Gen. Manuel Ávila Camacho (1897-1955) was president of Mexico from 1940 to 1946. His administration is regarded as the transition from the agrarian to the industrial revolution in Mexico.

Manuel Ávila Camacho was born in Tezuitlán, in the state of Puebla. He began his military career when he entered the Constitutionalist forces as a junior officer in 1914. During the 1920s he served in various military capacities in Sonora, Michoacán, and Colima, where he directed operations against the Cristeros (rebels supporting the Church) as chief of the military zone. He became undersecretary of war for President Abelardo Rodriguez in 1933-1934 and secretary of defense under President Lázaro Cárdenas in 1939.

The official presidential candidate in 1940, Ávila Camacho triumphed over Gen. Juan Andreu Almazán in an election marred by violent clashes. There was little popular enthusiasm for the new president...