A selfless friendship? Porfirio Díaz, Ezequiel Montes and his Speech of July 6, 1877

Abstract

This article analyzes a speech delivered on July 6, 1877 by Ezequiel Montes Ledesma. The author has been one of the least studied liberals of 19th century Mexican history, in spite of his significant contributions to the Liberal Reform movement that, among other things, allowed for the consolidation of Mexican secularism.  The role of Montes-Ledesma’s political activism has been overlooked by traditional historiography and his works have not received considerable attention by researchers.  The aforementioned lecture stands out among his numerous publications since the speech’s request, delivered during a plenary session of the Supreme Court of Justice not only received a favorable resolution for the “amparo” or legal protection request for Faustino Goribar but also laid the foundations for the justification of the “regimen tuxtepecano” that was seen as an emerging power.  Thus, the main objective and hypothesis  of the present work are respectively: to examine the forenamed speech using the principles of legal hermeneutics to try to understand the rhetorical resources used by Montes-Ledesma and to demonstrate that, in its beginnings, the “Tuxtepecano movement” that led Porfirio Díaz to the presidency was interpreted by Ezequiel as the last attempt to ensure that the original text of the Federal Constitution of 1857 was fully respected, as it had been modified on different occasions by previous administrations, which did not hesitate to resort to the use of extraordinary powers.