Plan Of San Luis Potosi Summary

The author of the Plan of San Luis Potosi is Francisco Madero, a Mexican revolutionary and, at the time of writing his plan, a future president of Mexico. Madero’s purpose in writing the issue was to challenge the presidency of Porfirio Diaz, who had been president for several decades and was essentially the dictator of Mexico. Madero went up against Diaz in the election of 1910 and Diaz imprisoned his opponent for challenging his authority. Madero stated his view of the illegality of the election and called for the people of Mexico to challenge this illegal election and to follow him, the legitimate winner of the 1910 election, in fighting back against Diaz and fighting for liberty and throwing off oppression. Madero specifically states in his issue that he is the legitimate winner of the election of 1910 and that because of this the people of Mexico should help him overthrow Diaz. Madero’s desire to be president coupled with the fact that he thought of himself as the legitimate winner of the election may have colored his view that Diaz should no longer be president and should be overthrown. Regardless of whether or not he was actually the winner of the election, Madero’s view

that he was the winner contributed to the ideas he set down in his issue.
As stated before, the document was written just after Madero was imprisoned by Diaz after the 1910 election in which Madero challenged Diaz for the presidency of Mexico.

At this time, Diaz had been president of Mexico for over 30 years and had served many consecutive terms as president. Madero had said that in all his years in a “dictatorship”, “General Diaz with great cunning and perseverance, has succeeded in annihilating all independent elements, so that it was not possible to organize any sort of movement to take from him the power of which he made such bad use”. Years and years of suppression were brought to a head with the 1910 election and subsequent arrest of Madero and lead to the anger and frustration Madero writes in his issue when calls for the people to follow him and take

arms.
With the context of time, that is Madero’s argument: for many years Diaz and his government have been abusing power and that his then recent election was illegal and that the people should take arms against Diaz and fight him. Madero justifies his call to arms against Diaz by saying that under Diaz’s government “the administration of justice, instead of imparting protection to the weak, merely serves to legalize the plunderings committed by the strong; the judges instead of being the representatives of justice, are the agents of the executive, whose interests they faithfully serve; the chambers of the union have no other will than that of the dictator; the governors of the States are designated by him and they in their turn designate and impose in like manner the municipal authorities.” Essentially, the actions of the government are there to serve Diaz and itself, rather than the people, who are in turn harmed by these actions. But more than just being under a dictatorship, Diaz did not listen to the will of the people in the election for president and Madero “very well knew that General Diaz would not bow to the will of the nation”. Therefore, revolution is justified.
This document gives me a little more insight into the details of the Mexican Revolution and the transition of power from Diaz to Madero, based on the documentary we have watched in class, The Storm That Swept Mexico, which is where most of the information of the Mexican Revolution I know comes from. I also found this piece to be powerful and provocative, but in a good way. I can feel the revolutionary fervor and I think it is exciting.