Victoria Bravo

The Beginning of Victoria Bravo

The 16 year old young woman, Victoria Bravo was born on February 20, 1894 in

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico in a middle class family. Victoria’s body structure was average, she

was 5’6’’ ft, she had olive skin color, full eyebrows, green eyes, refine nose, full lips and her hair

was light brown, wavy and long. Her family consisted of 5 people, including her parents,

Maximiliano Bravo and Valentina Castro who were both 45 years old and two brothers, Marcus

Bravo of 20 years old and Alexander Bravo of 12 years old. Victoria did attended school and was

about to graduate her high school studies at El Centro de los Sueños. At the beginning of the year

of 1910, the family was having economic problems because Maximiliano, who worked for the

government as a journalist and publicist lost his job. The Bravo family was still in place because

they owned a restaurant called La Casa de los Bravo and Valentina worked as a stitcher at times.

The daily routine of Victoria was going to school from 7:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the

afternoon, then helping at the restaurant for about 4 hours, going back home to do homework and

other responsibilities. Victoria was an excellent student and was really passionate about life and

human rights. She believed that everybody was equal and deserved to be treated the same way.

One of her dreams was to become a public speaker and create individual content like her dad.

Victoria was very fortunate and she was extremely appreciative about everything that she had.

During her life she had experienced some cases of bullying from other students because

she was really smart, unlike the rest of the students. Some students, especially boys, would tell

her that someone was going to be killed before she received the same opportunities as men.

These insults would make Victoria extremely angry, so she would tell them to mind their own

business and run away from them. She could not do much about these boys harassing her at
school, but talking to her parents about this situation when she would be at home. Both parents

agreed that she must ignore them because they were ignorant and arrogant individuals. Many

occurrences like these made Victoria wanting to quit school and not pursue a career, just like the

majority of women at that time. Obviously Victoria was smart enough, so she continued with her

path ignoring every single offense she received because she not just wanted a job, but she wanted

to make a change in the world.

Things were unfortunate for the Bravo family, for many years they were the inspiration of

many, but now they were on their lowest point. They thought that things could not get worse

because their faith was enormous and they believed that everything would come to place. The

entire family was working hard to survive since the restaurant was the only functional resource

they had. Unfortunately, things were not turning out the way they expected, they started losing

clients, not because their restaurant was bad, but because the community was losing their jobs

too and no one could afford going out to eat. The entire country was going through an economic

crisis. As a result, many citizens had lost their jobs and had a hard time supporting their families.

Public schools were closed all around Mexico, so children suffered lack of education. There were

also a lack of resources, such as food, water and other necessities. People were confused and

desperate of the injustice that was happening in Mexico.

The night of November 19, 1910 some news about a war starting were passed around the

entire country. People were told to not leave their homes at any cause. As many people already

expected, the war in Mexico had started. Everybody was terrified. The tears of children coming

down their hopeless and malnourished faces. People locking their huts and hiding inside them.

Millions of families praying until their throats were sore. People without a secure home were

running from place to place, hoping a bullet would not kill them.
 The morning of November 20, 1910 the war had officially started. Troops of soldiers

walking down the streets of Mexico City. Many people were assassinated in the streets. The

sound of shots invaded the atmosphere. No one knew how much time the war would take, days,

months or years.

As the majority of the population, people were trying not to interfere during the war.

Things took a turn, more people were defending their rights and their desires. Both men and

women started fighting in the Mexican war. Women being involved in war was a way of get out

of the oppressive government. Women and men were trying to have better life opportunities by

being involved in war and fighting for their human rights.

More than 10 days had passed after the first incidents. The streets were full of death

bodies from people that tried to defend themselves or find a place to reside. The Bravo family

decided to help during the war by following some other families who wanted to contribute.

Victoria and her mom started following her dad and brothers. Women followed men in order to

contribute. Women and children started learning how to use weapons and defend themselves.

The women that fought in the Mexican revolution were known as “Las Soldaderas.” This title

was given to them because they were basically female soldiers, which was never seen in history

ever before. This was the start of a new era for women.

