VALENTÍN GÓMEZ FARÍAS: BIOGRAPHY, GOVERNMENT, REFORMS, CONTRIBUTIONS - HISTORY - 2025

Valentín Gómez Farías (1781 -1859) was a 19th century Mexican physician and politician, leader of the liberal party. He served as president of the United Mexican States on five occasions.

He was actively involved in the fight for Mexican independence. He was in favor of the liberal political ideas developed in France. He was also vice president during the government of Antonio López de Santa Anna.

Unknown author, via Wikimedia Commons

He carried out social reforms among which were the reduction of the army and the suppression of the privileges for this institution. He also promoted the separation between the Catholic Church and education; Furthermore, it allowed clergymen to undo their vows. Economically, it ended the tobacco monopoly.

Such measures were unwelcome and antagonized both the army and the church. Consequently, Gómez Farías had to take asylum for a time in New Orleans. He then returned to the first Mexican magistracy in 1846 for a short period of time.

Since 1856, Valentín Gómez Farías was a deputy for Jalisco and then president of the National Constituent Congress that was to draft a new constitution. This was presented in February 1857.

His life's work was accomplished when he was the first of the deputies to sign the Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1857, this was delivered to President Ignacio Comonfort.

The following year he died and the church denied him burial, despite having been a devout Catholic throughout his life, for his liberal ideals and the reforms he promoted. He was then buried on his daughter's property.

Valentín Gómez Farías could not really see his work materialized, since the War of the Reform between conservatives and liberals ended in 1867 with the victory of the reformed republic.

Biography

Early years

Valentín Gómez Farías was born on February 14, 1781 in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. His father was the merchant José Lugardo Gómez de la Vara and his mother María Josefa Farías y Martínez, who came from an important family in Saltillo.

The boy was baptized seven days after his birth and his godparents were Domingo Gutiérrez and Antonia Terrazas. Not many data are known about Gómez Farías' parents, except that the mother died before October 1817, and that the father lived to see his son in the presidential chair, since he died on March 27, 1834.

In 1800, Valentín Gómez Farías was a student at the Guadalajara Seminary. During that time the educational institutions, although Catholic, were full of teachers who transmitted liberal ideas to their students.

This panorama was related to the influence that the French Revolution generated throughout the Western world. However, religious and political leaders did not see this favorably. It was there that Gómez Farías had his first approach to liberal ideas since he was 19 years old.

Although he himself never considered himself a diligent student, those who knew him had a different opinion. They claimed that he was a lover of knowledge and perfecting his studies.

Medicine

Valentín Gómez Farías studied medicine at the University of Guadalajara, apparently leaving the seminary in 1801 and obtaining his medical degree between 1806 and 1807.

His professors at the medical school marveled at the young man who quoted novel French texts that the teachers themselves ignored.

He learned French by himself. Some say that this curiosity and genius of the young Gómez Farías also aroused in the Inquisitor Court suspicions of heresy, because it was linked to the thinking that was developing in France.

After graduating, he was invited to serve as a teacher at his alma mater. Valentín Gómez Farías accepted the position and served until 1808, when he left Guadalajara for Mexico City, where he was installed until 1810.

Although some historians affirm that he went to continue his studies in medicine, the atmosphere of revolution that filled the city, inspired by the events that took place in France, infected Gómez Farías.

Since 1810 he lived in Aguascalientes. There he met his wife, Isabel López Padilla, whom he married in 1817. With her he had six children named Ignacia, Fermín, Casimiro and Benito, the other two died in infancy.

Valentín Gómez Farías dedicated himself to the practice of medicine for seven years while living in Aguascalientes.

Liberalism

The entry of Gómez Farías to the world of politics occurred in 1820, the year in which he began his period as Regidor of the Aguascalientes City Council.

After the proclamation of the Constitution of Cádiz in Mexico, deputies were selected to be sent to the Cortes by the Spanish crown domains. Farías was selected by the province of Zacatecas in 1821.

