To celebrate Benito Juárez’s birthday on March 21st, Governor Pat Quinn is hosting an exhibit in the James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph, which offers colorful insight into the Mexican leader’s life. The free display runs March 17-21. The exhibit – which was viewed by thousands of visitors in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield – examines Juarez’s life from his humble youth to his trailblazing Presidency.

Called the “Father of the Americas,” Juárez has a special connection with Illinois. In 1861, he sent a young emissary named Matías Romero to Springfield to meet President-elect Lincoln. That historic meeting was reenacted on stage recently at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Governor Quinn and State of Mexico Governor Eruviel Ávila recently laid a wreath at the statue of Benito Juárez in the Plaza of the Americas on Chicago’s busy Magnificent Mile.