Francisco Vázquez Gómez


Francisco Vázquez Gómez served as personal physician to Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, as Minister of Public Instruction to President Francisco León de la Barra and as a running mate to Francisco I. Madero during the 1910 presidential elections. Prior to this Vázquez Gómez had been a supporter of Bernardo Reyes, another presidential hopeful with strong ties to Díaz' regime.

Biography

Vázquez Gómez was born in Tula, Tamaulipas, into a rich Amerindian family. He studied Medicine in Mexico City and worked as a physician in Xalapa before returning to serve as the personal physician to long-time serving President Díaz. In 1909, he joined his brother Emilio in the anti-reelectionist movement but refused to join a national call to arms after the government illegally imprisoned former presidential candidate Francisco I. Madero, with whom he campaigned on a narrow, pro free-market and democratic government.
After a short voluntary exile in El Paso, Texas, he returned to Mexico to assume the Ministry of Public Instruction in the presidential cabinet of Francisco León de la Barra.