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Recent Regional Studies of the Mexican Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Barry Carr
Barry Carr*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University (Australia)
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Historians have long complained that research on the regional and local impact of the Mexican Revolution has been eclipsed by macro-level analysis of national politics, including studies of formal institutions (the army, the Church, political parties) and biographies of “great men.” Very few of the global studies of the Revolution published in English have paid more than token attention to its regional complexity. It is ironic, for example, that until recently the most detailed, if idiosyncratic, treatment of regional politics in the 1920s was provided by Ernest Gruening's Mexico and Its Heritage (London: Stanley Paul & Co., 1928). Its devastatingly drawn picture of violence at the local level was richly documented from official archives opened to the author by the Calles government in an effort to discredit its enemies. More recently, Jean Meyer's study of the period 1910–40 has provided historians with an analysis that offers both a general characterization of the revolutionary process and a narrative that is informed throughout by a keen appreciation of the Revolution's regional and local variations. Another particular merit of this and other work by Meyer is its iconoclastic vigor and insistence on viewing the Revolution as an event that deepened Mexico's dependence upon international capitalism, providing revolutionary leaders with abundant opportunities for personal enrichment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , 1980 , pp. 3 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 by Latin American Research Review

References

Notes

1. We still lack, however, adequate biographies of a host of revolutionary figures including Obregón, Calles, de la Huerta, Carranza, Alvarado, Amaro, Morones, and many others.

2. Jean Meyer, La Révolution Mexicaine (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1973).

3. Friedrich Katz, “Agrarian Changes in Northern Mexico in the Period of Villista Rule, 1913–1915,” in James Wilkie, Michael Meyer, and Edna Monzón de Wilkie, eds., Contemporary Mexico: Papers of the IV International Congress of Mexican History (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976); Raymond Th. J. Buve, “Peasant Movements, Caudillos and Landreform [sic] during the Revolution (1910–1917),” Boletín de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 18 (1975).

4. Jean Meyer, La Cristiada (México: Siglo XXI, 1973–74), 3 vols.

5. The classic study of Morelos by John Womack has been followed by a number of important recent works that deal with post-zapatista developments in the state. See Arturo Warman, Y venimos a contradecir: los campesinos de Morelos y el Estado Nacional (México: Ediciones de la Casa Chata, 1976); Laura Helguera R., Sinecio López M., and Ramón Ramírez M., Los campesinos de la Tierra de Zapata, 1: Adaptación, cambio y rebelión (México: CIS-INAH, 1974); Jorge Alonso, Alfonso Corcuera Gaza, and Roberto Melville, Los campesinos de la Tierra de Zapata, 2: Subsistencia y explotación (México: CIS-INAH, 1974).

6. The states of Sonora and Sinaloa constitute one of the key “leading edges” of development in Mexico. For one of the few studies of the agricultural development of this area that pays due attention to historical analysis, see Cynthia Hewitt de Alcántara, La modernización de la agricultura en México, 1940–1970 (México: Siglo XXI, 1978).

7. For some Oaxacan examples see Ronald Waterbury, “Non-Revolutionary Peasants: Oaxaca Compared to Morelos in the Mexican Revolution,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 17:4 (1975) and Michael Kearney, The Winds of Ixtepeji: World View and Society in a Zapotec Town (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972).

8. This emerges very clearly from the work of Héctor Aguilar Camín. See, for example, his article “Antes del reino. Plutarco Elias Calles y Adolfo de la Huerta: un ensayo de gobierno, 1915–1920,” Trimestre Político 1:4 (1976). See also “Los jefes sonorenses en la Revolución Mexicana: tradiciones disponibles,” in David A. Brading and Jean Meyer, eds., Peasant and Caudillo in Modern Mexico (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). On “governorships” in general see William H. Beezley, “Research Possibilities in the Mexican Revolution: The Governorships,” The Americas 29:3 (Jan. 1973):308–13 and the same author's “Governor Carranza and the Revolution in Coahuila,” The Americas 33:1 (July 1976):50–61.

