Fabiana Sebastiana Maria Carmen Romero Rubio y Castelló (20 January 1864 – 25 June 1944), second wife of
Porfirio Díaz,
President of Mexico
The president of Mexico ( es, link=no, Presidente de México), officially the president of the United Mexican States ( es, link=no, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Co ...
.
Youth
Carmen Romero Rubio was born on January 20 of 1864 in
Tula,
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...
to a wealthy family. Her parents were prominent liberal politician and lawyer
Manuel Romero Rubio, and Agustina Castelló. Her godfather was
Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada
Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada y Corral (; 24 April 1823 – 21 April 1889) was Mexican liberal politician and jurist who served as the 27th president of Mexico from 1872 to 1876.
A successor to Benito Juárez, who died in office in July 1872, Le ...
. She had two sisters, María Luisa (Luisa) and Sofia (Chofa). Known as "Carmelita," she celebrated her saint's day on the feast of the Virgin of Mt. Carmel, on 16 July. Her friends and family members organized festivals in her honor in Carmelite convents during her lifetime.
Marriage
Carmen's father,
Manuel Romero Rubio, was active in Mexican politics since 1854 with his participation in the Plan of Ayutla
[Uribe Delabra, Maddelyne (2018). "Manuel Romero Rubio, factor político primordial del porfiriato" (PDF). Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora (Tesis de Maestría).] to his death in 1895, when he was the
Secretary of the Interior of Porfirio Díaz.
[Velador Castañeda, J. A. Edgar Oscar (1990). "Manuel Romero Rubio, factor político primordial del porfiriato". Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Tesis de Maestría).] He was also a prominent figure of the governments of
Benito Juárez
Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican liberal politician and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. As a Zapotec, he was the first indigenous pre ...
and
Lerdo de Tejada, and participated in the formulation of the
Constitution of 1857
The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1857 ( es, Constitución Federal de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos de 1857), often called simply the Constitution of 1857, was the liberal constitution promulgated in 1857 by Constituent Co ...
, which separated the functions of the Catholic Church and the State.
Since 1870, the house of the Romero Rubio family became one of the most important political centers of Mexico.
The Rubios were acquaintances, and frequent guests, of the American ambassador, John W. Foster. It was during a reception at the American embassy that General Porfirio Díaz met Carmen Romero Rubio. She agreed to teach him
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, and a closer relationship evolved. On November 5, 1881, don Porfirio married Carmen Romero Rubio in a civil ceremony, with the President of Mexico
Manuel González serving as witness, according to the new secular Reform Laws. The next day, the religious ceremony took place. The couple received the blessing of Archbishop Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos. They honeymooned in the United States, traveling across the country, using the opportunity to establish important contacts with American politicians and businessmen whom Díaz hoped would invest in Mexico.
This marriage derived from the consolidation of a political alliance between various liberal factions that still did not accept the Porfiriato and Porfirio Díaz, through the intermediation of Manuel Romero Rubio - Carmelita's father -, who had excellent relationships with various political circles and a great capacity for negotiation and conciliation.
On the other hand, the apocryphal memoirs of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada stress the importance of her mother—and not Carmen—in aiding Díaz's relations with the Church.
First Lady of Mexico
A year and a half year after the death of Delfina Ortega, first wife of General
Porfirio Díaz, Carmen Romero Rubio succeeded her in the role of
First Lady of the Nation.
Romero Rubio modeled her activities as
First Lady on the traditional role of rulers' wives. In Mexico, the Spanish vicereine had long been the patron of religious and social affairs, and this role had been expanded by empress
Carlota during her brief reign, to include the protection of the arts and the encouragement of social reforms. Carmen expanded on this, accompanying Díaz at public events. Her copious correspondence was managed by a special department of the President's office and she helped to host visiting personages. She attended religious, civic, and cultural events. Working with the wives of cabinet members, governors, and regional oligarchs, she formed and chaired relief committees responding to natural disasters. Her work on behalf of the children of working class women in the nation's capital established a number of day care centers, schools, and benevolent associations, including "La Casa Amiga de la Obrera" founded in 1887.
She also saw to the upbringing of Díaz's children, arranging marriages to prominent families. Rubio Romero served as
First Lady for three decades, from when Diaz took office on December 1 by 1884 until his resignation on May 25 of 1911.
The exile, return, last years and death
![Don Porfirio y Carmelita en Paris](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Don_Porfirio_y_Carmelita_en_Paris.jpg)
Carmelita accompanied her husband in his exile to France in 1911. They lived in Paris in rented apartments, never buying a home, frequently moving and traveling. They toured Europe and visited Egypt. After the general's death in 1915, Carmen remained in France for nearly two decades, living from investments in Mexican oil companies and rental income. She played an important role in the rituals of the Mexican colony in Paris, organizing memorial masses for Díaz and for the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Carmelita spent much of her time traveling around France and Spain, and frequently summered at her stepson Porfirio's chateau de Moulins, close to
Landes-le-Gaulois. Carmen returned to Mexico in 1934, accompanied by her sister Chofa aboard the French steamer "Mexique." She resided for some time in Mexico City's
Colonia Roma
Colonia Roma, also called La Roma or simply, Roma, is a district located in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City just west of the city's historic center, and in fact is no longer a single '' colonia'' (neighbourhood) but now two officially de ...
, on Tonalá Street, in a home that belonged to her niece Teresa Castelló.
On June 25, 1944, Carmen Romero Rubio y Castelló died in Mexico City at eighty years of age. She was buried at the
Panteón Francés
The Panteón Francés de la Piedad ("French Cemetery of the Mercy") is a cemetery in Mexico City in which several notable people are interred. It is located in the southern section of the city, adjacent to the medical center, the Centro Medico Me ...
(French Cemetery), and the mass was officiated by the
Archbishop Luis María Martínez.
Salvador Novo wrote an excellent chronicle of her funeral.
References
When it Takes a Revolution to Bring You Down.Un bosquejo de la historia de MéxicoEscrito por Guillermo Hagg y Saab. In Spanish
by Carlos Tello Díaz.
Casa Amiga de la Obrera.In Spanish
In Spanish
* Víctor Manuel Macías-González, "The Mexican Aristocracy in the Porfiriato," doctoral diss., Texas Christian University, 1999.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romero Rubio, Carmen
People from Tamaulipas
19th-century Mexican people
1944 deaths
1864 births
First Ladies of Mexico
Porfiriato
Women in Mexico