Benito Juárez was a Mexican lawyer and politician who became Mexico's first Indigenous president, from a Zapotec family in Oaxaca. Orphaned at age three, he grew up herding sheep and didn't speak Spanish until his early teens, when he moved to Oaxaca City, taught himself to read, and eventually trained as a lawyer. He went on to reform Mexico's laws, separate church and government power, and resist foreign invasion, becoming a symbol of Mexican independence and justice — and one of the country's most respected leaders.