title: The Mitchells vs. the Machines

text: The film was praised by critics for putting an unassumingly LGBT character, Katie, as the central figure of a family-oriented animated movie. Rianda and Rowe wrote Katie to be unambiguously LGBT in consultation with LGBT members of their production team, but did not seek to make it part of the central conflict with her father, considering her sexuality "normal in real life". Michelle Yang of NBC News gave the film a positive review and lauded the film for its LGBTQ+ representation (particularly the character of Katie, whom she called a relatable and inspirational protagonist), stating that the film "treats its protagonist's identity matter-of-factly but with care — which is exactly how it ought to be." "Parasite" director Bong Joon-ho listed "The Mitchells" as one of his favorite films of 2021.


title: The Mitchells vs. the Machines

text: Metacritic reported that "The Mitchells vs The Machines" appeared on over 31 film critics' top-ten lists for 2021, only the first two animated films appeared on the list this year along with "Flee". The film ranked first and second on 4 and 3 lists, respectively.


title: The Mitchells vs. the Machines

text: In an interview with "Fandango" in November 2021, Michael Rianda hinted at the idea of a sequel stating he had ideas for one and that "some folks who are excited about that idea".


title: Santa Muerte

text: Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte (; Spanish for Our Lady of Holy Death), often shortened to Santa Muerte, is a cult image, female deity, and folk saint in folk Catholicism and Mexican Neopaganism. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees. Despite condemnation by leaders of the Catholic Church, and more recently evangelical movements, her following has become increasingly prominent since the turn of the 21st century.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Originally appearing as a male figure, Santa Muerte now generally appears as a skeletal female figure, clad in a long robe and holding one or more objects, usually a scythe and a globe. Her robe can be of any color, as more specific images of the figure vary widely from devotee to devotee and according to the rite being performed or the petition being made.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The following of Santa Muerte began in Mexico some time in the mid-20th century and was clandestine until the 1990s. Most prayers and other rites have been traditionally performed privately at home. Since the beginning of the 21st century, worship has become more public, especially in Mexico City after a believer called Enriqueta Romero initiated her famous Mexico City shrine in 2001. The number of believers in Santa Muerte has grown over the past ten to twenty years, to an estimated 10–20 million followers in Mexico, parts of Central America, the United States, and Canada. Santa Muerte has similar male counterparts in the American continent, such as the skeletal folk saints San La Muerte of Paraguay and Rey Pascual of Guatemala. According to R. Andrew Chesnut, Ph.D. in Latin American history and professor of Religious studies, followers of Santa Muerte is the single fastest-growing new religious movement in the Americas.


title: Santa Muerte

text: "Santa Muerte" can be translated into English as either "Saint Death" or "Holy Death", although the professor of Religious studies R. Andrew Chesnut believes that the former is a more accurate translation because it "better reveals" her identity as a folk saint. A variant of this is "Santísima Muerte", which is translated as "Most Holy Death" or "Most Saintly Death", and devotees often call her "Santisma Muerte" during their rituals.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Santa Muerte is also known by a wide variety of other names: the Skinny Lady ("la Flaquita"), the Bony Lady ("la Huesuda"), the White Girl ("la Niña Blanca"), the White Sister ("la Hermana Blanca"), the Pretty Girl ("la Niña Bonita"), the Powerful Lady ("la Dama Poderosa"), the Godmother ("la Madrina"), "Señora de las Sombras" ("Lady of Shadows"), "Señora Blanca" ("White Lady"), "Señora Negra" ("Black Lady"), "Niña Santa" ("Holy Girl"), "Santa Sebastiana" ("Saint Sebastienne", i.e. "Holy Sebastian") or "Doña Bella Sebastiana" ("Beautiful Lady Sebastienne") and "La Flaca" ("The Skinny Woman").


title: Santa Muerte

text: It has been recently suggested that the original "Santa Muerta" or "Doña Sebastiana" was, in fact, Doña Sebastiana de Caso y Paredes (b.1626), the niece of St. Mariana de Jesus of Quito (1618–1645), an Ecuadorian virgin penitent. Sebastiana de Caso's birthday was August 15 (the traditional date of the feast day "Santa Muerte"), and she was associated with the foundation of a pious society known as the "Congregación de la Buena Muerte." In the early devotional literature about the lives of Mariana and Sebastiana, it is related the father of Doña Sebastiana attempted to force her to marry against her will, but Sebastiana prayed earnestly to a personification of Death to be released from her predicament. This prayer was answered, and Sebastiana soon succumbed to a fever and passed away. A spontaneous outpouring of veneration to her then emerged among both the native and colonist peoples of Quito.


title: Santa Muerte

text: After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the worship of death diminished but was never eradicated. Judith Katia Perdigón Castañeda has found references dating to 18th-century Mexico. According to one account, recorded in the annals of the Spanish Inquisition, indigenous people in central Mexico tied up a skeletal figure, whom they addressed as "Santa Muerte," and threatened it with lashings if it did not perform miracles or grant their wishes. Another syncretism between Pre-Columbian and Christian beliefs about death can be seen in Day of the Dead celebrations. During these celebrations, many Latin Americans flock to cemeteries to sing and pray for friends and family members who have died. Children partake in the festivities by eating chocolate or candy in the shape of skulls. Perdigón Castañeda, Thompson, Kingsbury, and Chesnut have countered the argument that Santa Muerte's origins are not Indigenous proposed by Malvido, Lomnitz, and Kristensen; stating that Santa Muerte's origins derive from authentic Indigenous beliefs. For Malvido this stems from Indigenist discourse originating in the 1930s. Nevertheless, through ethnoarchaeological researches by Kingsbury and Chesnut as well as archival work by Perdigón Castañeda, proof has been established that there are clear links between pre-Columbian death deity worship and Santa Muerte supplication. As Kingsbury has pointed out, to deny the Indigenous roots of Santa Muerte is to promote neo-colonialism and the denial of Indigenous influences and cultures as important still in the current context.


title: Santa Muerte

text: In contrast to the Day of the Dead, overt veneration of Santa Muerte remained clandestine until the middle of the 20th century. When it went public in sporadic occurrences, reaction was often harsh, and included the desecration of shrines and altars. At the beginning of the 20th century, José Guadalupe Posada created a similar, but secular figure by the name of Catrina, a female skeleton dressed in fancy clothing of the period. Posada began to evoke the idea that the universality of death generated a fundamental equality amongst man. His paintings of skeletons in daily life and that La Catrina were meant to represent the arbitrary and violent nature of an unequal society.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Modern artists began to reestablish Posada's styles as a national artistic objective to push the limits of upper-class tastes; an example of Posada's influence is Diego Rivera's mural painting "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central", which features La Catrina. The image of the skeleton and the Day of the Dead ritual that used to be held underground became commercialized and domesticated. The skeletal images became that of folklore, encapsulating Posada's viewpoint that death is an equalizer.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Skeletons were put in extravagant dresses with braids in their hair, altering the image of Posada's original La Catrina. As opposed to being the political message Posada intended, the skeletons of equality became skeletal images which were appealing to tourists and the national folkloric Mexican identity.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Veneration of Santa Muerte was documented in the 1940s in working-class neighborhoods in Mexico City such as Tepito. Other sources state that the revival has its origins around 1965 in the state of Hidalgo. At present Santa Muerte can be found throughout Mexico and also in parts of the United States and Central America. There are videos, websites, and music composed in honor of this folk saint. The cult of Santa Muerte first came to widespread popular attention in Mexico in August 1998, when police arrested notorious gangster Daniel Arizmendi López and discovered a shrine to the saint in his home. Widely reported in the press, this discovery inspired the common association between Santa Muerte, violence, and criminality in Mexican popular consciousness.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Since 2001, there has been a "meteoric growth" in Santa Muerte belief, largely due to her reputation for performing miracles. Worship has been made up of roughly two million adherents, mostly in the State of Mexico, Guerrero, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Campeche, Morelos, and Mexico City, with a recent spread to Nuevo León. In the late 2000s, the founder of Mexico City's first Santa Muerte church, David Romo, estimated that there were around 5 million devotees in Mexico, constituting approximately 5% of the country's population.


