and intellectuals, all of whom favored the most rapid and widespread introduction of railroads possible.

Texas ranch owners. among them Richard King, were among his most avid supporters as was Colonel John Salmon "Rip" Ford, the leader of the Texas Rangers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and General E.O.C. Ord. commander of Fort Sam Houston and an accomplished engineer. The U.S. Army offices at Fort Brown ignored the arms traffic to Diaz and the hit-and-run raids across the border.

Diaz promised to put an end to the incessant border fighting. Specifically, he promised he would remove Cortina from the border if they helped him fund his revolution.

In February of 1876, Diaz met with a group of railroad financiers representing New York syndicates and South Texas land barons at Kingsbury, Texas. Kingsbury, about 40 miles east of San Antonio,  was the rail head of the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railroad. Ford reported later that during the meeting, King, who purchased $30,000 in Mexican Railroad stock, promised Diaz financial aid if he would rid southern Texas of Cortina.

Ford wrote in his Memoirs: "Diaz asked if the Americans would loan him cash. He was told 'you are no douunt fully aware of the trouble that General Cortina is causing on this frontier...If you will give your word that, if successful in the revolution you are about to inaugurate, you will order Cortina to be removed from this frontier, Americans will loan you money.' General Diaz gave his word. he obtained money from American citizens...General Cortina has been under surveillance for nearly 20 years. Can any gentleman dare say President Diaz has not fully redeemed his pledge?"

That February, Diaz received $40,000 in American contributions followed by separate grants of $14,000, $20,000, $50,000, $60,000 and $320,000 forwarded by King, Sabas Cavazos, Juan Bustamante and Alberto Castillo.

His forces used Stillman's Civil War facility in Bagdad and established a flow of supplies during the winter and spring of 1876. Arms from New York began arriving in March and Brownsville merchants provided Diaz with ordinance that included 250,000 rounds of ammunition, 2,000,000 recharging cartridges from Remington Arms, and after a prolonged siege made possible by supplies shipped by Whitney Arms Company and the Wexel and Degress Arms Company of New York, Diaz's forces seized Matamoros in April.

While he was enjoying these minor successes in Tamaulipas, Diaz proclaimed his reworded Plan de Tuxtepec and issued his Plan de Palo Blanco in Tamaulipas on March 21, 1876. Despite the high-flown rhetoric and flaunted military might, Diaz was defeated in Tamaulipas by Mexican General Mariano Escobedo. In his flight, he fled to Nuevo Leon where Gen. Carlos Fuero, that state's military commander, dealt a crushing defeat to the remnants of Diaz’s forces at the Battle of Icamole, a town near the city of Monterrey.

Diaz came back to Brownsville and then fled to New Orleans. he later made his way back to Veracruz.

P.G. Cavazos, a descendant of Sabas Cavazos, said family lore and tradition tells of his ancestor Sabas supporting the Diaz rebellion by providing him a loan of 10,000 gold pesos – a heavy sum of money even then.

“Our grandfathers and grandmothers used to tell us that Sabas Cavazos loaned the money to Diaz and considered him his friend,” said Cavazos. “My ancestor visited Porfirio Diaz in Brownsville and Diaz visited him at his ranch in Santa Rita. “That’s where they became friends and he lent him the money to further his revolution.”

The postscript to this story is that when Diaz finally overthrew Lerdo in 1876, he invited Sabas Cavazos to an official ceremony in Mexico City to celebrate his great victory. Lerdo by then was in exile in New York, vowing never to return until the dictator had died.

“The story goes that when Sabas Cavazos attended the banquet to toast to Diaz’s victory, there was something placed in his drink that made him violently sick and later that night he died,” Cavazos said. “Many of his relatives thought that Diaz had poisoned him so he wouldn’t have to pay him back the 10,000 gold pesos.”