In February of the same year, Mexico declared its independence with the Plan of Iguala. Valentín Gómez Farías joined the independence movement as alderman and colonel of the Aguascalientes Civil Militia.

Also, at the end of 1821, Gómez Farías was selected as a military deputy for the National Constituent Congress in Mexico City. In 1822 he left for the capital to take up this position.

For a time he was in favor of the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. But when seeing the excesses of Iturbide, Valentín Gómez Farías became a staunch opponent of the newborn empire and a supporter of federalism.

In January 1825 he was elected as president of the first Mexican Constitutional Congress, a position that he repeated on several occasions. Years later, Valentín Gómez Farías supported the candidacy of Manuel Gómez Pedraza for the presidency of Mexico.

First presidency

With the "Plan for Pacification" at the end of 1832, the elections of 1828 were recognized, then Pedraza concluded the months that remained to his mandate before the new elections that were called for 1833.

At this time, the truce between Valentín Gómez Farías and Santa Anna made them alternate in the presidency of Mexico for almost a year.

The liberal reforms took place and were not well received, for which they guaranteed Gómez Farías the hatred of three fundamental sectors of Mexican society at the time: the church, the army, and the wealthy merchants.

Exile

Valentín Gómez Farías got the approval of Congress to leave the country in the company of his family for a year and his salary was canceled in advance.

Santa Anna, in order to maintain order and capitalize on the discontent that existed in Mexico, undid his commitments to Gómez Farías and his supporters. At that moment rumors began to spread that he would arrest him at any moment.

Valentín Gómez Farías and his family set out for New Orleans in September 1834. The government did not fulfill the promise to cancel the salary and this generated serious economic difficulties for the politician who had to watch over four small children on a long journey.

In January 1834 he was removed from his position as vice president and, from then on, his departure from the country was uphill. He was being chased everywhere on his way to New Orleans, so he had to be incognito most of the time.

When he arrived with great effort in the United States, Gómez Farías was in debt and did not have the means to pay for school for his children, so he was only able to hire a couple of private teachers.

Return

In 1838 he returned to Mexico and joined a revolt that had been promoted by General José de Urrea two years later, however this uprising did not prosper and Valentín Gómez Farías immediately returned to exile, where he remained until 1845.

In 1846 he was appointed vice president by the government of José Mariano Salas. The following year Gómez Farías was elected again to the same position and Santa Anna to that of president.

Santa Anna tried to take advantage of the unpopularity of the liberal measures, such as the law that affected the properties of dead hands, which he himself approved and since then there would be no truce between him and Gómez Farías.

Last years

During the presidency of Manuel Peña, a peace agreement was reached with the United States of America that was considered by some to be too beneficial for the Americans. Gómez Farías thought that the territories should be recovered and the North American troops expelled.

In 1849 the monarchists and the church were allied around Santa Anna, who had once favored the interests of both groups. Gómez Farías did not support this candidacy, he considered that Santa Anna had proven himself as a bad ruler and a man without words.

Therefore, Gómez Farías wrote to Benito Juárez, who was then the governor of Oaxaca, and received in response a letter in which Juárez claimed to share his opinion and interests.

Under the presidency of Mariano Arista, the Jalisco Plan was carried out, promoted by Uraga. Thanks to this, Santa Anna manages to become a dictator. In this new government jobs were offered to the sons of Gómez Farías.

The nascent authoritarian regime did not have the support of many, on the contrary it was quickly repelled with the Plan of Ayutla, which requested the constitution of the country on the republican bases.

Congress

In the year 1856 he was elected president of the Congress. His son Benito, who like him was selected as a deputy from his native Jalisco.

Valentín Gómez Farías, now elderly, at 77 years of age and in a delicate state of health, could see the efforts of his life bear fruit when he signed the new constitution, accompanied by his two sons who escorted them to each side.

Death

Valentín Gómez Farías died on July 5, 1858. He had a simple funeral ceremony as he would have liked, although he was not admitted to the Catholic Church and was buried in Mixcoac in his daughter's house.