title: Santa Muerte

text: By the late 2000s, Santa Muerte had become Mexico's second-most popular saint, after Saint Jude, and had come to rival the country's "national patroness", the Virgin of Guadalupe. The cult's rise was controversial, and in March 2009 the Mexican army demolished 40 roadside shrines near the U.S. border. Circa 2005, the Santa Muerte cult was brought to the United States by Mexican and Central American immigrants, and by 2012 had tens of thousands of followers throughout the country, primarily in cities with high Hispanic and Latino populations. , the Santa Muerte cult is considered to be one of the fastest-growing new religious movements in the world, with an estimated 10 to 12 million followers, and the single fastest-growing new religious movement in the Americas.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Santa Muerte is a personification of death. Unlike other saints who originated in Mexican folk Catholicism, Santa Muerte is not, herself, seen as a dead human being. She is associated with healing, protection, financial wellbeing, and assurance of a path to the afterlife.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Although there are other death saints in Latin America, such as San La Muerte, Santa Muerte is the only female saint of death in either of the Americas. Though early figures of the saint were male, iconographically, Santa Muerte is a skeleton dressed in female clothes or a shroud, and carrying both a scythe and a globe. Santa Muerte is marked out as female not by her figure but by her attire and hair. The latter was introduced by a believer named Enriqueta Romero.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The two most common objects that Santa Muerte holds in her hands are a globe and a scythe. Her scythe reflects her origins as the Grim Reaper ("la Parca" of medieval Spain), and can represent the moment of death, when it is said to cut a silver thread. The scythe can symbolize the cutting of negative energies or influences. As a harvesting tool, a scythe may also symbolize hope and prosperity. The scythe has a long handle, indicating that it can reach anywhere. The globe represents Death's vast power and dominion over the earth, and may be seen as a kind of a tomb to which we all return.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Other objects associated with Santa Muerte include scales, an hourglass, an owl, and an oil lamp. The scales allude to equity, justice, and impartiality, as well as divine will. An hourglass indicates the time of life on earth and also the belief that death is not the end, as the hourglass can be inverted to start over. The hourglass denotes Santa Muerte's relationship with time as well as with the worlds above and below. It also symbolizes patience. An owl symbolizes her ability to navigate the darkness and her wisdom; the owl is also said to act as a messenger. A lamp symbolizes intelligence and spirit, to light the way through the darkness of ignorance and doubt. owls in particular are associated with Mesoamerican death deities such as Mictlantecuhtli and seen as evidence of continuity of death worship into Santa Muerte. Some followers of Santa Muerte believe that she is jealous and that her image should not be placed next to those of other saints or deities, or there will be consequences.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Many artists, particularly Mexican-American artists, have played with Santa Muerte's image. One of the images considered to be the most controversial in Mexico is the fusion of Santa Muerte and the Virgin of Guadalupe, into what is sometimes known as GuadaMuerte. This image has been very polemical for many Mexicans as it features Santa Muerte dressed like the Virgin, in blue veil with stars on it, red dress, with a fiery yellow halo behind her head and often in praying pose. It has, according to news sources, been so upsetting to the Catholic Church that Santa Muerte leaders in Mexico have advised against its use, while in the Santa Muerte community some leaders and devotees are angered that their powerful, formidable folk saint would be conflated with a completely separate entity and suffering female figure, the Virgin of Guadalupe, as the practices are different on many levels.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Rites dedicated to Santa Muerte include processions and prayers with the aim of gaining a favor. Some believers of Santa Muerte remain members of the Catholic Church, while millions are cutting ties with the Catholic Church and founding independent Santa Muerte churches and temples. Altars of Santa Muerte temples generally contain one or multiple images of the lady, generally surrounded by any or all of the following: cigarettes, flowers, fruit, incense, water, alcoholic beverages, coins, candies and candles. Tobacco is also used for personal cleansing and for cleansing statues of Santa Muerte


title: Santa Muerte

text: According to popular belief, Santa Muerte is very powerful and is reputed to grant many favors. Her images are treated as holy and can give favors in return for the faith of the believer, with miracles playing a vital role. As "Señora de la Noche" ("Lady of the Night"), she is often invoked by those exposed to the dangers of working at night, such as taxi drivers, bar owners, police, soldiers, and prostitutes. As such, devotees believe she can protect against assaults, accidents, gun violence, and all types of violent death.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The image is dressed differently depending on what is being requested. Usually, the vestments of the image are differently colored robes, but it is also common for the image to be dressed as a bride (for those seeking a husband) or in European medieval nun's garments similar to female Catholic saints. The colors of Santa Muerte's votive candles and vestments are associated with the type of petitions made.


title: Santa Muerte

text: White is the most common color and can symbolize gratitude, purity, or the cleansing of negative influences. Red is for love and passion. It can also signify emotional stability. The color gold signifies economic power, success, money, and prosperity. Green symbolizes justice, legal matters, or unity with loved ones. Amber or dark yellow indicates health. Images with this color can be seen in rehabilitation centers, especially those for drug addiction and alcoholism. Black represents total protection against black magic or sorcery, or conversely negative magic or for force directed against rivals and enemies. Blue candles and images of the saint indicate wisdom, which is favored by students and those in education. It can also be used to petition for health. Brown is used to invoke spirits from beyond while purple, like yellow, usually symbolizes health. More recently black, purple, yellow and white candles have been used by devotees to supplicate Santa Muerte for healing of and protection from coronavirus as documented by Kingsbury and Chesnut, the leading researchers on Santa Muerte.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Other more recent colors include silver, transparent and red with black gown Santa Muerte which are used for particular petitions


title: Santa Muerte

text: Devotees may present her with a polychrome seven-color candle, which Chesnut believed was probably adopted from the seven powers candle of Santería, a syncretic faith brought to Mexico by Cuban migrants. Here the seven colors are gold, silver, copper, blue, purple, red, and green. In addition to the candles and vestments, each devotee adorns their own image in their own way, using U.S. dollars, gold coins, jewelry, and other items.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Santa Muerte also has a saint's day, which varies from shrine to shrine. The most prominent is November 1, when the believer Enriqueta Romero celebrates her at her historic Tepito shrine where the famous effigy is dressed as a bride. Others celebrate her day on August 15.


title: Santa Muerte

text: According to Chesnut, the cult of Santa Muerte is "generally informal and unorganized". Since worship of this image has been, and to a large extent still is, clandestine, most rituals are performed in altars constructed at the homes of devotees. Recently shrines to this image have been mushrooming in public. The one on Dr. Vertiz Street in Colonia Doctores is unique in Mexico City because it features an image of Jesús Malverde along with Santa Muerte. Another public shrine is in a small park on Matamoros Street very close to Paseo de la Reforma.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Shrines can also be found in the back of all kinds of stores and gas stations. As veneration of Santa Muerte becomes more accepted, stores specializing in religious articles, such as botánicas, are carrying more and more paraphernalia related to the cult. Historian R. Andrew Chesnut has discovered that many botanicas in both Mexico and the U.S. are kept in business by sales of Santa Muerte paraphernalia, with numerous shops earning up to half of their profits on Santa Muerte items. This is true even of stores in very well known locations such as Pasaje Catedral behind the Mexico City Cathedral, which is mostly dedicated to stores selling Catholic liturgical items. Her image is a staple in esoterica shops.


title: Santa Muerte

text: There are those who now call themselves Santa Muerte priests or priestesses, such as Jackeline Rodríguez in Monterrey. She maintains a shop in Mercado Juárez in Monterrey, where tarot readers, curanderos, herbal healers, and sorcerers can also be found.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The establishment of the first public shrine to the image began to change how Santa Muerte was venerated. The veneration has grown rapidly since then, and others have put their images on public display, as well.


title: Santa Muerte

text: In 2001, Enriqueta Romero built a shrine for a life-sized statue of Santa Muerte in her home in Mexico City, visible from the street. The shrine does not hold Catholic masses or occult rites, but people come here to pray and to leave offerings to the image. The effigy is dressed in garbs of different colors depending on the season, with the Romero family changing the dress every first Monday of the month. This statue of the saint features large quantities of jewelry on her neck and arms, which are pinned to her clothing. It is surrounded by offerings left to it, including: flowers, fruits (especially apples), candles, toys, money, notes of thanks for prayers granted, cigarettes, and alcoholic beverages that surround it.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Enriqueta Romero considers herself the chaplain of the shrine, a role she says she inherited from her aunt, who began the practice in the family in 1962. The shrine is located on 12 Alfarería Street in Tepito, Colonia Morelos. For many, this Santa Muerte is the patron saint of Tepito. The house also contains a shop that sells amulets, bracelets, medallions, books, images, and other items; the most popular item sold there is votive candles.


title: Santa Muerte

text: On the first day of every month Enriqueta Romero or one of her sons lead prayers and the saying of the Santa Muerte rosary, which lasts for about an hour and is based on the Catholic rosary. On the first of November the anniversary of the altar to Santa Muerte constructed by Enriqueta Romero is celebrated. This Santa Muerte is dressed as a bride and wears hundreds of pieces of gold jewelry given by the faithful to show gratitude for favors received, or to ask for one.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The celebration officially begins at the stroke of midnight of November 1. About 5,000 faithful turn out to pray the rosary. For purification, the smoke of marijuana is used rather than incense, which is traditionally used for purification by Catholics. Food such as cake, chicken with mole, hot chocolate, coffee, and atole are served during the celebrations, which features performances by mariachis and marimba bands.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Santa Muerte is a multifaceted saint, with various symbolic meanings and her devotees can call upon her a wide range of reasons. In herbal shops and markets one can find a plethora of Santa Muerte paraphernalia like the votive candles that have her image on the front and in a color representative of its purpose. On the back of the candles are prayers associated with the color's meaning and may sometimes come with additional prayer cards. Color symbolism is central to devotion and ritual. There are three main colors associated with Santa Muerte: red, white, and black.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The candles are placed on altars and devotees turn to specific colored candles depending on their circumstance. Some keep the full range of colored candles while others focus on one aspect of Santa Muerte's spirit. Santa Muerte is called upon for matters of the heart, health, money, wisdom, and justice. There is the brown candle of wisdom, the white candle of gratitude and consecration, the black candle for protection and vengeance, the red candle of love and passion, the gold candle for monetary affairs, the green candle for crime and justice, the purple candle for healing.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The black votive candle is lit for prayer in order to implore "La Flaca's" protection and vengeance. It is associated with "black magic" and witchcraft. It is not regularly seen at devotional sites, and is usually kept and lit in the privacy of one's home. To avert from calling upon official Catholic saints for illegal purpose, drug traffickers will light Santa Muerte's black candle to ensure protection of shipment of drugs across the border. Nevertheless, black candles may also be used for more benign activities such as reversing spells, as well as all forms of protection and removing energetic blockages.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Black candles are presented to Santa Muerte's altars that drug traffickers used to ensure protection from violence of rival gangs as well as ensure harm to their enemies in gangs and law enforcement. As the drug war in Mexico escalates, Santa Muerte's veneration by drug bosses increases and her image is seen again and again in various drug houses. Ironically, the military and police officers that are employed to dismantle the White Lady's shrines make up a large portion of her devotees. Furthermore, even though her presence in the drug world is becoming routine, the sale of black candles pales in comparison to top selling white, red, and gold candles.