9. The papers presented at the Jalapa meeting have been published. See Memoria del Primer Coloquio Regional de Historia Obrera (México: CEHSMO, 1977). An increasing number of Mexican university theses on labor questions incorporate primary sources. The state of Veracruz, not unsurprisingly, has produced a number of excellent recent dissertations. See especially, Bernardo García Díaz, “Un pueblo fabril del porfiriato: Santa Rosa, Veracruz” (Tesis de Maestría, Centro de Estudios Históricos de la Universidad Veracruzana, 1977). Although falling outside the revolutionary period proper, Rodney Anderson's work on the orizabeño and poblano working class is obligatory reading for those interested in the experience of these areas during the post-revolutionary era. Rodney Anderson, Outcasts in Their Own Land: Mexican Industrial Workers, 1906–1911 (DeKalb: University of Northern Illinois Press, 1976).

10. Luis González y González, Invitación a la microhistoria (México: SepSetentas, 1973).

11. This is particularly true of a number of state histories including the important studies of Antonio Rivera and Francisco R. Almada. Antonio Rivera, La Revolución en Sonora (México: Imprenta Arana, 1969); Francisco Almada, Historia de la Revolución en el Estado de Chihuahua (México: Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, 1964).

12. For an excellent recent critique of a number of community studies, see William B. Taylor, “Revolution and Tradition in Rural Mexico,” Peasant Studies 5:4 (1976).

13. Gerrit Huizer, The Revolutionary Potential of Peasants (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1972), pp. 21–63.

14. Paul Friedrich, Agrarian Revolt in a Mexican Village (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1970).

15. Barbara L. Margolies, Princes of the Earth: Subcultural Diversity in a Mexican Municipality (Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, 1975), p. 158.

16. Héctor Aguilar Camín, La frontera nómada: Sonora y la Revolución Mexicana (México: Siglo XXI, 1977); Heather Fowler Salamini, “Adalberto Tejeda and the Veracruz Peasant Movement,” in Wilkie, Meyer, and Monzón de Wilkie, eds., Contemporary Mexico, and the same author's Agrarian Radicalism in Veracruz, 1920–1938 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977).

17. See, for example, the last four issues of the Boletín, especially Sergio Ortega Noriega, “Archivos históricos regionales y locales—un proyecto de catálogo,” tercera serie, tomo 1, no. 2 (jul.–sept. 1977) and Luis López Rivas, “Archivo General del Estado de Yucatán,” tomo 1, no. 3 (oct.–dic. 1977). Among the twentieth-century topics covered by the new style Boletín, most space has been given to the Mexican working class. A whole issue (tomo 1, no. 5) has been devoted to a detailed breakdown of worker organizations in Mexico by state and region, accompanied by excellent maps.

18. David C. Bailey and William H. Beezley, A Guide to the Historical Sources in Saltillo, Coahuila (East Lansing: Michigan State University, 1975); David G. LaFrance, Fred Lobdell, and Maurice Leslie Sabbah, “Fuentes históricas para el estudio de Puebla en el siglo XX,” Historia Mexicana 27:2 (oct.–dic. 1977):260–72. Among the many recent reports on archives that have appeared recently in The Americas, one might cite Cynthia Radding de Murrieta, “Archival Research in Sonora, Mexico,” 22:4 (Apr. 1976) and E. Bruce White, “Archives of the Western Federation of Miners and International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelting Workers and the Latin American Historian” 32:2 (Oct. 1975):292–95.

19. Richard Greenleaf and Michael C. Meyer, eds., Guide to Research in Mexican History (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976).

20. Controversia, published in Guadalajara; the Orizaba-based Anuario: Centro de Estudios Históricos, Universidad Veracruzana; Yucatán: Historia y Economía. Revista de Análisis Socioeconómico Regional; and Anuario de la Escuela De Historia, Universidad Michoacana. The Secretaría de Educación Pública during the Echeverría sexenio published a number of regional studies of interest to the historian of the Mexican Revolution. They include: Edith Boorstein Couturier, La Hacienda de Hueyapán, 1550–1936 (México: SepSetentas, 1976); Alan M. Kirshner, Tomás Garrido Canabal y el movimiento de las camisas rojas (México: SepSetentas, 1976); Octavio García Mundo, El movimiento inquilinario de Veracruz, 1922 (México: SepSetentas, 1976).

