Manuel José Estrada Cabrera was the President of Guatemala from 1898 to 1920. A lawyer with no military background, he was a dictator who modernised the country's industry and transportation infrastructure, but only via granting concessions to the American-owned United Fruit Company, whose influence on the government was deeply unpopular among the population. Estrada Cabrera used increasingly brutal methods to assert his authority, including armed strike-breaking, and he effectively controlled the general elections. He retained power for 22 years through controlled elections in 1904, 1910, and 1916, and was eventually removed from office when the national assembly declared him mentally incompetent, and he was jailed for corruption.
José María Reina Andrade was the acting President of Guatemala from 2 January 1931 to 14 February 1931.
José María Orellana Pinto was a Guatemalan political and military leader. He was chief of staff of President Manuel Estrada Cabrera and President of Guatemala between 1921 and 1926, after overthrowing Conservative Unionist President Carlos Herrera. During his rule the Quetzal was established as the currency of Guatemala. Orellana Pinto died under suspicious circumstances in 1926 at the age of fifty-four. He was buried in the Guatemalan capital with state honors.
Carlos Herrera y Luna was a Guatemalan politician who served as acting President of Guatemala from 30 March 1920 to 15 September 1920, and President of Guatemala from 16 September 1920 until 10 December 1921.
Manuel Lisandro Barillas Bercián was a Guatemalan general and acting president of Guatemala from 6 April 1885 to 15 March 1886 and President from 16 March 1886 to 15 March 1892. He was born in Quetzaltenango, and assassinated in Mexico City in 1907.
Villa Canales is a city and municipality in the Guatemala department of Guatemala, situated 22 km south of the capital Guatemala City. As of the 2018 census, the city had a population of 124,680, making it the eleventh largest city in Guatemala.
Nuevo Progreso is a municipality in the San Marcos department of Guatemala.
Rafael Arévalo Martínez was a Guatemalan writer. He was a novelist, short-story writer, poet, diplomat, and director of Guatemala’s national library for more than 20 years. Though Arévalo Martínez’s fame has waned, he is still considered important because of his short stories, and one in particular: The man who resembled a horse and the biography of president Manuel Estrada Cabrera, ¡Ecce Pericles!. Arévalo Martínez was director of the Guatemalan National Library from 1926 until 1946, when he became for a year Guatemala’s representative before the Pan American Union in Washington, D.C. He was the political and literary counterpart of his more famous countryman, Nobel Prize winner Miguel Ángel Asturias; while Arévalo Martínez was an unapologetic admirer of the United States, Asturias was a bitter critic of the New Orleans-based United Fruit Company, which he felt had plundered his country.
Rafael Yela Günther was a Guatemalan painter and sculptor.
The Carrera Theater was a majestic classic Greek style theater built by president Captain General Rafael Carrera y Turcios in Guatemala City, Guatemala in 1852. The building was in the Old Central Square and after the liberal revolution of 1871 it was called National Theater. Towards the end of general Manuel Lisandro Barillas Bercián government, the building was remodeled to celebrate the Discovery of America fourth centennial anniversary. Finally, the theatre was destroyed by the earthquakes of 1917–18 and demolished in 1923.
The 1917 Guatemala earthquakes were a sequence of tremors that lasted from 17 November 1917 through 24 January 1918. They gradually increased in intensity until they almost completely destroyed Guatemala City and severely damaged the ruins in Antigua Guatemala that had survived the 1773 Guatemala earthquakes.
The Tragic Week of 1920 was a civil uprising that took place in Guatemala in the week of April 8 to April 14, 1920, led by Unionist Party leaders, student leaders and those who opposed President Manuel Estrada Cabrera when the latter refused to leave office after the National Assembly declared him mentally incompetent for the presidency and named Carlos Herrera as interim president.
