Guadalupe Victoria

Guadalupe Victoria, born Jose Miguel Ramon Adaucto Fernandez y Felix on September 29, 1786, was a Mexican military general who fought as an independence leader during the Mexican War of Independence and went on to become the first President of Mexico. He held the presidency from October 10, 1824, to March 31, 1829, under the country's 1824 Constitution, and is remembered as the only president to complete a full term during Mexico's first thirty years of independence. During his term he established diplomatic relations with major powers, defeated the last Spanish garrison holding out at San Juan de Ulua, and promoted education and economic development. He peacefully handed power to Vicente Guerrero in 1829, later serving as a senator and state governor, and Congress declared him Benemerito de la Patria. He died on March 21, 1843, from epilepsy.