Benito Juárez

Orphaned at three and speaking only Zapotec until he was twelve, Juárez walked to the city of Oaxaca, learned Spanish, trained as a lawyer and became the first indigenous president of Mexico.

He led the resistance against the French occupation and the emperor they installed, governing from a black carriage as his republic moved from town to town. His mausoleum in San Fernando shows him lying dead in the arms of the nation.