Rafael Spínola was a writer, journalist, politician and public speaker from Guatemala. Director of the well known cultura magazine La Ilustración Guatemalteca in 1896 and 1897, was Secretary of Infrastructure in Manuel Estrada Cabrera first presidential term. He also created the "Fiestas Minervalias", which were a celebration to the studious youth and the president Estrada Cabrera rule. He was also the one that signed the treaty granting the American company "The Central American Improvement Co. Inc." to finish the Northern Railroad -which had been left unfinished after president José María Reina Barrios assassination on 8 February 1898–, which would be the stepping stone for the operations of the United Fruit Company in Guatemala. He was the father of Guatemalan poetesse Magdalena Spínola (1896–1991).
Antonio Macías del Real (1866–1939) was a Spanish writer and pharmacist who moved to Guatemala where he wrote for most prestigious cultural publications. Among his articles are those that we wrote for La Ilustración Guatemalteca during the last year of general José María Reina Barrios presidency. When the president was assassinated on 8 February 1898, Macías del Real wrote Perfiles biográficos de don Manuel Estrada Cabrera (Biographical profiles of Mr. Manuel Estrada Cabrera, who had been appointed as interim President; Macias del Real kept writing on behalf of the new president since then. In 1902 his adulation paid off, as Estrada Cabrera granted him the Pacific Railroad concession. According to Guatemalan historian Rafael Arévalo Martínez in his book ¡Ecce Pericles!, Macías del Real -a pharmacist graduated from Universidad Central de Madrid and later incorporated in Guatemala- was the one that gave Estrada Cabrera a potent venom that the latter used to get rid of his opponents.
Próspero Morales was a Guatemalan lawyer who served as Secretary of Infrastructure, War and Public Instruction during José María Reina Barrios administration. Two year after being in office, Morales married the well known Guatemalan teacher Natalia Górriz. Morales resigned as Secretary on 5 March 1897 in order to run for president for the upcoming presidential elections; however, due to the failure of the Exposición Centroamericana and the severe economic crisis that Guatemala was undergoing at the time, due to the plummeting of coffee and silver international prices, general Reina Barrios suspended the elections and forcibly extended his tenure until 1902. Morales then joined the revolution that was brewing in Quetzaltenango, but the rebels were defeated on 14 September 1897. After Reina Barrios assassination on 8 February 1898, he unsuccessfully tried to overthrow interim president Manuel Estrada Cabrera–who also had served as Secretary under Reina Barrios–but was repelled by the forces of former president Manuel Lisandro Barillas.
The Temple of Minerva was a Greek style temple erected in Guatemala City by the government of president Manuel Estrada Cabrera in 1901 to celebrate the Fiestas Minervalias. Soon, the main cities in the rest of Guatemala built similar structures as well.
The Amatitlán Department was one of the original departments of the Republic of Guatemala when it was created in 1839 as an independent district by governor Mariano Rivera Paz and then elevated to the category of department by conservative president Vicente Cerna y Cerna in 1866. It was abolished by general Jorge Ubico in 1935 and its municipalities were split between the Guatemala and Escuintla departments. It was formed by the modern municipalities of Amatitlán, Villa Nueva, Palín, Villa Canales and San Miguel Petapa.
Juan Martín Barrundia Flores was a military officer and liberal politician from Guatemala. He was the son of the influential liberal leader José Francisco Barrundia. Barrundia was appointed as Secretary of War during the constitutional presidential term of general Justo Rufino Barrios, until the violent death of Barrios, on 2 April 1885. After the president's death, Barrundia was hoping to reach the presidency, but was outsmarted by general Manuel Lisandro Barillas, governor of Quetzaltenango who became president instead.
Joaquín Méndez was a poet, journalist, politician, and a Guatemalan diplomat that work closely with President Manuel Estrada Cabrera throughout his career, which lasted from 1898 to 1920. He was the director of Tipografía Nacional de Guatemala, minister of promotion, editor of La Locomotora, and he was the Guatemalan ambassador to the United States government. He represented Guatemala and as representative he signed the Treaty of Versailles after the first world war.
The Unionist Party was a short-lived Guatemalan political party founded and dissolved in the 1920s.
