Carmen Romero Rubio

The next day, the religious ceremony took place. The couple received the blessing of Archbishop Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos. They honeymooned in the United States, traveling across the country, using the opportunity to establish important contacts with American politicians and businessmen whom Díaz hoped would invest in Mexico. Mexican historians have seen the marriage as an important alliance between two rival factions of the Liberal Party (Díaz's and Lerdo's), but also as the beginning of Díaz's conciliatory rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church. The apocryphal memoirs of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada stress the importance of her mother—and not Carmen—in aiding Díaz's relations with the Church.

A year and a half of the death of Delfina Ortega, exwife of General Porfirio Díaz, Carmen Romero Rubio supplied her in carrying out her role as First Lady of the Nation. Romero Rubio modeled her activities as First Lady on the traditional role of rulers' wives. In Mexico, the Spanish vicereine had long been the patron of religious and social affairs, and this role had been expanded by empress Carlota during her brief reign, to include the protection of the arts and the encouragement of social reforms. Carmen expanded on this, accompanying Díaz at public events. Her copious correspondence was managed by a special department of the President's office and she helped to host visiting personages. She attended religious, civic, and cultural events. Working with the wives of cabinet members, governors, and regional oligarchs, she formed and chaired relief committees responding to natural disasters. Read Less