Álvaro Obregón Tapia (18 December 1916—27 September 1993) was a Mexican political figure who served as

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of the northwestern border state of Sonora from 1955 to 1961. He was a son of

Álvaro Obregón Álvaro Obregón Salido (; 17 February 1880 – 17 July 1928) better known as Álvaro Obregón was a Sonoran-born general in the Mexican Revolution. A pragmatic centrist, natural soldier, and able politician, he became the 46th President of Me ...

Salido and María Tapia Monteverde. Obregón Tapia's father was a brilliant Sonoran general in the Mexican Revolution, who became president of Mexico in 1920, re-elected in 1928, but assassinated before he could take office. Obregón Tapia's birth in 1916 was after his father's defeat of

Pancho Villa Francisco "Pancho" Villa (, Orozco rebelled in March 1912, both for Madero's continuing failure to enact land reform and because he felt insufficiently rewarded for his role in bringing the new president to power. At the request of Madero's c ...

in 1915 in the

Battle of Celaya The Battle of Celaya, 6–15 April 1915, was part of a series of military engagements in the Bajío during the Mexican Revolution between the winners, who had allied against the regime of Gen. Victoriano Huerta (February 1913-July 1914) and then ...

, a decisive victory for the Constitutionalists. As with some offspring of other revolutionary leaders, such as Lázaro Cárdenas's son

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano (; born 1 May 1934) is a Mexican prominent politician. The son of 51st President of Mexico Lázaro Cárdenas, he is a former Head of Government of Mexico City and a founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolut ...

, Obregón Tapia pursued a political career via the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario Institucional, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the Nati ...

. That party was founded in 1929 following the assassination of Obregón Tapia's father and became the dominant political party in Mexico. During his term in office, Obregón Tapia stressed the importance of education to the future growth of Sonora and the country as a whole and demonstrated his commitment by overseeing the construction of 139, primarily rural, schools and places of learning, and instituting a program of night classes for adults. He also greatly expanded the state's highway system. Álvaro Obregón Tapia had been undergoing treatment at a

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

hospital in the U.S. state of

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, which has a wide border with Sonora. He died there less than three months before his 77th birthday.

References

"Alvaro Obregon Tapia; Mexico Governor, 76" (''The New York Times'' obituary, September 30, 1993)
Governors of Sonora Mexican people of Irish descent 1916 births 1993 deaths Place of birth missing Children of national leaders 20th-century Mexican politicians {{Mexico-politician-stub