Lázaro Cárdenas

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.