WHO WAS BENITO JUÁREZ?
Juárez was a Zapotec Indian peasant. He was orphaned at an early age and was raised by an uncle. As a child he worked in the cornfields and took care of his uncle’s goats and sheep in the Oaxacan Sierra. At the age of 12, illiterate and speaking only the Zapotec language, Juarez went to Oaxaca where he worked as a domestic houseboy. He taught himself to read and write, and grew up to study for the seminar and later law. By the age of 41 he became governor of the State of Oaxaca.