The young woman Victoria was involved in the group Las Soldaderas. Victoria was one

of the first ones fighting during the war, which made her the leader of one of the groups. This

characteristic and many more proclaims that Victoria was going to make a difference in history.

The Rise of Victoria Bravo

The Bravo family wanted to help the community and fight for their human rights by

being involved in the war. Everybody wanted a change from Porfirio Diaz presidency, who had
been in charge for more than three decades. Maximiliano Bravo was informed that Francisco

Ignacio Madero, one of the most admirable icons of the community, wanted him to document

everything that was occurring with the Mexican government. Francisco offered Maximiliano and

his family a safe place to stay in and rest, including the access to necessary resources such as

food and water. Francisco was very specific on how this was going to come in place, he asked

Maximiliano to be extremely discreet with the plan because him and his family could get killed if

somebody from Porfirio’s side would found out.

The family met up with some of Francisco’s men in some abandoned place and they

accompanied them to their designated temporary place. After four hours of traveling, they finally

got to Mexico City in a hidden refugee camp, where Francisco and his men were staying. They

got to the entrance of the place and more than five soldiers revised the Bravo family from head to

toe, checking if they carried arms or defensive objects with them. They entered their

accomodation and it was proportionally large for the entire family to live there for a long time.

When the family was finally installed, Francisco accompanied by two soldiers, knocked on their

door. Maximiliano opened the door and Francisco said “Do you or your family need anything?”

and Maximiliano and his family responded at the same time “We’re good, thank you!”. Francisco

went inside the room and gave a little inspection around the place and said directly to

Maximiliano “If anyone needs anything please let us know, we will have some food later at the

dinner table and everybody is welcome to come join us”. Maximiliano gave him a friendly smile

and said “Thank you very much sir! I will definitely start working on the project tomorrow”.

Francisco replied with excitement, “Yes, yes! We can discuss during dinner more in detail and

what I need you and your family to work on”, “Sounds good!” said Maximiliano with his big

enthusiastic smile while looking at his family. “Alright, see you all later!” said Francisco and
walked away with the two soldiers on each side.

During that night the family and Francisco discussed their tasks assigned for the time that

they were staying there. This opportunity was like a miracle for both the Bravo family and

Francisco. It was very important for Francisco to document everything that was happening

because the people in power were extremely corrupt and there were many things that were

covered. Early the next day, Valentina and her children were helping around in the kitchen while

Maximiliano and Francisco were out working on this project. Things started getting better and

the faith of surviving got stronger and stronger everyday for everyone.

During the trip, Maximiliano and Francisco discovered that Porfirio was not in power

anymore and that someone else had taken his place. They went back to the refugee camp and

passed the news of what just had happened. Everyone decided to reunite in the dinner table to

talk about the possible reasons that caused Porfirio to be out of power. In the conversation, one

of the soldiers got close to Francisco and said to his hear “The man in power is you” and

Francisco jumped surprised. When one his men told him these unexpected news he could not

believe it.

The next day, everybody that was staying in the refugee camp were invited to the

National Palace in Mexico City. Francisco and the Bravo family did not have to hide anymore

because Porfirio’s government could not do anything to them. When Victoria entered the

National Palace, she felt an enormous joy and satisfaction for finally winning a battle that was

nearly impossible. Everybody got installed immediately and went to sleep to be prepare for the

most important conference the next day. Victoria was very tired of running up and down

following her family in order to survive, but she knew she was very blessed to still have them

and by being in the position that she was.

 It was the morning of February 22 and everybody was very excited to get to know the

new president. The people were ready to have a change in their community and everyone had

faith in Francisco. It was about ten in the morning when the National Palace was filled with tired

and malnourished faces. Everyone was there, important and normal people, even the ex-president

and his men. It was time for the new president Francisco to present himself with everyone and

give his speech. Francisco was very nervous and anxious that everything will go well and

without any complications. When Francisco finally came out everyone was cheering him up and

people were happy to see him.