title: Santa Muerte

text: One of Santa Muerte's more popular uses is in matters of the heart. The red candle that symbolizes love is helpful in various situations having to do with love. Her initial main purpose was in love magic during the colonial era in Mexico, which may have been derived from the love magic being brought over from Europe. Her origins are still unclear but it is possible that the image of the European Grim Reaper combined with the indigenous celebrations of death are at the root of "La Flaca's" existence, in so that the use of love magic in Europe and that of pre-Columbian times that was also merging during colonization may have established the saint as manipulator of love.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The majority of anthropological writings on Santa Muerte discuss her significance as provider of love magic and miracles. The candle can be lit for Santa Muerte to attract a certain lover and ensure their love. In contrast though, the red candle can be prayed to for help in ending a bad relationship in order to start another one. These love miracles require specific rituals to increase their love doctors power. The rituals require several ingredients including red roses and rose water for passion, binding stick to unite the lovers, cinnamon for prosperity, and several others depending on the specific ritual.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The cult of Santa Muerte was established in the United States , brought to the country by Mexican and Central American migrants. Chesnut suggests that there were tens of thousands of devotees in the U.S. by 2012. This cult is primarily visible in cities with high populations, such as New York City, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Tucson, and Los Angeles. There are fifteen religious groups dedicated to her in Los Angeles alone, which include the Temple of Santa Muerte on Melrose Avenue in East Hollywood.


title: Santa Muerte

text: In some places, such as Northern California and New Orleans, her popularity has spread beyond the Latino community. For instance, the Santisima Muerte Chapel of Perpetual Pilgrimage is maintained by a woman of Danish descent, while the New Orleans Chapel of the Santisima Muerte was founded in 2012 by a Non-Hispanic White devotee.


title: Santa Muerte

text: As in Mexico, some elements of the Catholic Church in the United States are trying to combat Santa Muerte worship, in Chicago particularly. Compared to the Catholic Church in Mexico, the official reaction in the U.S. is mostly either nonexistent or muted. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has not issued an official position on this relatively new phenomenon in the country. Opposition to the veneration of Santa Muerte took a violent turn in late January, 2013, when one or more vandals smashed a statue of the folk saint, which had appeared in the San Benito, Texas, municipal cemetery earlier that month.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The cult of Santa Muerte is present throughout the strata of Mexican society, although the majority of devotees are either underemployed workers or from the urban working class. Most are young people, aged in their teens, twenties, or thirties, and are also mostly female.


title: Santa Muerte

text: A large following developed among Mexicans who are disillusioned with the dominant, institutional Catholic Church and, in particular, with the inability of established Catholic saints to deliver them from poverty.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The phenomenon is based among people with scarce resources, excluded from the formal market economy, as well as the judicial and educational systems, primarily in the inner cities and the very rural areas. Devotion to Santa Muerte is what anthropologists call a "cult of crisis". Devotion to the image peaks during economic and social hardships, which tend to affect the working classes more. Santa Muerte tends to attract those in extremely difficult or hopeless situations but also appeals to smaller sectors of middle class professionals and even the affluent. Some of her most devoted followers are outcasts who commit petty economic crimes, often committed out of desperation, such as prostitutes and petty thieves.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The worship of Santa Muerte also attracts those who are not inclined to seek the traditional Catholic Church for spiritual solace, as it is part of the "legitimate" sector of society; many followers of Santa Muerte live on the margins of the law or outside it entirely. Many street vendors, taxi drivers, vendors of counterfeit merchandise, street people, prostitutes, pickpockets, petty drug traffickers and gang members who follow the cult are not practicing Catholics or Protestants, but neither are they atheists.


title: Santa Muerte

text: In essence they have created their own new religion that reflects their realities, hardships, identity, and practices, especially since it speaks to the violence and struggles for life that many of these people face. Conversely, both police forces and the military in Mexico can be counted among the faithful who ask for blessings on their weapons and ammunition.


title: Santa Muerte

text: While worship is largely based in poor neighborhoods, Santa Muerte is also venerated in affluent areas such as Mexico City's Condesa and Coyoacán districts. However, negative media coverage of the worship and condemnation by the Catholic Church in Mexico and certain Protestant denominations have influenced public perception of the cult of Santa Muerte. With the exception of some artists and politicians, some of whom perform rituals secretly, those in higher socioeconomic strata look upon the veneration with distaste as a form of superstition.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Santa Muerte is also revered and seen as a saint and protector of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) communities in Mexico, since LGBTQ+ people are considered and treated as outcasts by the Catholic Church, evangelical churches, and Mexican society at large. Many LGBTQ+ people ask her for protection from violence, hatred, disease, and to help them in their search for love. Her intercession is commonly invoked in same-sex marriage ceremonies performed in Mexico. The Iglesia Católica Tradicional México-Estados Unidos, also known as the Church of Santa Muerte, recognizes gay marriage and performs religious wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples.


title: Santa Muerte

text: In the Mexican and U.S. press, the cult of Santa Muerte is often associated with violence, criminality, and the illegal drug trade. She is a popular deity in prisons, both among inmates and staff, and shrines dedicated to her can be found in many cells.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Altars with images of Santa Muerte have been found in many drug houses in both Mexico and the United States. Among Santa Muerte's more famous devotees are kidnapper Daniel Arizmendi López, known as "El Mochaorejas", and Gilberto García Mena, one of the bosses of the Gulf Cartel. In March 2012, the Sonora State Investigative Police announced that they had arrested eight people for murder for allegedly having performed a human sacrifice of a woman and two ten-year-old boys to Santa Muerte (see: Silvia Meraz).


title: Santa Muerte

text: In December 2010, the self-proclaimed bishop David Romo was arrested on charges of banking funds of a kidnapping gang linked to a cartel. He continues to lead his sect from his prison, but it is unfeasible for Romo or anyone else to gain dominance over the Santa Muerte cult. Her faith is spreading rapidly and "organically" from town to town, such that it is easy to become a preacher or messianic figure. Drug lords, like that of La Familia Cartel, take advantage of "gangster foot soldiers'" vulnerability and enforced religious obedience to establish a holy meaning to their cause that would keep their soldiers disciplined.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Since the mid-20th century and throughout the 21st century, the cult of Santa Muerte and her devotees have been regularly discriminated, ostracized, and socially excluded both by the Catholic Church and various evangelical-Pentecostal Protestant churches in Mexico and the rest of Central America.


title: Santa Muerte

text: The Catholic Church has condemned the cult of Santa Muerte in Mexico and Latin America as blasphemous and satanic, calling it a "degeneration of religion". When Pope Francis visited Mexico in 2016, he repudiated Santa Muerte on his first full day in the country, condemning Santa Muerte as a dangerous symbol of narco-culture.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Latin American Protestant churches have condemned it too, as black magic and trickery. Mexico's Catholic Church has accused Santa Muerte devotees—many of whom were baptized in the Catholic religion despite the difference of belief and the fact that Santa Muerte churches and temples have instituted a separate baptism practice—of having turned to devil-worship.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Catholic priests regularly chastise parishioners, telling them that death is not a person but rather a phase of life. However, the Church stops short of labeling such followers as heretics, instead accusing them of heterodoxy. Other reasons the Mexican Catholic Church has officially condemned the worship of Santa Muerte is that most of her rites are modeled after Catholic liturgy, and some Santa Muerte devotees eventually split from the Catholic Church and began vying for control of church buildings.


title: Santa Muerte

text: Despite the many attempts from the Catholic Church and Protestant churches to undermine the devotion to Santa Muerte in Mexico and elsewhere, along with the religious discrimination and accusations towards her followers, the cult of Santa Muerte has enjoyed a steady growth and spread in the American continent since the mid-20th century, and is considered by scholars of religion to be the single fastest-growing new religious movement in the Americas.


title: Great Dane

text: The Great Dane is a large sized dog breed originating from Germany. The Great Dane descends from hunting dogs from the Middle Ages used to hunt wild boar and deer, and as guardians of German nobility. It is one of the largest breeds in the world along with its relative, the Irish Wolfhound.


title: Great Dane

text: In the middle of the 16th century, the nobility in many countries of Europe imported strong, long-legged dogs from England, which were descended from crossbreeds between English Mastiffs and Irish Wolfhounds. They were dog hybrids in different sizes and phenotypes with no formal breed. These dogs were called "Englische Docke" or "Englische Tocke" – later written and spelled: "Dogge" – or "Englischer Hund" in Germany. The name simply meant "English dog". Since then, the English word "dog" has come to be associated with a molossoid dog in Germany and France. These dogs were bred in the courts of German nobility, independent of the English methods, since the start of the 17th century.


title: Great Dane

text: The dogs were used for hunting bear, boar, and deer at princely courts, with the favorites staying at night in the bedchambers of their lords. These "Kammerhunde" (chamber dogs) were outfitted with ornate collars, and helped protect the sleeping princes from assassins.


title: Great Dane

text: While hunting boar or bears, the "Englische Dogge" was a catch dog used after the other hunting dogs to seize the bear or boar and hold it in place until the huntsman was able to kill it. When the hunting customs changed, particularly because of the use of firearms, many of the involved dog types disappeared. The "Englische Dogge" became rare, and was kept only as a dog of hobby or luxury.


title: Great Dane

text: In Austria and Germany the Molossian hound, the Suliot dog and other imports from Greece were used in the 18th century to increase the stature of the boarhounds.


title: Great Dane

text: In 1878, a committee was formed in Berlin which changed the name of the "Englische Dogge" (English mastiff derivatives) to "Deutsche Dogge" (German mastiff), this being the Great Dane. This laid the foundations from which the breed was developed. During the 19th century, the dog was known as a "German boarhound" in English-speaking countries. Some German breeders tried to introduce the names "German Dogge" and "German Mastiff" on the English market, because they believed the breed should be marketed as a dog of luxury and not as a working dog. However, due to the increasing tensions between Germany and other countries, the dog later became referred to as a "Great Dane", after the "grand danois" in Buffon's "Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière" in 1755.


