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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
The oil business has developed in waves; as new fields are discovered, individuals and companies rush to that area to seek their fortunes. In the United States just after the turn of the century, the wave headed for Texas and Oklahoma, and shortly thereafter, turned farther south toward the Mexican Gulf Coast. Despite the fact that between 1910 and 1920 Mexico was going through a major revolution, entrepreneurs, engineers, geologists, and skilled workers from the American Southwest poured into the area and participated in bringing Mexican oil production up to 25.2 percent of total world production in 1921, at the same time raising United States participation in the Mexican oil industry from 38.5 percent of a total investment of $51,900,000 U.S. in 1911 to 61 percent of $819,600,000 U.S. ten years later. This effort was both dangerous and romantic for the participants, and for many of them the profits were substantial. Needless to say, the relationship between the United States and Mexico was considerably affected by this influx of capital and personnel, and was made particularly crucial by the advent of the First World War in Europe. By the end of the decade, it had become clear that oil had paid a significant part of the cost of the Mexican Revolution and that future institutionalization by the Mexican government would depend greatly on oil revenues. Further, North American companies had gained preeminence in the industry, in large part because of the men who went to Mexico from the American Southwest.
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5 Marjorie McLernon, Interview with the author, July 27, 1978, Trinity Border Studies Oral History Project III /1. Project cited hereafter as TBSOH, followed by number.
6 Mancke, , Mexican Oil, p. 32 Google Scholar. San Antonio light, June 23, 1912.
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9 For clandestine activities, see reports of agents in file 112.9, William F. Buskley Papers. For Buckley’s expulsion, see William F. Buskley to Edmund L. Buckley, November 24,1921, file 020.1, in the same collection. Cited hereafter as BP followed by file number.
10 Kone interview, August 29, 1978, TBSOH III/2–1, August 31, 1978, TBSOH III/2–2, September 7, 1978, TBSOH III/2–3.
11 Meyer, , Mexico and the United States, pp. 22–23 Google Scholar. Tinkle, , Mr. De, pp. 27–29.Google Scholar
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13 Kone Interview, TBSOH III/2–1.
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15 Kone Interview, TBSOH III/2–1.
16 Penn-Mex Fuel Oil Company, Statement of Expense and Loss Incidental to the Revolution to December 1, 1919. SGS—Pemex, Roll 44.
17 Boletín del Petroleo, Vol. II (August, 1916), pp. 167–168.
18 Memorandum of Claims, Mexican Petroleum Company, National Archives, Record Group 76, Records of United States and Mexican Claims Commissions: Records of the Agency of the United States. Entry 125, Box 1882. Claims records cited hereafter as NA RG 76, USMC:125 followed by box number.
19 Kone Interview, TBSOH III/2–3.
20 Juan B. Vega to Juan José Ríos, September 11, 1918, Archivo de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Ramo 119, L-E-837. Archive cited hereafter as ASRE followed by Ramo number. F. J. Huffman to M. C. Schroeder, May 26, 1925, SGS-Pemex-44.
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