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Chapter Reference: Neocolonialism; Nationalism
Much of the history of modern Mexico can be summed up in the Porfiriato and the revolution. The thirty-year rule of Porfirio Díaz is the obligatory starting place for any discussion of the 1910 Mexican Revolution—along with the Cuban Revolution, one of the two most significant in twentieth-century Latin America. But Porfirian rule can also be a topic in itself, a study of how the caudillos of mid-nineteenth-century Mexico were brought to heal, how the country's shifting and fractious politics were stabilized, and how the region's richest and most populous former Spanish colony was once again fully opened for international business. Díaz dropped out of the picture almost as soon as the revolution began and, from 1911—1920, a variety of forces competed to replace him. From 1920 to 1940, the Mexican Revolution should be understood as an ongoing process of social transformation. After 1940, however, that process of transformation ended, and the Mexican Revolution lived on mostly in official rhetoric alone. A paper on the Porfiriato could address Díaz's rule in the context of neocolonialism and lend attention to the rise in nationalist sentiments that it provoked. One focused on the Mexican Revolution should briefly discuss the Porfiriato and the years of fighting, then examine the process of social transformation between 1920 and 1940.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- How was Porfirio Díaz able to establish and maintain control over Mexico for three decades? What comparisons can be made between Mexico in the Porfiriato and Mexico today?
- War is a powerful shaper of individual and political identities. What can you discover about the impact of the Mexican revolution—both the years of battle as well as their aftermath—on the sense of national identity in Mexico?
- What are the most important achievements and major failings of the Mexican Revolution?
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
** Brunk, Samuel. Emiliano Zapata: Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1995.
This recent biography is a good introduction to one of the legendary leaders of the great peasant movements of the revolution.
Cumberland, Charles C. Mexican Revolution: Genesis Under Madero. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1952.
________. Mexican Revolution: The Constitutionalist Years. Austin: University of Texas Press,
1972.
Both of these volumes are dated but useful staples in the bibliography on the revolution.
** Garner, Paul. Porfirio Díaz. Profiles in Power. London: Longman, 2001.
Garner provides a detailed look at the foundations of Porfirian Mexico, the progress and consequences of liberalism under Díaz's rule, and the Porfiriato in Mexican historiography.
** Gonzales, Michael J. The Mexican Revolution, 1910—1940. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002.
** González, Luis. San José de Gracia: Mexican Village in Transition. Translated by John
Upton. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974.
Gruening, Ernest. Mexico and Its Heritage. London: The Century, 1929.
An older but still-useful work.
Johns, Michael. The City of Mexico in the Age of Díaz. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.
This short book is a readable take on the Porfiriato through the lens of the changes occurring in Mexico City and the countryside.
Knight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Other Resources:
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