! University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan

a friendship with Lie. Rosendo Pineda, started during their
school years, led him into politics.
He began his years as a public servant with his
election to the local Congress of Chiapas, and also being
named "Sindico del Ayuntamiento" in Tuxtla Gutierrez in
l88l. In 1882, he was appointed "Director del Instituto del
2k
Estado; here he was able to realize one of his first pro­
jects, the cultural elevation of the teaching methods in
Chiapas. Finding the teaching system very out-of-date, he
introduced new plans of studies, new teaching methods and,
in general, reformed the whole system from primary schools
to professional ones. He also started teaching Natural and
Roman Law in the Institute; this was the beginning of a
teaching career that he was to pursue until his death.
In 1882, he returned to Oaxaca to marry the girl he
met while a student there, Mercedes Llanes Santaella. On
the very day of the wedding, September 11, 1882, he received
the tragic news that cholera had stricken his parents; his
father had already died, and his mother was extremely sick.
(She died a few days later.) Accustomed since childhood to
copy his father's character of firmness, austerity and
2 U Angel Pola, "En casa de las celebridades; Emilio
Rabasa," El Diario del Hogar (Sept. 20, 1888), 1. In this
interview, Rabasa, for the only time, gives the names of
jobs held and the dates of them. This interview, and his
autobiographical poem are the only two concrete sources of
his early life.
21