Luis Napoleón Morones

Luis Morones Negrete (1890 – 1964), also known as Luis Napoleón Morones, was a Mexican major union leader, politician, and government official. He was a pragmatic politician who experienced a rapid rise to prominence from modest roots and made strategic alliances. He served as Secretary General of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana, CROM) and as secretary of economy under President Plutarco Elías Calles, 1924-1928. He is considered the "most important union leader of the 1920s...and undoubtedly decisive in Mexico's post-Revolutionary reconstruction." He was criticized for tying the labor movement closely to the national government and his displays of wealth were unseemly. He fell from power following the successful 1928 presidential run by Alvaro Obregón, who was assassinated before being inaugurated. Early life Morones was born 11 October 1890 in Tlalpan, a delegación of the Mexican Federal District, the only child of Ignacio Morones and his wife Rafaela Negrete, both cotton textile weavers in Jalisco. Married in 1888, the couple moved to the capital in order to find jobs in the textile factory of San Fernando in Tlalpan. The factory closed in 1895 and the couple was in straiten circumstances, but did not return to Jalisco. The family was aided by Rafaela's nine sisters, whose help allowed Luis to attend and finish primary school. He also learned typing and shorthand, skills he never used. Although his parents wished him to become a weaver, at age 17 Luis began working as an electrician, repairing all types of electrical motors. His electrician's card identifies him as "Luis N. Morones." In the early years of the Mexican Revolution, he joined the radical Casa del Obrero Mundial (House of the World Worker, COS) in 1913, then helped found the electricians' union, Mexican Syndicate of Electricians (SME), based in the Mexican Telephone and Telegraph Co., in 1915. The SME later joined the COS.