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Up from Obscurity. In 1936 he formed a friendship with young Miguel Alemán (who was twelve years his junior) that lifted him from bureaucratic obscurity to high office. Alemán saw use for the older man's efficiency and administrative know-how ; Ruiz Cortines admired Alemán's energy and imagination. As Alemán rose from governor of Veracruz to Interior Minister, he took Ruiz Cortines along as administrative assistant. Then, when the governorship of Veracruz became vacant in 1943, Alemán helped get the job for his faithful friend.
As governor, Ruiz Cortines made a sound, unsensational record. He appointed commissions to check all state bureaus for graft, and he doubled the state's meager funds by cajoling laggard taxpayers into paying up. At Jalapa, the state capital, he lived in a small cottage outside town and walked to work. Once, when he stopped at a resort hotel in Fortin, he was given a suite. He asked the rate and was told it was 100 pesos. "Don't you think I can solve my problems just as well for 25 pesos?" he asked, and moved to a single room. His happiest days were spent on visits to his native Veracruz. There he would stroll about exchanging greetings with boyhood friends, or sit under the arcades at the old whitewashed Diligencias Hotel, playing dominoes.
Called to Mexico City by President Alemán to become Interior Minister in 1948, Ruiz Cortines filled the top Mexican Cabinet post with his usual unobtrusive efficiency. He bought a modest house in a conservative middle-class district, where he lived quietly and decorously with his second wife and his son and daughter by his first marriage (which ended in divorce in 1933). He drove his own car and often walked to work, stopping at a street stand along the way for a drink of tamarind juice. Surrounded by flashy ministers deep in all sorts of deals, Ruiz Cortines held his peace. But once, after hearing of one official's latest coup, he remarked: "I can't understand it. He has so much money. Why does he go after more?"
Down to Business. Inaugural day, Dec. i, was a great day in Ruiz Cortines' life. That was the day that he became boss; the man who had always been in second place moved into first. As the red, green and white sash of the presidency was draped across his chest, observers noted that his hand moved gently across the silk and his deep-set brown eyes lit up. Then he stepped confidently to the rostrum and spoke words that soon wiped the big smile off the face of Miguel Alemán. "Government-protected monopolies must end," said the new President. "I will demand strict honesty from all. I will be inflexible with public officials who are not honest."