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The Politics of Death: State Funerals as Rites of Reconciliation in Porfirian Mexico, 1876-1889*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Matthew D. Esposito*
Affiliation:
Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa

Extract

In 1876, the Revolution of Tuxtepec raged in the Mexican countryside, producing more war dead for families to mourn. The timely arrival of General Manuel González on the battlefield at the hacienda of Tecoac (Tlaxcala) forced Federal Army General Ignacio Alatorre to surrender to the rebels on November 16. Without an army, President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada went into exile and the forces of General Porfirio Díaz entered Mexico City unopposed. Widespread melancholia continued through December. The journalist “Juvenal” (Enrique Chávarri) wrote about the gloomy outlook in the capital, where no serenades or social gatherings rang in the new year. Instead of patronizing restaurants, people flocked to churches to pray for a better year.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2010

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Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank Judith Ewell, Donald Stevens, Eric Zolov, and the staff of The Americas. This article has benefited greatly from the editorial suggestions of William Beezley, Joy N. Esposito, and two anonymous reviewers. A Fulbright-García Robles grant and the Center for the Humanities at Drake University have provided generous financial support for this research.

References

1 Próspero Cahuantzi, governor in perpetuity of Tlaxcala, later declared November 16 a state holiday. In 1896, he erected a commemorative monument at the hacienda of Tecoac near Huamantla to mark the twentieth anniversary of Porfirio’s victory. See Rendon Garcini, Ricardo, El prosperato: Tlaxcala de 1885 a 1911 (Mexico: Universidad Iberoamericana/Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1993), p. 43 Google Scholar. Tecoac was a bloody but decisive battle. Each army numbered around 4,000 men. The Federal Army sustained 1,900 dead, 800 wounded, and 1,563 captured. The Porfirista rebel army lost 859 men, with 575 wounded. See Two Republics, November 25, 1876, p. 3; Enrique Chávarri (Juvenal), cited in Guzman, Diego Arenas, Cincuenta retablos de la vida porfiriana (Mexico: B. Costa Amic, 1966), pp. 910 Google Scholar; Two Republics, November 8, 1876, p. 3.

2 Two Republics, November 15, 1876, p. 3.

3 Villegas, Daniel Cosío, The United States Versus Porfirio Díaz (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963), pp. 1316 Google Scholar.

4 El Monitor Republicano, September 14, 1877, p. 1.

5 Two Republics, September 21, 1878, p. 2.

6 El Monitor Republicano, July 9, 1879, p. 3.

7 Ibid., October 9, 1881, p. 1. Italics mine.

8 Overall, the Porfirian government hosted 104 state funerals. On funerals and cults of the dead see Ben-Amos, Avner, Funerals, Politics, and Memory in France, 1789-1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “The Other World of Memory: State Funerals of the French Third Republic as Rites of Commemoration,” History and Memory 1 (1989): 85-108; and “The Sacred Center of Power: Paris and Republican State Funerals,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 22: 1 (Summer 1991): 27-48; Lehning, James R., “Gossiping about Gambetta: Contested Memories in the Early Third Republic,” French Historical Studies 18, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 23754 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tumarkin, Nina, Lenin Lives! The Lenin Cult in Soviet Russia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989)Google Scholar and The Living and the Dead: The Rise and Fall of the Cult of World War II in Russia (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Verdery, Katherine, The Political Lives of Dead Bodies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999)Google Scholar.

9 Darnton, Robert, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Basic Books, 1984), p. 4 Google Scholar.

10 El Monitor Republicano, October 8, 1881, p. 3.

11 Ozouf, Mona, Festivals and the French Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988), pp. 1619, 127-30Google Scholar.

12 Propriety and Permissiveness in Bourbon Mexico, trans. Sonya Lipsett-Rivera and Sergio Rivera Ayala (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 1999), pp. 27-29, 35, 39, 75, 93, 106. See also Cahill’s, David remarks on mechanisms of social leveling in his article “Popular Religion and Appropriation: The Example of Corpus Christi in Eighteenth-Century Cuzco,” in Latin American Research Review 31: 2 (1996), pp. 7981 Google Scholar.