21. See the various cuadernos de trabajo published by the Programa de Historia Oral of INAH, especially Estudio 1 (1974), 7 (1975), and 8 (1975).

22. David Bailey, “Revisionism and the Present Historiography of the Mexican Revolution,” Hispanic American Historical Review 58:1 (Feb. 1978): 62–79.

23. Alan Knight, “Peasant and Caudillo in Revolutionary Mexico, 1910–1917,” in D. A. Brading and Jean Meyer, eds., Peasant and Caudillo in Modern Mexico (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

24. Stuart Voss, “Towns and Enterprises in Sonora and Sinaloa, 1876–1910” (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1971); Evelyn Hu-Dehart, “Development and Rural Rebellion: Pacification of the Yaquis in the Late Porfiriato,” Hispanic American Historical Review 54:1 (1974); Michael C. Meyer, Mexican Rebel: Pascual Orozco and the Mexican Revolution, 1910–1915 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976); William H. Beezley, Insurgent Governor: Abrahám González and the Mexican Revolution in Chihuahua (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973).

25. Friedrich Katz, “Peasants and the Mexican Revolution of 1910,” in Joseph Spielburg and Scott Whiteford, eds., Forging Nations: A Comparative View of Rural Ferment and Revolt (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1976), p. 67.

26. Northwestern Chihuahua is currently the focus of a research project coordinated by the Centro de Estudios Superiores del INAH (CIS-INAH). Richard Estrada is studying the villista movement in the area and Horacio Espinosa the development of the escobarista rebellion. See Noticias del CIS-INAH, 1, no. 5 (sep.–oct. 1978).

27. Knight, “Peasant and Caudillo.”

28. Recent published materials on Carrillo Puerto include transcripts of interviews with his relatives recorded by members of CEHSMO. See Historia Obrera 2:5 (1975):15–16.

29. Francisco Paoli and Enrique Montalvo, El socialismo olvidado de Yucatán (México: Siglo XXI, 1977).

30. For a stimulating critique of economic analyses of the Mexican Revolution, see John Womack, Jr., “La economía en la Revolución (1910–1920): historiografía y análisis,” Nexos 1:11 (nov. 1978):3–8.

31. On this and other questions relating to regional history, see Lydia Espinoza, “Historia regional: el rincón de la fatalidad,” Nexos 1:7 (julio 1978):21. The magazine Nexos, edited by Enrique Florescano and Héctor Aguilar Camín, should be obligatory reading for anyone who wishes to follow current developments in Mexican historical scholarship.

32. Some of the best interdisciplinary research on regional aspects of Mexican history is taking place under the umbrella of the Centro de Estudios Superiores del INAH. CIS-INAH's regular news bulletin, Noticias del CIS-INAH, provides a summary of work in progress with comment on methodological issues arising from research.

33. Cuba was, after all, the stepping-off point for the million Spaniards who “whitened” the Caribbean in the twenty years before the sugar crash of 1921, and Veracruz was a major point of entry to some of these Spaniards as well as to Cubans and other nationals, many of whom played an important role in the development of Mexico's agrarian and labor movements. North American, Spanish, and Portuguese sailors and oil workers influenced developments in the Tampico petroleum zone and two men who had worked for many years in the Tampa tobacco industry occupy an important place in the early history of the Mexican Communist party. Yucatán has always looked outwards towards the Gulf and the Atlantic since the nineteenth century and its economic and political links with Cuba have been especially strong since before the time of the Caste War. Last, but not least, wave after wave of revolutionary exiles and conspirators settled on the U.S.-Mexican border, in the American Southwest as well as in New Orleans and Havana. The rather cheeky title for this project emerged from a recent conversation between the author and John Womack, Jr.