Reyes Ogazón, Bernardo (1850–1913)

Bernardo Reyes Ogazón (b. 30 August 1850; d. 9 February 1913), Mexican military officer and politician. Bernado Reyes, governor of the important northern state of Nuevo León and a leading contemporary of Porfirio Díaz, began campaigning for the presidency in 1909 to replace Díaz. Forced to leave the country, he lived in exile from 1909 to 1911. He returned in 1911, and, in 1913, with Félix Díaz, led a counter-revolutionary movement against President Madero known as the Tragic Ten Days, during which he was killed leading an attack on the national palace.

Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, he was the father of Alfonso Reyes, a notable poet, and Rodolfo Reyes, a public figure. In 1865 he left school to fight against the French, becoming an aide to General Ramón Corona. He remained loyal to President Sebastián Lerdo De Tejada in 1877 but continued his military career under Porfirio Díaz, rising to chief of military operations in Nuevo León and, ultimately, to secretary of war. He later served as governor of Nuevo Léon from 1889 to 1900 and from 1902 to 1909. Reyes had reached the rank of division general (three stars) in 1900.

See alsoDíaz, Félix, Jr; Díaz, Porfirio; Nuevo León.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

El Norte, Constructores de Monterrey (1945).

Anthony T. Bryan, "Mexican Politics in Transition, 1900–1913: The Role of General Bernardo Reyes," Ph.D. diss., University of Nebraska (1970).

Peter V. N. Henderson, Félix Díaz, the Porfirians, and the Mexican Revolution (1981).

Additional Bibliography

Arellano, Josefina González de. Bernardo Reyes y el movimiento reyista en México. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Programa de Historia Indigena, 1982.

Benavides H., Artemio. El general Bernardo Reyes: Vida de un liberal porfirista. Monterrey: Ediciones Castillo, 1998.

Piñera Ramírez, David. El Gobernador Bernardo Reyes: Y sus homólogos de la frontera norte. Monterrey: Fondo Editorial de Nuevo León, 1991.

                                          Roderic Ai Camp