Plutarco Elías Calles

Plutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican revolutionary general and president from 1924 to 1928. He founded the National Revolutionary Party, which became the institutional predecessor of Mexico’s long-ruling PRI.

National Revolutionary Party: A Mexican political party founded in 1929 that organized revolutionary factions and later evolved into the PRI. Calles founded this party to contain political conflict through an institutional system of succession.
Constitution of Mexico of 1917: Mexico’s constitution, adopted in 1917, establishing a secular state and asserting national authority over land and natural resources. Calles’s government invoked its anticlerical provisions to restrict the Catholic Church.
Mexican Revolution: An armed conflict and political upheaval in Mexico beginning in 1910 that ended the Díaz regime and transformed the state. Calles rose through the military and political struggles of this revolution.
Venustiano Carranza: A Mexican revolutionary leader and president from 1917 to 1920 who sponsored the Constitution of 1917. Calles joined the movement that opposed Carranza during the 1920 succession crisis.
Institutional Revolutionary Party: A Mexican political party that governed nationally for most of the period from 1929 to 2000. The PRI inherited the political organization Calles launched with the National Revolutionary Party.
Mexican agrarian reform: The redistribution of land in Mexico, especially through the creation of communal ejidos, following the Revolution. Calles pursued land redistribution while also seeking to strengthen central government authority.
Sonora: A state in northwestern Mexico bordering the United States, home to several leaders of the Mexican Revolution. Calles’s political and military career began in his home state of Sonora.
José Vasconcelos: A Mexican philosopher, educator, and politician who ran against Calles’s chosen successor in the 1929 presidential election. Vasconcelos’s failed candidacy exposed opposition to the political order Calles had built.
Cristero War: An armed conflict in Mexico from 1926 to 1929 between the government and Catholic rebels opposing anticlerical policies. Enforcement of Calles’s anticlerical laws helped ignite this rebellion.
Bank of Mexico: Mexico’s central bank, established in 1925 to issue currency and support financial stability. Calles’s government created the bank as part of its effort to build national institutions.

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Mexican CongressRelated: The party system he helped build shaped legislative politics for much of the twentieth century.