13 “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” Past and Present 50 (1971), p. 78. See also Suzanne Desan, “Crowds, Community, and Ritual in the Work of E.P. Thompson and Natalie Davis,” in Hunt, Lynn, ed., The New Cultural History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 4771 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the argument that Carnaval and other raucous street entertainments restore a “customary equilibrium” among various social classes see Viqueira Albán, Propriety and Permissiveness in Bourbon Mexico, pp. 106-07.

14 Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, 83-92. See examples of passive resistance in Beezley, William H., Martin, Cheryl E., and French, William E., eds., Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 1996)Google Scholar and Beezley, William H. and Curcio-Nagy, Linda, eds., Latin American Popular Culture: An Introduction (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2000)Google Scholar.

15 Brocklehurst, Thomas U., Mexico To-Day: A Country with a Great Future (London: John Murray, 1883), p. 50 Google Scholar. Brocklehurst spent seven months in Mexico and witnessed the Arista funeral.

16 El Monitor Republicano, October 9, 1881, p. 1.

17 Ibid.

18 Piccato, Pablo, “ Cuidado con los Rateros: The Making of Criminals in Modern Mexico City,” in Crime and Punishment in Latin America: Law and Society since Late Colonial Times, Edited by Salvatore, Ricardo D., Aguirre, Carlos, and Joseph, Gilbert M. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001), p. 235 Google Scholar.

19 Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, p. 2-3. On the State and state forms that actively mediate the hegemony of one dominant social group over subordinate groups see Gramsci, Antonio, Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, ed. with an introduction by Hoare, Quintin and Smith, Geoffrey Nowell (New York: International Publishers, 1971), pp. 182, 244Google Scholar; Joseph, Gilbert M. and Nugent, Daniel, eds., Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modern Mexico (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994)Google Scholar; and Mallon, Florencia, Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), pp. 120 Google Scholar. See also Corrigan, Philip and Sayer, Derek, The Great Arch: English State Formation as Cultural Revolution (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985), pp. 67 Google Scholar.

20 See Guerra, François-Xavier, Mexico: del Antiguo Régimen a la Revolución, 2 Vols. (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1991), I: pp. 2122 Google Scholar; Joseph and Nugent, “Popular Culture and State Formation,” in Everyday Forms of State Formation, pp. 13, 19-20.

21 These themes are pursued in greater depth in my book manuscript “Constructing Landscapes and Mindscapes of Memory: Funerals, Festivals, and Cultural Politics in Porfirian Mexico, 1876-1911.”

22 This was a major theme in Abraham Lincoln’s funeral. In 1885, former Confederate soldiers marched in the funeral procession for Union General Ulysses S. Grant. See Schwartz, Barry, “Mourning and the Making of a Sacred Symbol: Durkheim and the Lincoln Assassination,” in Social Forces 70, no. 2 (December 1991): pp. 34364.Google Scholar For the Soviet experience, seeTumarkin, The Living and the Dead, pp. 2, 8.

23 Verdery, The Political Lives of Dead Bodies, pp. 4-6.

24 La Patria, January 5, 1878, p. 3: El Siglo XIX, January 7, 1878, p. 3; Two Republics, September 21, 1878, p. 2; El Monitor Republicano, January 6, 1878, p. 3; El Combate, January 6, 1878, p. 3; El Siglo XIX, January 7, 1878, p. 3; El Siglo XIX, April 8, 1878, p. 3; И Monitor Republicano, April 9, 1878, p. 3; La Libertad, April 9, 1878, p. 3.

25 El Siglo XIX, January 7, 1878, p. 3.

26 Juan A. Mateos to Vicente García Torres [Director of El Monitor Republicano], n.d., published in El Monitor Republicano, June 18, 1879, p. 3; El Combate, June 19, 1879, p. 1.

