Centro Histórico in Ciudad de México, Mexico — The Valley of Mexico (The Central Highlands)
Melchor Ocampo
1. Melchor Ocampo Marker
The marker is currently missing, but this image was probably taken prior to its placement. Courtesy Mediateca INAH.
En este lugar estuvo la casa donde vivió Don Melchos Ocampo. Paladín de la Reforma.
Dirección de Monumentos Coloniales.
In this place was the house where Melcho Ocampo lived. Champion of The Reforms.
Office of Colonial Monuments
Erected by Dirección de Monumentos Coloniales.
Topics. This memorial is listed in these topic lists: Government & Politics • Patriots & Patriotism • Wars, US Indian.
Location. Marker is missing. It was located near 19° 25.737′ N, 99° 8.214′ W. Marker was in Ciudad de México. It was in Centro Histórico. Memorial was on Isabel la Católica just north of Mesones, on the right when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker was at or near this postal address: Isabel la Católica 74, Ciudad de México 06000, Mexico. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this location. The Printing Press of Antonio Espinosa (a few steps from this marker); Chapel of the Marquis of Salvatierra (about 90 meters away,
this page online
More about this marker. The Mediateca INAH notes that this marker was located at "... Isabel la Católica N° 74."
Regarding Melchor Ocampo. Melchor Ocampo (5 January 1814, Maravatío, Valladolid, New Spain – 3 June 1861, Tepeji del Río, Hidalgo) was a radical liberal Mexican lawyer, scientist, and politician. He was fiercely anticlerical, perhaps an atheist, and his early writings against the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico gained him a reputation as an articulate liberal ideologue. He served in the administration of Benito Juárez and negotiated a controversial agreement with the United States, the McLane-Ocampo Treaty.
Photographed By J. Makali Bruton, October 11, 2018
2. Melchor Ocampo Marker
The now missing marker was at the building seen far to the right in this view at Isabel la Católica 74. This photo also shows the marker at Isabel la Católica 72 for "The Printing Press of Antonio Espinosa."
The treaty attempted to help the Juárez regime, which was strapped for cash to pursue the War of the Reform against conservatives. In the port of Veracruz, on 14 December 1859, acting on Juárez's orders, he and U.S. Ambassador Robert Milligan McLane signed the treaty. This controversial treaty would have awarded the United States perpetual transit rights, for its armies and merchandise, through three zones of Mexico's territory: the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; a corridor running from Guaymas, Sonora, to Nogales, Arizona; and a second transoceanic route from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, on the Pacific to Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico. The treaty was aimed at getting U.S. recognition for the Juárez government and gain the regime two million dollars in much needed funding. Ocampo did attach an appendix, attempting to protect Mexican sovereignty. Although presidents Juárez and Buchanan were both in favor of the arrangement, the U.S. Senate rejected it on 31 May 1860 on account of the impending Civil War in the United States. Ocampo traveled to the U.S. to ascertain if the U.S. would support the liberal cause if they were unable to defeat the conservatives on the battlefield. The treaty exacerbated the rancor between Ocampo and Miguel Lerdo de Tejada and Ocampo resigned from Juárez's cabinet in January 1860. Juárez rejected the treaty on November 1860.
Some months after retiring from public service, Melchor Ocampo was abducted from his hacienda in Michoacán by conservative guerrillas on orders from either Leonardo Márquez or Félix María Zuloaga or both (reports differ). Historian Enrique Krauze gives a vivid account of Ocampo's last days, saying that Ocampo's captors allowed him to write his will, where he recognized his natural daughters and identified their mother, information the children did not know. Ocampo was executed by firing squad on 3 June 1861 at the Hacienda of Tlaltengo, Tepeji del Río, in what is today the state of Hidalgo. After the firing squad, his execution included "the finishing bullet in the head, [and] they hung the body of Melchor Ocampo from a tree." His loyal follower, Santos Degollado, pursued Ocampo's executioners and "was himself ambushed, captured, and executed by the conservatives. Ocampo's murder was a scandal, and Juárez's government took "more extreme measures" to repress the conservatives. The remains of Ocampo are interred in the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in Mexico City.
His home state was much later renamed Michoacán de Ocampo in his honor. Adapted from Wikipedia
Credits. This page was last revised on April 17, 2020. It was originally submitted on January 23, 2019, by J. Makali Bruton of Accra, Ghana. This page has been viewed 259 times since then and 38 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on January 23, 2019, by J. Makali Bruton of Accra, Ghana.
