Terrazas, Silvestre, 1873-1944

Born in Chihuahua and educated there and in Mexico City, Terrazas early in life dedicated himself to a journalistic career. He founded and edited, for the Bishop of Chihuahua, Dr. Jesús J. Ortiz, the Revista Católica, a weekly, 1896-1901. He also founded a monthly literary review, la Lira Chihuahuense, in 1896 which continued until 1901. Meantime, he started his lifework with the newspaper El Correo de Chihuahua, 1899, issued in Chihuahua City (occasionally), but which assumed new stature with the publication of Volume I, Number 1, on January 1, 1902, and continued until the government permanently forced its discontinuance in 1935.

(cont') Terrazas carried on a large correspondence with Mexican journalists, most of whom were members of the Prensa Asociada de los Estados, of which Terrazas was one of the founders and often an officer. With them he discussed the political situation of the country, and his correspondence reflects his involvement in local and national politics. Frequently imprisoned for opposition to the party in power, and his newspaper plant locked up, he nevertheless continued the struggle in behalf of liberal causes.

From the description of Silvestre Terrazas papers, circa 1883-1944. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 215033849

Biography

Silvestre Terrazas was born in Chihuahua on December 31, 1873. During the 1870s and 1880s, Mexico was largely controlled by the military clique and the great landowners, and Don Silvestre, as a member of one of the most distinguished families in Chihuahua, was well educated both at home and in Mexico City. In 1896 he began his long newspaper career with the publication of La Revista Católica and La Lira Chihuahuense, both of which were sponsored by the Bishop of Chihuahua. Three years later he founded the short-lived El Correo de Chihuahua, and in 1902, reorganizing his assets, he combined all three papers into the successful El Correo de Chihuahua.

In 1907, opposing the candidacy of Enrique C. Creel for the Governorship of Chihuahua, Terrazas argued in his treatise "La Cuestion Palpitante — Mexico por Nacimiento" that Creel, whose father was an American, was not legally qualified to seek office. In that same year, Terrazas launched a campaign against injustice in the case of the "Robo al Banco Minero," protesting the methods of arrest and questioning of suspects by the Chief of Police of Chihuahua. Terrazas' editorial in El Correo, "¡¡Pedimos Garantías!!" resulted in a lawsuit, brought against him by the Chief of Police, and led to Terrazas' imprisonment.

With the election of 1910, in which the opponents were Francisco I. Madero and Porfirio Díaz, Terrazas began his long and stormy political career. His newspaper supported the liberal candidate, and as President of the Prensa Asociada de los Estados, an organization of Mexican journalists, he sought to free from prison many of his associates who had been jailed for revolutionary activities. On November 22, 1910, Terrazas was himself accused of plotting against the government and was sent to prison for the second time. On February 10, 1911, he was released.

Terrazas continued his publication of El Correo de Chihuahua, but in March 1913, threatened by imprisonment for his attacks against the regime of Victoriano Huerta, he crossed to El Paso, Texas, and from there supported the revolution led by Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Venustiano Carranza. After Villa had assumed power in Chihuahua with the defeat of Huerta's forces in December 1913, Terrazas returned to his home and was appointed Secretary of the Government of the State. In June 1914, he was also appointed General Administrator of Confiscated Property of Chihuahua, but with the defeat of Villa by Carranza in December 1915, Terrazas again went into exile, this time to Las Cruces, New Mexico. In the following year Terrazas moved to El Paso, where he began publication of La Patria on January 1, 1919, and where he remained until 1925.

As the political situation stabilized itself throughout Mexico in the early 1920s, Terrazas often crossed the border to participate in the annual "Congresos" of the Prensa Asociada de los Estados. In 1925 he returned to Chihuahua and re-opened the offices of El Correo de Chihuahua, and in the following year his articles on the "Cristero" movement led to his third imprisonment. During the 1930s, as Director of the Central de Noticias "Mexico," Terrazas dispatched news to journals throughout the country and wrote editorials and columns which were syndicated widely. On September 9, 1935, the presses of El Correo de Chihuahua were chained for the last time — the Comisión Monetaria S.A. en Liquidación claimed that Terrazas had failed to pay a debt — and Terrazas went into semi-retirement. At the time of his death in Chihuahua on June 1, 1944, he was President of the Sociedad de Estudios Históricos de Chihuahua and Treasurer of the Prensa Asociada de los Estados.

From the guide to the Silvestre Terrazas Papers, [ca. 1883-1944], (The Bancroft Library)