Francisco started his speech:

“Good morning! I am Francisco Ignacio Madero and I am glad to be in this position

today as the new president of the Republic of Mexico. I am fortunate and honored of having the

opportunity to serve my country and people. We all know that Mexico deserves a change…”

Everything paused for a second, everyone was shocked. One single bullet changed

completely the future of Mexico.

Before Francisco announced his presidency to the rest of the country, Porfirio came up

with a revenge plan. He wanted to have his position back as a president and the only way was by

assassinating Francisco. Porfirio decided that the best idea was killing him during his

presentation because this way the entire country would know who was the leader of Mexico.

The Bravo family was very happy that Francisco finally had the opportunity to lead their

country. They knew Francisco would make good changes for the future of Mexico and had what

it takes to be a successful man. The family was positioned in the right corner of the balcony

when Francisco was giving his speech. Victoria was not there, she was writing the last paragraph

of one novel she was working on. She felt very inspired that moment and wanted to write down
her ideas before she would forget them. When Victoria was heading out to the balcony with the

rest of her family to hear Francisco’s speech she saw some people in black through the distance.

She notice that those were Porfirio and his men by the way they were dressed. Victoria paused

for a second to analyze that one of them was holding an arm pointed to where Francisco and her

family were. Victoria started running like never before, her heart was beating so fast that the

adrenaline of her body was not enough. Trying to run as fast as she could and screaming

“EVERYONE DOWN! EVERYONE DOWN!”. A single gunshot was released and Mexico

changed completely. She was shocked, she could not believe what just had happened.

Everyone was confused. Many questions went through Victoria's head, what had just

happened? Was her family safe? How was someone able to kill someone in front of millions of

people? She felt resentment for not being there just one second before to be able to do something

to rescue Francisco. Victoria blamed herself for not running fast enough or not screaming loud

enough to stop this misfortunate occurrence. There was nothing she could do to stop Porfirio

from killing the president of Mexico.

The Evolution of Victoria Bravo

After the misfortunate occurrence of Francisco’s assassination, the country turned into the

misery it was before. Mexico took a minute of silence to rest the ex-president Francisco in peace.

The entire country lost faith because the government was going to be miserable once again.

Everybody was ravenous and desperate for a change, unfortunately it was going to take a long

time for Mexico to recover.

The following year, Victoriano Huerta dictatorship took place. As expected nothing had

changed, in fact, things were getting worse because Mexico was being exploited by other
countries and the existing resources were becoming limited. The Bravo family was seeing a lot

of these occurrences and were tired of fighting for the rights that they deserved. Victoria was

more than ready to make a change, she knew she was capable of doing something that would

completely change the history of Mexico.

The people were adapting to the corrupt government and decided to continue living their

lives with the insufficient amount of water and food they had. Other people agreed and wanted to

be a part of this change, many wealthy individuals started helping society by constructing new

schools and churches. Many children were attending school and adults acquired jobs as

agricultors and constructers. The community was finally making progress after the battle that left

them with nothing.

Victoria decided to attend school again, her main reason was because she was going to

help children to read and write. It was the first day of school after more than one year has passed

and there was going to be an inauguration of the school. The people that donated the money to

the school were there and Victoria recognized some of them. There were both of her idols, the

famous painter Frida Kahlo sitting next to her husband, Diego Rivera at the event. Victoria was

excited because she thought the story of Frida was really interesting and inspired her to write

stories when she would look at her paintings. Victoria met Frida for the first time and told her

with excitement, “I appreciate everything that you do and your work ethic, it inspires me so

much to keep fighting in this country full of corruption.” Frida was impressed by how smart

Victoria was and replied, “This really means a lot to me, I am actually going to be teaching art to

my students and you are more than welcome to be a part of my class.” Obviously, Victoria

accepted and was really excited to learn new things and for what the future was going to bring

her.
 After Victoria was once again being surrounded by new inspiration from her art teacher,

she came up with the idea of starting a movement. “So I have an idea Mrs. Frida, what if we start

a movement to help raise the power of the people in our country? What if we let our children to

express themselves through art, there are many talented souls and I want to do something about

it,” said Victoria as she approached Frida. “That is an excellent idea. I never thought of that, do

you have any ideas for the title of the event?” responded Frida amazed by Victoria’s thinking.

