6: El Chango The Mexican Drug Cartel Monkey Born: c.2021, Presumably Mexico Died: June 2022, Texcaltitlán, Mexico The story of El Chango, or El Changuito (depending on the source) went viral after his death. Photos flooded the internet of a small spider monkey wearing a tactical vest and camouflage. The poor little guy evidently belonged…
1128: Xochitl Queen During the Toltec Empire Lived: c.877-c.916 AD, Toltec Lands (Present-day Mexico) She may be a legend, actual archaeological and historical documentation on her life does not exist for certain. According to those legends, however, a civil war erupted, and Xochitl led a squadron of female warriors in the fighting, before dying in…
1121: Maria Bartola The First Historian of Mexico Lived: c.16th Century AD, Aztec Empire (Present-day Mexico) Maria was the niece of Moctezuma II, Emperor of the Aztecs. A princess of the Aztec Empire, Maria wrote an account of the Spanish invasion of the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City). Though her birth name is…
1033: Naia One of the Oldest Skeletons Ever Found in North America Lived: c. 10,000 BC, Present-day Mexico Naia is the name given to a set of skeletal remains found deep under the water in a cave in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The cave was later dubbed Hoyo Negro, meaning Black Hole in Spanish because of…
979: Leonor Villegas de Magnón Founded La Cruz Blanca (The White Cross) Born: 12 June 1876, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico Died: 17 April 1955, Mexico City, Mexico Leonor was a political activist, journalist, and teacher. Leonor was educated in the United States and married an American citizen in 1901. She had three children with her husband….
879: Clara de la Rocha Soldadera in the Mexican Revolution Birth Date Unknown, Durango, Mexico Died: 1 June 1970, Culiacán Municipality, Sinaloa, Mexico Clara was a Mexican Revolutionary who helped seize Culiacán. She achieved the rank of Colonel, but little else is known about her. According to a distant relative, Clara once attacked a power…
807: Lucía Zárate The World’s Smallest Woman Born: 2 January 1863, San Carlos Nuevo Guaymas, Mexico Died: 29 January 1890, Truckee, California, United States of America Lucía most likely had Primordial Dwarfism. While Wikipedia states this with certainty, there really is no way to know for certain considering Lucía lived so many years ago. If…
770: Petra Herrera Soldadera who Fought in the Mexican Revolution Birth Date Unknown, Mexico Died: c.1917, Ciudad Jiménez, Chihuahua, Mexico Petra fought alongside Pancho Villa under the name “Pedro” (she also dressed like a man). What Petra’s early life was like is unknown. When she was born, or where, or who her parents were—all mysteries….
750: La Malinche Interpreter who Helped Bring Down the Aztecs Born: c.1496-1505, Aztec Empire (Present-day Mexico) Died: c.129, Spanish Controlled Mexico (Present-day Mexico) Also Known As: Doña Marina or Malintzin Original Name: Malinal La Malinche was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast. She worked with the Spanish as an intermediary and advisor when…
“Oh, I have no family of my own, but I have many families.” 728: Señora Doña Maria Luz Corral de Villa Pancho Villa’s Wife Born: July 2, 1892, San Andrés, Chihuahua, Mexico (Present-day Riva Palacio, Chihuahua, Mexico) Died: 6 July 1981, Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, Mexico Pancho Villa “married” multiple women throughout his life (some claiming…