title: Great Dane

text: The Great Dane is a large domestic dog of mastiff-sighthound type known for its big size. It is often dubbed the "Apollo of dogs".


title: Great Dane

text: The Great Dane combines, in its regal appearance, strength, and elegance with great size and a powerful, well-formed, smoothly muscled body. It is one of the giant working breeds, but is unique in that its general conformation must be so well balanced that it never appears clumsy, and shall move with a long reach and powerful drive. The Great Dane is a short-haired breed with a strong, galloping figure. In the ratio between length and height, the Great Dane should be square. The male dog should not be less than at the shoulders, a female . Danes under minimum height are disqualified. From year to year, the tallest living dog is typically a Great Dane. Previous record holders include Gibson, Titan, and George; however, the current record holder is a black Great Dane named Zeus that stood at the shoulder before his death in September 2014. He was also the tallest dog on record (according to Guinness World Records), beating the previous holder, the aforementioned George that stood at the shoulder.


title: Great Dane

text: The minimum weight for a Great Dane over 18 months is for males, for females. Unusually, the American Kennel Club dropped the minimum weight requirement from its standard. The male should appear more massive throughout than the female, with a larger frame and heavier bone.


title: Great Dane

text: Great Danes have naturally floppy, triangular ears. In the past, when Great Danes were commonly used to hunt boars, cropping of the ears was performed to make injuries to the dogs' ears less likely during hunts. Now that Danes are primarily companion animals, cropping is sometimes still done for traditional and cosmetic reasons. In the 1930s when Great Danes had their ears cropped, after the surgery, two devices called Easter bonnets were fitted to their ears to make them stand up. Today, the practice is common in the United States, but much less common in Europe. In some European countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, and Germany, and parts of Australia and New Zealand, the practice is banned or controlled to only be performed by veterinary surgeons.


title: Great Dane

text: According to the breed-standard, Great Danes have five to six (depending on the standard) show-acceptable coat colours:


title: Great Dane

text: Other colours occur occasionally, but are not acceptable for conformation showing and they are not pursued by breeders who intend to breed show dogs. These colours include white, piebald, chocolate, smoky fawn or buckskin, reverse brindle or onyx, blue fawn, blue brindle, blue harlequin or porcelain, mantled fawn, mantled brindle, mantled blue, various merles (fawn merle, brindle merle, blue merle, mantled merle, chocolate merle, silver merle or platinum merle and tri-coloured merle), fawnequin, brindlequin and merlequin. The white Great Dane colour is typically associated with vision and hearing impairment.


title: Great Dane

text: The Great Dane's large and imposing appearance belies its friendly nature. They are known for seeking physical affection from their owners, and the breed is often referred to as a "gentle giant".


title: Great Dane

text: Great Danes are generally well disposed toward other dogs, other noncanine pets, and familiar humans. They generally do not exhibit extreme aggressiveness or a high prey drive. The Great Dane is a very gentle and loving animal and with the proper care and training is great around children, especially when being raised with them. However, like any dog, if not properly socialized, a Great Dane may become fearful or aggressive towards new stimuli, such as strangers and new environments.


title: Great Dane

text: Great Danes, like most giant dogs, have a faster metabolism. This results in more energy and food consumption per pound of dog than in small breeds. They have some health problems that are common to large breeds, including bloat (gastric dilatation volvulus).


title: Great Dane

text: Nutrition plays a role in this breed's health. Bloat, or gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV), is the greatest killer of Great Danes. To avoid bloat, a rest period of 40 minutes to one hour after meals is recommended before exercise. Their average lifespan is 8 to 10 years; however, some Great Danes have been known to reach 12 years of age or more. Like many larger breeds, Great Danes are at particular risk for hip dysplasia.


title: Great Dane

text: Dilated cardiomyopathy and many congenital heart diseases are also commonly found in the Great Dane, leading to its nickname: the heartbreak breed, in conjunction with its shorter lifespan. Great Danes also may carry the merle gene, which is part of the genetic makeup that creates the harlequin coloring. The merle gene is an incomplete dominant, meaning only one copy of the gene is needed to show the merle coloring; two merle genes produce excessive white markings and many health issues such as deafness, blindness, or other debilitating ocular issues. Great Danes can also develop wobbler disease, a condition affecting the vertebral column. Since these dogs do grow at a rapid rate, the bones in their vertebrae can push up against the spinal cord and cause weakness in the legs. This can be treated with surgery or may heal itself over time.


title: Real Betis

text: Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Villamarín in the south of the city with a 60,720-seat capacity.


title: Real Betis

text: Real Betis won the league title in 1935 and the Copa del Rey in 1977, 2005 and 2022. Given the club's tumultuous history and many relegations, its motto is "¡Viva el Betis manque (aunque) pierda!" ("Long live Betis even if they lose!").


title: Real Betis

text: The name "Betis" is derived from "Baetis", the Roman name for the Guadalquivir river which passes through Seville and which the Roman province there was named after. "Real" ('Royal') was added in 1914 after the club received patronage from King Alfonso XIII.


title: Real Betis

text: Betis' city rivals Sevilla FC were the first club in Sevilla, founded in October 1905, while a second club, "España Balompié" were established in September 1907. ""Balompié"" translates literally as "football", as opposed to the most commonly adopted anglicised version, ""fútbol"". Balompié was founded by students from the local Polytechnic Academy, and were in operation for one year before being officially recognised (in 1909) as "Sevilla Balompié"; despite this, 1907 remains the official foundation date of the club.


title: Real Betis

text: Following an internal split from Sevilla FC, another club was formed, Betis Football Club. In 1914, they merged with Sevilla Balompié. The club received its royal patronage in the same year, and therefore adopted the name Real Betis Balompié. Fans continued to refer to the club as "Balompié" and were themselves known as "Los Balompedistas" until the 1930s, when "Betis" and the adjective "Béticos" became common terminology when discussing the club and its followers.


title: Real Betis

text: Real Betis originally played in all blue jerseys and white shorts, for no other reason than the easy availability of such plain colours. But one of the founders and captain, Manuel Ramos Asensio, was keen to take advantage of his relationships made while studying in Scotland, contacted Celtic (whose green and white colours matched the Andalusian regional flag) and obtained the same fabric to make kits for his own club. Ramos had the lines re-orientated from horizontal 'hoops' into vertical stripes to make the shirts (no other Spanish club used the combination at the time). There is no mention of Celtic or Scotland in the history of Betis on the club's official website, but in 2017 the club officially acknowledged the link by producing a special hooped kit to coincide with Andalusia Day. The blue colour is still often used in away kit designs.


title: Real Betis

text: During the Spanish Second Republic (1931–1939), royal patronage of all organisations was nullified, and thus the club was known as Betis Balompié until after the Spanish Civil War when it would revert to the full name. The club reached the Copa del Presidente de la República final for the first time on 21 June 1931, when it lost 3–1 to Athletic Bilbao in Madrid. Betis marked their 25th anniversary year by winning their first Segunda División title in 1932, finishing two points ahead of Oviedo FC, thus becoming the first club from Andalusia to play in La Liga.


title: Real Betis

text: Under the guidance of Irish coach Patrick O'Connell on 28 April 1935 Betis won the La Liga, to date their only top division title. They topped the table by a single point over Madrid FC. A year later Betis went down to seventh. This was due to the dismantling of the championship-winning team because of the club's poor economic situation and the arrival of the Civil War, meaning that just 15 months after winning the league title only two players who won in 1935 were left: Peral and Saro. No official league was held during the Civil War between 1936 and 1939, until its resumption for the 1939–40 season and the first year back highlighted Betis' decline as exactly five years after winning the title the club was relegated.


title: Real Betis

text: Despite a brief return to the top division which lasted only one season, the club continued to decline and in 1947 the worst fears were reached when they were relegated to Tercera División. Many fans see the ten years they spent in the category as key to the "identity" and "soul" of the club. During this time, Betis earned a reputation for filling its stadium and having a massive support at away matches, known as the "Green March".


title: Real Betis

text: When the side returned to the second level in 1954, it gained the distinction of being the only club in Spain to have won all three major divisions' titles. Much of the credit for guiding Betis through this dark period and back into the "Segunda" lies with chairman Manuel Ruiz Rodríguez.


title: Real Betis

text: In 1955, Manuel Ruiz Rodríguez stepped down from running the club believing he could not offer further economic growth, he was replaced by Betis most famous former president, Benito Villamarín. During his reign Betis returned to the top division in 1958–59 and finished in third place in 1964. His purchase of the Estadio Heliópolis in 1961 is seen as a key point in the history of the club – the grounds were called the "Estadio Benito Villamarín" until 1997. In 1965, Villamarín stepped down from his position after ten years at the helm of the club.


title: Real Betis

text: Just one year after Villamarín's departure, the club would again be relegated to division two, then rising and falling almost consecutively until consolidating their place in the top level in 1974–75.


title: Real Betis

text: On 25 June 1977, Betis played Athletic Bilbao at the Vicente Calderón Stadium in the Copa del Rey final. The match finished 2–2, with Betis winning 8–7 after a staggering 21 penalties taken. This rounded off a solid season in which the club finished fifth in the league.


title: Real Betis

text: After that triumph, Betis competed in the European Cup Winners' Cup: after knocking out Milan 3–2 on aggregate in the first round, the side reached the quarter-finals, where they lost to Dynamo Moscow. Despite their strong performance in Europe, the team suffered league relegation.


title: Real Betis

text: The following year, Betis returned to the top flight and ushered in a period of "good times" for the club, with the next three seasons seeing three top-six finishes, as well as UEFA Cup qualification in 1982 and 1984.


title: Real Betis

text: During the summer of 1982, the Benito Villamarín hosted two matches as part of the 1982 FIFA World Cup, and also witnessed the Spain national team's famous 12–1 hammering of Malta to qualify for UEFA Euro 1984.


