Aquiles Serdán Alatriste (2 November 1876 – 18 November 1910) was a Mexican politician. He was born in the city of Puebla, Puebla, and was a supporter of the Mexican Revolution led by Francisco I. Madero.
His family was politically active and involved. His grandfather, Miguel C. Alatriste, was a strong liberal during the Reform, and served as governor of the state of Puebla in 1857. During the French Intervention, Alatriste fought against the invaders and their Mexican conservative allies, was captured and executed. His father, Manuel Serdán, was one of the founders of the Partido Socialista Mexicano (Mexican Socialist Party), and co-authored La Ley del Pueblo that called for agrarian reform. Manuel Serdán disappeared, perhaps murdered by authorities. He became a revolutionary, opposing Díaz. Serdán was arrested by Díaz's government, spending October - December 1909 in prison.
When Madero escaped jail in 1910 and issued the Plan of San Luis Potosí, which called for rebellion throughout Mexico on November 20, 1910, Serdán returned to Puebla to organize revolution there. He and his brother Máximo bought arms and raised support from men to bear them. His sister Carmen Serdán went to San Antonio, Texas, a center of exiled Mexican revolutionaries, and obtained 20,000 pesos for the rebellion.
The northern municipality of Aquiles Serdán, Chihuahua, was renamed in his honor in 1932; he is also remembered by Metro Aquiles Serdán, a station on the Mexico City Metro. His house on Santa Clara Street in the center of Puebla is a museum and remains as he left it the day he was killed.
References
Further reading
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- LaFrance, David G. The Mexican Revolution in Puebla, 1908-1913: The Maderista Movement and Failure of Liberal Reform. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources 1989.
- Sevilla, Jesús Flores. La familia Serdán. Mexico City: SepSetentas 1976.