Ignacio Luis Vallarta was a Mexican jurist

Jurist

A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...

 and governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 of the Mexican state of Jalisco

Jalisco

Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...

 (1872–1876). His baptismal name was José Luis Miguel Ignacio Vallarta Ogazón.

Vallarta graduated from the University of Guadalajara

University of Guadalajara

University of Guadalajara is a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. It is the second oldest university in Mexico, the fifth oldest in North America and the fourteenth oldest in Latin America...

 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

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

, represented by Jalisco Governor Santos Degollado

Santos Degollado

José Santos Degollado Sánchez was a Mexican politician and military leader. During his service in the Mexican Army, Degollado fought against López de Santa Anna and later alongside Benito Juárez. He was deputy, and later governor of the state of Michoacán...

, and traditionalism

Traditionalism

Traditionalism may refer to:*The systematic emphasis on the value of Tradition*Traditionalism *Traditional values, those beliefs, moral codes, and mores that are passed down from generation to generation....

, 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

Reform War

The Reform War in Mexico is one of the episodes of the long struggle between Liberal and Conservative forces that dominated the country’s history in the 19th century. The Liberals wanted a federalist government, limiting traditional Catholic Church and military influence in the country...

 on the side of Benito Juárez

Benito Juárez

Benito Juárez born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872...

, attending the convention that drafted the 1857 Constitution of Mexico. He was also an ally of Juarez during the French Intervention in Mexico

French intervention in Mexico

The French intervention in Mexico , also known as The Maximilian Affair, War of the French Intervention, and The Franco-Mexican War, was an invasion of Mexico by an expeditionary force sent by the Second French Empire, supported in the beginning by the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain...

, 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 Vallarta and Jaurez's foreign minister Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada

Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada

Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada y Corral was a jurist and Liberal president of Mexico.-Background:...

.

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.

In 1876 he was named Foreign Minister under Porfirio Díaz

Porfirio Díaz

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...

. In 1877 he was named President of the Supreme Court of Mexico, an office which he served concurrently with his role as Foreign Minister. He resigned from these positions in 1882, retiring into private law practice until his death in 1893.

Ignacio Vallarta's remains are interred at the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta is a Mexican balneario resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas.The 2010 census reported Puerto Vallarta's population as 255,725 making it the sixth-largest city in the state of Jalisco...

is named after him, as is Av. Vallarta, one of the main roads through central Guadalajara.

Sources

Cuadernos del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas: a cien años de la muerte de Vallarta Mexico, DF (1994) UNAM Press - collection with several essays on the juridical legacy of Ignacio Vallarta. Available online at the Biblioteca Jurídica. (In Spanish)

González Navarro, Moisés - Trascendencia histórica de la obra de Vallarta in Cuadernos del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas: a cien años de la muerte de Vallarta

Madrazo, Jorge - Ignacio Vallarta y la pena de muerte in Cuadernos del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas: a cien años de la muerte de Vallarta

Río Rodríguez, Carlos del - Vallarta: hombre universal in Cuadernos del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas: a cien años de la muerte de Vallarta