BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

DIAZ HIMSELF 319
Both vanit y and lack of refinement and taste are shown
by the very coarseness and ridiculousness of the praise
for which he pays and in which he revels.
Diaz is not noted for avarice, which is not surprising,
inasmuch as the power that lie wields by reason of the
army and the rest of his machine is far greater than any
power that money could buy in Mexico. To Porfirio
Diaz money and other cashable goods are but a pawn
in the game, and he uses them to buy the support of
the greedy. Yet his enemies declare that he is the richest
man in Mexico. lie keeps his financial affairs so
well hidden that few can guess how large a fortune he
has. It is known that he has large holdings tinder
aliases and in the names of dummies and that the various
members of his family are all wealthy. But why
should Porfirio Diaz care for mere money, when all
Mexico is his—his with no strings upon it except the
strings of foreign capital?
The picture sometimes drawn of the love match of
Don Porfirio and Carmelita Romero Rubio de Diaz,
while pretty, is not true; the truth is not at all flattering
to the personal virtues of Diaz. The facts are that little
Carmen was forced to marry Diaz for purposes of
state. Her father, Romero Rubio, had held a high position
in the Lerdist government and had a strong personal
following; her god-father was Lerdo de Tejada
himself, while little Carmen, together with the other
feminine members of the family, was a devout Catholic.
By marrying the girl Diaz hoped to kill three birds with
one stone, to win the support of her father, to turn
aside the enmity of the friends of Lerdo, and to assure
to himself more actively than ever the support of the
church. He knew that Carmen not only did not love
him, but that she wanted to marry another man, and