Son of Benito Juárez and Margarita Maza, Benito Juárez Maza was born in 1852 in the city of Oaxaca and was one of the 12 children the couple had: nine women and three,
males.
Unfortunately, His two brothers died as children and he was the only male of the Juárez lineage who survived.
Little is known about his childhood, except that he lived surrounded by his older sisters and, in some way, intimidated by the presence of his brothers-in-law.
As a young man, seeking to follow in his father’s footsteps, he began a law degree at the National Preparatory School, but when the Benemérito died in 1872, he gave up his studies. Juárez Maza was 20 years old.
Benito Juárez Maza, under the shadow of his father
Over the years, the memory of President Benito Juárez remained alive in the national imagination, which benefited Juárez Maza with an annual pension granted by the Congress of the Union, “in attention to the merits of his father.”
Some historians mention that thanks to his last name, he obtained the positions he held throughout his life; since he worked in the Mexican Foreign Service, as secretary in the embassies of Italy, Germany, the United States and France.
In Paris, he married a French citizen, María Klerian, in 1888. A short time later, Juárez Maza returned to Mexico with his wife. There was no offspring from this marriage and it is known from photographs that both were fond of luxury and extravagance.
A close relationship with Porfirio Díaz
When Porfirio Díaz came to power, the new president took advantage of Benito Juárez’s popularity politically in his official speech, declaring him a national hero and inaugurating monuments in his memory throughout the country.
Also, Motivated by political interest, Díaz provided some protection to Benito Juárez Maza, whom he favored with several concessions in his businesses, but he failed in almost all of them.
When the time came, when Juárez Maza was a deputy in the Congress of the Union, he had the opportunity to repay his ally, and he voted against the resignation of Porfirio Díaz in 1911. He wanted the continuity of the dictator.
Militancy in the Liberal Party of Benito Juárez Maza
With the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution and Díaz’s exile in France, Juárez Maza finally became governor of Oaxaca in his second attempt, in 1911. However, a year later, he died of a sudden heart attack in April 1912, at 59 years old.
It seems that Juárez Maza, already as governor, understood too late that it was not enough to bear the name of his father to carry out charges with great responsibilities. And it is that right on the day of his death, he is forced to publish a manifesto to the Nation trying to defend himself against serious accusations that incriminated him as a murderer of the people of the town.
Curiously, in that document he signed, as was his custom, without his second last name, just as “Benito Juárez.” Even so, he had the name but not the honor or glory of Benemérito de las Américas.