27 La Patria, June 17, 1879, p. 1; El Combate, June 19, 1879, p. 1; Two Republics, June 21, 1879, p. 3; September 26, 1880, p. 3; El Republicano, June 17, 1879, p. 2; David R. Maciel, Ignacio Ramírez: Ideólogo del liberalismo social en Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1980), p. 159; Ruiz, Ramón Eduardo, Triumphs and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992), pp. 223, 264Google Scholar; Diario de los debates de la Cámara de Diputados, Años de 1887-1910 (México: Imprenta de “El Partido Liberal,” 1890-1910), Año de 1887, pp. 223-24; Villegas, Daniel Cosío, ed., Historia Moderna de México VIII: El Porfiriato, la vida política interior, primera parte (México: Editorial Hermes, 1970), pp. 27779 Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as HMM followed by volume and page number.

28 Letter from Juan A. Mateos to Vicente García Torres, in El Monitor Republicano, June 18, 1879, p. 3. Mateos, who was at Ramírez’s side, stated: “Neither clerics nor notaries appeared at his deathbed; he did not believe in the first and had no need for the second since he died in poverty.”

29 “Acta del acuerdo extraordinario del dia 15 de Junio de 1879,” in Diario Oficial, June 17, 1879, p. 3, El Siglo XIX, June 17, 1879, p. 2, and El Monitor Republicano, June 17, 1879, p. 3; La Libertad, June 17, 1879, p. 2; June 18, 1879, p. 3.

30 Luís G. Carbo to Porfirio Díaz, November 5, 1885, Colección General Porfirio Díaz, Universidad Iberoamericana, Legajo 10, caja 21, documento 10022; Díaz to Carbó, November 14, 1885, Legajo 10, caja 21, documento 10023. Hereafter cited as CPD followed by legajo, caja, and documento numbers.

31 Esquela de defunción, in El Siglo XIX, June 17, 1879, p. 3.

32 La Patria, June 20, 1879, p. 3.

33 El Combate, June 19, 1879, p. 1; Diario Oficial, June 20, 1879, p. 3.

34 La voz de Mexico, June 22, 1879, p. 1.

35 On these republican principles see Richard Warren, “Elections and Popular Political Participation in Mexico, 1808-1836,” in Peloso, Vincent C. and Tenenbaum, Barbara A., eds., Liberals, Politics, and Power: State Formation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1996), pp. 3058 Google Scholar. Radical federalists in the York rites masonic lodges launched campaigns to politicize the masses from 1823-1830.

36 El Monitor Republicano, June 17, 1879, p. 3; June 18, 1879, p. 1 ;El Siglo XIX, June 17, 1879, p. 3.

37 El Siglo XIX, June 19, 1879, p. 3.

38 La Patria, June 20, 1879, p. 3.

39 Funeral Oration of Ignacio M. Altamirano for Ignacio Ramírez, Chamber of Deputies, June 18, 1879, in La Libertad, June 19, 1879, p. 1 and El Hijo del Trabajo, June 29, 1879, p. 2.

40 Funeral Oration of Jorge Hammeken Mejia for Ignacio Ramírez, Chamber of Deputies, June 18, 1879, in La Libertad, June 19, 1881, p. 2, and El Hijo del Trabajo, June 29, 1879, pp. 2-3.

41 Juan A. Mateos to Vicente García Torres, n.d., in El Monitor Republicano, June 18, 1879, p. 3.

42 Funeral Oration of Porfirio Parra for Ignacio Ramírez, Chamber of Deputies, June 18,1879, in La Libertad, June 19, 1879, p. 2 and El Hijo del Trabajo, June 29, 1879, p. 3.

43 Diario Oficial, June 16, 1879, p. 3.

44 Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, p. 5; Loraux, Nicole, The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), pp. 1719 Google Scholar.

45 From 1877 to 1878, thirteen veteran officers of the Liberation Wars died. Of this number, five had earned promotion to general but only two received state burials. In addition, early military funerals were merely “lucid burials” compared to the often extravagant affairs for public leaders. See La Patria, January 5, 1878, p. 3.

46 The 1885 funeral for Brigadier General Francisco Montes de Oca was staged at the Hospital of Medicine to highlight his achievements as a surgeon. Decorators surrounded his casket with modern surgical instruments instead of war trophies.

