Francisco Vazquez-Gomez (1860-1933), became a physician in 1889 after attending the National School of Medicine in Mexico City. He served as Minister of Education during the presidency of Porfirio Diaz in addition to being his physician and physician to the Madero family of Coahuila. He married Guadalupe Norma in 1890 and together they had ten children. In 1908, he joined the Anti-Reelectionist party that opposed and eventually ousted President Diaz. He supported Francisco Madero and Emiliano Zapata in their respective revolutionary efforts for agrarian reform, leading him to become a candidate for vice-president of Mexico on the 1910 ticket that included Francisco Madero as candidate for president. However, after a falling out with Madero, Vazquez-Gomez was removed as vice-presidential candidate and was assigned as Madero’s representative in Washington, D.C. from 1911 to 1913. He later joined Pascual Orozco and his “Colorados” in their rebellion against Madero. Vazquez-Gomez fell out of favor when Victoriano Huerta had Francisco Madero assassinated and ascended to power. In 1914 he was exiled by Huerta and settled in Bexar County, TX in the United States where he practiced medicine until 1923. He returned to Mexico in 1923 where he was a Professor of Pathology at the National School of Medicine. He wrote Memorias Politicas, 1909-1913 about his experiences in the Mexican Revolution which was published in 1933, the year of his death.

This collection includes a citation index, research materials, correspondence, biographical materials, 35mm motion picture film, pamphlets and broadsides. The bulk of the collection is about the Mexican Revolution during the years 1909-1920, compiled by Dr. Francisco Vazquez-Gomez and used to write his book Memorias Politicas, 1909-1913 which was published in 1933. Many clippings are copies of correspondence in the form of telegrams, some in code, between revolutionaries and key political figures at the time such as Francisco Madero and Venustiano Carranza. There are also articles by and about prominent advocates for social, educational, and agrarian reform such as Jose Vanconcelos, Jose Limantour and Emiliano Zapata. The original collection, Francisco Vazquez Gomez Papers 1906-1940 (1/7/MSS 101) is held at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Special Collections Research Center