title: Real Betis

text: In 1992, Betis found itself subject to new league rules and regulations due to its restructuring as an autonomous sporting group (SAD), requiring the club to come up with 1,200 million pesetas, roughly double that of all the first and second division teams, despite being in level two at the time.


title: Real Betis

text: In just three months, the fans raised 400 million pesetas with then vice-president Manuel Ruiz de Lopera stepping in to provide an economic guarantee while himself becoming majority shareholder as the team narrowly avoided relegation.


title: Real Betis

text: After another three seasons in the second division, with the club managed by Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, Betis returned to the top flight for the 1994–95 season, subsequently achieving a final third position, thus qualifying to the UEFA Cup.In the European campaign, Betis knocked out Fenerbahçe (4–1 on aggregate) and 1. FC Kaiserslautern (4–1) before losing to defeated finalists Bordeaux (3–2). In 1997, 20 years after winning the trophy for the first time, the club returned to the final of the Copa del Rey – again held in Madrid, although this time at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium – losing 2–3 against Barcelona after extra time.


title: Real Betis

text: Incidentally, "Barça" was the club Serra Ferrer would leave Betis for that summer, to be replaced by former player Luis Aragonés. Aragonés would only last one season with the club, leading the side to the eighth position and to the quarter-finals in the Cup Winners' Cup, where they would lose 2–5 on aggregate to eventual winners Chelsea.


title: Real Betis

text: Aragonés was followed by the controversial reign of Javier Clemente, who spat on a fan and implied Andalusia was "another country!". The team slipped down the table, finishing 11th and being knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Bologna in the third round. For the next couple of seasons, Betis went through numerous managers, a relegation and a promotion, after which the team finished sixth in the league with Juande Ramos at the helm.


title: Real Betis

text: Ramos was gone after just one season, however, being replaced by former Cup Winners' Cup-winning manager Víctor Fernández. He led the team to eighth and ninth in the league and the third round of the 2002–03 UEFA Cup, being knocked out by Auxerre (1–2 on aggregate), during his two-year reign.


title: Real Betis

text: For 2004, Fernández was replaced by the returning Serra Ferrer, who guided the team to the fourth position in the top flight. They also returned to the Vicente Calderón on June 11, 2005, for the Copa del Rey final, lifting the trophy for only the second time after an extra-time winner by youth graduate Dani in a 2–1 win against Osasuna.


title: Real Betis

text: The league finish meant Betis became the first Andalucian team to compete in the UEFA Champions League, and it reached the group stage after disposing of Monaco in the last qualifying round (3–2 on aggregate). Drawn in Group G, and in spite of a 1–0 home win against Chelsea, the club eventually finished third, being "demoted" to the UEFA Cup, where it would be ousted in the round of 16 by Romanian club Steaua București with a 0–3 home loss. Compared to the previous season, the league campaign was disappointing, with the club finishing in 14th place, just three points off the relegation zone.


title: Real Betis

text: Betis celebrated their centenary year in 2007. The festivities included a special match against Milan, the reigning European Champions, on August 9, with the hosts winning 1–0 thanks to a Mark González penalty early in the second half. Seven days later, the club won the Ramón de Carranza Trophy held in neighbouring Cádiz, beating Real Zaragoza on penalties in the final, having defeated Real Madrid in the semi-finals.


title: Real Betis

text: Surrounding the celebration, it was a time of great change in terms of the playing and technical teams, with eight new signings replacing 14 departures. In the summer of 2006, Sarra Ferrer was replaced by Luis Fernandez for the 2006–07 season. However, the two seasons that encompassed the centenary year (2006–07 and 2007–08) were disappointing, with the club having four different managers and barely avoiding relegation in both seasons.


title: Real Betis

text: After many years of staving off relegation, Betis' 2008–09 season culminated with a 1–1 draw against Real Valladolid at home. As a result, the club finished 18th in the table and consequently was relegated to the second division on goal difference.


title: Real Betis

text: On June 15, 2009, over 65,000 "Beticos", including icons such as Rafael Gordillo, Del Sol, Hipólito Rincón, Julio Cardeñosa and others, joined the protest march in Sevilla with the slogan ""15-J Yo Voy Betis"" to let the majority owner Ruiz de Lopera know that it was time to put his 54% share of the club on the market for someone, some entity or the Betis supporters to buy those shares and remove Lopera from the day-to-day operations of the club.


title: Real Betis

text: Despite the protests, no upper management changes were made during the season, which would ultimately see Betis fail to gain promotion back to the top level.


title: Real Betis

text: Seville judge Mercedes Alaya was investigating links between Betis and other Ruiz de Lopera-owned businesses, leading to him being formally charged with fraud. On July 7, 2010, one week before the start of preliminary court proceedings, Lopera sold 94% of the shares that he owned (51% of Betis total shares) to Bitton Sport, fronted by Luis Oliver, for the surprisingly low figure of €16 million, leaving Lopera with only minor shares; Oliver had already reportedly taken two football clubs, Cartagena and Xerez, to the brink of bankruptcy.


title: Real Betis

text: Before the sale could be officially sanctioned, however, Ayala froze Lopera shareholdings. Left with nothing, despite putting down a €1 million deposit, Oliver hastily bought a nominal number of shares from a third party and was voted onto the board of directors by the existing members (all former cohorts of Lopera), allowing him to carry on running the club. In response to this, the judge appointed well-respected former Betis, Real Madrid and Spain national team legend Rafael Gordillo to administrate Lopera's shares to ensure Lopera was not still running the club and that decisions made were for the benefit of the club not individual board members.


title: Real Betis

text: Again under Pepe Mel, Betis started 2011–12 with four wins in as many games, with Rubén Castro retaining his goal scoring form from the previous season, where he scored 27 goals. Betis finished 13th in their first season since returning to La Liga.


title: Real Betis

text: In the 2012–13 season, Betis finished seventh in La Liga and qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, the first European qualification for the club since the 2005–06 Champions League. This European campaign ended in the quarter-finals after losing on penalties to local rivals Sevilla. Betis were relegated from La Liga with three games still to play in the 2013–14 season, but returned immediately as champions with two games to spare.


title: Real Betis

text: In the 2017–18 season, under Quique Setién, Betis finished sixth in La Liga and earned a spot in the Europa League. The 2018–19 campaign was very positive; the club reached the Copa del Rey semi-finals and topped their group in the Europa League, before eventually being knocked out by Stade Rennais in the round of 32.


title: Real Betis

text: On April 23rd 2022, Betis won the Copa del Rey final against Valencia after drawing 1-1 after 120 minutes and winning 5-4 on penalties. It was the first trophy after 17 years, since they won their second Copa del Rey on 2005 against Osasuna (2-1).


title: Real Betis

text: Betis have a long-standing rivalry with city neighbours Sevilla FC. The two have met 114 times in official competition, with Sevilla holding a 45% win ratio over Betis (31%).


title: Real Betis

text: The first match between the two clubs took place on 8 February 1915, with Sevilla winning 4–3. The match was not completed, as high tensions led an aggressive crowd to invade the pitch, forcing the referee to abandon the match.


title: Real Betis

text: In 1916, the first "Copa Andalucía" was held, this being the first official derby of the Sevilla area. Of the 17 runnings of the cup, Sevilla were victorious 14 times, to Betis' one sole conquest; this included a 22–0 routing after the latter sent their youth team, in 1918.


title: Real Betis

text: The first time the teams met in league, in "Segunda", happened in 1928–29, with both teams winning their home matches (3–0 and 2–1). They played for the first time in the Spanish top division during the 1934–35 season, with a 0–3 home defeat for Sevilla and a 2–2 draw at Betis, with the latter winning the national championship.


title: Real Betis

text: On 17 January 1943, Betis lost 5–0 at Sevilla, eventually being relegated. In the first game held at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium, on 21 September 1958, the "Verdiblancos" won it 4–2.


title: Real Betis

text: In later years, several matches were also marred by violence, including: a security guard attacked by a Sevilla fan with a crutch (that he did not require to walk), Betis goalkeeper Toni Prats being attacked and Sevilla manager Juande Ramos being struck by a bottle of water; the latter incident led to the 2007 Copa del Rey match being suspended, being played out three weeks later in Getafe with no spectators.


title: Real Betis

text: On February 7, 2009, Betis won 2–1 at the Pizjuán, but was eventually relegated from the top flight, while Sevilla finished in third position.


title: Real Betis

text: On November 9, 2019, more than 10,000 Betis fans visited the team training before the last derby in 2019.


title: Real Betis

text: Real Betis were relegated from La Liga in the 1999–2000 season, but were promoted back on their first attempt.


title: Real Betis

text: Upon Real Betis' formation, the club played at the Campo del Huerto de Mariana. In 1909, Betis moved to the Campo del Prado de Santa Justa, moving to the Campo del Prado de San Sebastián, sharing the site with rivals Sevilla two years later. In 1918, Real Betis moved to the Campo del Patronato Obrero, with the first game at the ground coming against rivals Sevilla on 1 November 1918, resulting in a 5–1 loss for Real Betis. During the 1920s, the ground was redeveloped numerous times by club president Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. After the construction of the Estadio de la Exposición, the former name of Betis' current home, in 1929, Real Betis moved into the site officially in 1936, after playing a number of games at the stadium since its construction.


title: Real Betis

text: With a 60,720-seat capacity, the Estadio Benito Villamarín is the home ground of Real Betis. It was named "Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera" during the 2000s after the club's owner, who decided to build a new stadium over the old one.


title: Real Betis

text: Despite much planning, the stadium's renovation plans were constantly postponed, and half of it remained unchanged. On 27 October 2010, it returned to its first denomination after a decision by the club's associates.


