In this essay I am going to talk about differences and similarities on the way Porfirio Díaz and Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina became Presidents.
I am going to mention some interesting datas about their lives; who these people were before they became presidents, I will focus on the political ideas of both when they were more nearly to the presidency. I will mention important events and people who were around them while achieving their goals, and also those who were against them. The development of this essay will be the next: I will be talking about Porfirio Díaz then Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, with the objective to emphasize differences and similarities.
Before develop my essay I need to mention some differences in time and location; Mexico is located at the south of the United States, north of Guatemala and Belize. The historical events in this country have done through all forms of government up now. But in this essay I am going to study México in the period of the early presidency of Porfirio Díaz, from 1877 to 1911.
I am going to study the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1938, a small Island which is located near the Mexico side of Cuba when Trujillo took the presidency of his nation.
I decided to focus on Porfirio Díaz and Rafael Trujillo because after reading In The Time of The Butterflies and The Underdogs I realized that both presidents had many similarities before reaching the presidency. I will support my argument by referring to information from these two novels. I also decided to make a comparison with Porfirio Díaz because he was a major figure of my country. It is important to know and compare my Mexican history with the Latin American countries, especially Dominican Republic.
Porfirio Diaz was born in Oaxaca in 1830. During his youth he was an excellent student in mathematics, Latin, logistics, and science. For a time, he was part of the Institute of Science and Art of Oaxaca. During his youth, Porfirio Díaz worked as a carpenter but his best life arrived when he was offered the opportunity to work in a library.
In 1847 he joined the army to fight the U.S. invasion of Mexican because he conserved patriotic ideas. Once registered in the army, his family did not support him economically any more.
This fight was conducted by teachers and priests, they had liberal ideas, and Porfirio Díaz supported the Mexican town and mostly Benito Juarez. Porfirio Diaz's life seemed to be a good person but subsequent events changed his view.
I think he was illogical, he was disagree with the reelection of the presidents, and during his presidency he was reelected many times. His liberal's ideas were disappearing.
In 1867, Porfirio´s attitudes were obvious; he wanted to be president. That is why Juarez therefore summoned presidential elections, being Juarez elected. This was dislike to Díaz and he did uttered by lifting weapons with the anti party reelection. The objective of Porfirio Díaz in this lifting weapon was not to let Benito Juarez being reelected because politically Benito Juarez was much famous, he had much popular support, the Mexican town trusted him because of his good acts. Porfirio Díaz did not have success with his lifting weapon, not until Benito Juarez´s death. [1]
"The Underdog" is a book setting in the time of the revolution. It is focuses more on the Mexican town during the government of Díaz. To my point of view to hear and to know the reasons of a town´s struggles tells me about the kind of government of this moment.
The author Mariano Azuela shows the Mexican town´s dissatisfaction toward the government. The town was fighting because the government was taking their lands. When the people realized this, they took weapons. This excellent book shows us how this fight was. Reading this book I noticed the Porfirio Diaz's government was a dictatorship by peasant oppression. [2]
On the other hand the life of Trujillo was different. He was born in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic in 1891. He had more brothers than Porfirio Díaz and all of them took a military career.
In his youth Trujillo worked as a telegrapher but after that, he joined his brother in criminal activities such as forgery of checks and postal robbery; they were accused guilty of these acts. In this last part, I think Trujillo could not be a person assigned to do good things for his society because he was a bad person, but unfortunately he became president of the Dominican Republic, he became a dictator as is stated in the book In The Time of The Butterflies [3]
In this story is narrated the life of the Mirabal´s sister, they were women who rebelled against Trujillo because they realized Trujillo was a murderer. In the chapter two of this novel, Minerva, one of the Mirabal´s sisters knows by Sinita, a good Minerva´s friend that Sinita´s family have been killed by Trujillo just because they weren't agree with him. That is why I said that unfortunately he became president. [4]
Trujillo also was the chief of the "42" band which was famous for various criminal activities. When given the U.S. occupation in the Dominican town Trujillo is joined at the National Guard and began his military career. [5]
In my opinion Trujillo was a person with many ambitions. Many sources indicate that he wanted to take power, to make money and to be recognized by everybody. I found in the internet something that Trujillo mentioned once: "I must be part of the army and I will not stop until I am your boss" [6]
Trujillo was a person who knew how to get power and who took easy roads, infallible in his actions. I think the power damaged him because when he felt he had more power, he wanted more power no matter how, for this reason he became a dictator and a murderer.
In 1930, Trujillo did a coup d'état in the government of Horacio Velasquez, this movement was much more violent. There were many killing and a lot of intimidation. In the book In The Time of The Butterflies we can see these facts; fore example the major killing in this book is the killing of the Mirabal´s sisters, just because they had the courage to rebel against him. Also many sources mentions that there was electoral fraud and the number of votes were higher than the number of the population. [7]
Díaz and Trujillo submerged in militaries movements, they were violent, but I think
Díaz was not as violent as Trujillo was to take the presidency.
A curious data to me is that at the beginning of his military carrier, Díaz was agree with Benito Juarez´s ideas; he had ideas of peace and freedom to the Mexican town. But during the period joined in the army Porfirio Díaz was changed into another person. I think he started to get ideas of power similar Trujillo. But for example in Trujillo what I have been noticing are his horrible acts since his teenage. The Diaz´s teenage was softer, I mean normal. His normal activities were humanistic, focused in the teaching and liberal ideas. [8]
In conclusion Porfirio Díaz was a boy with liberal ambitions but the idea of power and of being president were important factors that changed him in to a corrupt man. On the contrary Trujillo was a criminal since his youth. Both had the ability to corrupt, doing this, they won everything they wanted that's why they tried to get power.
