Ignacio Vallarta
Ignacio Luis Vallarta Ogazón was a Mexican jurist and governor of the Mexican state of Jalisco. His baptismal name was José Luis Miguel Ignacio Vallarta Ogazón.
Vallarta graduated from the University of Guadalajara with a law degree in 1854 and started to practice law the following year. He quickly became involved in the political struggle in Jalisco between liberalism, represented by Jalisco Governor Santos Degollado, and traditionalism, represented by Bishop Pedro Espinosa of Guadalajara. In 1856, Vallarta became private secretary of Governor Degollado. Vallarta and Degollado participated in the Constituent Congress of 1856-57 as delegates for Jalisco.
Vallarta fought in the Reform War on the side of Benito Juárez, attending the convention that drafted the 1857 Constitution of Mexico. He was also an ally of Juarez during the French Intervention in Mexico, and went into exile in the US from 1864 until 1866.
He served in Juarez's cabinet after the restoration, but resigned in 1868 because of disagreements between himself and Jaurez's foreign minister Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada.
He was elected governor of his native state of Jalisco in 1871. During his governorship he was responsible for rebuilding the Government Palace, passage of the Public Education Law of 1874, and finishing work on the state penitentiary. He declined re-election when his term ended in 1876.
In 1876 he was named Foreign Minister under Porfirio Díaz. In 1877 he was named President of the Supreme Court of Mexico, an office which he served concurrently with his role as Foreign Minister. He resigned from these positions in 1882, retiring into private law practice until his death in 1893.
Ignacio Vallarta's remains are interred at the Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres in Mexico City. The Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta is named after him, as is Av. Vallarta, one of the main roads through central Guadalajara.
