The Revolution and Its Specters: Staging the Popular in the Mexican Revolution

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Horacio Legras
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

When did Francisco I. Madero Decide on Revolution?

1974 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry W. Knudson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Ciudad Juarez ◽  
News Story ◽  
Porfirio Diaz ◽  
Difficult Question ◽  
Written Questions ◽  
The Revolution

A surprisingly frank letter from Francisco I. Madero, political figurehead of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, to New York publisher William Randolph Hearst casts new light on the difficult question of when Madero finally opted for revolution to topple the 35-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911).The letter was dated April 25, 1911, when Madero was with insurrectionary troops fighting at Ciudad Juárez. It contained Madero's responses to some written questions on his role in the Revolution submitted by Hearst through Sonunerfield, an American consular official in Mexico. Madero's answers were to form the basis for a news story in the Hearst newspapers.

Photography and Cinema in 20th-Century Mexico

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mraz
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Mexican Society ◽  
International Audience ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Revolution

Photography, film, and other forms of technical imagery were incorporated quickly into Mexican society upon their respective arrivals, joining other visual expressions such as murals and folk art, demonstrating the primacy of the ocular in this culture. Photojournalism began around 1900, and has formed a pillar of Mexican photography, appearing in illustrated magazines and the numerous picture histories that have been produced. A central bifurcation in the photography of Mexico (by both Mexicans and foreigners) has been that of the picturesque and the anti-picturesque. Followers of the former tendency, such as Hugo Brehme, depict Mexicans as a product of nature, an expression of the vestiges left by pre-Columbian civilizations, the colony, and underdevelopment; for them, Mexico is an essence that has been made once and for all time. Those that are opposed to such essentialism, such as Manuel Álvarez Bravo, choose instead to posit that Mexicans are a product of historical experiences. The Mexican Revolution has been a central figure in both photography and cinema. The revolution was much photographed and filmed when it occurred, and that material has formed the base of many picture histories, often formed with the archive of Agustín Víctor Casasola, as well as with documentary films. Moreover, the revolution has been the subject of feature films. With the institutionalization of the revolution, governments became increasingly conservative, and the celebrity stars of “Golden Age” cinema provided models for citizenship; these films circulated widely throughout the Spanish speaking world. Although the great majority of photojournalists followed the line of the party dictatorship, there were several critical photographers who questioned the government, among them Nacho López, Héctor García, and the Hermanos Mayo. The Tlaltelolco massacre of 1968 was a watershed, from which was born a different journalism that offered space for the critical imagery of daily life by the New Photojounalists. Moreover, the representation of the massacre in cinema offered sharply contrasting viewpoints. Mexican cineastes have received much recognition in recent years, although they do not appear to be making Mexican films. Television in Mexico is controlled by a duopoly, but some programs have reached an international audience comparable to that of the Golden Age cinema.

The Mexican Revolution, 1910–1946

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Buchenau
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Central State ◽  
Porfirio Diaz ◽  
Significant Achievement ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Political Realignment ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was the first major social revolution of the 20th century. Its causes included, among others, the authoritarian rule of dictator Porfirio Díaz, the seizure of millions of acres of indigenous village lands by wealthy hacendados and foreign investors, and the growing divide between the rich and the poor. As a result of these varied causes and Mexico’s strong social and regional divisions, the revolution against Díaz lacked ideological focus. The revolutionaries ousted Díaz within six months but could not agree on the new social and political order and—after a failed attempt at democracy—ended up fighting among themselves in a bitter civil war. In 1917, the victorious Constitutionalist faction crafted a landmark constitution, the first in the world to enshrine social rights and limit the rights of private, and particularly foreign capital. Although never fully implemented and partially repealed in the 1990s, the document remains the most significant achievement of the revolution. After 1920, a succession of revolutionary generals gradually centralized political power until the election of a civilian presidential candidate in 1946. This effort at state building confronted significant resistance from popular groups, regional warlords, and disaffected leaders who had lost out in the political realignment. In the end, the symbolic significance of the revolution exceeded its political and social outcomes. While fundamentally agrarian in nature, the revolution thus ultimately produced a new national elite that gradually restored a strong central state. One can easily divide the revolution into a military (1910–1917) and a reconstructive phase (1917–1946). However, the latter phase witnessed an important generational shift that transferred political power from the leaders of the military phase to their subordinates as well as civilian representatives, with the formation of a revolutionary ruling party in 1929 serving as the most important watershed moment in this process. Therefore, this essay distinguishes among three separate phases: insurrection and civil war (1910–1917); reconstruction (1917–1929); and institutionalization (1929–1946).

