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Agrarian Precursors of the Mexican Revolution: The Development of an Ideology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

John M. Hart
John M. Hart*
Affiliation:
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota
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During the second half of the nineteenth century, when Mexico was beginning a slowly drawn-out process of industrialization and urbanization, the seemingly quiet countryside was experiencing agrarian unrest of proportions unprecedented in the nation's history. Trapped between increasing population on diminished ejidal and pueblo landholdings and ever-growing estates and demands of large property owners, Mexican campesinos in three states—eastern Morelos, southeastern Mexico, and northwestern Puebla— sought relief by means of insurrection. Because these agrarian uprisings during the last third of the nineteenth century were a prelude to similar and more famous occurrences during the fateful epoch 1910-1917, their causes, nature, and significance are essential for understanding an important aspect of the Mexican Revolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , October 1972 , pp. 131 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1972

References

1 In recent years a number of works have been published describing the exploits of Mexican agrarian revolutionary leaders such as Emiliano Zapata, Francisco Villa and Pascual Orozco. Yet, while virtually all observers agree that agrarian grievances were inherited from the nineteenth century and more particularly from the Díaz regime, none of these studies which delve into the agrarian aspect of the Mexican Revolution have selectively examined the significance or possible influence of particular agrarian precursors of the conflagration that erupted in 1910.

2 For discussions of the Rio Verde uprising see Gama, Valentín, “La Propiedad en México. La Reforma Agraria,” Revista Mexicana de Ingenería y Arquitectura, (México D.F., 1931),Google Scholar Numbers 6, 8, 9, and 10; also, Herzog, Jesús Silva, El Agrarismo Mexicano y La Reforma Agraria, (Mexico D.F., 1959), 62–63.Google Scholar

3 For the most extensive discussion of the agrarian movement in the nineteenth century see Silva Herzog. However, the author, with the exception of the Rio Verde incident, did not examine the uprisings studied in this essay.

9 Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, No. 205, fol. 3f; cited by Gibson, Charles C., The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule, (Stanford, 1964), 141–142.Google Scholar

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7 Venustiano Carranza tried to capitalize on this sentiment during his address to the 1916–1917 constitutional convention in Querétaro. See Diario de los Debates del Congreso Constituyente, (México D.F., 1917), Volume 1, 266.

8 For a description of the land acquisition process in the colonial period see Chevalier, Francois, Land and Society in Colonial Mexico; The Great Hacienda, (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963).Google Scholar For an excellent discussion of hacienda expansion in nineteenth century Morelos see Womack, John, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, (New York, 1969), 37–66.Google Scholar

9 Gibson, , The Aztecs, 139–142.Google Scholar

10 For an intensive analysis of the European ideological and organizational influence upon Mexican anachism and the nineteenth-century agrarian movement, the differences between rural and urban anarchism, biographical data on the leaders of the movement, and the reactions of the Mexican “ establishment “ see John M. Hart, “ Anarchist Thought in Nineteenth Century Mexico,” Ph.D. dissertation, the University of California at Los Angeles, December, 1970.

11 Rhodakanaty, Plotino C., “Lo Que Queremos,” El Hijo del Trabajo, (México D.F.), No. 92, April 28, 1878.Google Scholar

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19 Letter, Chávez López to Zalacosta, April 18, 1869, Archivo Judicial del Estado de Querétaro.

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27 López, Chávez, “Manifesto,” from Luna, Hernández, “Movimiento Anarco-Fourierista,” Cuadernos, Number 4, 24.Google Scholar

28 Diario, Volume 1, 266.

29 The principal periodicals involved were El Socialista, El Hijo del Trabajo, El Obrero Internacional, (México D.F.), and La Internacional, (México D.F.).

30 González, José María, “Las Sociedades Mutualistas,” El Hijo del Trabajo, Number 16, August 6, 1876.Google Scholar

31 Ibid.

32 For examples see La Internacional, Number 4, July 28, 1878; González, , “También Son Hombres,” El Hijo1, Number 61, September 23, 1877 Google Scholar; and González and others in the series entitled “ La Cuestión Indígena,” that was carried by El Hijo throughout 1877–1878.

33 González, , “¡Apeo y Deslinde de Terrenos! ¡Abajo la Usurpación!,” El Hijo, Number 67, November 4, 1877.Google Scholar

34 González, , “La Cuestión Indígena, (Hacienda de las Bocas),” El Hijo, Number 71, December 2, 1877.Google Scholar

35 La Internacional, Number 8, August 25, 1878.

36 Report from Juan Othon, Señor Secretario de la Prefectura Superior Política del Departmento de San Luis Potosí, January 1864, cited by González, in “La Cuestión Indígena (Hacienda de las Bocas),” El Hijo, Number 72, December 9, 1877.Google Scholar

37 González, , article in El Hijo, Number 79, January 27, 1878.Google Scholar

38 This was probably done in 1876 although no record of the exact date of the event exists.

39 González, , “La Cuestión Indígena (Hacienda de las Bocas),” El Hijo, Number 73, December 16, 1877.Google Scholar

40 Communique from Joaquín Flores to Rodríquez, Commandant F. according to La Internacional reporter Moctezuma and telegraphed to La Internacional on July 20, 1878.Google Scholar It was published in La Internacional, Number 3, July 21, 1878.

