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Federal-State Relations During the Porfiriato: The Case of Sonora, 1879–1884*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Don M. Coerver
Don M. Coerver*
Affiliation:
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas
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Extract

Federal-State Relations have long been assigned a prime role in explaining both the success and the ultimate failure of the Porfirian power structure. Despite this importance there have been few detailed analyses on a sub-national basis of the manner in which these relationships were established and maintained. This lacuna is often glossed over through the use of such phrases as pan o palo or poca politica y mucha administracion. While these descriptions are essentially accurate, they often convey little basic information and frequently oversimplify highly-complex political associations. The traditional view of a central government exercising absolute control over federal and local authorities in the provinces is becoming increasingly suspect. The unavailability of Porfirio Díaz's personal papers long precluded a behind the scenes study of this key subject and the many manifestations it assumed. The opening of Díaz's personal archive, La colección General Porfirio Díaz, in the late 1960's provides ample resources for an in-depth investigation into federal-state relations during the Porfiriato.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , April 1977 , pp. 567 - 584
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1977

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Footnotes

*

Research for this article was partially funded by a grant from the Texas Christian University Research Foundation.

References

1 Bernardo Reyes to J. G. Carbó, May 31, 1881, La colección General Porfirio Díaz, Legajo VI, Document 780. Hereinafter cited as CPD followed by legajo number and document number.

2 Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft (39 vols., San Francisco: History Company, 1884–1889), XVI, 701–02 Google Scholar. For a political portrait of Ignacio Pesqueira see Acuña, Rudolph F. , “Ignacio Pesqueira: Sonoran Caudillo,” Arizona and the Wert, XII (Summer, 1970), 139–72.Google Scholar

3 Rivera, Antonio G., La revolución en Sonora (México: Imprenta Arana, 1969), 98–100.Google Scholar

4 Corral, Ramón, Obras históricas (Hermosillo: Biblioteca Sonorense de Geografía e Historia, 1959), 135–39 Google Scholar. Villa, Eduardo W., Compendio de historia general del estado de Sonora (México: Editorial Patria Nueva, 1937), 381–82.Google Scholar

5 Villa, Compendio, 382.

6 lbid., 385–87. The opposition legislators had demanded that Mariscal be replaced by Serna.

7 Foster to Evarts, March 20, 1879, Despatches from United States Ministers to Mexico, 1823–1906, vol. 66. Villegas, Daniel Cosío, ed., Historia moderna de México (9 vols.; México: Editorial Hermes, 1955–1972), VIII, 492–93.Google Scholar

8 Cosío, ed., Historia moderna de México, VIII, 468–69.

9 Villa, Compendio, 388–89.

10 Valadés, José C., El Porfirismo: Historia de un régimen. El nacimiento (México: Antigua Librería Robredo, 1941), 31.Google Scholar

11 Ramón Fernández to J. G. Carbó, September 27, 1879, CPD, VII, 691.

12 Ramón Fernández to J. G. Carbó, November 5, 1879, CPD, VII, 694.

13 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó. November 23, 1879, CPD, XXXVII, 213.

14 Ramón Fernández to J. G. Carbó, September 27, 1879, CPD, VII, 691.

15 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, May 11, 1880, CPD, V, 1122.

16 J. G. Carbó to Manuel González, July 10, 1880, CPD, V, 1152.

17 México, Camara de Diputados, Diario de los debates, Tenth Congress, First Session, 245. Carbó had entrusted all of Sonora's electoral documents to González with the following request: “Would you please see to it that they arrive at their destination through safe means?” See J. G. Carbó to Manuel González, August 24, 1880, CPD, V, 1233.

18 Luis Torres to Porfirio Díaz, January 13, 1881, CPD, VI, 40, 43.

19 Porfirio Díaz to Luis Torres, February 22, 1881, CPD, VI, 41. Díaz served as González's Secretary of Fomento until May, 1881.

20 Luis Torres to J. G. Carbó, November 24, 1880, CPD, VII, 1022.

21 Luis Torres to Profirio Díaz, March 24, 1881, CPD, VI, 424. Diario Oficial, April 19, 1881, 1.

22 Diario Oficial, July 4, 1881, 3. Torres was subsequently elected to the National Congress and was appointed a representative of the federal government on the Board of Directors of the Sonora Railroad.

23 Carlos Ortiz to Porfirio Díaz, September 1, 1881, CPD, VI, 2026.

24 Rivera, La revolución en Sonora, 98–103.

25 Carbó had originally intended to run for the Senate from Sonora but was forced to abandon his plans when Díaz indicated his support for someone else. See Luis Torres to Porfirio Díaz, June 23, 1880, CPD, V, 2827.

26 Carlos Ortiz to Carlos Pacheco, January 25, 1882, CPD, VII, 154–57. Pacheco was serving in the González cabinet as Secretary of Fomento.

27 Carlos Ortiz to Porfirio Díaz, January 26, 1882, CPD, VII, 283. Fernández was chief advisor to Manuel González and the guiding force behind efforts to establish a gonzalista political party whose primary allegiance would be to González rather than to Díaz. González himself never actively promoted such a party and maintained throughout his public career that he was a porfirista.

