Biography
Enrique Flores Magon, an anarchist publisher from Mexico City, Mexico, was convicted of "mailing non-mailable matter " (i.e., Mexican revolutionary material) and was sentenced to three years in prison. He served in McNeil Island and Leavenworth Penitentiaries from May 21, 1918, to September 10, 1920. His brother Ricardo Magon died in Leavenworth Penitentiary on November 21, 1922. (See also Chapters 6 and 14.) Magon published the newspaper Regeneracion with his brother. The FBI categorized the Magon brothers as "very prominent in the International Anarchist Movement " for having published articles "worldwide." They were both expelled from Mexico by General Porfirio Diaz for their opposition activities and settled in the United States. While in this country Enriqueremained active in radical and Mexican revolutionary activities. The Magon brothers' newspaper Regeneracion was suppressed by the government at the outbreak of World War I. After Enrique Magon's release from Leavenworth the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation carefully monitored his activities. William Burns, the bureau's director, concluded that Magon was "responsible for the greater portion of anarchistic activities" in Los Angeles and instructed the bureau to " immediately " prepare materials to justify his deportation. Thebureau was particularly upset with an " OpenLetter " Magon published shortly after his release from prison, where he wrote: [T]his ill called Country of Liberty has now converted into a crime punishable by twenty years in the Penitentiary anyone who preaches free thought and free speech. Thousands upon thousands of men and women have come under the law, merely for having sufficient valor to attack the ruling tyranny.... I must now ask you, must we remain indifferent before such outrages? TheDepartment of Justice continued to monitor Magon andon October 11, 1922, hadhim arrested onadeportation warrant. Thecourt ruled that he was an "alien anarchist " who "knowingly distributes" " printedmatter " " teaching opposition to all organized government. " On March 21, 1923, Magon, his wife and four children were deported to Mexico.
Enrique Flores Magón was briefly jailed in San Antonio, Texas, around 1904 following a politically charged confrontation, and was later arrested in connection with the Partido Liberal Mexicano press. Exact dates are incomplete.
From Kenyon Zimmer's Red Scare Deportees index (kenyonzimmer.com, compiled from INS deportation case files): Opposed the dictatorship of Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, along with his brother Ricardo Flores Magón, leading to their arrests in 1903. Later that year the brothers immigrated to the United States, where they founded the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) and its newspaper Regeneración.
Over time, the PLM became increasingly radical, embracing anarchism and supporting the IWW. Enrique was repeatedly arrested in the US for political activities. In 1917 he broke with the PLM over personal and political disagreements. In 1918 began serving a sentence for “mailing unmailable matter” and was released from Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1920. On March 4, 1923 he accepted “voluntary departure” to Mexico.
Remained active in Mexican anarchist circles and wrote for the international anarchist press through 1926, when he announced his “retirement” from the movement due to physical disability and poverty. In the 1930s accepted a government pension as a “precursor of the Mexican Revolution” and dedicated himself to rewriting the history of the PLM as part of the history of Mexican nationalism. Died in 1954.
