Carmen Serdán

María del Carmen Serdán Alatriste (11 November 1873 – 21 August 1948), commonly known as Carmen Serdán, was a Mexican revolutionary, nurse, and journalist. She played a prominent early role in the Mexican Revolution, particularly in the anti-reelectionist movement supporting Francisco I. Madero against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz.

She collaborated closely with her siblings Aquiles, , and Natalia in organizing resistance in Puebla, participating in propaganda efforts, weapons smuggling, and direct combat, when her family home became the site of the first armed clash of the Revolution, two days before the planned national uprising.

Early life María del Carmen Serdán Alatriste was born on 11 November 1873 in Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla, the eldest child of Manuel Serdán Guanes and María del Carmen Alatriste Cuesta. Her family had deep liberal roots. Her maternal grandfather, , served as the liberal governor of Puebla during the reform era and the French intervertion in Mexico. Her father was involved in drafting the progressive Ley del Pueblo, an early agrarian reform manifesto.

Little is documented about her childhood beyond attendance at a private girls' school run by Teresian Sisters, distributed copies of Madero’s Plan de San Luis Potosí, and spread revolutionary propaganda.

While her brother Aquiles was in exile in San Antonio, Texas, she maintained coded communications with him and sometimes used the male pseudonym "Marcos Serrato" for newspapers publications and correspondence.

Raid on the Serdán family house 1910 broadside reporting Police Chief Cabrera's death. Carmen is depicted firing a handgun from the balcony. On 18 November 1910, two days before the planned national uprising outlined in Madero's Plan of San Luis Potosí, federal police under the command of Miguel Cabrera attacked the Serdán family home, after learning it was an arms cache. Carmen, her siblings, her mother, her sister-in-law and a small group of supporters took up arms in defense.

Armed with a rifle, Carmen fired from the balcony, killing Cabrera as she reportedly shouted encouragements to the people of Puebla to join the fight.

Schools, streets, and cultural institutions across Mexico bear her name.

Soon after her death, the Chamber of Deputies held a solemn session on 26 November 1948 and, to honor her as "paradigm of Mexican women's heroism", inscribed her name in gold letters on the walls of the session room of the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro, the main seat of the legislative power of the Mexican government.

Her family home in Puebla's historic center was declared a national monument and inaugurated on 18 November 1960 by President Adolfo López Mateos as the . Her remains, originally buried in Puebla's municipal cemetery, were transferred in 1968 to the Serdán family mausoleum and then relocated inside the museum in 2017, where they rest today alongside those of her siblings.

In 2020, the Congress of the State of Puebla declared Carmen and her sister Natalia Beneméritas de Puebla (Distinguished Citizens)