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Felipe Carrillo Puerto, progressive governor of the Yucatán
in 1922, and San Francisco journalist Alma Reed are two names
forever linked to Yucatán history. Their romance fueled pages
in newspapers on both sides of the border, but the unlikely
outcome of this very public romance enlisted all the elements
of Greek tragedy.
Alma Reed was born in San Francisco in 1889. She became one
of San Francisco's first women reporters, working on a William
Randolph Hearst newspaper named The Call. As an advocate of
the poor and oppressed, Reed assisted a Mexican family in commuting
the death sentence of their 17-year old son, Simon Ruiz, in
1921. The story was picked up by the Mexican press and due to
the publicity, Mexico President Alvero Obregon invited Reed
to visit Mexico as his guest.
IN THE Yucatán
In her southern travels, although based in Mexico City where
she reported for The New York Times, Reed was sent to Merida
in the Yucatán to meet Edward Thompson, the leading archeologist
excavating Chichén-Itzá.
During this visit, Reed met Felipe Carrillo Puerto, dynamic
governor of the State of Yucatán.
Carrillo had commissioned a road to be built from Merida to
Chichen Itaz, opening the budding archeological site to both
tourists and scientists. To commemorate the event, he'd organized
a ceremony inviting North American journalists and archeologists.
At the ruins, Alma Reed interviewed archeologist Thompson. Edward
Thompson had gone to the Yucatán in 1885 to explore and
excavate Chichén-Itzá. In 1890, Allison Armour, meat packing
magnate, made a donation to Thompson intended for purchasing
the ruins at Chichén-Itzá. With $75 US, Thompson acquired 100
square miles of land on which the ruins were located along with
a Spanish plantation house which he used as his headquarters.
(Thompson's house, now Hacienda Chichen, is presently a hotel
at the ruins).
Thompson took a liking to Reed and divulged that he had in
fact dredged Chichén-Itzá's cenote, garnering
gold discs, jade,
jewelry, and ornaments that had adorned the sacrificial victims.
He had secretly sent these artifacts back to his benefactors
at Boston's
Peabody Museum in diplomatic pouches.
Astonished by the enormity of Thompson's admission, like the
true-born paparazzi she was, Reed asked Thompson to sign a confession,
which he did. (Reed would later go public with the story and
assist Mexico in trying to retrieve their national treasures
from the Peabody).
ALMA AND FELIPE MEET
After touring Chichén-Itzá, Reed and the assembled entourage
of reporters and archeologists went on to Uxmal. It was during
this leg of the journey that she and Carrillo would get acquainted.
Reed was instantly fascinated with Carrillo who had been called
both a Bolshevik and a Marxist for his sweeping reforms in the
Yucatán. In an interview, Carrillo explained the Yucatán had
been inhabited by 100 powerful families who dated back to 1542
when Merida was founded by Frances Montejo. These wealthy landowners
were little more than slave masters, notorious for their cruel
treatment of the Maya. On Montejo's palace in Merida's main
plaza, the Montejo family crest, Carrillo told her, was repeated
the length of the building: a foot planted firmly on the head
of a Mayan slave.
In 1910 Carrillo had fought alongside Emiliano Zapata in Central
Mexico and took Zapata's battle cry "Tierra y Liberdad,"
(Land and Liberty) as his own. Back in the Yucatán, Carrillo
initiated multifold reforms. Claiming part Maya, part Creole
heritage (rumor had it he was related to the Nachi Cocum dynasty
of Mayapan, the last ruler of the Maya federation who held out
against the Spaniards), Carrillo organized feminist leagues
in Merida which established legalized birth control and the
first family planning clinics in the western hemisphere.
Carrillo drew up a program for emancipation and developed the
restoration of the communal village which had been stolen under
the Diaz dictatorship. He translated the entire Mexican consitution
into Maya so the people of the Yucatán knew their rights.
As governor he seized uncultivated land from huge hacendados
and distributed it to the Maya, stating this land was their
birthright. He built many more schools; he encouraged native
arts and crafts. He built highways from pueblos to cities so
farmers could get their products to market quickly. He reformed
the prison system in the Yucatán.
