Álvaro Obregón Tapia (18 December 1916—27 September 1993) was a Mexican political figure who served as

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of the northwestern border state of

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

from 1955 to 1961. He was a son of Álvaro Obregón Salido and María Tapia Monteverde. Obregón Tapia's father was a brilliant Sonoran general in the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...

, who became president of Mexico in 1920, re-elected in 1928, but assassinated before he could take office. Obregón Tapia's birth in 1916 was after his father's defeat of

Pancho Villa Francisco "Pancho" Villa ( , , ; born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula; 5 June 1878 – 20 July 1923) was a Mexican revolutionary and prominent figure in the Mexican Revolution. He was a key figure in the revolutionary movement that forced ...

in 1915 in the Battle of Celaya, a decisive victory for the Constitutionalists. As with some offspring of other revolutionary leaders, such as

Lázaro Cárdenas Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (; 21 May 1895 – 19 October 1970) was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revo ...

's son

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano (; born 1 May 1934) is a Mexicans, Mexican politician and civil engineer. A prominent Social democracy, social-democrat and the son of 51st president of Mexico Lázaro Cárdenas, he is a former List of heads of ...

, Obregón Tapia pursued a political career via the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, , PRI) is a List of political parties in Mexico, political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and fin ...

. That party was founded in 1929 following the assassination of Obregón Tapia's father and became the dominant political party in Mexico. During his term in office, Obregón Tapia stressed the importance of education to the future growth of Sonora and the country as a whole and demonstrated his commitment by overseeing the construction of 139, primarily rural, schools and places of learning, and instituting a program of night classes for adults. He also greatly expanded the state's highway system. Álvaro Obregón Tapia had been undergoing treatment at a

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

hospital in the U.S. state of

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, which has a wide border with Sonora. He died there at age 76.

References

"Alvaro Obregon Tapia; Mexico Governor, 76" (''The New York Times'' obituary, September 30, 1993)
Governors of Sonora 1916 births 1993 deaths Place of birth missing Children of presidents of Mexico 20th-century Mexican politicians {{Mexico-politician-stub