Abstract

The better-known sources for the history of Freemasonry in Mexico during the era known as the Porfiriato point towards the notion that it was President Porfirio Díaz himself who orchestrated the creation of the Gran Dieta Simbólica to unite all Mexican Freemasons under a single structure in order to keep them in check. However, the epistolary exchange between Díaz and the Gran Dieta's de facto front man, Ermilio Cantón which was rather an epistolary monologue of the latter- tells a different story. This article contrasts the information provided by those bibliographical sources to what Cantón wrote in his letters to President Díaz.

Keywords: Ermilio Cantón; Bernardo Reyes; Scottish Rite; Rito Nacional Mexicano; Luis Zalce; José María Mateos; Félix Navarrete; Richard Chism; Thomas B. Davis.