Top 10 Mexican Historical Figures

The indigenous Nahua leader of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution whose demand for land reform under the Plan de Ayala — "Land and Liberty" — remains the foundational statement of Mexican agrarian justice and indigenous rights. Zapata's image in his revolutionary-era photograph — mustachioed, armed, and defiant — is the most reproduced image in Mexican political iconography.

Mexico's most internationally famous artist, Kahlo's self-portraits combining personal pain, Aztec mythology, pre-Columbian symbolism, and surrealist formal experimentation have become the most reproduced Mexican artworks globally and made her the most celebrated female artist in the history of Latin American art. Her image — the unibrow, flower crown, and huipil blouse — is the most recognizable Mexican feminine icon worldwide.

Mexico's foremost muralist, Rivera's epic historical murals in the National Palace, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and Rockefeller Center (destroyed) created the visual language through which Mexican history represents itself to the world. His marriage to Frida Kahlo and his Stalinist political allegiances made him the most controversial as well as the most celebrated cultural figure in 20th century Mexico.

The parish priest of Dolores whose Grito de Independencia from his church bell tower on September 16, 1810 launched the Mexican War of Independence is celebrated each year by every Mexican president ringing a bell and shouting his call to arms from the balcony of the National Palace. The Grito ceremony — Mexico's most significant annual national ritual — reenacts the moment of Mexican national birth.

The last Aztec emperor who led the defense of Tenochtitlan against Hernán Cortés in 1521 and continued resisting after capture, ultimately refusing under torture to reveal the location of the Aztec treasury, is the foundational figure of Mexican indigenous resistance and the only pre-Columbian ruler whose statues appear on major Mexican boulevards alongside independence heroes. The Monumento a Cuauhtémoc on Paseo de la Reforma is visited by more Mexicans annually than any other pre-Columbian commemorative monument.

A 17th-century nun, philosopher, and poet who became the finest writer of the Spanish Baroque period in the Americas and one of the first advocates for women's rights to education in the Western Hemisphere, Sor Juana appears on the 200-peso bill and is the subject of Mexico's most extensive biographical cinema, theatre, and literary tradition. Her response to a bishop who criticized her intellectual pursuits — La Respuesta — is the first feminist text written in the Americas.

The División del Norte general of the Mexican Revolution who successfully raided Columbus, New Mexico in 1916 — the only successful foreign military invasion of the continental United States since the War of 1812 — and eluded Pershing's punitive expedition for a year in the Chihuahua desert. Villa's contradiction of bandit and revolutionary, landowner and agrarian reformer, makes him the most ambiguous and therefore the most enduringly fascinating figure in Mexican revolutionary history.

Mexico's most consequential 20th-century president, who nationalized the petroleum industry in 1938 — creating PEMEX and the concept of Mexican resource sovereignty that shaped the country's economic identity for 80 years — and distributed more land to indigenous and rural communities than any previous president under the ejido collective farming system. The March 18 anniversary of the oil nationalization remains a Mexican national day celebrated as the Day of National Dignity.

Mexico's first Nobel Prize winner in literature (1990), Paz's El Laberinto de la Soledad — The Labyrinth of Solitude — is the most influential single text in the definition of Mexican national identity and character, and its concept of the fiesta as Mexican psychological compensation for historical trauma remains the most-cited framework for understanding Mexican cultural psychology. Paz's combination of poetry, political philosophy, and cultural anthropology made him the most intellectually formidable Mexican writer of the 20th century.

The indigenous Nahua leader of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution whose demand for land reform under the Plan de Ayala — "Land and Liberty" — remains the foundational statement of Mexican agrarian justice and indigenous rights. Zapata's image in his revolutionary-era photograph — mustachioed, armed, and defiant — is the most reproduced image in Mexican political iconography.

Mexico's most internationally famous artist, Kahlo's self-portraits combining personal pain, Aztec mythology, pre-Columbian symbolism, and surrealist formal experimentation have become the most reproduced Mexican artworks globally and made her the most celebrated female artist in the history of Latin American art. Her image — the unibrow, flower crown, and huipil blouse — is the most recognizable Mexican feminine icon worldwide.

Mexico's foremost muralist, Rivera's epic historical murals in the National Palace, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and Rockefeller Center (destroyed) created the visual language through which Mexican history represents itself to the world. His marriage to Frida Kahlo and his Stalinist political allegiances made him the most controversial as well as the most celebrated cultural figure in 20th century Mexico.

The parish priest of Dolores whose Grito de Independencia from his church bell tower on September 16, 1810 launched the Mexican War of Independence is celebrated each year by every Mexican president ringing a bell and shouting his call to arms from the balcony of the National Palace. The Grito ceremony — Mexico's most significant annual national ritual — reenacts the moment of Mexican national birth.

The last Aztec emperor who led the defense of Tenochtitlan against Hernán Cortés in 1521 and continued resisting after capture, ultimately refusing under torture to reveal the location of the Aztec treasury, is the foundational figure of Mexican indigenous resistance and the only pre-Columbian ruler whose statues appear on major Mexican boulevards alongside independence heroes. The Monumento a Cuauhtémoc on Paseo de la Reforma is visited by more Mexicans annually than any other pre-Columbian commemorative monument.

A 17th-century nun, philosopher, and poet who became the finest writer of the Spanish Baroque period in the Americas and one of the first advocates for women's rights to education in the Western Hemisphere, Sor Juana appears on the 200-peso bill and is the subject of Mexico's most extensive biographical cinema, theatre, and literary tradition. Her response to a bishop who criticized her intellectual pursuits — La Respuesta — is the first feminist text written in the Americas.

The División del Norte general of the Mexican Revolution who successfully raided Columbus, New Mexico in 1916 — the only successful foreign military invasion of the continental United States since the War of 1812 — and eluded Pershing's punitive expedition for a year in the Chihuahua desert. Villa's contradiction of bandit and revolutionary, landowner and agrarian reformer, makes him the most ambiguous and therefore the most enduringly fascinating figure in Mexican revolutionary history.

Mexico's most consequential 20th-century president, who nationalized the petroleum industry in 1938 — creating PEMEX and the concept of Mexican resource sovereignty that shaped the country's economic identity for 80 years — and distributed more land to indigenous and rural communities than any previous president under the ejido collective farming system. The March 18 anniversary of the oil nationalization remains a Mexican national day celebrated as the Day of National Dignity.

Mexico's first Nobel Prize winner in literature (1990), Paz's El Laberinto de la Soledad — The Labyrinth of Solitude — is the most influential single text in the definition of Mexican national identity and character, and its concept of the fiesta as Mexican psychological compensation for historical trauma remains the most-cited framework for understanding Mexican cultural psychology. Paz's combination of poetry, political philosophy, and cultural anthropology made him the most intellectually formidable Mexican writer of the 20th century.