RICARDO FLORES MAGÓN: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - HISTORY - 2025

Ricardo Flores Magón was a Mexican journalist, politician, and poet, a fiery figure and a radical opponent of the Porfirio Díaz government. He was characterized by his ethics, strength, coherence and very personal style in combat. Supporter of anarchist thought, Ricardo Flores Magón generated a political-philosophical current known as Magonismo.

However, on more than one occasion Flores Magón asserted that he was not a magonista; he described himself as an anarchist. He was the founder of the Mexican Liberal Party, and together with his two brothers he founded a newspaper called Regeneración. His political struggle landed him in jail several times.

He, too, and his fellow soldiers had to live in the United States. There he died in 1922 while serving prison in a jail.

In 1945 his remains were transferred to the Rotunda of Illustrious Men; This monument is located in the Civil Pantheon of Dolores, in Mexico City.

Biography

Ricardo Flores Magón was born in San Antonio Eloxochitlán, in Oaxaca, on September 16, 1873. His father was an indigenous man named Teodoro Flores, who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in Benito Juárez's army.

His mother was a mestizo named Margarita Magón. Both parents were liberals and fought against the conservatives and the French. Ricardo had two brothers: Jesús and Enrique, who also had an active participation in politics.

Studies

His first studies were carried out in Oaxaca, where he learned about the culture of the original population. Then the whole family moved to Mexico City.

In Mexico City he studied at the National Preparatory School, where a positivist line of thought was followed. Later he entered the School of Jurisprudence, but did not complete his studies in Law.

At the age of 19 he was active in the ranks of the reformist liberal thought. He left written testimonies of his philosophical principles; These were: love of the Homeland and the desire that the middle class, workers and indigenous people had equal well-being.

At that time, he believed that good intentions and ethical conduct were enough to carry out political reforms.

In 1892 Porfirio Díaz threatened to put thousands of workers out of work, terrorizing the peasants and forcing them to vote.

Ricardo got on a platform in the middle of a demonstration and denounced the ethical and physical violation by the people of Díaz. Then, the military haircut repressed the act; this led to Flores Magón spending a month in a dungeon.

Creation of

After Flores Magón got out of jail, he began to write for a newspaper opposed to the government: El Democrata. The military force closed the publication and imprisoned his older brother, Jesús.

On August 7, 1900, the family managed to publish the first issue of the Regeneración newspaper. That medium became at that time his main weapon to fight the Porfiriato.

At that time, Ricardo proposed a political change through the electoral process, but the experience that he lived from the repression and subsequent incarcerations led him to radicalization.

In 1901 the brothers Ricardo and Jesús were imprisoned and threatened to kill them if they continued to publish the newspaper. However, this did not end the eagerness to spread the news.

In 1902, when the brothers were released from prison, they began publishing the newspaper El Hijo de Ahuzilote. Five months later it was shut down and the entire staff was jailed; among them were Ricardo and Jesús.

Emigration to the United States

After being imprisoned for the publication of the newspaper El Hijo de Ahuzilote, the Flores brothers were released from prison again in 1903. Later the courts ordered the closure of any media where Flores Magón wrote.

Faced with so much cruelty, both the brothers and the rest of the team decided to go to the United States. This is how the Flores brothers and their closest team settled in St. Louis, Missouri, while another part of the team stayed in San Antonio, Texas.

Between 1904 and 1906 clashes were generated between the two groups. Both social origin and political convictions were the causes of the break.

Camilo Arriaga, a rich young man by origin, preferred to continue the fight through legal tools and political reforms.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Flores, Librado Rivera, Juan Sanabria, and Antonio Villareal began to associate with the American anarchists. Through Enma Goldman and Florenco Bezora they contacted Errico Malatesta, leader and theorist of European anarchism.

Together with this character they delved into the theories of Proudhonm Mikhail Bakunin, Benjamin Tucker and Piotr Kropotkin. At that time they understood communism as the product of a general awareness of solidarity among human beings.

Imprisonment

In 1905 a detective agency invaded the offices of the newspaper where Flores Magón works. In addition, they confiscated the property and arrested Juan Sanabria and the Flores brothers.

When they were released from prison, they returned to their activities with more force. Together with the American miners, they trained the miners of northern Mexico.

In 1906 the Cananea strike broke out and the clashes led to human and material losses in the Mexican mines. In the following years, the conflicts in Sonora, Río Blanco, Veracruz and San Juan de Potosí were repeated.

Later, the Yaqui Indians joined the uprising process, which is why Flores Magón ended up in prison again along with his companions. When they got out of jail in 1910, they went to Los Angeles and from there they began to publish the newspaper Regeneración again.

So the US authorities joined the Mexican authorities to suppress the anarchist movement. Ricardo Flores and Librado Rivera were incarcerated in Leavenworth; there Ricardo Flores Magón died on November 21, 1922.

There are three versions of his death: the official one was cardiac arrest; According to Rivera, Flores died by strangulation, as he himself could see; and according to the CRON magazine published in May 1923, Ricardo died beaten by the prison guards.

Contributions

The main contribution of Flores Magón's thoughts was the influence he came to have on various social groups. In 1905 the Organizing Board of the Mexican Liberal Party was born in San Luis, which assumed the nationalist, anti-foreign and anti-employer ideas promoted by Flores Magón.

The anarchist approaches and ethics of Ricardo Flores Magón influenced the Inquilinary Movement of Veracruz, which is articulated with the Peasant Radio Movement of the same state.

In 1921, Primo Tapia, who was part of the Los Angeles group together with Flores Magón, articulated the Peasant Movement of Michoacán.

Together with the ideas and contributions of Ricardo Treviño, he was fundamental for the strengthening of the Revolutionary Unionism of Tampico. His texts influenced the social policies of some governors, such as Federico Carrillo in Yucatán, Emilio Portes Gil in Taulimas, and Adalberto Tejera in Veracruz.

Zapatista movement

Flores Magón's thoughts influence the Zapatista movement. The first and largest of the rebel municipalities is that of Tzetal in Taniperlas, under the control of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

There the Magonista vision of order based on mutual support was implanted; This forms the basis for Tzetal's justice, health, education and production systems.

References

1. Escobedo Cetina, H. Ricardo López Magón (Life and work). I KNOW. Recovered at: academia.edu
2. de Santillán, DA (2011). Ricardo Flores Magón. Apostle of the Mexican Revolution. Buenos Aires: Anarres-Terramas Editions Books. Recovered at: fondation-besnard.org
3. Juárez, MAM (2010). Ricardo Flores Magón. Allegations Magazine. N ° 78. May-August. Mexico. P. 595-628. Recovered at: azc.uam.mx
4. Magón, RF, & Rebolledo, AS (1970). Mexican Revolution. Grijalbo. Recovered at: hispanista.org
5. Magón, RF, Magón, JF, Magón, EF, & Bassols, JB (2004). Regeneration (Vol. 12). CONACULTA. Recovered in: archivomagon.net