The Mexican Revolution and Health Care or the Health of the Mexican Revolution

1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Horn
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Social System ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Revolution

Despite a victorious social revolution, a self-proclaimed “revolutionary” government, and a significant post-war economic growth, Mexico has not achieved a just or equitable social system. The Mexican Revolution led to the emergence of a new bureaucratic class whose “trickle-down” development strategy sacrificed social welfare to capital accumulation. Mexican morbidity and mortality patterns resemble those of more impoverished developing nations without revolutionary experience. The patterns of health care in Mexico reflect inequities and contradictions in the society and economy at large and flow from the erosion of the egalitarian aims of the revolution concomitant with the expansion of capitalism and the concentration of the benefits of “modernization” in the hands of privileged elites. Mexico's health problems are symptomatic of a general socio-economic malaise which questions the legitimacy of the Revolution.

Calculating Pragmatism:The High Politics of the Banco Ejidal in Twentieth-century Mexico

2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-363
Author(s):  
Nicole Mottier
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Agricultural Growth ◽  
Lazaro Cardenas ◽  
High Politics ◽  
The Revolution

The battles that peasants waged during the Mexican Revolution translated into a series of agrarian and agricultural institutions, and one of these was the Banco Nacional de Crédito Ejidal, created in 1926. Histories deeply engrained in both the popular imagination of Mexico and scholarly historiography have offered a generic classic narrative of ejidal credit, beginning with Lázaro Cárdenas. He and his cabinet sought to transform theejidointo the engine of agricultural growth for the nation and carried out a sweeping and (in qualified ways) successful land reform, thereby bringing the revolution to the fullest fruition many Mexicans would ever know. It is assumed that ejidal credit peaked during Cárdenas's administration in two major ways: first, it was in this period that ejidal credit societies received the most loans from the Banco Nacional del Crédito Ejidal, and second, it was during the same period that the bank clearly and unanimously embraced social reform goals over orthodox banking goals.

The Indigenista Novel and the Mexican Revolution

1977 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 652-660
Author(s):  
Donald L. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Mexican Society ◽  
National Life ◽  
The Revolution

Of all the issues raised by the Mexican Revolution, none has stimulated artistic creativity more than that of the Indian, his past, his culture and his exclusion from the mainstream of national life. At the same time, no artistic form provides so thorough a treatment of these issues as the indigenista novel.While the Revolution was not launched by Indians, nor were their interests initially central to it, as it developed their problems became a natural and important issue in the reorganization of Mexican society. As one writer observes: “in attempting to organize Mexican society, the mestizo revolutionary has had no other choice but to take into consideration the indigenous factor, so that although the Revolution was not the work of the Indian, in certain ways it has been for his benefit.”2

The Climate of Conflict: Politico-environmental Press Coverage and the Eruption of the Mexican Revolution, 1907–1911

2019 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-499
Author(s):  
Mikael D. Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Climatological Data ◽  
Porfirio Diaz ◽  
Environmental Press ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Historical Climatology ◽  
Climatic Information ◽  
The Revolution

Abstract This article combines the insights of historical climatology and analysis of press coverage to reexamine the agrarian origins of the Mexican Revolution from 1907 to 1911. Using a collection of hundreds of articles from dozens of newspapers, contemporary meteorological and agricultural bulletins, government correspondence, secondary works, and recent historical climatological data, I argue that environmental dynamics and political processes were intertwined in the four years preceding the revolution. Specifically, I contend that politico-environmental press coverage of drought and frost based on incomplete or misleading regional climatic information strongly influenced the government's relief measures and thereby exacerbated the acute economic and political crises that led to the ouster of the dictator Porfirio Díaz. By analyzing these understudied climate-society dynamics surrounding the Mexican Revolution, the article's aim is to expand understanding of the significance of these dynamics as well as to incorporate the Mexican case into the global historiography on climate and rebellion.

