The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973 Page: 220
539 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
incontrovertible evidence precludes positive determination. However,
the author has too much integrity to ignore suggestive evidence and
in one instance observes that rejecting spurious, undocumented ac-
counts by no means establishes Huerta's innocence.
In fact the Huerta that emerges is not very appealing and is hardly
likely to serve as an inspiration for future generations. With almost
a sigh of resignation, Meyer observes that Huerta was "scarcely of the
moral fiber to inspire a biographer." Meyer's evaluation of the man
and his regime is perhaps best summarized in the author's own words:
Victoriano Huerta, at the age of fifty-nine, was in good health except for
his chronic eye problem, but was ill prepared by formal training, experi-
ence and temperament for the high political office which he assumed in
February, 1913. With much more faith in the logic of force than in the art
of persuasion, he was too much the warrior to be at all successful as a states-
man.... Very much the self-made man of action, Huerta was a strict dis-
ciplinarian, with a domineering personality and great confidence in his own
ability. Impetuous and inordinately egotistical, he found it exceedingly
difficult to admit an error or alter a course of action once he had made a
decision (pp. 1.8-29).
... the regime initiated a dictatorship that in many ways was even more ex-
cessive than that of Porfirio Diaz.... Not even during the grossest suppres-
sions of the Diaz regime, had political assassination become so institution-
alized and intimidation so endemic (p. 132).
Largely as a result of his own vanity, his relationship with his cabinet
ministers was impossible. His entire personality demanded that he be sur-
rounded by sycophants, not advisors. During his seventeen months in office
the nine cabinet positions were headed by thirty-two different ministers
(p. 140).
Huerta's electoral farce, his dissolution of Congress, his browbeating of
cabinet ministers, and his intemperate use of alcohol can be explained but
cannot be explained away.... More significant than any or all of these
repulsive political and personal characteristics is the fact that the man is
tinged and the regime totally discolored by the series of political murders.
One will search in vain for any evidence that Huerta ever showed any emo-
tion or remorse when confronted with the facts .... His reaction, or lack
of it, was conditioned by his own personality and by his own yardstick of
human values (p. 154)
Huerta was a cruel dictator who did not hesitate to eliminate his oppo-
sition by murder. The regime was misanthropic and repressive ... (p. 155) -
Professor Meyer thus has tried to put the man and regime in some
kind of perspective based on available historical evidence rather than
by viewing both through rose-colored glasses. His efforts represent a
real contribution to contemporary Mexican historiography. Appended220
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973, periodical, 1973; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101202/m1/250/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.