“Yes! I was thinking we can name it like, ‘Society is the Future of Mexico,’” said Victoria.

“Wow, I think this is an excellent thought! You are a special girl Victoria and I want to let the

world know that,” said Frida convinced by her decision.

Weeks had passed and everybody was getting ready for the big event. Every school was

going to be here and many talented children were going to be presenting their art. Victoria was

working really hard day and night to help others in their pieces and in hers. Frida told Victoria

that she wanted her to create the center piece, that was going to be representing the event. Her art

piece was called “The Struggle” and represented what the entire country had suffered during the

Mexican Revolution.

Description of the piece:

The piece was very powerful and direct. It was black and white, representing depression

and a bad period of time. The main focus was in the center, where there was a girl tearing up,

surrounded by many dark souls that were suffering from starvation and lack of resources.

Many people who attended the exhibition were wealthy individuals and they were

impressed by the amount of talent all of these students had. Not only did this show the talent of

the children, but it also showed how much impact these incidents had on them and how much it

was affecting their future.

 The majority of the students did not have a family or a place to live because they were

destroyed during the massacre. Fortunately, many were adopted and they had a family to grow

and live peacefully.

The event that Victoria created with the help of Frida was spread all over the country.

Many people changed their thinking about what was really happening in society and the changes

that needed to be done. Victoria became one of the first young women who fought for equality

and the freedom of speech, leading many children to follow her footsteps into a better society.

The Life of Victoria Bravo

Unfortunately, the corruption of the government was getting stronger, the people were

ready for a change in their community. People started building schools and started working as

teachers all around the country. It did not matter if they were not getting payed because they

knew they were doing an impact for the next future generations. The population of Mexico

wanted educated and awake people in order to get rid of the abusive and manipulative

government they have had for decades.

The schools not only offered a better future for children, but they also taught them to take

care of their body by practicing some type of physical activity. This kept students away from the

distractions and problems that the country was facing. Some of the sports that were taught and

practiced during and after school were swimming and diving, track and field, soccer, archery and
gymnastics. Both boys and girls were practicing their favorite sports and the teams were

fortunately successful. Victoria was really into swimming and diving because she thought it was

one of the most beautiful and hardest sports. Since Victoria already had experience at this sport,

she helped the instructors to teach other students and was also one of the coaches. She would

practice every day after school between five and six in the afternoon at the community pool.

One of Victoria’s biggest dreams was to participate in the Olympic Games competing for

the sport of swimming and diving, but she never had the opportunity growing up. Victoria had

been coaching this sport for about fifty years now and she was preparing her team to compete

against the rest of the world during the Olympic Games. It was such a dream come true after

waiting her entire life for this opportunity. Her team would train five days every week with a

total of two hours every day. Victoria decided that her team was going to win the competition

because she wanted to make her country and the families of the athletes proud after a life full of

miseries and misfortunate events.

The event of the Olympic Games was occurring during October 12 of 1968. Ten days

before the opening of the big event, the morning of October 2 of 1968 many students, workers

and the marginal urban poor fought against the challenging political regime. Mainly students of

Mexico City were the ones out in the streets, in the plazas, on the buses and forming brigades to

“fight for the people”. Everyone was participating in the revolution that schools had started – a

revolution within the system, nonviolent and with the purpose of experimentation in society.

During the event, police officers fought back with violence causing the death of more than three-

hundred protesters and brutal injures of more than a thousand people. This unfortunate event was

done for the fought of social change and desperation for a brighter future among future

generations received the title of Tlatelolco Massacre.

