Belisario Domínguez Palencia (April 25, 1863 in Comitán, Chiapas – October 7, 1913 in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

) was a Mexican physician and liberal politician. He served as

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

and gave a memorable

speech Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

in the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

during 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 ...

against the dictator

Victoriano Huerta José Victoriano Huerta Márquez (; 23 December 1850 – 13 January 1916) was a Mexican general, politician, engineer and dictator who was the 39th President of Mexico, who came to power by coup against the democratically elected government of ...

, for which he was murdered.

Biography

Domínguez was born to Cleofas Domínguez and María del Pilar Palencia. His grandfather, Don Quirino Domínguez y Ulloa, had been vice-governor of Chiapas. He attended a colegio in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. In 1879 he went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

where he studied

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

the School of Medicine at Sorbonne University. He lived in Paris for 10 years. In 1889, he returned to Mexico and in 1890 he married Delina Zebadúa, with whom he had four children. His wife died young. In 1909, he was elected mayor of

Comitán Comitán (; formally: Comitán de Domínguez, for Belisario DomínguezComitán de D ...

. In 1912, Leopoldo Gout and he ran for a seat in the Senate (Domínguez as substitute senator); when Gout died, Domínguez replaced him. In 1913, he gave a speech in Congress against the dictator

, where he "expressed the shame of having a traitor and murderer as President." As a result he was murdered in Mexico City by Gilberto Márquez, Alberto Quiroz, José Hernández Ramírez, Gabriel Huerta. Activist Fidelia Brindis Camacho was later imprisoned for distributing copies of the speech. The Senate's

Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor The Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor () is the highest award bestowed by the Mexican Senate. It forms part of the Mexican Honors System and is currently Mexico's highest active award since there are no records of the '' Condecoración "Migu ...

and Belisario Domínguez Dam are named after him. His home town was also renamed

Comitán de Domínguez Comitán (; formally: Comitán de Domínguez, for Belisario DomínguezComitán de D ...

in 1915 in his memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dominguez, Belisario Members of the Senate of the Republic (Mexico) Mayors of places in Mexico Assassinated Mexican politicians Politicians from Chiapas 20th-century Mexican physicians 1863 births 1913 deaths Mexican democracy activists People of the Mexican Revolution People murdered in Mexico People from Comitán 19th-century Mexican physicians 20th-century Mexican politicians Politicians assassinated in the 1910s Assassinated national legislators