28 J. G. Carbó to Carlos Pacheco, February 9, 1882, CPD, VII, 339.

29 Carlos Pacheco to Porfirio Díaz, February 23, 1882, CPD, VII, 272, 275.

30 J. G. Carbó to Luis Torres, February 3, 1882, CPD, VII, 273–74.

31 J. G. Carbó to Ramón Fernández,' February 24, 1882, CPD, VII, 687–88. Otero was granted a six-month leave of absence so that he would not be an “obstacle to the march of affairs” in Sonora. See José Montesinos to J. G. Carbó, May 31, 1882, CPD, VII, 594.

32 J. G. Carbó to Carlos Pacheco, March 1, 1882, CPD, VII, 891.

33 Carlos Pacheco to Porfirio Díaz, March 14, 1882, CPD, VII, 170–71.

34 Porfirio Díaz to Carlos Ortiz, March 21, 1882, CPD, VII, 174.

35 Lorenzo García Torres to J. G. Carbó, February 22, 1882, CPD, VII, 733.

36 Letter by General José Otero published in El Pacífico, March 23, 1882,2.

37 La Constitucion, April 12, 1882, 1–2. The same issue carried reports of Indian attacks on the frontier.

38 El Pacífico, June 15, 1882, 1–2.

39 J. G. Carbó to Manuel González, April 17, 1882, CPD, VII, 352.

40 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, April 21, 1882, CPD, VII, 512.

41 Manuel González to Bernardo Reyes, March 7, 1882, CPD, VII, 769.

42 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, April 8, 1882,CPD, VII, 515.

43 Luis Torres to J. G. Carbó, May 14, 1882, CPD, VII, 1027–30. Torres told Carbó that “two sentiments dominate my soul: my gratitude toward you and my projects for revenge against Carlos Ortiz.”

44 Luis Torres to J. G. Carbó, May 25, 1882, CPD, VII, 1026.

45 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, May 31, 1882, June 26, 1882, CPD, VII, 549, 677.

46 Porfirio Díaz to Carlos Pacheco, March 2, 1882, CPD, VII, 1081. The disagreement was further embittered when Pacheco as Secretary of Fomento removed Torres from his position with the Sonora Railroad. See Luis Torres to J. G. Carbó, April 2, 1882, CPD, VII, 1035–37.

47 Ramón Fernández to J. G. Carbó, June 16, 1882, CPD, VII, 684.

48 Ramón Fernández to J. G. Carbó, June 20, 1882, CPD, VII, 685.

49 J. G. Carbó to Ramón Fernández, July 19, 1882, CPD, VII, 686.

50 J. G. Carbó to Carlos Rivas, July 24, 1882, CPD, XLIII, 1599.

51 Carlos Rivas to J. G. Carbó, July 29, 1882, CPD, XLIII, 1601–02.

52 Carlos Rivas to J. G. Carbó, August 4, 1882, CPD, VII, 894.

53 J. G. Carbó to Carlos Rivas, August 4, 1882, CPD, VII, 900–01. Carbó also cautioned that Ortiz “might not give up without a fight.”

54 Manuel Gonzalez to J. G. Carbó, August 7, 1882, CPD, VII, 926. González's estimate of the time remaining in office for Ortiz was overly optimistic; in reality Ortiz had not even served one-half of his term.

55 J. G. Carbó to Manuel González, August 30, 1882, CPD, VII, 928.

56 J. G. Carbó to Manuel González, August 23, 1882, CPD, VII, 930.

57 J. G. Carbó to Manuel González, September 7, 1882, CPD, XLIII, 1620. Ortiz was also feuding with General Barnardo Reyes after an unsuccessful attempt to gain his friendship. See Cosío, ed., Historia moderna de México, VIII, 608–09; El Siglo XIX, November 24, 1882, 1.

58 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, September 29, 1882, CPD, XLIII, 1628.

59 Diario Oficial, December 1, 1882, l; El Siglo XIX, November 24, 1882, 1.

60 La República, November 28, 1882, 1. The attack on the governor's house was characterized by the rebels as an exercise of the “natural right which citizens have to punish their oppressors.”

61 El Sigh XIX, November 30, 1882, 1.

62 Diario Oficial, December 7, 1882, 1. La República, April 12, 1883, 1.

63 Luis Torres to Manuel González, December 28, 1882, CPD, IX, 2246–47. Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, January 31, 1883, CPD, VIII, 11. González had Torres appointed due to his “good record and loyalty of character.”

64 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, December 27, 1882, CPD, VIII, 192.

65 El Monitor Republicano, April 1, 1883, 3.

66 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, March 5, 1883, CPD, VIII, 41.

67 J. G. Carbó to Francisco Naranjo, December 7, 1882, CPD, XLIII, 1635. Naranjo was Secretary of War.

68 J. G. Carbó to Carlos Rivas, December 7, 1882, CPD, VII, 999.

69 J. G. Carbó to Manuel González and Ramón Fernández, December 16, 1882, CPD, IX, 2245.

70 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, January 18, 1883, CPD, VIII, 4. Reyes was given a command in another military zone.

71 Felizardo Torres to J. G. Carbó, January 13, 1883, CPD, VIII, 16.

72 Manuel González to J. G. Carbó, May 22, 1883, CPD, IX, 84. Ortiz was not so quick to concede defeat. In November, 1884—over two years after his ouster—Ortiz wrote to Díaz asking for assistance for himself and his followers who were suffering greatly “for only having wished to follow your lead in the disagreeable conflict which was provoked by your enemies in that State.” Sec Carlos Ortiz to Porfirio Díaz, November 28, 1884, CPD, IX, 1017.