1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Obregón, Alvaro

OBREGÓN, ALVARO (1880–), Mexican President, was born in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, in 1880, of Basque and Yaqui parentage. He engaged in farming, trading, and stock-raising in Sonora. He took part in the Madero revolution when Pascual Orozco threatened invasion of his state, driving the rebels out with a troop of 400 Yaquis. He joined Carranza against Huerta in 1913, winning general’s rank by defeating the latter. In 1914, leading Constitutionalist forces in the West, he took Sinaloa, Culiacán and Guadalajara in July, entering the capital Aug. 15. He sided with Carranza against Villa, took Puebla in Jan. 1915, and held the capital when the generals of the Convention left for Aguascalientes Jan. 27, but moved out March 10. He won victories over Villa at Celaya April 19; at Léon, where he lost his right arm, on June 4; and at Torréon and Saltillo in Sept. As Carranza’s Minister of War he negotiated with Gens. Scott and Funston for the withdrawal of Pershing’s expedition in 1916. Disagreeing with the President, he resigned and returned to his estate May 1 1917. There he accumulated a fortune by control of the garbanzo (chick-pea) crop of the W. coast. In June 1918 he became a candidate for the presidency against Gen. Pablo González and Ignacio Bonillas. In the same year he visited the United States. In March 1920 Carranza’s attempts to control Sonora against Obregón’s candidacy, and the arrest of the latter charged with rebellion, led him, on escaping from Mexico City, to raise a revolt which began in Sonora under the Plan of Agua Prieta on April 9. After rapid successes Obregón entered Mexico City May 8, Carranza having fled on the 5th. Adolfo de la Huerta, Obregón’s lieutenant, was made provisional president, Obregón being elected President in Sept. and inaugurated Dec. 1. (See Mexico.)