SPAN 44 Lecture 6: Week 6_ The Mexican Revolution
Week 6, Lecture 1: The Mexican Revolution (and its Aftermath)
Going to focus on the Mexican Revolution, from 1910-1920, civil war period
The Mexican Revolution was a period of sweeping changes that affected the structure of the economy, the
political system, the social hiearchy, and the cultural production. Mexico will never be the same
A chronology….
● 1910-20: Period of civil war between different political factions
○ “Mexican Revolution”
○ Approx 1 million people die (1 in 15)
● 1920-29: Period of stabilization (recovery from chaos of revolution that had spread through every realm
of society)
○ Emphasis on reconstruction
○ Great impulse to education
● 1929-52: period of consolidation of the “post-revolutionary order”
○ Foundation of the PRI (institutional-revolutionary party) → will govern uninterruptedly until 2000
(71 years)
○ Deepening of nationalization processes
■ Nationalization of all companies
■ Huge investment in public art or art for the masses → muralism, cinema
The roots of the Mexican Revolution
● Long government of Porfirio Diaz
○ El Porfiriato (1876-1910: 34 years!) → peace, stability, and economic growth BUT corruption
and censorship (newspapers, media, writings, intellectuals, etc)
○ Runs for re-election , causing outrage between his political opponents
● Dramatic increase in foreign investment, esp. US entrepreneurs
○ 75% of mines owned by US interests and extensive US investments in rubber and oil industries
○ Huge dependence of Mexican economy on US investors
● Exclusion of indigenous communities, peasants, and middle classes
○ More than 50% of indigenous communities/peasants lost all their lands during the Porfiriato →
forced to work as day laborers in big haciendas
○ Middle classes felt left out of political processes and decisions
○ By 1910, more than ¾ Mexicans are illiterate
Key Revolutionary Figures: The mexican revolution was a complicated, convoluted military process where
alliances were established and quickly broken and different factions fought fiercely to try to hold full control of
political power
● Francisco Madero: runs for presidency
● Victorinao Huerta: political leader, participated actively in the fight
● Venustiano Carranza: political leader, participated actively in the fight
● Alvaro Obregon: face of the beginning of the stabalization period; first president of Mexico after
revolutio; able to seize political power in a peaceful context
● Emiliano Zapata: one of two main (and iconic) military leaders
● Pancho Villa: one of two main (and iconic) military leaders
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
The Mexican Revolution Begins (1910)
● Opposition organizes around Francisco Madero
● Production of Plan de San Luis de Potosi → plan for political reform
○ “Sufragio effectivo, no reeleccion” (“effective sufferage, no reelection… of Porfirio Diaz)
■ Mistrust in election system → high levels of corruption; thought would good reason that
even if they voted for Madero the result would be Porfirio
○ Call for the rejection of the results of the 1910 (electoral fraud)
■ Porfirio Diaz did indeed tamper w/ votes, fraudulent results
● But Porfirio Diaz did not resign!
○ Call to all Mexicans to rise up in arms on Nov 20, 1910
■ Rising up against the fraudulent, illegitimate, corrupt president; overthrow Porfirio Diaz,
Madero becomes president;
● Francisco Madero becomes President of Mexico (1911) → will be quickly overthrown (and killed) by
emerging political competitors
○ Emergency of several revolutionary leaders representing different political interests and different
regions of the country
○ Despite temporary alliances, everyone will be fighting each other for one decade (civil war) until
the country is exhausted and devoid of resources
Some facts about the mexican revolution
● The Mexican Revolution was the first popular revolution ever to be extensively photographed
○ Photographers followed along the revolutionary troops
○ Many photographs ecame international visual icons of the power of the people (“el pueblo”)
● Participation of women was essential
○ Accompanid men as partners, cooks, nurses, etc.
