In the final chapter of Revolutionary Spirits, we pick up as Francisco Madero is democratically elected President of Mexico.  Madero is in power for 15 short months, a presidency characterized by failed political compromises, missteps, and relentless attacks from the press. Madero's enemies orchestrate an overthrow with the help of the traitorous general Victoriano Huerta. Madero is arrested and placed at the Lecumberri prison where days later on February 22, 1913 he is assassinated alongside his Vice President José Pino Suárez. Madero's assassination shifts attention away from his failure as an elected leader to his martyrdom for the cause of democracy in Mexico. What followed would be the bloodiest years of the Mexican Revolution.

A special thanks to the Center for Humanities and the Arts at the University of Colorado and to the following historians, whose scholarship was influential for this podcast:

• Manuel Guerra 
• Luna Enrique Krause 
• C.M. Mayo 
• Roberto Narváez 
• Alejandro Rojas 
• Ignacio Solares 
• Yolia Tortolero Cervantes

Production Credits

Produced by Steven Renderos

Hosted by Robert Buffington & Sam Buffington

Music featured on this episode

• "Coconut Cowboy" by Roy Williams
• "City of Shiva" by Banaras Baba & Kolkata Kid
• "Vrainbadani Oasis" by Pawan Krishna