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"What's
in a Name Part IV Santos Degollado" Santos Degollado, a legal clerk, became a general in the Revolution of Ayutla, and later became Governor of Jalisco. He was born in Guanajuato, 1811. He moved his family to Morelia in 1828 and became employed by an actuarian by the name of Aguilar. Later he worked as church manager where he availed himself of the opportunity lo learn fine arts and music. In 1835 he joined the centralist political movement under the leadership of Melchor Ocampo. As second lieutenant he participated in the uprising against General Isidro Reyes. He was taken prisoner until 1853, but remained in close touch with his friend, Ocampo, now governor of Michoacan. His successes in battle seemed uneventful. Eventually, with renewed forces, he was able lo take Zapotlan and Guadalajara. At the end of the revolution of Ayutla, he was made governor of Jalisco on March 27,1858. He was made Minister of War and then General of the Federal Armies: He joined Juarez in Veracruz to assist in the preparation of the Laws of Reform. In March, 1860, the last year of the Reform War, Santos Degollado seized a shipment of silver belonging to British mine owners, valued at one million pesos at the same time General Manuel Doblado took possession of another shipment worth six hundred thousand. The shipments were scheduled for transport to England via Tampico. These actions came at a time of grave international events. Mexico’s postwar desolation was tragic -- the Reforrn Wars had left the nation bankrupt. The government of Juarez owed more than 80 million pesos to foreign powers. Loans were secured at exhorbitant interest rates. Juarez refused to repudiate these debts, but the 1861 Congress voted to suspend payment. A treaty was signed in London with three countries: France, Britian, and Spain. The agreernent called for a joint armed intervention to seize military forts and customhouses along Mexico’s Gulf Coast. They claimed the purpose was to collect debts owed to their governments. The British government based its action on the wartime seizure of the two shipments of silver owned by the British mine owners. Each of the foreign powers had planned an attempt on Mexico to aggrandize their empires. Napoleon III saw a chance to make Mexico into a puppet state of France. The British and Spanish recognized that France had a more aggressive policy than debt collection and so withdrew their claims and canceled the treaty. The French military forces arrived and the intervention in Mexico began Dec.1, 1861. Degollado was arrested and tried by the Juarez Congress. He was relieved of his military rank. On learning of the assasination of Melchor Ocarnpo, he begged the Congress to permit him to avenge the death of his friend and mentor, which they did. Unfortunately, Santos Degollado was killed by a guerilla band at the hacienda “Llanos de Salazar.” Congress authorized that his name be inscribed in gold in the halls of the Chamber of Deputies, and that his remains be interred in the Rotunda of Illustrious Men. Avenida Degollado is a familiar street name to those who live in Chapala. It is a very important avenue in Mexico City, as it is in most cities all over the Republic of Mexico.
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