47 Hale, Charles A., The Transformation of Mexican Liberalism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), p. 62 Google Scholar. Ramirez’s funeral also served as a model for other diplomats and legal minds, such as Secretary of Foreign Affairs Miguel Ruelas, Minister of Justice Ezequiel Montes, and Constituyente Juan José Baz.

48 CPD 5: 3: 1001-1115.

49 La Libertad, April 9, 1880, p. 3.

50 Jorge Fernando Iturribarría, “La política de la conciliación del general Díaz y el arzobispo Gillow,” Historia Mexicana 14, no. 53 (July-September 1974), p. 92; Krauze, Enrique, Mexico: Biography of Power, A History of Modern Mexico, 1810-1996, trans. Heifetz, Hank (New York: Harper Collins, 1996), p. 227 Google Scholar.

51 Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, 95; Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terence, “Introduction,” in The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 6 Google Scholar.

52 La Libertad, April 9, 1880, p. 3; April 10, 1880, 2-3; April 11, 1880, p. 3; Two Republics, April 11, 1880, p. 3. A memorial book that collected poems and eulogies for Delfina was published as Corona fùnebre a la memoria de la estimable Sra. Delfina Ortega de Díaz (Mexico: Imprenta de Ignacio Cumplido, 1880).

53 “Gen. Díaz’s Report of the Battle of Tecoac to the Governor of the State of Oaxaca,” in Two Republics, November 25, 1876, p. 3.

54 Coerver, Don M., The Porfirian Interregnum: The Presidency of Manuel González, of Mexico, 1880-1884 (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1979), pp. 89 Google Scholar.

55 Carreño, Alberto María, ed., Archivo del General Porfirio Díaz, Memorias y Documentos, 30 vols. (México: Editorial Elede, 1949-1961), II: pp. 78 Google Scholar.

56 Alluding to the contrived “election” of the former conservative González, a cynical El Monitor Republicano claimed “We Have a Pope” and sarcastically concluded: “May God save the nation.” See Coerver, Porfirian Interregnum, p. 28.

57 Hale, The Transformation of Liberalism, pp. 23-24, and Chapters 5 and 6; Schmitt, Karl M., “The Mexican Positivists and the Church-State Question, 1876-1911,” in Journal of Church and State 8: 2 (Spring 1966), p. 203 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

58 Diario Oficial, March 12, 1881, 1; La Libertad, March 12, 1881, 2; El Monitor Republicano, March 15, 1881, 1; Two Republics, March 20, 1881, p. 4.

59 The funeral program was published in La República, March 15, 1881, p. 2; Oración fúnebre pronunciada en la Biblioteca de la Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, ante el cadáver del doctor don Gabino Barreda, en la velada que organizó el profesorado de dicha Escuela, el 11 de marzo de 1881, in Sierra, Justo, Obras Completas, Yáñez, Agustín, ed., 15 vols. (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 194849), V: pp. 5254 Google Scholar;El Monitor Republicano, March 15, 1881, p. 3; March 16, 1881, p. 2; La Libertad, March 17, 1881, p. 3. Barreda’s remains were transferred to the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in 1968.

60 Cadenhead, Ivie E. Jr., Jesús González Ortega and Mexican National Politics (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1972), p. 136 Google Scholar.

61 El Nacional, March 3, 1881, pp. 2-3; March 31, 1881, p. 1; Two Republics, March 6, 1881, p. 5; Sierra, Juarez, pp. 173-74, 183-85, 193; Cadenhead, Gonzalez Ortega, pp. 34-37, 44. Juárez replaced Santos Degollado with González Ortega as Commander-in-Chief after the battle of Silao.

62 Sierra, Juarez, pp. 229-30, 321-24, 332-33. The defense of Puebla won González Ortega international renown. European observers compared it to the sieges of Strasburg and Metz. See Cadenhead, González Ortega, pp. 74-75.

