208 Juárez, Benito period, particularly the regional revolts and uprisings that rocked the restored republic, combined with the country’s weak sense of national identity, which required forceful assertion of the supremacy of the central state His liberal policies violently rejected by many Indian communities, the Zapotec president was Indian in biogenetic terms only His thinking, indeed his whole being, was Mexican, his political career demonstrating his commitment to transforming the collective rights of Indians in communities into the individual rights of Mexican citizens, a transformation that many Indian communities fiercely resisted Juárez left an enduring mark on the nation’s political life and, along with Lázaro Cárdenas, is widely considered the most popular president in Mexican history, especially among the poor Further reading: Ridley, Jasper Maximilian and Juárez London: Constable, 1993; Roeder, Ralph Juárez and His Mexico: A Biographical History New York: Viking, 1948; Weeks, Charles A The Juárez Myth in Mexico Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1987 Michael J Schroeder