title: Real Betis

text: In its initial years, Sevilla Balompié dressed in blue shirts with white shorts, which represented the infantry at the time. From late 1911, the team had adopted the shirts of Celtic, at that time vertical stripes of green and white, that were brought over from Glasgow by Manuel Asensio Ramos, who had studied in Scotland as a child. On 28 February 2017, on the 37th Andalusia Day, Real Betis wore Celtic-inspired hoops against Málaga CF.


title: Real Betis

text: When the team became Real Betis Balompié in 1914, various kits were used, including: yellow and black stripes; green T-shirts and a reversion to the blue top and white shorts uniform. By the end of the 1920s, Betis was once again sporting green and white stripes, around this time the Assembly of Ronda (1918) saw the Andalusian region formally adopt these colours, not being known how much the two are linked.


title: Real Betis

text: Together with the basic green-and-white shirt, Betis has wore both black and green shorts in addition to white shorts.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Olympus Has Fallen is a 2013 American action thriller film directed and co-produced by Antoine Fuqua from a screenplay written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, and is the first installment in the "Has Fallen" film series. The film stars Gerard Butler (who also co-produced), Aaron Eckhart, and Morgan Freeman with Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Cole Hauser, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, and Rick Yune in supporting roles. The plot depicts a North Korean-led guerrilla assault on the White House, and focuses on disgraced Secret Service agent Mike Banning's efforts to rescue U.S. President Benjamin Asher.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: The film was released in the United States on March 22, 2013, by FilmDistrict, and grossed $170 million against a $70 million production budget. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Fuqua's direction and Butler's performance, but criticized the overt violence and screenplay. "Olympus Has Fallen" was one of two films released in 2013 that depicted a terrorist attack against the White House; the other was "White House Down".


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: A sequel, titled "London Has Fallen", was released on March 4, 2016, with the principal cast members reprising their roles, and a third film, "Angel Has Fallen", was released on August 23, 2019.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Former U.S. Army Ranger, Mike Banning, is a Secret Service Agent and detail leader in the Presidential Protection Division, maintaining a personal, friendly relationship with President Benjamin Asher, First Lady Margaret, and their son Connor. On a snowy Christmas drive from Camp David to a campaign fundraiser, the Presidential Limo transporting the First Family spins out of control on an icy bridge. Banning pulls Asher from the vehicle, but Margaret falls to her death.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Eighteen months later, Banning works at the Treasury Department, having been removed from the presidential detail. During Asher's meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Lee Tae-Woo at the White House, the Koreans for United Freedom (KUF), a North Korean terrorist group led by Kang Yeonsak, mounts an air attack (with a USAF AC-130 gunship) and a large group of ground assault mercenaries to capture the building and kill most of the White House defense force. Aided by rogue members of the prime minister's own security detail, including ex-Secret Service Agent-turned-private security contractor Dave Forbes, they hold Asher and several top officials hostage in the PEOC, executing Lee on live video. Before being killed, Agent Roma alerts Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs that "Olympus has fallen." Banning joins the White House's defenders during KUF's initial assault. He falls back into the White House, disabling internal surveillance and using Asher's satellite earphone to contact Jacobs and Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull, now acting president, in the Pentagon's emergency briefing room, who authorize him to proceed.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Kang uses Asher's hostage status to force Trumbull to withdraw the Seventh Fleet and the U.S. Forces from the Korean Peninsula, removing American opposition to a third Korean War. He seeks to detonate the American nuclear arsenal to turn North America into an irradiated wasteland, as revenge for the death of his parents. To do this, he needs the access codes to the Cerberus system, held only by Asher, Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Joseph Hoenig, all of whom are inside the PEOC. Asher orders McMillan and Hoenig to reveal their codes to save their lives, certain that he will not give up his own code.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: After finding Connor hiding in the building's walls and sneaking him to safety, preventing Kang from using him to force Asher to reveal his Cerberus code, Banning kills several of the commandos, including Forbes. Army Chief of Staff General Edward Clegg convinces Trumbull to order an aerial U.S. Navy SEAL assault on the White House. The KUF discovers and decimates the assault force using the advanced Hydra 6 anti-aircraft system. Kang retaliates by executing Vice President Charlie Rodriguez.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Banning disables Kang's communications and provokes him into bringing several of his men into the open, killing them when they attempt to execute McMillan in front of the media and before they can retreat back to the bunker. With the KUF dwindling, Kang fakes his and Asher's death by sacrificing several of his commandos and the remaining hostages in a helicopter explosion; Banning sees through the ruse. With two codes already in hand, Kang eventually cracks Asher's code using a brute-force attack and activates Cerberus. Banning ambushes and kills Kang's remaining men when they attempt to escape with Asher. In the ensuing fight, Asher is shot, but Banning eventually stabs Kang in the head, killing him. Informed by Asher about Cerberus, Banning deactivates it with the assistance of Trumbull and his staff.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Banning escorts Asher out of the White House to receive medical attention. Afterwards, Banning is reinstated to the head of the president's security detail as Asher speaks about the aftermath of the attack, assuring that America will prevail.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: In addition, the MSNBC news anchor Lawrence O'Donnell appears, uncredited, as an unnamed news anchor reporting on the developments in Washington, D.C.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: "Olympus Has Fallen" was directed by Antoine Fuqua, based on a script by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt in their first screenwriting effort. The production company Millennium Films acquired the spec script in March 2012, and Gerard Butler was cast later in the month as the star of the film. The rest of the characters were cast throughout June and July.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: In 2012, Millennium Films competed against Sony Pictures, which was producing "White House Down" (a twin film about a takeover of the White House) to complete casting and begin filming.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Filming began in Shreveport, Louisiana, in mid-July 2012. Because "Olympus Has Fallen" was filmed so far from its actual setting of Washington, D.C., the entire production relied heavily upon visual effects, particularly computer-generated imagery. For example, computers were used to create nearly all of the opening sequence in which the First Lady is killed in a car accident, with chroma key greenscreen technology used to composite the actors into the computer-generated snowy scenery. For scenes where actors walked in or out of the White House, a first-floor façade and entrance were built; computers added the second floor, roof, and downtown D.C. cityscape. Action scenes with the White House in the background were filmed in open fields and the White House and D.C. were added in post-production.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: The score was composed by Trevor Morris whose past projects included "The Tudors" and "The Borgias". The score was recorded at Trevor Morris Studios in Santa Monica with the Bratislava Slovak National Orchestra.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: "Olympus Has Fallen" was released in the United States on , 2013. It was initially scheduled for an , 2013 release, but moved to avoid competition with "The Heat", which was to open at the same time (its release was later pushed back to June 28). FilmDistrict distributed the film.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: The film's trailer was criticized for using the Emergency Alert System, and several cable companies were fined by the Federal Communications Commission for airing the ad.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: The film was released to home video in the United States on DVD and Blu-ray formats on August 13, 2013. It earned $38.2 million in video rental sales in the U.S.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: A lawsuit was filed in 2013 by John S. Green against Rothenberger alleging Green was the source of the film's characters and material. Rothenberger countersued, seeking a declaration that he was sole author. The case was eventually settled for $175,000, with Rothenberger retaining the rights to the film.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: In July 2021, star/producer Gerard Butler sued Nu Image/Millennium Films for $10 million, claiming that the company had understated the film's domestic gross by $17.5 million, as well as failed to report $8 million that went to its own executives. Butler's contract had entitled him to 10% of net profits.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: "Olympus Has Fallen" grossed $98.9 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $71.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $170.2 million, against a budget of $70 million.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: In its first weekend the film grossed $30.5 million, finishing second at the box office and exceeded predictions of $23 million.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 200 reviews, and an average rating of 5.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It's far from original, but "Olympus Has Fallen" benefits from Antoine Fuqua's tense direction and a strong performance from Gerard Butler—which might be just enough for action junkies." Metacritic assigns the film a weighted average score of 41 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Katey Rich of "CinemaBlend" praised the "lean low-budget approach", and called the film "both captivating and queasy". Richard Roeper gave the film a C, calling it "just too much of a pale "Die Hard" ripoff". David Edelstein was more negative; while praising Butler's role as a "solid" character, he criticized the script and the violence, writing ""Olympus Has Fallen" is a disgusting piece of work, but it certainly hits its marks—it makes you sick with suspense".


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett and Radha Mitchell returned for a sequel titled "London Has Fallen" revolving around a major terrorist strike on London during the funeral of the British Prime Minister. Production was scheduled to begin in May 2014 in London, with Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt returning to write the script. Director Antoine Fuqua did not return, due to his commitments to "The Equalizer".


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: On May 1, 2014, it was announced that Focus Features had acquired distribution rights to the sequel and would release it on October 2, 2015, though this was later pushed back to January 22, 2016. However, the film's release was delayed to March 4, 2016. On August 18, 2014, it was announced that Fredrik Bond would direct, but he left the film on September 18, just six weeks before shooting was set to begin. On September 28, it was announced that Babak Najafi would direct.


