Mexican revolutionary and reformist politician, publisher and soldier, who served as a diplomat and later as Governor of Nuevo León from 1914-1915.
From 1903, Villarreal turned against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. He published a number of liberal magazines and was subsequently imprisoned. After his release he fled to the United States where he joined, the anarchist Mexican Liberal Party (PLM) of Ricardo Flores Magon. At the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, he joined the Progressive Constitutionalist Party (PCP) of Francisco Madero, and after Madero’s victory in 1911 he was appointed consul in Barcelona.
After the coup attempt and assassination of Madero by Victoriano Huerta in 1913 he returned to Mexico. He joined the constitutionalist army of Pablo González Garza and Venustiano Carranza. He took part in the Convention of Aguascalientes, and remained as one of the few neutrals there when Villa and Carranza together walked out. On 31 October 1914, he was elected president of the convention, but soon handed over that function to Eulalio Gutierrez . Villarreal was then made governor of Nuevo León, where he had a number of progressive reforms. A year later he was ousted by the forces of Carranza and he was forced to flee the country.
After the death of Carranza in 1920 he returned, and became minister of agriculture under Álvaro Obregón. In 1922 he stood for election as senator, but his victory was withheld. A year later he joined the De la Huertaopstand, but that organisation was suppressed, and he was forced to leave the country again. In 1929 he supported National Anti-Reelectionist Party and the presidential campaign of José Vasconcelos. In the disputed result of the election, he again fled the country.
In 1934, he was presidential candidate for the Confederation of Independent Revolutionary Party, but got only 1.08% of the vote. After that, he retired from politics. He died on 16 December 1944 in Mexico City, aged 67. His two sisters Teresa Villarreal and Andrea Villarreal both had careers as political agitators for the Mexican revolution from a base in exile in the United States.
Link to Wikipedia biography