63 Sierra, Juárez, pp. 167, 246-47, 350-358 passim, 408.

64 El Defensor de la Constitución (Zacatecas), March 1, 1881, p. 1; March 5, 1881, p. 4; March 31, 1881, p. 2; La Libertad, March 3, 1881, p. 3; El Monitor Republicano, March 6, 1881, p. 3; March 18, 1881, p. 3; La República, March 19, 1881, p. 3; El Sigh XIX, March 17, 1881, p. 3; El Nacional, March 3, 1881, pp. 2-3; March 8, 1881, p. 3; March 17, 1881, p. 3.

65 Telegram from Manuel González to Jesús Aréchiga, March 3, 1881, in Diario Oficial, March 4, 1881, p. 1, and El Defensor de la Constitución (Zacatecas), March 5, 1881, p. 4; Telegram from J. Aréchiga to Minister of War Gerónimo Treviño, March 4, 1881 in El Defensor de la Constitución (Zacatecas), March 5, 1881, p. 4; Telegram from Minister of War Gerónimo Treviño to Sr. Gobernador [Evaristo Maderoļ, March 3, 1881, Jesús González Ortega Collection, Folder 14: “Correspondence and literary productions relating to his death,” Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Library, University of Texas at Austin. Aréchiga later gained notoriety for ordering the assassination of Diaz’s rival Trinidad García de la Cadena. See Carleton Beals, Porfirio Díaz: Dictator of Mexico, pp. 287-97.

66 J. Montesinos to M. O. Nogueras, March 9, 1881; J. Montesinos to Gral. M.O. Nogueras, March 16, 1881; J. Montesinos to Coronel F. Calderón, March 21, 1881, Libro de actas del Gral. Manuel González, correspondiente a los años 1880-1881, cartas 153, 155, and 158, Archívo Histórico de la Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología y Historia; El Defensor de la Constitución (Zacatecas), March 5, 1881, p. 4; El Diario Oficial, March 25, 1881, p. 1; Mortuary Announcement of Jesús González Ortega, March 24, 1881, Archivo Histórico del Ex-Ayuntamiento de la Ciudad de México, Funerales y ceremonias fúnebres (1779-1915), Legajo 1, expediente 35 (Hereafter cited as AHA, Funerales y ceremonias fúnebres, followed by legajo and expediente numbers); El Nacional, March 17, 1881, p. 1; El Defensor de la Constitución (Zacatecas, Zac), March 29, 1881, p. 4; J. Aréchiga to General Manuel Gonzalez, Telegram, March 4, 1881, in El Defensor de la Constitución (Zacatecas), March 5, 1881, p. 4; El Monitor Republicano, March 10, 1881, p. 3, and El Sigh XIX, March 15, 1881, p. 2; J. Aréchiga to Minister of Gobernación Diez Gutierrez, Telegram, March 4, 1881 in El Defensor de la Constitución (Zacatecas), March 4, 1881, p. 4; Aréchiga to President of the Republic, Telegram, March 11, 1881 and González to Aréchiga, Telegram, March 14, 1881, in El Monitor Republicano, March 16, 1881, pp. 1, 3; E. Madero to Treviño, Telegram, March 4, 1881, in Periódico Oficial del Gobierno del Estado de Coahuila de Zaragoza, March 7, 1881, p. 1; E. Madero to Sr. Gobernador Jesús Aréchiga, Telegram, March 4, 1881, in Ibid.

67 El Monitor Republicano, March 22, 1881, p. 3; El Defensor de la Constitución (Zacatecas), March 10, 1881, p. 4; Funeral Oration of Eusebio Carrillo for Jesús González Ortega, Palacio del Ejecutivo (Zacatecas), in Ibid.; El Monitor Republicano, March 23, 1881, p. 3; El Nacional, March 22, 1881,2-3; El Payaso (León), March 27, 1881 reprinted in El Monitor Republicano, April 2, 1881, p. 3; Periódico Oficial (Querétaro), March 27, 1881 reprinted in El Monitor Republicano, April 1, 1881, p. 3; Arenas Guzmán, Cincuenta retablos de la vida porfiriana, pp. 99-100; Eliseo Rangel Gaspar, Jesús González Ortega (Caudillo de la Reforma), Prólogo de Agustín Cue Canovas (México: Gráficos Galeza, 1960), pp. 137-38; Manuel Loera, F. [Junta President] to Dario Balandario [director of the El Diario Oficial], n. d., AHA, Funerales y ceremonias fúnebres, 1: 35.Google Scholar