 The Tlatelolco Massacre caused major problems for the coming Olympic Games in

Mexico City. Many people were afraid of stepping into the city because of how violent the

government was. Some of the protesters were professional athletes who were killed during the

event. It was a lost for many, including Victoria’s team because one of her greatest competitors,

Angelica Zaragoza was assassinated at the protest. Victoria considered on not participating at the

games, but she realized that if she participated she would show the whole world how

hardworking and motivated her athletes were, so she decided to stay in the competition and be

there for them.

It was the day of the Olympic Games and more than a hundred-and-twelve countries were

competing against each other. There were around five-thousand-and-five-hundred athletes

participating for the gold price. There was Victoria supporting her team to be successful and

demonstrate other people that Mexico was not just corruption and violence. She wanted to show

other people around the world that Mexico was full of people with dreams who were talented and

dedicated to their goals.

It was the time for the competition of swimming and diving, all of the competitors were

ready to get into the water. When Victoria was getting her team ready she saw that everyone had

a face of fierceness and desire for winning a battle for once. Before the first group of people in

Victoria’s team would compete, everyone took a minute of silence to respect the absence of the

team members who were killed a couple days before the competition.

It was the turn for Victoria’s female group to compete; the group was formed by three

women. The group was about thirty seconds to win, but the other group beated them. In the

second round another group had to participate and they were victorious. Victoria was extremely

proud of her team, “YES! YES! YES!” cheered Victoria with enthusiasm after seeing that her
female team was on the top of the chart. It was the turn for the male group and they were also

two groups of three participating in the competition. The first group went and they had reached

the first place. Victoria could not believe that her team was finally succeeding, after all of these

years of battle and now she was the happiest and proudest person. The final round for the male

team was happening and they got third place. Victoria was very proud of her team and did not

matter to her if they would ended up winning or not.

Finally, it was time to hand over the prices and no one expected any rewards because they

were happy that they had the opportunity to show everyone how hardworking and committed

their group was. The third place was delivered, then the second place and Victoria thought that

her team did what they could. “And the first place for females in the category of Swimming and

Diving goes to… Mexico! This is Mexico everyone!” Victoria was shocked and started crying,

she could not believe that her team had finally succeeded. Everyone in both teams hugged and

started cheering for each other, it was a beautiful moment for the success of the group and the

women that were included. It was the turn for the men’s team, Victoria and her entire team was

very excited and nervous. Suddenly the announcer said “And the second place for males in the

category of Swimming and Diving goes to… Mexico! Mexico did it again! Congratulations

guys!” Everyone started cheering as loud as they could, both teams had succeeded the Olympic

Games and Victoria’s dream had come true.

More than fifteen years had passed after the success of the Olympic Games. Victoria was

getting old and she retired from coaching her team. She had the opportunity to live a great life

after leaving her job. Victoria felt a little lonely and she had realized that she never had the

opportunity to start a family because of everything that she had to go through in order to have a

successful life as a female in Mexico.

 It was the morning of September 19, 1985 and Victoria was nearly getting out of bed to

make some breakfast. When she stand up she felt dizzy and felt like everything in her house was

moving. For a second she thought it was because she was barely waking up, but then she realized

an earthquake was occurring. She struggled to put her shoes on and ran as fast as she could to get

out of her house. Unfortunately, she did not make it and her entire house was destroyed within a

couple of seconds. This was one of the strongest earthquakes to ever hit the area of Mexico that

had caused a total of ten-thousand deaths and thirty-thousand people were injured by the

unfortunate occurrence. More than four-thousand buildings collapsed and approximately two-

hundred-and-fifty-thousand people lost their home and were left without shelter. In the aftermath

an early-alert earthquake warning system was established as well as other safety measures were

enacted. A month had passed after the biggest earthquake in the history of Mexico and many

people were announced in the news as dead or disappeared and Victoria’s name was one of them.

