Obregón’s Ascension
In the rapidly fragmenting Mexican Revolution, the Constitutionals defeated the Conventionists. Several factors combined to help the Constitutionalists gain power.
Álvaro Obregón outmaneuvered Pancho Villa on and off the battlefield. Villa had a relatively narrow and geographically concentrated based of supporters. Obregón, as will be discussed below, built a broad coalition. Furthermore, Villa did not respect Obregón’s military capabilities, but Obregón, despite appearances, was more than a competent military leader. He took advantage of Villa’s overconfidence; in the process, he “displaced Villa as Mexico’s greatest warrior” (Gonzales 2002, 150).
While Obregón led the Constitutionalists to power, the broad coalition that he had created could not hold together. The Constitutionalists had built a coalition by offering something for everybody (Gonzales 2002, 141). However, in victory, they were not prepared to honor those promises. Each military leader felt that he deserved a role in the government. Leaders who got power were eager to consolidate power. They did so by making narrow rather than sweeping changes. Reforms tended be regional in order to placate specific groups. Wide-ranging land reforms did not occur, so many of the lowest classes in Mexican society continued to have the same grievances that they had had under the Porfiriato. For example, military and political leaders — even those who may have wanted some reform — from the North tended to dismiss the needs of the native Yaqui Indians. Even though the Constitution of 1917 called for land reform, the central government never implemented national land reform. The reform, as will be shown, was sporadic and targeted in order to increase presidential and central governmental power. Ironically, the land reform that increased governmental power meant that the Revolution was failing to address another complaint against the old Díaz regime: its centralizing tendencies. As Wasserman (2012) asserts, “At least temporarily, the Revolution fragmented the nation into the many Mexicos that it had been before the rise of Porfirio Díaz” (23).
The interrim government of Adolfo de la Huerta helped set the stage for Obregón’s power. One of the most important things de la Huerta did was temporarily remove Pancho Villa from the national stage. Villa was basically bribed with land for himself and his army. Villa’s removal from public life would provide increased political stability.
After the perfunctory de la Huerta administration, Obregón came to power. The victorious Obregón consolidated power through targeted actions. He made peace with both former and potential rivals. He began to implement targeted land reform in specific regions to placate former rebel leaders and build his support there. For example, some of the land reforms that occurred under Obregón took place in Morelos, where the Zapatistas were strong. Other land reform in San Luis Potosí placated strongman Saturnino Cedillo. Land for his followers gave Obregón Cedillo’s support. The land reform that did take place also tended to reinforce central power. In Morelos, Obregón created ejidos, agricultural collectives connected to the central government.
While making minimal land reforms, he also allowed wealthy supporters of Díaz to return and paid off federal army officers. He formed an alliance with a moderate labor organization, the Confederación Regional de Obreras Mexicanos (CROM). The organization’s rank-and-file members did not particularly benefit, but the leaders did which provided Obregón with a base of support.
The most violent parts of Mexico’s Revolution occurred before Obregón came to power (Wasserman 2012, 26). Arguably, though, the Revolution continued. There are severals reasons to support this claim. Mexico did not have complete political stability. The Constitution of 1917 remained largely unenacted. While violence on a national scale had largely ended, regional violence continued. The Revolution would rumble onwards.
Bibliography
Gonzales, Michael J. The Mexican Revolution, 1910–1940. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002.
Wasserman, Mark. The Mexican Revolution: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012.