68 El Monitor Republicano, March 27, 1881, p. 4; El Siglo XIX, March 28, 1881, p. 2; March 29, 1881, p. 3; April 2, 1881, p. 1; La Libertad, March 29, 1881, p. 2; April 2, 1881, p. 1; И Nacional, April 2, 1881, p. 1; El Socialista, March 31, 1881, p. 2-3; La Patria, April 2, 1881, p. 1; Arenas Guzmán, Cincuenta retablos de la vida porfiriana, pp. 100-01; Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, pp. 9, 133-34; Barbara A. Tenenbaum, “Streetwise History: The Paseo de la Reforma and the Porfirian State, 1876-1910,” in Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance, pp. 127-50.

69 El Nacional, April 2, 1881, p. 1.

70 Ibid.; La Patria, April 2, 1881, p. 1.

71 El Monitor Republicano, March 24, 1881, p. 3; March 25, 1881, p. 3; March 27, 1881, p. 3, 4; April 2, 1881, p. 3; El Siglo XIX, March 28, 1881, p. 2; April 1, 1881, p. 3; Diario Oficial, March 26, 1881. p. 1;La Libertad, March 29, 1881, p. 2; April 2, 1881, p. 1; La Patria, April 2, 1881, p. 1; Two Republics, April 3, 1881, p. 5; La voz de Mexico, April 3, 1881, p. 1; La República, April 2, 1881, p. 1; Arenas Guzmán, Cincuenta retablos de la vida porfiriana, p. 101.

72 El Siglo XIX, April 2, 1881, p. 1.

73 González’s alleged sickness had nothing to do with his absence since programs published in advance on March 29 indicated that Minister of War Treviño would represent the President. See La Libertad, March 29, 1881, p. 2. Diario Oficial, April 1, 1881, p. 3; El Monitor Republicano, April 2, 1881, p. 3; El Sigh XIX, April 1, 1881, p. 3; La Patria, April 2, 1881, p. 1; Two Republics, April 3, 1881, p. 5; La voz de Mexico, April 3, 1881, p. I; La República, April 2, 1881, p. 1; Arenas Guzman, Cincuenta retablos, p. 102.

74 México Gráfico, June 7, 1891, pp. 3-6.

75 Mary Ryan, “The American Parade: Representations of the Nineteenth-Century Social Order,” in Lynn Hunt, ed., The New Cultural History, p. 134.

76 Carreño, Manuel, Manual de urbanidad y buenas maneras (New York: Appleton, 1857), pp. 182, 242-244Google Scholar; Gooch, Face to Face with the Mexicans, p. 277; A. Gringo, Through the Land of the Aztecs, p. 123. The author is indebted to Victor Macías for pointing out this information.

77 La voz de Mexico, April 3, 1881, p. 1. See also El Nacional, April 2, 1881, p. 1.

78 González Ortega to Pedro Ogazón, October 30, 1859, and Diario de Avisos, August 26, 1859, both cited in Cadenhead, González Ortega, pp. 24-26. The nickname “Devil Preacher” owed something to the late-colonial play (El diablo predicador), which was banned by the censor and inquisition. See Viqueira Albán, Propriety and Permissiveness in Bourbon Mexico, p. 64. Even Justo Sierra labeled him “an enraged anti-clerical,” “the persecutor of priests,” and “the terror of the bishops. See Sierra, Juarez, p. 173.

79 Funeral oration of General José Montesinos for Jesús González Ortega, Mining College, April 1, 1881, published in Diario Oficial, April 4, 1881, p. 1.