The people that had survived and knew Victoria missed her presence. Everybody agreed that she

was such a genuine and loving soul and that she gave so much to so many people. She was

always remembered by a lot of people as a true hero that changed the history of Mexico.
 The Story of Victoria Bravo

She has been my inspiration since I was a little girl, unfortunately she passed away ten

years ago. I remember once she told me, “Isabella, you are going to be a strong and independent

woman and you are going to change this world some day, you just have to believe in yourself

and the things that you are capable of doing”. My aunt Victoria was the most down-to-earth, kind

and precious human I ever met. She changed the world for so many people, as well as the history

of Mexico for good purposes.

My dad Marcus and my aunt used to tell me stories about their life when they were

younger. I used to think that these stories were completely out of this world and eye-opening for

many people and myself. The tragedies started happening when my aunt Victoria was about

sixteen years old in the year of 1910. The Mexican Revolution had just started, it was an

unfortunate timeline that lasted about 10 years. The movement was started by the Mexican

government and many innocent people were killed during the attack. After everything that

Victoria went through her teenage years, did not changed her mindset and what she wanted to

achieve in life. I cannot imagine the affliction that she went through all of these years, and after

that still fight for the rights of freedom of speech of many people. After the Mexican Revolution,

many people lost their families, homes, jobs and education. People tried to improve their lives
after, but the corrupted government continued and there was not much progress made. I never

understood how a human would be able to destroy the life of millions of people and carry on

with their life. I guess the desire of power and wealth really changes people at times, to the point

that their humanity fades away.

The great Francisco Ignacio Madero became president right after the Mexican Revolution

concluded and was assasinated days later. This caused Victoria to feel worse because her faith

was completely destroyed, after acknowledging that the future government was not going to

change for the better. Although the country was going downhill and things were getting worse,

people started doing actions to change their lives because the government was not doing

anything, in fact they were affecting people more. People started working on the education of

future generations by building new schools and churches. Many people started volunteering as

teachers and coaches for students. Victoria finally met her life inspiration, Frida Kahlo, for the

first time and she told her about the idea to start a movement called ‘Society is the Future of

Mexico’, for schools all around the country. Every talented student created an art piece that

represented what the people had gone through during and after the Mexican Revolution. The

mindset of society was transformed due to the intelligence of these people and how open-minded

they were towards future goals and ideas.

My aunt was also special because she have been practice swimming and diving for

several years and one her dreams was to compete at the Olympic Games. She never had the

opportunity to become a woman professional athlete due to everything that was happening in

Mexico during her young years. I always though she was one of the best swimmers in the entire

world. I remember one time I accompanied her to one of her practices because she had to take

care of me and when I saw her jumping into the water and doing all of these crazy movements I
was speechless. She looked like a mermaid swimming across the ocean and I did not know how

she could do that. I always appreciated her hard work because she wanted to make her country

proud no matter how she felt inside and what she was going through at the moment. After many

years of practicing, she became a professional coach and she teached other swimmers. It had

been announced that the Olympic Games were happening in Mexico City in the year of 1968.

Victoria could not believe that her team was nominated to participate in the games that she

always dreamed of. Right before the games, a misfortunate event happened. The Tlatelolco

Massacre occurred and thousands of people were affected. The main reason why people were

assassinated was because students started a nonviolent protest to mark a change in the system.

After that incident, some of the main athletes were missing and this caused a turn in the team.

Obviously, Victoria believed that every athlete was the best and could achieve anything, but she

was really sad about the people that were killed. It was the day of the Olympic Games and the

Swimming and Diving women’s team won first place and the men’s team got second place. My

aunt’s dreams finally became a reality after all those years of hard work and pain.

After that, her life was successful and without worries. She was admired by so many

people in so many ways. She deserved to have this life after everything that she and her family

went through. She woke up one day to the biggest earthquake in the history of Mexico City and

unfortunately died after. When we visited her house after the earthquake, the house was

destroyed in pieces and there was nothing left. I feel like the universe had a perfect plan for her

and a purpose, that when she achieved those goals than it was time for somebody else to come to

life. It is so weird to think that this may be true, but it is the most reasonable answer. I would

always remember her, her smile, her hugs, her advices and her beautiful mind.

Sincerely, Isabella Bravo.