Ignacio Vallarta

Who was Ignacio Vallarta?

Ignacio Luis Vallarta was a Mexican jurist and governor of the Mexican state of Jalisco. His baptismal name was José Luis Miguel Ignacio Vallarta Ogazón.

Vallarta graduated from the University of Guadalajara with a law degree in 1854 and started to practice law the following year. He quickly became involved in the political struggle in Jalisco between liberalism, represented by Jalisco Governor Santos Degollado, and traditionalism, represented by Bishop Pedro Espinosa of Guadalajara. In 1856, Vallarta became private secretary of Governor Degollado. Vallarta and Degollado participated in the Constitutional Congress of 1856-57 as delegates for Jalisco.

Vallarta fought in the Reform War on the side of Benito Juárez, attending the convention that drafted the 1857 Constitution of Mexico. He was also an ally of Juarez during the French Intervention in Mexico, and went into exile in the U.S.A. from 1864 until 1866.

He served in Juarez's cabinet after the restoration, but resigned in 1868 because of disagreements between himself and Jaurez's foreign minister Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada.

He was elected governor of his native state of Jalisco in 1871. During his governorship he was responsible for rebuilding the Government Palace, passage of the Public Education Law of 1874, and finishing work on the state penitentiary. He declined re-election when his term ended in 1876.