Interview no. 1744

Jaime Creel was born in Mexico City. He was son of Salvador Creel Terrazas the smallest in the family of his grandfather Enrique Cuilty Creel former governor of the state of Chihuahua and Foreign Affairs Secretary during the last presidency of Porfirio Díaz, which was married to Ángela Terrazas Cuilty, daughter of General Luis Terrazas the biggest landowner in the state. He recalls his family origins in Ireland and the United States and mentions that his great grandfather came as a U.S. consul to Chihuahua City, Mexico. He remembers general things about his grandfather Enrique C. Creel and his family, and describes his life as a politician, businessperson, and banker during the Porfiriato and after his return from exile at the end of the Mexican Revolution. Creel recounts his grandfather’s relationship with the General Terrazas and President Díaz. Furthermore, he explains different episodes before and right after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution and mentions the political negotiations between President Díaz and José Yves Limantour, a member of his cabinet, and Francisco I. Madero and other revolutionaries. Later he gives his opinion about the general causes of the Mexican Revolution specifically in the state of Chihuahua and its consequences. He discusses some details about his grandfather’s experience as Foreign Affairs Secretary. Creel then recalls about his grandfather’s role in the reconciliation between General Terrazas and President Díaz. He describes few details about Chihuahua City’s infrastructure during the Porfiriato and the visit of President Díaz to the city before the interview he had with the U.S. president Taft at the U.S.-Mexico border. He discuses the criticism that his grandfather received from the press while he was governor of Chihuahua, specifically from the journalist Silvestre Terrazas and then goes in to the details about the bank robbery that occurred in the Banco Minero during his grandfather’s administration. Creel describes the law that his grandfather established regarding the Tarahumara indigenous group and talks about that there was the possibility of Enrique C. Creel’s of becoming President of Mexico before the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. He recalls about his grandfather being part of different board of directors of several organizations and how his family went into exile to the United States after Francisco Villa came into power in the state of Chihuahua, and that they lived between El Paso and Los Angeles. He remembers that his family and the Terrazas came back to Chihuahua in the 1920’s and during President Álvaro Obregón’s administration some Cree-Terrazas’s properties were returned to them and they had to buy back others ones. He describes that it might had been possible that General Terrazas made loans to the Municipal government of Chihuahua and mentions different authors that have written about this grandfather and General Terrazas. To conclude, he states other details about his grandfather and General Terrazas, and explains that a nephew of his sent his grandfather’s archive to the Carlos Slim Foundation in Mexico City, and gives details of some of its contents