FATED LOVE
It was no wonder that Alma Reed named him the Abraham Lincoln
of Mexico. As a liberal herself, she was smitten. But as a divorcee
and a Catholic, she tried to ignore the feelings she was developing
for this married father of four. She left for the U.S. vowing
never to return, hoping to severe all ties to what was becoming
amor calido (romance of the steam as the locals called it according
to Antoinette May, author of Passionate Pilgrim: The Extraordinary
Life of Alma Reed.) Two months later, however, her publisher,
The New York Times, sent her packing back to Merida. She had
a job to do--after the Edward Thompson story broke, Mexico was
in the news and someone needed to report it.
On her second round in Mexico, Reed fell hard for Carrillo as
he did for her. In the ultimate taboo, Carrillo divorced his
wife of many years so he could become engaged to Alma Reed.
He had a romantic love song, La Peregrina (The Pilgrim), composed
for her by Yucatecan poet Luis Rosada de la Vega with music
by Ricardo Palmerin.
It seemed a match made in heaven. The two idealists prepared
for their wedding which would take place January 14, 1924, in
San Francisco. Reed hastened back to San Francisco to arrange
a high profile engagement party and to wrap up her affairs before
her permanent move to Mexico. Shortly after her departure to
the States, however, another revolution looked imminent. Fighting
had broken out in the Yucatán, and henequen planters and hacendados
were trying to overthrow Carrillo.
A MARTYR'S DEATH
President Obregon's right hand man, de la Huerta, was opposing
him and as Carrillo backed Obregon,he was at risk. Carrillo
was forced to find guns to fight both the planters and de la
Huerta's forces. He now had a $250,000 reward on his head.Carrillo
went by night to the coast with three of his brothers and six
friends as guards. Just as they waded out to the launch that
would take them to New Orleans where they would acquire firearms
for this new revolution, the captain signaled to soldiers lying
in wait on the shore. The soldiers rowed out to the launch and
captured Carrillo, who told his small group not to fight, but
to go peacefully.
De la Huerta's forces took them back to Merida, jailed them
for the night, and in the morning said they would arraign them.
Carrillo refused to make a plea as he was governor of the state
and refused to recognize their kangaroo court. He was condemned
and on January 3, 1924, was taken to the Merida Cemetery where
he, his three brothers, and six friends were lined up against
the wall to await the firing squad.
The first round of volleys was sent over their heads, as the
soldiers did not want to shoot them, so fiercely loyal were
the Yucatecans to Carrillo. The commander, a Colonel Broca,
shouted that those soldiers were to be shot, and over the dead
bodies of the first soldiers, Carrillo, his brothers and friends
were executed as they stood with their backs against the cemetery
wall.
Alma Reed, who had been alerted in San Francisco that trouble
was imminent, heard the news shortly afterwards from The New
York Times that Felipe Carrillo Puerto had died in Yucatán,
a martyr's death. He was 49.
Reed insisted on returning to Merida to see the spot where Carrillo
fell. She stayed but briefly in the Yucatán, and on arriving
back in New York, was sent on assignment to Carthage to explore
more ancient ruins. She would never again marry, but she would
continue to lead a life of adventure after Carrillo's death.
Her reporting took her from Carthage to Delphi to the mid-east,
and back to Mexico where she helped establish the reputation
of Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco.
One of Reed's fears was that Obregon had had a hand in killing
Carrillo. Obregon had, after all, assassinated Emiliano Zapata
after luring him to a truce meeting where they were to negotiate
surrender terms. Reed thought that Carrillo's radicalism may
have aroused opposition from the Mexican president. But she
could never prove a direct link to Obregon for Carrillo's death.
The pueblo of Chan Santa Cruz, south of Tulum in Quintana Roo,
changed its name to honor the dynamic Yucatán governor, and
now goes by the name Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Alma Reed died
in Mexico City, November 20, 1966, while undergoing surgery.
She was 77.
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