Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda (Zacatecas, Zac.

Zacatecas, Zacatecas

Zacatecas is a city and municipality in Mexico and the capital of the state of Zacatecas. It is located in the north central part of the country. The city had its start as a Spanish mining camp in the mid 16th century. Prior to this, the area's rich deposits in silver and other minerals were known...

, 1865 – Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

, 1925) was a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

eccentric

Eccentricity (behavior)

In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...

who was famous for being a perennial candidate

Perennial candidate

A perennial candidate is one who frequently runs for public office with a record of success that is infrequent, if existent at all. Perennial candidates are often either members of minority political parties or have political opinions that are not mainstream. They may run without any serious hope...

in his country's presidential elections. Although he never managed to win a significant share of the votes, he considered himself to be the victor every time.

Zúñiga y Miranda was born in Zacatecas into a family of old Spanish nobility. He went to Mexico City

Mexico City

to study law and became a lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

, but first gained fame in 1887 when he claimed to have invented a machine that could predict earthquakes

Earthquake prediction

An earthquake prediction is a prediction that an earthquake of a specific magnitude will occur in a particular place at a particular time . Despite considerable research efforts by seismologists, scientifically reproducible predictions cannot yet be made to a specific day or month...

. He managed to successfully predict an earthquake that struck the capital that year. After this success, he predicted that on August 10 of the same year Mexico City would be completely destroyed by simultaneous eruptions of the Cerro del Peñón and the Popocatépetl

Popocatépetl

Popocatépetl also known as "Popochowa" by the local population is an active volcano and, at , the second highest peak in Mexico after the Pico de Orizaba...

, which caused several inhabitants to leave the capital at that date. Fortunately, this prediction proved to be false. He founded several ephemeral magazines in which he attempted to predict natural disasters or other events, including the end of time, without much success.

He had almost disappeared from public attention when he announced his candidacy as the 'candidate of the people' for the 1892 presidential elections. Zúñiga's opponent was dictator 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...

, who had ruled the country since 1876 and turned elections into a mere formality. Zúñiga claimed to have been victorious in the elections and protested against the alleged election fraud. Díaz had him arrested and he was sentenced to 25 days of solitary confinement

Solitary confinement

Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...

. After being released Zúñiga made himself a presidential sash

Presidential sash

A presidential sash is a cloth sash worn by presidents of many nations in the world. Such sashes are worn by presidents in Africa, Asia, Europe, and most notably, in Latin America....

, declared himself to be the 'legitimate president' and called Díaz a usurper

Usurper

Usurper is a derogatory term used to describe either an illegitimate or controversial claimant to the power; often, but not always in a monarchy, or a person who succeeds in establishing himself as a monarch without inheriting the throne, or any other person exercising authority unconstitutionally...

. In 1896, 1900, 1904 and 1910 he again participated in the presidential elections, every time with the same result: he received only a small number of votes, claimed fraud and declared himself to be president. It was said that Zúñiga honestly believed he was elected by the people, and turned into a popular figure in Mexico City. He was often invited for parties, in restaurants or for other public events, in which the population treated him as if he really were the president. The Díaz government considered him to be a madman who was amusing rather than dangerous and decided not to take action against him any more, while for the Mexican population he served as a way to laugh about the lack of democracy in the country. Zúñiga always dressed as an English gentleman

Gentleman

The term gentleman , in its original and strict signification, denoted a well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus...

, wearing a cylinder hat, glove

Glove

A glove is a garment covering the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each...

s and a monocle

Monocle

A monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct or enhance the vision in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string. The other end of the string is then connected to the wearer's clothing to avoid losing...

and smoking a pipe.

In 1910, after Francisco I. Madero

Francisco I. Madero

Francisco Ignacio Madero González was a politician, writer and revolutionary who served as President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913. As a respectable upper-class politician, he supplied a center around which opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz could coalesce...

launched the Mexican Revolution

Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...

against Díaz, Zúñiga offered to mediate between Díaz and Madero. After the overthrow and murder of Madero by Victoriano Huerta

Victoriano Huerta

José Victoriano Huerta Márquez was a Mexican military officer and president of Mexico. Huerta's supporters were known as Huertistas during the Mexican Revolution...

, he complained about the fact that Huerta had annulled the elections for the Congress of Mexico

Congress of Mexico

The Congress of the Union is the legislative branch of the Mexican government...

, since he had just planned to be a candidate in that election.

After the revolution Zúñiga continued to participate in elections: in 1917 against Venustiano Carranza

Venustiano Carranza

Venustiano Carranza de la Garza, was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He ultimately became President of Mexico following the overthrow of the dictatorial Huerta regime in the summer of 1914 and during his administration the current constitution of Mexico was drafted...

and in 1920 against Álvaro Obregón

Álvaro Obregón

General Álvaro Obregón Salido was the President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He was assassinated in 1928, shortly after winning election to another presidential term....

. Although he never got more than a few thousand votes he remained popular and reminded Mexicans of the fact that Mexico had not yet become a full democracy after the revolution. In 1920 a small republican party requested to declare the votes for winner Obregón and runner up Alfredo Robles Domínguez void for their participation in the overthrow in president Carranza, which would have led Zúñiga, who came third in the election result, to be declared the winner. This request was however rejected, and Zúñiga tried to become federal deputy

Chamber of Deputies of Mexico

The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico's bicameral legislature. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Articles 50 to 70 of the current constitution.-Composition:The Chamber of Deputies is composed of one federal...

in 1922, again without success. Zúñiga last participated in elections in 1924, during which he received death threats from supporters of the 'official' candidate Plutarco Elías Calles

Plutarco Elías Calles

Plutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican general and politician. He was president of Mexico from 1924 to 1928, but he continued to be the de facto ruler from 1928–1935, a period known as the maximato...

. He died a year later.

Zúñiga's proclamations as 'legitimate president' would later be imitated by José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos Calderón was a Mexican writer, philosopher and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities in the development of modern Mexico. His philosophy of "indigenismo" affected all aspects of Mexican sociocultural, political, and economic...

(1929), Juan Andreu Almazán

Juan Andreu Almazán

General Officer Juan Andreu Almazán was a Mexican revolutionary soldier, politician, and businessman.-Early life:Juan Andreu Almazán was born on May 12, 1891 in the municipality of Olinalá in the State of Guerrero...

(1940), Manuel Clouthier

Manuel Clouthier

Manuel de Jesús Clouthier del Rincón, also known as Maquío was a Mexican businessman and politician affiliated to the conservative National Action Party...

(1988). Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...

(2006) and as 'legitimate governor' Salvador Nava (1991), all of them being candidated considering themselves to have been victim of election fraud. Zúñiga y Miranda has a prominent spot in Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...

's painting Dream on a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda and made an appearance in the movie México de mis recuerdos in 1943, in which he was played by Max Langler. Rodrigo Borja Torres wrote a book about Zúñiga's life in 1999.

See also