Governments

1st mandate

In January 1833, Valentín Gómez Farías traveled to Mexico City and was appointed a month later as Secretary of the Treasury by the Pedraza government.

During Gómez Farías's brief stay in the national treasury, he tried to reduce expenses and increase the productivity of public employees.

During the month of March, Santa Anna was elected as president in the elections and Gómez Farías was selected for the position of vice president. However, he had to take charge of the first magistracy, since Santa Anna excused himself on the grounds of illness.

In the month and nine days that Valentín Gómez Farías was president, he tried to carry out his reformist plans of a liberal nature.

After that he was in charge of the presidency for short periods of time on three more occasions: from June 3 to 18, 1833, then from July 5 to October 27 of the same year and finally from December 16 to December 24. April 1834.

Between Santa Anna and Gómez Farías the old differences of opinion were rekindled, since one thought that a centralized state was needed and the other was in favor of federalism.

These differences eventually broke the delicate agreement that united the parties and kept them together in power since 1833.

2nd term

In the middle of the war between the United States and Mexico, a political alliance between Valentín Gómez Farías and Santa Anna was resumed. The state of the country's coffers was the same as in its first government, but now the country was facing an external warlike conflict.

In December 1846 Gómez Farías was elected vice president again and Santa Anna president, but in his absence, as in other times, the former assumed national leadership.

To raise funds that should go to finance the war, a decree that directly affected the Catholic Church was approved in which properties of dead hands would be confiscated. This sparked a revolt in the capital which became known as the Polkos Rebellion.

In 1847 Santa Anna returned to Mexico City and assumed the presidency, then Valentín Gómez Farías resigned his position as vice president of the nation and political ties were undone forever.

Reforms

The major changes initiated by Valentín Gómez Farías were those related to religion. Despite being a devout and practicing Catholic, he was firm in the idea that the state and the church should be independent powers.

Among the changes promoted were the selection of vacant positions in the parishes according to government laws. In addition, the president would have the power of a king to fill those positions.

It was decreed that the clergy were not under a civil obligation to fulfill their vows to the church and that they could withdraw at any time without any consequence. They also wanted to expel foreign religious who were assigned to some place in Mexican territory.

In spite of everything, the most serious thing in this aspect was the law that concerned the properties of dead hands, thanks to which the State would be able to deprive the church of a large part of its properties and income.

He also tried to reduce the number of active military units the army had, in order to promote internal peace by calming down military leaders who were wearing down and bleeding the country and the budget with internal wars. In addition, he wanted to create a civilian militia.

Economically he was an enemy of the monopolies; among those he fought was tobacco. In this way, Valentín Gómez Farías earned the contempt of three sectors that controlled political power in Mexico: the clergy, the militia and the wealthy.

Other contributions

Valentín Gómez Farías was concerned about reducing the expenses of national institutions and always tried to find more efficient ways to run the Mexican public administration, which from his point of view, was losing money unnecessarily.

Also with a view to the creation of a new nation, he promoted the founding of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics, which materialized on April 18, 1833.

With it, work began on the cartography of the new nation. This institution was the first in America specialized in that area.

References

1. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2018). Valentín Gómez Farías - president of Mexico. Available at: britannica.com.
2. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Valentín Gómez Farías. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
3. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
4. Alvear Acevedo, C. (2004). Mexico history. Mexico: Editorial Limusa, pp. 212-214.
5. RIVERA CAMBAS, M. (1873). The Rulers of Mexico. Gallery of biographies and portraits of the Vireyes, Emperors, Presidents and other rulers that Mexico has had, etc. 2 tom. Mexico, pp. 172-181 / 312-320.
6. Encyclopedia.com. (2018). Gómez Farías, Valentín (1781–1858) - Encyclopedia.com. Available at: encyclopedia.com.
7. Garcia-Pelayo and Gross, R. (1983). Little Larousse illustrated. Paris: Larousse, pp. 1319.