80 Reprinted in El Monitor Republicano, March 22, 1881, p. 3, and El Hijo de Trabajo, April 3, 1881, p. 1.

81 El Monitor Republicano, March 22, 1881, p. 3

82 Ibid.; See also Juvenal’s editorial in El Monitor Republicano, March 29, 1881, p. 1.

83 La Libertad, April 1, 1881, p. 2. Other clerical organs heavily criticized González Ortega. El Semanario Religioso of Monterrey attacked him as a vulgar bandit, sparking La Revista of the same city to respond: “reactionaries and traitors have always called the chiefs of the liberal army this. From the mouths of such men the word bandit, applied to patriots, is a title of glory. The executioners of Tacubaya, the assassins of Ocampo and Comonfort, the lackeys of Napoleon III, the traitors to their country in Miramar and traitors of Maximilian in Mexico, they cannot insult the republicans without praising them.” El Socialista of Mexico City also returned fire: “our esteemed colleague Semanario Religioso needs more than libel to slander truly historic and glorious reputations such as that of General González Ortega.” La Revista (Monterrey), reprinted in El Monitor Republicano, March 30, 1881, p. 3; El Socialista, March 31, 1881,p. 1.

84 El Partido Liberal, March 1, 1895, p. 3; Mexican Herald, May 31, 1895, p. 5.

85 Funeral oration of General José Montesinos for Jesús González Ortega, Mining College, April 1, 1881, published in Diario Oficial, April 4, 1881, p. 1.

86 Ibid.; Funeral oration of Arnulfo M. Garcia for Jesús González Ortega, delivered in Saltillo, March 2, 1881, in El Defensor de la Constitucion (Zacatecas), April 7, 1881, p. 3. Poet-Nationalist Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera recounted González Ortega’s triumphal entry into Mexico City on December 25, 1860 in El Nacional, March 31, 1881, p. 1.

87 See Weeks, Charles, The Juárez Myth in Mexico (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1986)Google Scholar.

88 La Libertad, April 1, 1881, p. 2.

89 Coerver, Porfirian Interregnum, pp. 63-65, 100-01, 192-93, 247-303.

90 Letters by Zabriskie, J. A. to the Tucson “Star”: Mexico in 1889 (San Francisco: N.p., 1889), p. 34 Google Scholar.

91 Knapp, Frank Jr., The Life of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, 1823- 1889: A Study of Influence and Obscurity (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1951), pp. vii, 265Google Scholar.

92 El Siglo XIX, April 22, 1889, p. 1; Diario del Hogar, April 23, 1889, p. 1; Two Republics, April 23, 1889, p. I; Máximo Silva, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, 1823-1889: In Memoriam (Mexico, D.F.: Tip. de “El Partido Liberal,” 1889), pp. 27-31, 45-48; Knapp, Lerdo de Tejada, pp. 251-54; Katz, Friedrich, “Mexico: Restored Republic and Porfiriato,” in Bethell, Leslie, ed., The Cambridge History of Latin America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986), vol. 5, pp. 1620 Google Scholar; HMM VIII: El Porfiriato: La vida política interior, primera parte, pp. 106, 250-52.

93 See Knapp, Lerdo de Tejada, pp. 255-263.

94 The telegram from Romero Rubio to Lerdo de Tejada was published in Diario Oficial, April 23, 1889, p. 1; El Siglo XIX, April 23, 1889, p. 1; El Partido Liberal, April 24, 1889, p. 2; Diario del Hogar, April 24, 1889, p. 1; and La Patria, April 24, 1889, p. 3; April 25, 1889, p. 1.

95 Diario del Hogar, April 24, 1889, p. 2; April 26, 1889, p. 3; April 30, 1889, p. 3; Diario Oficial, April 27, 1889, p. 2; El Partido Liberal, April 30, 1889, p. 2.

96 Aprii 24, 1889, p. 1; May 1, 1889, p. 1. See similar comments in Two Republics, April 24, 1889, p. 1.

97 Diario del Hogar, April 30, 1889, p. 3; May 4, 1889, p. 3; Two Republics, April 30, 1889, p. 4; May 4, 1889, p. 14; May 12, 1889, p. 4; El Siglo XIX, May 10, 1889, p. 3; May 11, 1889, p. 1; May 14, 1889, p. 3; Silva, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, pp. 55-60.