Research Possibilities in the Mexican Revolution: The Governorship

1973 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Beezley
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
National Level ◽  
Systematic Evaluation ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
Research Opportunities ◽  
State And Local ◽  
National Programs ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Revolution

In the era of the Mexican Revolution, research opportunities on the sub-national level are numerous and varied, although not completely untested. In recent monographs and dissertations, historians have examined the revolution in a few states, leading regional figures, the workings of national reform commissions in selected localities and hinted at the conflict of provincial interests that provoked violence in the name of opposition to national programs. Each of these themes needs further, more systematic evaluation. Still wanting are studies of local demographic changes and concomitant political and economic adjustments accompanying the revolution, of the appropriation of state and local administration, and of the local issues that confused reform programs such as land reapportionment and educational missions. Professor James W. Wilkie has made important national studies of efforts to implement revolutionary programs and to evaluate statistically the church-state question. Both of these themes should be assayed through case studies of states or somewhat larger regions. But rather than cataloging research possibilities, this paper concentrates on one sub-national topic: the state governors.

Frank Tannenbaum and the Mexican Revolution

2010 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-153
Author(s):  
Alan Knight
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Social Program ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Politics And Education ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Revolution

AbstractThis article examines Frank Tannenbaum's engagement with Mexico in the crucial years following the Revolution of 1910–1920 and his first visit to the country in 1922. Invited—and feted—by the government and its powerful labor allies, Tannenbaum soon expanded his initial interest in organized labor and produced a stream of work dealing with trade unions, peasants, Indians, politics, and education—work that described and often justified the social program of the Revolution, and that, rather surprisingly, continued long after the Revolution had lost its radical credentials in the 1940s. Tannenbaum's vision of Mexico was culturalist, even essentialist; more Veblenian than Marxist; at times downright folkloric. But he also captured important aspects of the process he witnessed: local and regional variations, the unquantifiable socio-psychological consequences of revolution, and the prevailing concern for order and stability. In sum, Tannenbaum helped establish the orthodox—agrarian, patriotic, and populist—vision of the Revolution for which he has been roundly, if sometimes excessively, criticized by recent “revisionist” historians; yet his culturalist approach, with its lapses into essentialism, oddly prefigures the “new cultural history” that many of these same historians espouse.

scholarly journals The “Underside” of the Mexican Revolution: El Paso, 1912

1982 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Harris ◽  
Louis R. Sadler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
El Paso ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
The Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was predominantly a Northern movement. In part this was a logical continuation of what had occurred during the Díaz regime, namely, the rapid development of the northern tier of Mexican states. But in large measure the rise to prominence of leaders such as Francisco Madero, Pascual Orozco, Francisco Villa, Venustiano Carranza, Alvaro Obregón, and Pablo González reflected the advantage they enjoyed over revolutionaries in other parts of Mexico—access to the American border. Arms and ammunition could be imported, loot to pay for these munitions could be exported, United States territory could be used as a base of operations, and the United States provided a sanctuary for the members of defeated factions. Moreover, since the majority of the population along the border were of Mexican extraction, they inevitably became caught up in the factional struggle, as, for that matter, did many of the Anglos, either out of sympathy or because the Revolution became a lucrative business. Yet despite the extent to which the Revolution spilled over into the United States, we still have but a sketchy knowledge of this phenomenon. Precisely how did Mexican juntas function, how were munitions acquired, how was recruiting conducted, and how was revolutionary activity financed? To understand this critical aspect of the Revolution we need much more work along the lines of David N. Johnson's admirable study of Maderista activities in San Antonio in 1910–1911.

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