When President Benito Jußrez died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1872, the Mexican government declared a seven-day period of mourning. Nearly the entire population of Mexico City filed past Juarez's body as it lay in state in the National Palace. More than 100,000 people watched the magnificent procession of his hearse, and countless mourners vied for position to listen to his eulogies. Juarez's was the last state funeral for a sitting president in republican Mexico, and the public response proved the existence of a Mexican national community. It also gave birth to the cultural politics and mythical discourse of the Porfirian regime that would overthrow Juarez's successor in 1876.<BR><BR>In 1902 Mexican journalist, congressman, and intellectual Justo Sierra asserted that Mexico gained both national pride and its international personality during the long reign of Porfirio Diaz. Much of this identity, Matthew Esposito argues, stemmed from Diaz's reliance on memorialism. Over the course of thirty-five years, the Porfirian state constructed dozens of national monuments, performed countless commemorations, and held no state funerals. Diaz had the bodies of Liberal heroes exhumed and reinterred in national monuments, then spoke at the ceremonies about how their sacrifice had helped bring about material progress in Mexico. Esposito asserts that the magisterial displays of state power in national funeral processions and holiday commemorations, along with the construction of monuments honoring national heroes, created an aura of legitimacy that helped the eight-term dictator stay in power as long as he did. While most historians have argued that Diaz's reign owed its longevity to extralegal activities and personal appeals to loyalty, Esposito examines Diaz's successful manipulation of cults of the dead, hero cults, and national memory to shape the perception of his leadership.