title: Olympus Has Fallen

text: On October 10, 2014, it was announced that Jackie Earle Haley would join the cast. Filming for the sequel began on October 24, 2014. The film was released on March 4, 2016.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853, the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Upstate New York, Fillmore was elected as the 12th vice president of the United States in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency in July 1850 upon the death of U.S. President Zachary Taylor. Fillmore was instrumental in the passing of the Compromise of 1850, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852 but gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later and finished third in the 1856 presidential election.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Fillmore was born into poverty in the Finger Lakes area of New York State, and his parents were tenant farmers during his formative years. Though he had little formal schooling, he rose from poverty by diligent study to become a successful attorney. He became prominent in the Buffalo area as an attorney and politician, and he was elected to the New York Assembly in 1828 and to the House of Representatives in 1832. Initially, he belonged to the Anti-Masonic Party, but he became a member of the Whig Party as formed in the mid-1830s. He was a rival for the state party leadership with the editor Thurlow Weed and Weed's protégé, William H. Seward. Throughout his career, Fillmore declared slavery an evil but that it was beyond the powers of the federal government. Seward was openly hostile to slavery and argued that the federal government had a role to play in ending it. Fillmore was an unsuccessful candidate for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives when the Whigs took control of the chamber in 1841, but he was made the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Defeated in bids for the Whig nomination for vice president in 1844 and for New York governor the same year, Fillmore was elected Comptroller of New York in 1847, the first to hold that post by direct election.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: As vice president, Fillmore was largely ignored by Taylor, and even in the dispensing of patronage in New York, Taylor consulted Weed and Seward. In his capacity as president of the Senate, however, Fillmore presided over the Senate's angry debates, as the 31st Congress decided whether to allow slavery in the Mexican Cession. Fillmore, unlike Taylor, supported Henry Clay's omnibus bill, which was the basis of the 1850 Compromise. Upon becoming president in July 1850, Fillmore dismissed Taylor's cabinet and pushed Congress to pass the compromise. The Fugitive Slave Act, expediting the return of escaped slaves to those who claimed ownership, was a controversial part of the compromise. Fillmore felt duty-bound to enforce it despite its damage to the popularity of both himself and the Whig Party, which was torn between its Northern and Southern factions. In foreign policy Fillmore supported U.S. Navy expeditions to open trade in Japan, opposed French designs on Hawaii, and was embarrassed by Narciso López's filibuster expeditions to Cuba. Fillmore sought the Whig nomination to a full term in 1852 but was passed over by the Whigs in favor of Winfield Scott.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: As the Whig Party broke up after Fillmore's presidency, many in his conservative wing joined the Know Nothings and formed the American Party. In his 1856 candidacy Fillmore had little to say about immigration, focused instead on the preservation of the Union, and won only Maryland. During the American Civil War, Fillmore denounced secession and agreed that the Union must be maintained by force if necessary, but he was critical of Abraham Lincoln's war policies. After peace was restored, he supported the Reconstruction policies of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. Fillmore remained involved in civic interests in retirement, including as chancellor of the University of Buffalo, which he had helped found in 1846.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Historians and political scientists consistently rank Fillmore as one of the worst presidents in American history, largely for his policies regarding American slavery. His association with the Know-Nothing Party and his support of President Johnson's reconstruction policies in later life further tarnished his reputation and legacy.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800, in a log cabin, on a farm in what is now Moravia, Cayuga County, in the Finger Lakes region of New York. His parents were Phoebe Millard and Nathaniel Fillmore, and he was the second of eight children and the oldest son.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Nathaniel Fillmore was the son of Nathaniel Fillmore Sr. (1739–1814), a native of Franklin, Connecticut, who became one of the earliest settlers of Bennington, Vermont, when it was founded in the territory that was then called the New Hampshire Grants.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard moved from Vermont in 1799 and sought better opportunities than were available on Nathaniel's stony farm, but the title to their Cayuga County land proved defective, and the Fillmore family moved to nearby Sempronius, where they leased land as tenant farmers, and Nathaniel occasionally taught school. The historian Tyler Anbinder described Fillmore's childhood as "one of hard work, frequent privation, and virtually no formal schooling".


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Over time Nathaniel became more successful in Sempronius, but during Millard's formative years, the family endured severe poverty. Nathaniel became sufficiently regarded that he was chosen to serve in local offices, including justice of the peace. Hoping that his oldest son would learn a trade, he convinced Millard, who was 14, not to enlist for the War of 1812 and apprenticed him to clothmaker Benjamin Hungerford in Sparta. Fillmore was relegated to menial labor, and unhappy at not learning any skills, he left Hungerford's employ.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: His father then placed him in the same trade at a mill in New Hope. Seeking to better himself, Millard bought a share in a circulating library and read all the books that he could. In 1819 he took advantage of idle time at the mill to enroll at a new academy in the town, where he met a classmate, Abigail Powers, and fell in love with her.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Later in 1819 Nathaniel moved the family to Montville, a hamlet of Moravia. Appreciating his son's talents, Nathaniel followed his wife's advice and persuaded Judge Walter Wood, the Fillmores' landlord and the wealthiest person in the area, to allow Millard to be his law clerk for a trial period. Wood agreed to employ young Fillmore and to supervise him as he read law. Fillmore earned money teaching school for three months and bought out his mill apprenticeship. He left Wood after eighteen months; the judge had paid him almost nothing, and both quarreled after Fillmore had, unaided, earned a small sum by advising a farmer in a minor lawsuit. Refusing to pledge not to do so again, Fillmore gave up his clerkship. Nathaniel again moved the family, and Millard accompanied it west to East Aurora, in Erie County, near Buffalo, where Nathaniel purchased a farm that became prosperous.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: In 1821 Fillmore turned 21, reaching adulthood. He taught school in East Aurora and accepted a few cases in justice of the peace courts, which did not require the practitioner to be a licensed attorney. He moved to Buffalo the following year and continued his study of law, first while he taught school and then in the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. Meanwhile, he also became engaged to Abigail Powers. In 1823 he was admitted to the bar, declined offers from Buffalo law firms, and returned to East Aurora to establish a practice as the town's only resident lawyer. Later in life, Fillmore said he had initially lacked the self-confidence to practice in the larger city of Buffalo. His biographer, Paul Finkelman, suggested that after being under others' thumbs all his life, Fillmore enjoyed the independence of his East Aurora practice. Millard and Abigail wed on February 5, 1826. They had two children, Millard Powers Fillmore (1828–1889) and Mary Abigail Fillmore (1832–1854).


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Other members of the Fillmore family were active in politics and government in addition to Nathaniel's service as a justice of the peace. Millard also became interested in politics, and the rise of the Anti-Masonic Party in the late 1820s provided his entry.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Many Anti-Masons were opposed to the presidential candidacy of General Andrew Jackson, who was a Mason. Fillmore was a delegate to the New York convention that endorsed President John Quincy Adams for re-election and also served at two Anti-Masonic conventions in the summer of 1828. At the conventions, Fillmore and one of the early political bosses, the newspaper editor Thurlow Weed, met and impressed each other. Fillmore was the leading citizen in East Aurora, having successfully sought election to the New York State Assembly, and served in Albany for three one-year terms (1829 to 1831). Fillmore's 1828 election contrasted the victories of the Jacksonian Democrats (soon the Democrats), who swept the general into the White House and their party to a majority in Albany and so Fillmore was in the minority in the Assembly. He proved effective anyway by promoting legislation to provide court witnesses the option of taking a non-religious oath and, in 1830, abolishing imprisonment for debt. By then much of Fillmore's legal practice was in Buffalo, and later that year he moved there with his family. He did not seek re-election in 1831.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Fillmore was also successful as a lawyer. Buffalo was then rapidly expanding, recovering from British conflagration during the War of 1812, and becoming the western terminus of the Erie Canal. Court cases from outside Erie County began falling to Fillmore's lot, and he reached prominence as a lawyer in Buffalo before he moved there. He took his lifelong friend Nathan K. Hall as a law clerk in East Aurora. Hall later became Fillmore's partner in Buffalo and his postmaster general during Fillmore's presidency. Buffalo was legally a village when Fillmore arrived, and although the bill to incorporate it as a city passed the legislature after he had left the Assembly, Fillmore helped draft the city charter.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: In addition to his legal practice Fillmore helped found the Buffalo High School Association, joined the lyceum, attended the local Unitarian church, and became a leading citizen of Buffalo. He was also active in the New York Militia and attained the rank of major as inspector of the 47th Brigade.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: In 1832 Fillmore ran successfully for the U.S. House of Representatives. The Anti-Masonic presidential candidate, William Wirt, a former attorney general, won only Vermont, and President Jackson easily gained re-election. At the time, Congress convened its annual session in December and so Fillmore had to wait more than a year after his election to take his seat. Fillmore, Weed, and others realized that opposition to Masonry was too narrow a foundation to build a national party. They formed the broad-based Whig Party from National Republicans, Anti-Masons, and disaffected Democrats. The Whigs were initially united by their opposition to Jackson but became a major party by expanding their platform to include support for economic growth through rechartering the Second Bank of the United States and federally-funded internal improvements, including roads, bridges, and canals. Weed had joined the Whigs before Fillmore and became a power within the party, and Weed's anti-slavery views were stronger than those of Fillmore, who disliked slavery but considered the federal government powerless over it. They were closer to those of another prominent New York Whig, William H. Seward of Auburn, who was also seen as a Weed protégé.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: In Washington Fillmore urged the expansion of Buffalo harbor, a decision under federal jurisdiction, and he privately lobbied Albany for the expansion of the state-owned Erie Canal. Even during the 1832 campaign, Fillmore's affiliation as an Anti-Mason had been uncertain, and he rapidly shed the label once sworn in. Fillmore came to the notice of the influential Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster, who took the new representative under his wing. Fillmore became a firm supporter, and they continued their close relationship until Webster's death late in Fillmore's presidency. Despite Fillmore's support of the Second Bank as a means for national development, he did not speak in the congressional debates in which some advocated renewing its charter although Jackson had vetoed legislation for a charter renewal. Fillmore supported building infrastructure by voting in favor of navigation improvements on the Hudson River and constructing a bridge across the Potomac River.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Anti-Masonry was still strong in Western New York though it was petering out nationally. When the Anti-Masons did not nominate him for a second term in 1834, Fillmore declined the Whig nomination, seeing that the two parties would split the anti-Jackson vote and elect the Democrat. Despite Fillmore's departure from office, he was a rival for the state party leadership with Seward, the unsuccessful 1834 Whig gubernatorial candidate. Fillmore spent his time out of office building his law practice and boosting the Whig Party, which gradually absorbed most of the Anti-Masons. By 1836 Fillmore was confident enough of anti-Jackson unity that he accepted the Whig nomination for Congress. Democrats, led by their presidential candidate, Vice President Martin Van Buren, were victorious nationwide and in Van Buren's home state of New York, but Western New York voted Whig and sent Fillmore back to Washington.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Van Buren, faced with the economic Panic of 1837, which was caused partly by the lack of confidence in private banknote issues after Jackson had instructed the government to accept only gold or silver, called a special session of Congress. Government money had been held in so-called "pet banks" since Jackson had withdrawn it from the Second Bank. Van Buren proposed to place funds in sub-treasuries, government depositories that would not lend money. Believing that government funds should be lent to develop the country, Fillmore felt it would lock the nation's limited supply of gold money away from commerce. Van Buren's sub-treasury and other economic proposals passed, but as hard times continued, the Whigs saw an increased vote in the 1837 elections and captured the New York Assembly, which set up a fight for the 1838 gubernatorial nomination. Fillmore supported the leading Whig vice-presidential candidate from 1836, Francis Granger, but Weed preferred Seward.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Fillmore was embittered when Weed got the nomination for Seward but campaigned loyally, Seward was elected, and Fillmore won another term in the House.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: The rivalry between Fillmore and Seward was affected by the growing anti-slavery movement. Although Fillmore disliked slavery, he saw no reason for it to be a political issue. Seward, however, was hostile to slavery and made it clear in his actions as governor by refusing to return slaves claimed by Southerners. When the Buffalo bar proposed Fillmore for the position of vice-chancellor of the eighth judicial district in 1839, Seward refused, nominated Frederick Whittlesey, and indicated that if the New York Senate rejected Whittlesey he still would not appoint Fillmore.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Fillmore was active in the discussions of presidential candidates which preceded the Whig National Convention for the 1840 race. He initially supported General Winfield Scott but really wanted to defeat Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, a slaveholder who he felt could not carry New York State. Fillmore did not attend the convention but was gratified when it nominated General William Henry Harrison for president, with former Virginia Senator John Tyler his running mate. Fillmore organized Western New York for the Harrison campaign, and the national ticket was elected, and Fillmore easily gained a fourth term in the House.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: At the urging of Clay, Harrison quickly called a special session of Congress. With the Whigs able to organize the House for the first time, Fillmore sought the Speakership, but it went to a Clay acolyte, John White of Kentucky. Nevertheless, Fillmore was made chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Harrison was expected to go along with anything Clay and other congressional Whig leaders proposed, but Harrison died on April 4, 1841. Vice President Tyler was elevated to the presidency; the onetime maverick Democrat soon broke with Clay over congressional proposals for a national bank to stabilize the currency, which he vetoed twice and so was expelled from the Whig Party. Fillmore remained on the fringes of that conflict by generally supporting the congressional Whig position, but his chief achievement as Ways and Means chairman was the Tariff of 1842. The existing tariff did not protect manufacturing, and part of the revenue was distributed to the states, a decision made in better times that was now depleting the Treasury. Fillmore prepared a bill raising tariff rates that was popular in the country, but the continuation of distribution assured Tyler's veto and much political advantage for the Whigs. A House committee, headed by Massachusetts's John Quincy Adams, condemned Tyler's actions. Fillmore prepared a second bill, now omitting distribution. When it reached Tyler's desk, he signed it but, in the process, offended his erstwhile Democratic allies. Thus Fillmore not only achieved his legislative goal but also managed to isolate Tyler politically.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Fillmore received praise for the tariff, but in July 1842 he announced he would not seek re-election. The Whigs nominated him anyway, but he refused the nomination. Tired of Washington life and the conflict that had revolved around Tyler, Fillmore sought to return to his life and law practice in Buffalo. He continued to be active in the lame duck session of Congress that followed the 1842 elections and returned to Buffalo in April 1843. According to his biographer, Scarry, "Fillmore concluded his Congressional career at a point when he had become a powerful figure, an able statesman at the height of his popularity."


