This essay attempts to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of Corral's public life, especially for the period of his vice-presidency. It is divided into three parts, covering Corral's career in state and national politics and in exile.

Ramón Corral, Vice-President of Mexico from 1904 to 1911, was a crucial figure in the fall of the Porfiriato. As a politician, he worked diligently to preserve the Díaz regime. As the heir-apparent to the presidency after Díaz's death, Corral became a symbol against whom the opponents of the dictatorship of Díaz could rally. In spite of Corral's importance, he has been ignored by post-revolutionary Mexican historians - no biography of Crral has appeared since 1910. The secondary sources for the Porfiriato are inadequate to a study of Corral's career. Therefore, research centered mostly on primary sources, chiefly those in the Colección General Porfirio Díaz (Cholula, Puebla), Mexico City Newspapers, the Corral Papers in the Centro de Estudios Históricos (Mexcio City), and the Archivo General del Estado and Archivo Histórico in Hermosillo, Sonora. The Colección General Porfirio Díaz at the University of the Americas was the most important since this depository is the most extensive collection of materials on the Porfiriato and the one used least by scholars. This essay attempts to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of Corral's public life, especially for the period of his vice-presidency. It is divided into three parts, covering Corral's career in state and national politics and in exile. The study is basically chronological except for chapter two on Corral's role in Indian - primarily Yaqui - relations. This question was so important in Sonoran politics that a separate chapter seemed necessary.

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