Governors and cabinet secretaries, an Olympic medallist, singers and scholars — and the long-established ranching, agricultural, and business families of northwestern Mexico behind them.
A lawyer educated in Mexico City and a close associate of President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, he served as a criminal-court judge and district judge before being elected Governor of Sinaloa in July 1875. His term was cut short by the Tuxtepec revolution of 1876, which brought Porfirio Díaz to power; taken prisoner and later released, he retired to Mexico City, where he died.
Served as acting Governor of the State of Mexico from September 1919 to March 1920, and as adviser to the Mexican Legation in Madrid. He was made a Commander of the Orden de Isabel la Católica and a Commander of the Spanish Red Cross. He died in Mexico City on 18 November 1933, aged 63.
One of the most consequential holders of the name. He co-founded the Barra Mexicana de Abogados, serving as its Secretary General in 1928; held office in Baja California from 1929 to 1932, including a term as interim governor of the northern territory; and served as private secretary to President Abelardo Rodríguez. Under President Manuel Ávila Camacho he was Secretary of National Economy from 1940 to 1944, concurrently heading Pemex and, later, the Federal Electricity Commission. He presided over the National College of Lawyers from 1957 to 1972. His portrait hangs in the Salón de Secretarios at Mexico's Secretary of Economy.
Served on General Álvaro Obregón's revolutionary staff and took part in the 1916 El Paso–Juárez conference.
Of Sinaloense origin, he took his law degree at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law and was admitted to the State Bar of Arizona on 14 May 1983, practising criminal defence, immigration, family and personal-injury law in Spanish and English for over three decades — known for taking clients who could not afford a lawyer. His best-known case was United States v. Redondo-Lemos (1993), in which the District Court found that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tucson had engaged in intentional gender discrimination in its plea-bargaining practices — a ruling still cited in discussions of prosecutorial discretion and equal protection.
Late in his career he joined the defence team of Jesús Vicente Zambada Niebla ("El Vicentillo"), son of Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, after Zambada Niebla's 2010 extradition to face trafficking charges in Chicago — filing declarations and conducting interviews as far afield as Mexico City. Around 2011, already ill with stomach cancer, he became a key source for journalist Anabel Hernández's book El Traidor, sharing documents on the case and on alleged cartel cooperation with the DEA that he wanted made public. He died in late November 2015.
Also: Emma Larios Gaxiola (b. 1954), senator for Sonora; Daniel Amador Gaxiola (b. 1956), municipal president of Elota, federal deputy and senator for Sinaloa; José Francisco Madero Gaxiola (d. 1833), surveyor and land commissioner in Mexican Texas.
Born Juan Álvaro José Gaxiola Robles in Guadalajara on 26 January 1937. He competed at three Olympic Games — 1960, 1964 and 1968 — in both 3-metre springboard and 10-metre platform, finishing fourth in the springboard in 1960 before winning silver on the platform before a home crowd in Mexico City in 1968. He took Pan American gold on the platform in 1959 and silver in 1963. He read civil engineering at the University of Michigan while diving for the Wolverines, worked for many years as an engineer in the United States, and returned to Mexico to coach and mentor young divers. He died in Guadalajara on 18 August 2003.
Also: Luz Daniela Gaxiola González (b. 1992), international track cyclist, Pan American Games gold medallist and Olympian; Yareli Acevedo Gaxiola (b. 2001), track and road cyclist; Hilda Gaxiola (b. 1972), beach volleyball player.
Beyond individual names, the surname recurs among long-established ranching, agricultural, political and business families throughout northwestern Mexico — particularly around the early centres of El Rosario, Mocorito, Guasave and Culiacán in Sinaloa, and Álamos and Guaymas in Sonora. Family lines carrying the name have been prominent in regional commerce, land, law and local government since the colonial period, and Gaxiola-named professional practices — law offices, medical practices, and family businesses — remain common on both sides of the border today.
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