Plutarco Elías Calles

Plutarco Elías Calles was president from 1924 to 1928 and later the dominant political figure during the Maximato. He helped create the party structure that eventually became the PRI and was involved in the church-state conflict known as the Cristero War.

For citizenship learners, Calles matters because he connects postrevolutionary state-building, anticlerical conflict, and the origins of Mexico’s long-ruling political party system.

The Maximato was the 1928-1934 period in which Plutarco Elías Calles retained major political influence. Emilio Portes Gil, Pascual Ortiz Rubio, and Abelardo L. Rodríguez governed during the Maximato.