Benito Juárez, from Guelatao to the presidency

Born to Zapotec parents in the mountain village of San Pablo Guelatao in 1806 and orphaned young, Benito Juárez walked to Oaxaca at twelve, learned Spanish, trained in law and became the state's governor. As president he passed the Reform Laws separating church and state and led the resistance to the French-backed emperor Maximilian, executed in 1867. He was Mexico's first Indigenous president.