Things were looking up for Mexico in June of 1911. Dictator Porfirio Diaz had fled the country in May, and energetic young Francisco I. Madero was poised to takeover as president. Madero had enlisted the aid of men such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata with the promise of reform and with his victory, it looked like the fighting would stop.
It was not to be, however. Madero was deposed and murdered in February of 1913 and the Mexican Revolution would rage across the nation for years until finally drawing to a close in 1920.
In this photo, dated June, 1911, Madero triumphantly rides into the city of Cuernavaca on his way to Mexico City. Porfirio Diaz had already left and new elections were planned, even though it was a foregone conclusion that Madero would win. Madero is waving to a jubilant crowd cheering and holding flags. Their optimism would not last: none of them could know that their country was in store for nine more horrible years of war and bloodshed.