○ Actively participated in the fighting (mostly within E. Zapata’s army)
○ “Soldaderas” or “Adelitas” → corrido La Adelita
● The railroad system built during the Porfiriato was instrumental for the revolution
○ Troops, weapons, supplies… moved across the country on packed trains
○ At this time, roads were often blocked; trains=easiest way to move around
● Prompted the birth of poopular myths and new forms of popular culture
○ Revolutionary icons → Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata
○ Renovated forms of popular music → the corridos”
● Deeply impacted Mexican literary and artistic production
○ The novel of the Revolution → 100 novelists wrote around 140 novels about the Revolutionary
period
○ “Muralista” movement
○ Cinema and the Mexican Revolution → both Mexican and international filmmakers
The popular heroes of the revolution
● Emilio Zapata (to the left w/ the mustache): popular hero of the peasant masses of South Mexico
● Pancho (Francisco) Villa (to the right, riding horses towards camera): operated in North Mexico
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Francisco “Pancho” Villa
● Operated only in the northern part of Mexico
○ The Northern Division → army of around 200,000 riders
● Defended the interests of the northern peones (manual worers)...
● ...against the “rancheros” (large landowners)
○ Killed a ranchero that had raped his sister in his early youth (mentioned in the corrido “Historia y
muerte…”)
○ After that he became an outlaw/bandit before joining the Revolution
● Was more interested in improving working conditinos for laborers rather than in redistributing the land
● His figure and deeds took a mythical dimension (through corridos)
● Was killed in the village of Parral (Chihuahua) in 1923
Emiliano Zapata
● Operated in the Souther parts of Mexico
● Defending the interests of small landowners and indigenous peasants without land
● Presented the Plan de Ayala (1911) → plan for land reform
○ Proposed to nationalize one-third of big land estates and give the nationlizad land to poor
peasants
○ Refused to pledge alegiance to any political leader that would not support the Plan
● Was never fully implemented ut…
○ Influenced the Constitution of 1917 (article 27) → sanctions the creation of ejidos (extended
plots of land under collective property of peasants that cultivate them)
● Some of emiliano Zapata’s mottos are still alive in social movements today
○ La tierra es del que la trabaja → the land should be owned by the workers that cultivates it
○ Tierra y liberatd! → land and freedom!
NOTE: both Vill and Zapata were two iconic revolutioanry figures that defended two different parts of mexico,
and addressed the issues in their particular area; defended the different groups of people in their own region
Literary Impact of Revolution
● Mexican revolution prompts the birth of NEW LITERARY GENRE → la novela de la revolucion
● First “novel of the revolution” appears in the midst of the conflict (1915)
○ Los de abajo (The Underdogs) by Mariano Azuela
● Genre practiced unstil today
● Genre written by male authors, with a few exceptions
Nellie Campobello: Cartucho (1931)
● Nellie Campobello (real name Francisca Moya Luna): 1900-1986
● Poet, writer, ballet dancer, and choreographer
● Knows well the genre of “novel ade la revolucion” but decides to do something different when she
decides to write Cartucho (1931)
○ Collection of very short stories (vignettes) set in her childhood town, Parral (Chihuahua)-->
“Segunda del Rayo” (where Pancho Villa dies)
○ Farral was a “villista” twon regularly raided by “carrancista” troops (roughly between 1914-1916)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Week 6, lecture 1: the mexican revolution (and its aftermath) Going to focus on the mexican revolution, from 1910-1920, civil war period. The mexican revolution was a period of sweeping changes that affected the structure of the economy, the political system, the social hiearchy, and the cultural production. 1910-20: period of civil war between different political factions. Approx 1 million people die (1 in 15) 1920-29: period of stabilization (recovery from chaos of revolution that had spread through every realm of society) 1929-52: period of consolidation of the post-revolutionary order . Foundation of the pri (institutional-revolutionary party) will govern uninterruptedly until 2000 (71 years) Huge investment in (cid:3247)public art(cid:3248) or (cid:3247)art for the masses(cid:3248) muralism, cinema. Long government of porfirio diaz (cid:3247)el porfiriato(cid:3248) (1876-1910: 34 years!) Peace, stability, and economic growth but corruption and censorship (newspapers, media, writings, intellectuals, etc) Runs for re-election , causing outrage between his political opponents.
