Abraham González (governor)

Abraham González de Hermosillo y Casavantes (June 7, 1864 – March 7, 1913) was the provisional and constitutional governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua during the early period of the Mexican Revolution. He was the political mentor of the revolutionary Pancho Villa, whom he had met and befriended before the revolution.

Family

Abraham González de Hermosillo y Casavantes was born on his family's estates in Basúchil, in Guerrero Municipality, Chihuahua. He was a member of one of the richest and best-educated families in the state (the González de Hermosillo family was believed to be descended from European nobility). He was educated at the University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana. His paternal line is from Teocaltiche, Jalisco, belonging to the González de Hermosillo y Gómez Rendón family with Y-DNA matches with other González de Hermosillo families of Jalisco.

As with Francisco Madero, the scion of one of the richest landowning families in Coahuila and also educated abroad, Abraham González had suffered under the favoritism of Porfirio Díaz's political system. In Chihuahua, the dominant political clique was the Creel-Terrazas family, which had vast land holdings and strong political connections to Díaz. González "was unable to hold out against the competition of the large haciendas, primarily those belonging to the Terrazas-Creel clan." After Madero wrote his book, The Presidential Succession of 1910 and the political movement of elites against Díaz's election grew, González became the head of the Anti-Re-electionist Club in Chihuahua.

Political career

González was one of the main leaders of the Maderista Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana, the movement which opposed the re-election of dictator Porfirio Díaz in 1910.