# Olegario Molina

Olegario Molina Solís (6 March 1843 – 28 April 1925) was a Mexican lawyer, businessman and politician who served as the governor of Yucatán from 1902 to 1907 and the secretary of development, colonization and industry in the government of Porfirio Díaz from 1907 to 1911. He was also a member of the Chamber of Deputies in two terms.

## Biography
### Early life and family

Olegario Molina Solís was born in Bolonchén, Campeche, on 6 March 1843. At the time of his birth, it was an integral part of the state of Yucatán. His parents were Juan Francisco Molina y Esquivel and Cecilia Solís Robles. He had nine siblings. Among his brothers were the journalist Audomaro Molina Solís and the historian Juan Francisco Molina Solís.
The Molina family was Spanish in origin, having immigrated to Mexico in the eighteenth century. Olegario Molina's paternal grandfather, Julián Molina y Bastante, attempted to cultivate tobacco outside of Valladolid. When that failed, he moved his family to Bolonchén. There, Juan Francisco expanded his father's tobacco farm and opened a store, marrying into the prominent Solís Rosales family. In 1847, during Yucatán's Caste War, Maya rebels razed the store and the Molina-Rosales estate, which resulted in them moving to Hecelchakán and rebuilt their fortune. In 1857, a Campeche successionist movement broke out, which the Molinas opposed, leading to successionists raiding their estate and the family fleeing to Mérida back in Yucatán. There, the Molinas sent Olegrio to the state law school, where he received his degree in 1866.
The same year that Molina received his degree, he joined the side of the Liberals during the second French intervention in Mexico, who sought to drive the forces of Maximilian von Habsburg out of the Yucatán Peninsula. Joining the war three months before the fighting ended in the area, Molina was made the secretary of the general Manuel Cepeda Peraza [es]. After the Liberals won, Cepeda Peraza rewarded Molina by giving him and some of his brothers positions in the new government. Molina became head of the Instituto Literario (Literary Institute), simultaneously gaining a degree in topographical engineering.
Molina was married to Dolores Figueroa y Milan, who died in 1914. They had six children: Olegario, who died young, María, Teresa, Dolores, Luis Augusto, and Carmela.
He was the most conspicuous character of the so-called Divine Caste, a term used by General Salvador Alvarado to designate the Yucatecan oligarchy of the early twentieth century or, more precisely, the group of hacendados henequeneros, or porfiriato henequenero, who controlled the state economy of Yucatán at that time.

### Governorship

On 9 July 1901, the Central Club (Spanish: Club Central) was formed in Mérida to support Molina's candidacy for the governorship of Yucatán. Molina ran as the only candidate that year. Molina took office on 1 February 1902, succeeeding Francisco Cantón Rosado [es]. Yucatán's previous two governments had been liberal and then conservative. Molina's government represented a break from this revolving ideological trend, instead being "scientific", moderate, and influenced by positivism. This trend followed the Porfirian line and would be Yucatán's government until the end of the Porfiriato. The Catholic Church viewed Molina's government as the best way to prevent Yucatán's anticlerical faction from returning to power.
In the first week of his governorship, Molina gave up his salary, instead directing it to fund the construction of Yucatán's general hospital, later known as "Agustín O'Horán" hospital. It would take almost the entirety of his term to complete. Molina's administration also saw increased sanitary reform in Mérida, which had previously been struck by epidemic diseases. Education was also a priority for Molina's government, as the elite businessmen, intellectuals and politicians of the positivist regime wished to bring "civilization" to Yucatán's indigenous Maya population, many of whom lived in semi-independent areas in the state's east and south. Molina declared to Yucatán's legislature in 1906 that the role of the state was to:
   [...] Ensure that instruction spreads to the remote regions; avoid its confinement in the main areas; generalize the conviction that instruction is the most desirable good and that it is the capital duty of every citizen to contribute to the penetration of the popular masses.
   (Spanish: [...] Preocupar que la instruccion instrucción se difunda hasta las regiones apartadas; evitar su confinamiento en los centros principales; generalizar el convencimineto de que la instrucción es el bien más apetecible y que es deber capital de todo ciudadano contribuir a que compenetre en las mases populares.)
From the fall of 1903 to the spring of 1904, Molina's brother Manuel Molina Solís [es] served as interim governor while he was on vacation. On 1 February 1906, Molina was elected to a second term. His reelection sparked controversy in Yucatán society, with many calling for the establishment of a true democracy and a change in power, both in the state and the rest of the country.
From 5 February to 9 February 1906, President Porfirio Díaz, accompanied by, among others, his wife, Vice President Ramón Corral, and foreign ambassadors, visited the state. This was the first time that Mexico's federal government set foot on the Yucatán Peninsula. Díaz inaugurated several projects, including the O'Horán hospital. The visit convinced Díaz that Molina would be a good member of his cabinet. Enrique Muñoz Arístegui was to finish the remainder of Molina's second term.

### Later life

On 27 March 1907, Molina was made secretary of development, colonization and industry by President Díaz. The previous officeholder, Blas Escontría y Bustamante [es], died in 1906. Molina, as the secretary of development, issued his first government circular in February of 1908 to prepare Mexico's states for the upcoming 1910 census.
In 1907, Molina proposed a mining law (Spanish: ley minería) that would grant the Mexican government greater regulatory oversight of Mexico's mining industry. Two articles of legislation were criticized by foreign investors, as they prevented them from buying lands near the border and stated that all mining activities be carried out by companies incorporated in Mexico. In June 1908, Daniel Guggenheim, the president of the ASARCO mining company, wrote to Díaz that the new law would chase away foreign investment and make it impossible to continue investing more capital in the future. On behalf of Díaz, Molina responded:
   In any country, the law is not the one that must be accommodated,to the needs of the capital that seeks investments, to the contrary, the capitalist must submit to the law of the country in which he invests, attracted by the benefits and gain that the investment of his capital offers him.
   (Spanish: En cualquier país, la ley no es que se debe acomodar a las necesidades del capital que busca inversiones, al contrario, el capitalista debe someterse a la ley del país en que él invierte, atraído por los beneficios y ganancias que la inversión de su capital le ofrece.)
The government was split on the issue, with Molina and the Secretary of Finance José Yves Limantour being in favor of better regulations, while Vice President Corral argued that maintaining American investment was more important, given that European investment was difficult to attract. Díaz opted to remove the most controversial articles of the law so as to avoid antagonizing American business leaders, who had some influence in Washington, D.C..
Due to public opposition that began the Mexican Revolution, all of Díaz's cabient except for two ministers (José Yves Limantour and Manuel González de Cosío [es]) resigned on 24 March 1911, including Molina. His successor, Manuel Marroquín y Rivera, was announced on 28 March along with Díaz's new cabinet. Díaz would ultimately resign himself in May. After Molina's resignation, he retired to Mérida back in Yucatán. He lived there until his wife died in 1914. Due to pressure from revolutionaries, Molina and his doctor Rafael Betancourt fled to Paris that year.
Molina Solís died in exile in Havana, Cuba on 28 April 1925. His remains were later transferred, after a tribute in the Teatro Peón Contreras [es] to the chapel of the Sodzil hacienda, which was previously his property. At the time of his death, Molina was still one of the wealthiest entrepeneurs in Yucatán, which historian Allen Wells viewed as showcasing the Revolution's goal of agrarian reform falling short in the state.