Juarez, the most universal Mexican

By Askari Mateos
This is month the celebration of the two-hundred anniversary of the birth of Juarez, the most universal Mexican. To this end the Oaxaca State Commission for the Organization of the Festivities of the Bi-centennial of the Birth of Don Benito Juarez Garcia is organizing a month long series of activities to honor the Benefactor of the Americas.

The Commission for the Organization of the Festivities of the Bi-centennial of the Birth of Don Benito Juarez Garcia was created to promote, organize and carry out the planning, programming, approval, instrumentation, operation and evaluation of the different civil, institutional, social, cultural, artistic, sports and recreational activities to be held within the framework of the festivities, and to integrate them in the “Institutional Agenda Juarez 2006”.

The idea behind this Commission is to demonstrate to the new generations a Juarez who has successes and made errors but above all left a series of values, principals and lessons which are still very much alive.

“A Juarez who confronted the loss of his parents, an indigenous person who lived and overcame the discrimination of the 19th. Century to educate himself and serve his country, a man who forged a political first rate political class.”

As a part of this mission the Commission will distribute nationwide a new edition of the book “Apuntes para mis hijos” (Notes for my children), directed specifically to the young public.

This is a text in which the Benefactor of the Americas justifies his absences due to his dedication to national matters.

It will also organize an encounter of indigenous children in which little ones from different countries of Latin America, who are preparing essays and stories about the illustrious man.

During the commemoration of the bi-centennial of the birth of Benito Juarez there are also plans to polish and promote Margarita Maza, “the first Mexican woman ambassador to Washington, a woman with a great conscience and political sensibility, she was austere, dignified, sober, intelligent, who did not play a protagonists role except for the in the republican sense of her situation, as with other cases that we see in our days”.

The government of the Federal District will participate in the restoration of the San Fernando Cemetery where the remains of Juarez rest and where on of the many ceremonies commemorating him will take place on the 21st. of March.

Also for three month, a replica of the Benito Juarez’s carriage will travel through the country on what shall be called the Route of Juarez loyalty.

Academic encounters, contests, expositions, book editions, the coining of a commemorative coin, a medal for merit, a postage stamp and lottery tickets commemorating the Benefactor of the Americas are among the other activities programmed for the festivities the Oaxaca State Commission for the Organization of the Festivities of the Bi-centennial of the Birth of Don Benito Juarez Garcia will carry out in Mexico, Costa Rica and Cuba.

A calendar of events will be available at the web site:
www.juarez2006.com.mx