Editing Benito Juárez (section)

===Exile in New Orleans===
[[File:Melchor Ocampo.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Melchor Ocampo]], a radical Liberal whom Juárez met in their New Orleans exile]]

Mexico experienced relative peace and stability in the years immediately following the conclusion of the [[Mexican-American War]], through the moderate presidencies of [[José Joaquín de Herrera]] and [[Mariano Arista]] but in 1852 a Conservative coup overthrew Arista, and brought back Santa Anna for what would end up being his final dictatorship.

Juárez fell victim to the restored Santa Anna, and the authorities confined him to the fortress of San Juan de Ullua.{{sfn|Burke|1894|p=62}} He was eventually released and exiled to Havana, from which he then traveled to [[New Orleans]].{{sfn|Burke|1894|p=63}} There he found a day job as a cigar maker in one of the city's factories,<ref name="Columbia">{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Juárez, Benito|url=http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0826681.html|encyclopedia=The Columbia Encyclopedia |year=2007|edition=6th}}</ref> while his wife remained in Mexico with their children, and were looked after by Liberal partisans.<ref name="auto1">Hamnett, ''Juárez'', 51</ref> His time as governor of Oaxaca had not left him with a vast fortune, and he survived off of his cigar rolling job and funds sent to him from Mexico by his wife.<ref name="esposa">{{cite web|url= https://pagina3.mx/2015/03/margarita-a-maza-de-Juárez-mucho-mas-que-una-esposa/|title=Margarita a Maza de Juárez: Mucho más que una esposa (Margarita to Maza de Juárez: Much more than a wife)|author=Agencia Seméxico |work=Pagina 3|date=21 March 2015|access-date=29 June 2020}}</ref><!-- Used page option for translation from Spanish-->

Juárez met other Liberal exiles in New Orleans including the anti-clerical former governor of [[Michoacan]] [[Melchor Ocampo]],<ref>Jan Bazant, "From Independence to the Liberal Republic, 1821–1867" in ''Mexico Since Independence'', [[Leslie Bethell]], ed. New York: Cambridge University Press 1991, p. 32.</ref> and the Cuban separatist exile, {{ill|Pedro Santacicilia|es|Pedro Santacilia|vertical-align=sup}}, who later married Juárez's oldest daughter, and served as a valuable ally during the [[Reform War]] and the [[Second French intervention in Mexico|second French intervention]]<ref>Hamnett, ''Juárez'', 51–53</ref>

As the Liberal [[Plan of Ayutla]] broke out against Santa Anna in March of 1855, Juárez sought to return to Mexico. He arrived at the port of [[Acapulco]] near the Southern center of the revolt in the summer of 1855.{{sfn|Burke|1894|p=63}} Santa Anna fled the nation and a subsequent Liberal assembly elected Juan Alvarez as the new president. Juárez, who had been secretary to the assembly was made Minister of Justice and Religion.{{sfn|Burke|1894|p=64}}