98 Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Second Ed.; New York; Verso, 1991), pp. 1112 Google Scholar.

99 On the creation of a political-territorial imaginary see Lomnitz-Adler, Claudio, Deep Mexico, Silent Mexico: An Anthropology of Nationalism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001), pp. 56 Google Scholar.

100 El Monitor Republicano, May 14, 1889, p. 2; Two Republics, May 9, 1889, p. 2; May 14, 1889, p. 4; El Siglo XIX, May 10, 1889, p. 1; May 11, 1889, p. 1; May 13, 1889, p. 2; May 14, 1889, p. 3; El Tiempo, May 14, 1889, p. 2.

101 Cosío Villegas remarked that Escobedo finally accomplished what he failed to do in 1878. See HMM VIII, p. 289; Two Republics, May 14, 1889, p. 4; El Monitor Republicano, May 14, 1889, p. 2; Cosío Villegas, HMM VIII, p. 251.

102 El Monitor Republicano, May 15, 1889, p. 2; El Siglo XIX, May 14, 1889, p. 2; Two Republics, May 9, 1889, p. 2; May 14, 1889, p. 2.

103 Two Republics, May 9, 1889, p. 2; May 14, 1889, p. 4; El Siglo XIX, May 10, 1889, p. 2; May 11, 1889, p. 1; May 13, 1889, p. 2; El Monitor Republicano, May 12, 1889, p. 3.

104 El Tiempo, May 15, 1889, p. 2. Quotes to be found in El Siglo XIX, May 14, 1889, p. 2.

105 “Hegemony and the Language of Contention,” in Joseph and Nugent, eds, Everyday Forms of State Formation, p. 364.

106 Thompson, , Customs in Common (New York: The New Press, 1991), p. 8 Google Scholar.

107 El Partido Liberal, April 23, 1889, pp. 1, 2; April 24, 1889, p. 1; El Siglo XIX, April 23, 1889, p. 2; Diario Oficial, April 25, 1889, p. 2; May 9, 1889, p. 2; Two Republics, May 9, 1889, p. 2; May 12, 1889, p. 4; May 14, 1889, p. 4; Diario del Hogar, April 24, 1889, p. 2; May 11, 1889, p. 1; La Patria, May 12, 1889, p. 3; El Monitor Republicano, May 12, 1889, p. 3. Prieto’s speech was reprinted in El Siglo XIX on April 24, 1889, p. 1.

108 López-Portillo y Rojas asserts that Mexican constitutional history ended in 1888. See Elevación y caída de Porfirio Díaz (México: Librería Española, 1921), p. 209.

109 Two Republics, May 10, 1889, p. 4; May 15, 1889, p. 4; El Siglo XIX, May 9, 1889, p. 1; May 14, 1889, p. 2; May 20, 1889, p. 1; May 21, 1889, p. 1; May 22, 1889, p. 1; Lerdo was extolled as a “man of law” even in the memorial book dedicated to him. See Silva, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, pp. 15-19.

110 The full text appeared in El Siglo XIX, May 15, 1889, p. 1, and Silva, Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, pp. 73-75.

111 El Monitor Republicano, May 15, 1889, p. 2; HMM VIII: El Porfiriato: La vida política interior, primera parte, p. 252. El Tiempo regarded Bulnes’ speech “allusive.” Historian Daniel Cosío Villegas, who cared little for Bulnes, described his speech as “inconsequential.” See HMM VIII, p. 290.

112 Two Republics, May 15, 1889, p. 4.

113 El Siglo XIX, May 14, 1889, p. 2; Zabriskie, Letters, pp. 33-34; Two Republics, May 4, 1889, p. 4; May 14, 1889, p. 2; May 14, 1889, p. 4; May 15, 1889, p. 4; El Monitor Republicano, May 15, 1889, p. 2.

114 HMM VIII, pp. 290-92.

115 On the funeral as spontaneous uprising, see Ben-Amos, “The Sacred Center of Power,” pp. 27-48.

116 Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, p. 11.