41 Editorial in La Internacional, Number 4, July 28, 1878.

42 For examples see González, , “¡Apeo y Deslinde de Terrenos! ¡Abajo la Usurpación!,” El Hijo, Number 67, November 4, 1877 Google Scholar; and “De Rodillas, Miserables!,” El Hijo, Number 55, August 12, 1877.

43 La Internacional, Number 8, August 25, 1878; and Number 14, October 6, 1878.

44 La Internacional, Number 2, July 14, 1878.

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47 Ibid.; see also Soto, Díaz y Gama, , La Revolución Agraria, 52–53.Google Scholar

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51 Santa Fe had worked with Rhodakanaty, González, and Zalacosta on the staffs of El Hijo and La Internacional.

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58 “Don Miguel Negrete,” El Hijo, Number 220, October 10, 1880.

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60 See “ Don Miguel Negrete,” El Hijo, Number 220, October 10, 1880, and El Hijo del Ahuizote, (México D.F.), Number 249, November 2, 1890.

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62 Ibid.: see also the letters, General Gonzalez Ortega to Negrete, New York, September 10, 1866, and Silvestre Aranda to Benito Juárez, Chihuahua, Chihuahua, April 22, 1866, Archivo Juárez, Biblioteca Nacional, México D.F.

63 Diario del Imperio, (México D. F.), Number 136, June 14, 1865.

64 Letters, General Francisco Naranjo to Negrete, Villa Aldama, Nuevo León, January 27, 1866, February 6, 1866, and February 7, 1866; also, General Juan N. Sáenz to Negrete, February 6, 1866, and February 7, 1866 (point of dispatch unknown); Archivo Juárez, Biblioteca Nacional, México D.F.

65 Five letters, Negrete to Colonel Pedro Villegas, Santa Ana, Puebla, February 14, 1869; also letter, Negrete to Lt. Colonel Melitrón Galarza, February 14, 1869, Chiaulla, Puebla; Archivo Juárez, Biblioteca Nacional, México D.F.

66 Don Miguel Negrete,” El Hijo, Number 220, October 10, 1880.

67 Ibid.

68 Negrete, , “Municipio Libre,” El Hijo, Number 200, May 23, 1880.Google Scholar

69 Letter, Negrete to Porfirio Díaz, January 30, 1893, Archivo Histórico de la Defensa Nacional, Expediente X/lll.2/15-709, Primer Tomo, Document #499.

70 Ramírez, Díaz, Apuntes Históricos, 73.Google Scholar

71 Montiel, Tiburcio, “Comunismo,” El Socialista, Number 28, July 31, 1878.Google Scholar

72 Soto, Díaz y Gama, , La Revolución Agraria, 43.Google Scholar

73 Montiel, , “Comunismo,” El Socialista, Number 28, July 31, 1878.Google Scholar

74 Pedrueza, Rafael Ramos, La Lucha de Clases a Través de la Historia de México, (México D.F., 1941), 412.Google Scholar

75 Ramírez, Díaz, Apuntes Históricos, 73.Google Scholar

76 Navarro, Moisés González, El Porfiriato, Vida Social, Villegas, Daniel Cosio, ed., La Historia Moderna de México (6 Volumes), Tomo 4, (México D.F., n. d.), 244.Google Scholar

77 For data on land distribution and the size of haciendas before the Revolution of 17910 see Womack, , Zapata, 391–392 Google Scholar; Magana, Gildardo, Emiliano Zapata y El Agrarismo en México (5 Volumes), Tomo 1, (México D.F., 1951), 39 Google Scholar; and Diez, Domingo, Dos Conferencias sobre el Estado de Morelos, (México D.F., 1919), 56.Google Scholar

78 ProfessorWomack, John in his perceptive Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, 405,Google Scholar makes the claim of “ originality “ for Zapata’s Plan de Ayala and Agrarian Law. Díaz Soto y Gama, however, has argued the case for the precursors with the claim that the Plan of Ayala offered the people nothing more than what the nineteenth century agrarians had proposed in the face of insurmountable odds (La Revolución Agraria, 49–50).

79 For the closest comparison see the “Ley del Pueblo,” El Socialista, Number 30, August 4, 1878; and La Revolución Social, Number 2, December 18, 1879.

80 Womack, , Zapata, 393.Google Scholar