linguistic:translation, structural:expansion
Early years

Porfirio Díaz was the sixth of seven children, baptized on 15 September 1830, in Oaxaca, Mexico, but his exact date of birth is unknown. 15 September is an important date in Mexican history, the eve of Miguel Hidalgo 's Grito de Dolores, which triggered the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. After Díaz became president, it would become customary to commemorate the Grito de Dolores on the eve of its anniversary.

Díaz's father, José Díaz, was a Criollo (a Mexican of predominantly Spanish ancestry). José Díaz was an illiterate dependiente, or workman employed by a firm of merchants. In 1808, he had married Patrona Mori, whose mother was Mixtec, and whose father could trace his ancestry from Asturias.

Eventually, Jose de la Cruz had saved enough to start planting agave, and he opened a wayside inn in Oaxaca City to sell the products of his business. Jose de la Cruz died in 1833 of cholera when Diaz was only three years old. Patrona Mori began to manage the inn while raising her multiple children.