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Out of office, Fillmore continued his law practice and made long-neglected repairs to his Buffalo home. He remained a major political figure and led the committee of notables that welcomed John Quincy Adams to Buffalo. The former president expressed his regret at Fillmore's absence from the halls of Congress. Some urged Fillmore to run for vice president with Clay, the consensus Whig choice for president in 1844. Horace Greeley wrote privately that "my own first choice has long been Millard Fillmore," and others thought Fillmore should try to win back the governor's mansion for the Whigs. Seeking to return to Washington, Fillmore wanted the vice presidency.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Fillmore hoped to gain the endorsement of the New York delegation to the national convention, but Weed wanted the vice presidency for Seward, with Fillmore as governor. Seward, however, withdrew before the 1844 Whig National Convention. When Weed's replacement vice presidential hopeful, Willis Hall, fell ill, Weed sought to defeat Fillmore's candidacy to force him to run for governor. Weed's attempts to boost Fillmore as a gubernatorial candidate caused the latter to write, "I am not willing to be treacherously killed by this pretended kindness... do not suppose for a minute that I think they desire my nomination for governor." New York sent a delegation to the convention in Baltimore pledged to support Clay but with no instructions as to how to vote for vice president. Weed told out-of-state delegates that the New York party preferred to have Fillmore as its gubernatorial candidate, and after Clay was nominated for president, the second place on the ticket fell to former New Jersey senator Theodore Frelinghuysen.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Putting a good face on his defeat, Fillmore met and publicly appeared with Frelinghuysen and quietly spurned Weed's offer to get him nominated as governor at the state convention. Fillmore's position in opposing slavery only at the state level made him acceptable as a statewide Whig candidate, and Weed saw to it the pressure on Fillmore increased. Fillmore had stated that a convention had the right to draft anyone for political service, and Weed got the convention to choose Fillmore, who had broad support, despite his reluctance.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: The Democrats nominated Senator Silas Wright as their gubernatorial candidate and former Tennessee Governor James K. Polk for president. Although Fillmore worked to gain support among German-Americans, a major constituency, he was hurt among immigrants by the fact that in New York City, Whigs had supported a nativist candidate in the mayoral election earlier in 1844, and Fillmore and his party were tarred with that brush. He was not friendly to immigrants and blamed his defeat on "foreign Catholics". Clay was beaten as well. Fillmore's biographer Paul Finkelman suggested that Fillmore's hostility to immigrants and his weak position on slavery had defeated him for governor.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: In 1846 Fillmore was involved in the founding of what is now the University at Buffalo (earlier the University of Buffalo), became its first chancellor, and served until his death in 1874. He had opposed the annexation of Texas, spoke against the subsequent Mexican–American War, and saw the war as a contrivance to extend slavery's realm. Fillmore was angered when President Polk vetoed a river and harbors bill that would have benefited Buffalo, and he wrote, "May God save the country for it is evident the people will not." At the time, New York governors served a two-year term, and Fillmore could have had the Whig nomination in 1846 had he wanted it. He actually came within one vote of it while he maneuvered to get the nomination for his supporter, John Young, who was elected. A new constitution for New York State provided the office of comptroller to be made elective, as were the attorney general and some other positions that were formerly chosen by the state legislature. Fillmore's work in finance as the Ways and Means chairman made him an obvious candidate for comptroller, and he was successful in getting the Whig nomination for the 1847 election. With a united party at his back, Fillmore won by 38,000 votes, the largest margin that a Whig candidate for statewide office would ever achieve in New York.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Before moving to Albany to take office on January 1, 1848, he had left his law firm and rented out his house. Fillmore received positive reviews for his service as comptroller. In that office he was a member of the state canal board, supported its expansion, and saw that it was managed competently. He secured an enlargement of Buffalo's canal facilities. The comptroller regulated the banks, and Fillmore stabilized the currency by requiring that state-chartered banks keep New York and federal bonds to the value of the banknotes they issued. A similar plan was adopted by Congress in 1864.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: President Polk had pledged not to seek a second term, and with gains in Congress during the 1846 election cycle, the Whigs were hopeful of taking the White House in 1848. The party's perennial candidates, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, both wanted the nomination and amassed support from congressional colleagues. Many rank-and-file Whigs backed the Mexican War hero, General Zachary Taylor, for president. Although Taylor was extremely popular, many Northerners had qualms about electing a Louisiana slaveholder at a time of sectional tension over whether slavery should be allowed in the territories that had been ceded by Mexico. Taylor's uncertain political views gave others pause: his career in the Army had prevented him from ever casting a ballot for president though he stated that he was a Whig supporter. Some feared that they might elect another Tyler, or another Harrison.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: With the nomination undecided, Weed maneuvered for New York to send an uncommitted delegation to the 1848 Whig National Convention in Philadelphia in the hope of being a kingmaker in a position to place ex-Governor Seward on the ticket or to get him a high federal office. He persuaded Fillmore to support an uncommitted ticket but did not tell the Buffalonian of his hopes for Seward. Weed was an influential editor with whom Fillmore tended to co-operate for the greater good of the Whig Party. However, Weed had sterner opponents, including Governor Young, who disliked Seward and did not want to see him gain high office.


title: Millard Fillmore

text: Despite Weed's efforts, Taylor was nominated on the fourth ballot, to the anger of Clay's supporters and of Conscience Whigs from the Northeast. When order had been restored, John A. Collier, a New Yorker who opposed Weed, addressed the convention. Delegates hung on his every word as he described himself as a Clay partisan; he had voted for Clay on each ballot. He eloquently described the grief of the Clay supporters, frustrated again in their battle to make Clay president. Collier warned of a fatal breach in the party and said that only one thing could prevent it: the nomination of Fillmore for vice president, whom he depicted incorrectly as a strong Clay supporter. Fillmore actually agreed with many of Clay's positions but did not back him for president and was not in Philadelphia. Delegates did not know what Collier had said was false or at least greatly exaggerated and there was a large reaction in Fillmore's favor. At the time, the presidential candidate did not automatically pick his running mate, and despite the efforts of Taylor's managers to get the nomination for their choice, Abbott Lawrence of Massachusetts, Fillmore became the Whig nominee for vice president on the second ballot.