JAMES CREELMAN: BIOGRAPHY - HISTORY - 2025

James Creelman was a Canadian journalist who rose to fame after landing an interview with the Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz. The main data of the interview was Diaz's statement saying that he was not going to run in the presidential elections of 1908, which turned out to be a lie.

He was a journalist who tirelessly traveled wherever it was required to find relevant stories, no matter that he had to put his life in danger. He crossed the Mississippi River and the Yellowstone River with the adventurer Paul Boyton and was noted for being an important journalistic figure at the peak of the tabloid press.

However, his most important feat was, without a doubt, the interview with Díaz. Many historians think that the answers that the dictator gave in the interview were an extremely important turning point for the Mexican Revolution to take place.

Biography

James Creelman was born on November 12, 1859, in the Canadian province of Montreal. He was the son of Matthew Creelman, who was dedicated to inspecting boilers, and Martha Dunwoodie. His parents were of Scottish descent but his father lived in Ireland before moving to Montreal.

When he was only 14 years old, he and his family moved to New York, United States. There he became widely interested in law and literature. His skills caught the attention of Thomas De Witt, one of the most important reformers of the Catholic Church of the 19th century in the American nation.

In addition, he obtained the tutelage of Republican figure Roscoe Conkling, who was a leader of the party and a member of the US House of Representatives.

He married Allice Leffinwell in 1891, with whom he had four children. He had a successful professional life, but a relatively short life. He died at the age of 56, on February 12, 1915, seven years after the publication of his interview with Porfirio Díaz.

Journalistic life

He carried out a lot of journalistic tasks after having trained in the area of ​​literature in New York. His first job was in an Episcopal newspaper in the city, then he went through the Brooklyn Eagle until he landed in the prestigious New York Herald.

In addition to his odyssey with Paul Boyton, he reported in person the conflict between the Hatfields and the McCoys, a confrontation between two rural North American families living in West Virginia.

This event lasted for several years and went down in American history as part of local folklore as well as a source of family honor.

He also interviewed the famous aboriginal leader "Sitting Bull" (Sitting Bull, according to his faithful translation into Spanish). This Native American was one of the leaders of the resistance against the United States government, before being assassinated in 1890 when police forces tried to arrest him.

War of Cuba and Spain

In addition, Creelman covered the development of tensions and the war between Spain and Cuba that took place in 1898. As was the custom for most war reporters of the time, he carried a weapon with him during his investigations.

He firmly supported the Cuban resistance in the war. In fact, when he was covering the battle of El Caney for the New York newspaper he worked with, he asked the American general who was in charge of a raid on a Spanish warehouse to let him join the battle.

The general finally agreed to let him advance. Creelman's newspaper had been one of the main instigators of the conflict, so when the troops managed to take the fort that the Spanish were in, Creelman took a flag of Spain to take it back to headquarters.

However, when taking the flag, the journalist stood up in front of a trench that still had Spanish soldiers and threw it several times into the wind. The furious soldiers fired at Creelman several times, wounding him in the back and one of his arms.

Style

His journalistic style was consistent with how this profession used to be carried out at the time. During his interviews he used to listen to the interviewee as much as he himself intervened.

He had a fairly pronounced ego, and on one occasion he even gave a sermon to the pope about the relationship between Protestants and Catholics.

However, Creelman was recognized as one of the most important journalists of the moment when he exercised his professional role.

Interview with Porfirio Díaz

The reasons why Porfirio Díaz decided to give an interview to an American journalist remain unknown to this day. The dictator was the one who contacted the journalist to grant him the interview and ask him to write an extensive article about it.

In the same way, it has not been possible to understand why he decided to promise things that he did not fulfill; especially on issues as sensitive as his non-reelection.

There are those who believe that the reason he said this was because he thought that the interview would be directed exclusively at a foreign audience and he wanted to give a good image of himself to the world.

However, other authors believe that the reason was because Mexico was having economic difficulties at the time, and thought that the news would serve to calm the waters and keep the Mexican people happy.

It is believed that it could also have been to bring out those who did not sympathize with his ideology or even to persuade his followers to ask him to run for election again.

Elections and outcome

By the time the dictator appeared before Creelman, the journalist was working with the American magazine Pearson's Magazine.

The official article of this meeting was published on February 17, 1908 and then, on March 3 of the same year, its version in Spanish was published in a newspaper known as El Imparcial, in Mexico City.

The presidential elections were to be held in 1910 and by that time Porfirio Díaz was going to be 80 years old. Therefore, he announced that he would not participate in these elections.

In addition, he encouraged the formation of other political parties, which had been prohibited during the 30 years of his regime.

The truth is that the result of the interview was catastrophic for the Porfiriato. The dictator ran for president again and won in 1910 with more than 98% of the vote. This caused a revolt that led to the Mexican Revolution and the subsequent overthrow of Díaz in 1911.

References

1. Creelman Interview, Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, 2008. Taken from encyclopedia.com
2. James Creelman - Porfirio Díaz, (nd). Taken from porfiriodiaz.com
3. Biography of James Creelman, Poem Hunter Database, (nd). Taken from poemhunter.com
4. James Creelman, Wikipedia in English, February 26, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
5. Sitting Bull, Wikipedia in English, February 25, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
6. Hatfield – McCoy feud, Wikipedia in English, April 1, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
7. Federal elections of Mexico of 1910, Wikipedia in Spanish, November 16, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org