Brigada Alvarez

General Herminio Alvarez’s career in the Constitutionalist Army started under Luis Gutiérrez, the brother of General Eulalio Gutiérrez. In July 1914 Constitutionalist First Chief Venustiano Carranza appointed Eulalio Gutiérrez governor of the state of San Luis Potosí and Commander in Chief of the Central Division. On 1 October Gutiérrez transferred the state governorship to Alvarez (this happened before the Convention at Aguascalientes elected Gutiérrez President of the Convention).

On 27 December 1914 Alvarez represented Gutiérrez in a military conference at Saltillo and announced that he was joining Carranza. In the state of San Luis Potosí itself, however, the private military groups of the Cedillo brothers and Alberto Carrera Torres resisted Carranza’s presidency and engaged in warfare with the Constitutionalist forces. Villa saw an opportunity and ordered General Tomás Urbina to move his troops towards San Luis Potosí.

So in early 1915 Alvarez was presented with an urgent financial need to pay his military troops and to buy the necessary merchandise for the newly established brigade. He ordered treasury notes in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 centavos and 1, 5, 10 and 20 pesos^{[text needed]} to be printed in the local print shop of Lucas García

These Brigada Alvarez notes, dated 5 February 1915, were printed on a fancier paper than military notes were generally printed but due to an error in the printing process, were printed only in denominations of 1, 5 and 20 pesos. Neither any of the centavo denominations or the ten pesos note are known.

When the issue was ready for circulation the Matehuala ¨Brigade Alvarez¨ was changed instead into two cavalry regiments. Due to the monetary urgency a small number of notes were signed and released into circulation. 

Alvarez captured the city of San Luis Potosí on 16 July 1915 and, on his own iniciative, asumed power, handing over on 18 July to Gabriel Gavira, who was named governor by Álvaro Obregón.

M3660 $1 Brigada Alvarez (signed by J. Azcárate and H. Alvarez)

M3660 $1 Brigada Alvarez (signed by J. M. Acosta, H. Alvarez and C. Vaca)

M3661 $5 Brigada Alvarez

M3663 $20 Brigada Alvarez

These carried the signature of governor Alvarez, that of the Jefe de Hacienda, C. Vaca and the signature of J. Azcárate or J. M. Acosta as Interventor.

Herminio Alvarez was born in Sandía Grande, Doctor Arroyo, Nuevo León on 25 April 1880. He was a Constitutionalist who fought with Luis Gutiérrez in Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas. In early October 1914 Alvarez took over the state governorship and a little later the Convention troops entered the city of San Luis Potosí. At the end of February 1915 Villa appointed Colonel Emiliano G. Saravia as interim governor in place of Alvarez, but in mid-July Saravia had to leave San Luis Potosí to join Villa after the defeat of Aguascalientes, so on 16 July 1915 the Carrancist forces under Alvarez took over the city and he assumed the position of governor and interim military commander for the second time, handing over on 18 July to Gabriel Gavira, who was named governor by Alvaro Obregón. He died in Mexico City in October 1922.
C. Vaca
J. Azcárate[identification needed]
J. M. Acostaidentification needed]

The notes were to be exchanged at par for the currency that Carranza was about to issue. The reference would be to Carranza’s Gobierno Provisional de México notes issued in Veracruz in February 1915.

The period of circulation of these notes remained very short as Villista troops were closing in on San Luis Potosí. After the Conventionalist troops entered the capital at the end of February 1915 Villa appointed Colonel Emiliano G. Saravia Provisional Governor to replace General Alvarez. Villa’s troops controlled almost the whole state of  Luis Potosí including the city of Matehuala. On 31 March the new governor issued a decree to prohibit the circulation of Carranza paper money. So the entire issue would have been almost immediately rendered useless.