The Mexican Revolution- The never Ending Story
The Mexican Revolution officially began on November 20, 1910, after Francisco Madero wrote the Plan of San Luis Potosi and asked all Mexicans to rise up against dictator Porfirio Diaz and his regime (Benjamin, p. 12). When the Revolution ended, if it ever truly ended, remains up for debate. Some say it ended with the adoption of the Mexico Constitution of 1917. Some say it ended with the election of Álvaro Obregón in 1920. Some say it ended in 1940 when most of the goals of the revolution became institutionalized. Some say it is still a work in progress.
Madero ran against Diaz for the Presidency in 1910 (Gonzales, p. 73). Diaz was nervous about Madero’s popularity and began to undermine his campaign. After Diaz shut down Madero’s newspaper, Anti Re-eleccionista, he met with Diaz and tried to work out a compromise; he would end his run for the presidency if Diaz would agree to have him as Vice President. Diaz responded by arresting and jailing Madero. Upon his release, Madero immediately crossed over to the United States where he began writing the Plan of San Luis Potosi (Gonzales, p. 73). By this time, there were already small armed revolutionary movements happening on a regional level throughout the country with demands for land reform. These rebellions were led by various rebels, some who would become the faces of the Revolution, like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. The early days of the rebellion were fraught with failure (Gonzales, p.74) Armed rebels were defeated in Puebla, Coahuila, Durango, Chihuahua (Gonzales, p. 75). This did not deter the revolutionaries, and soon the tide would turn.
As violence increased and the rebels began to seize control of towns and villages, Diaz attempted to negotiate with Madero. In a twist of fate, Pasqual Orozco, a local rebel who had successfully taken over towns and villages, was left out of the negotiations. This angered him. So without consulting Madero, he decided to invade Juarez while Madero met with Diaz in New York City. Orozco and his army were able to defeat the federal army and take over Juarez. About the same time, Zapata captured the heavily guarded army garrison in Morelos.
With these decisive defeats, Diaz agreed to leave office and the Treaty of Ciudad Juarez was signed on May 17, 1911 (Gonzales, p. 80). An interim president was chosen, pending elections, and a government consisting of members from both the Diaz regime and Madero appointees was established (Gonzales, p. 80). On October 11, 1911, Francisco Madero was elected President of Mexico (Gonzales, p. 85).
It seemed reasonable to expect that with the ouster of Diaz, and the signing of the treaty, the Revolution was complete. Diaz was out and the treaty agreed that all rebel forces would be disbanded. Not so fast. Immediately upon Madero taking office, groups of poor urban residents began to loot and attack innocent foreigners (Gonzales, p.82). Workers and revolutionaries destroyed stores, released prisoners and burned documents. Mineworkers began to organize and push for social reforms. In the countryside, over 60,000 rebels were still engaged in battles, supporting themselves by demanding good from villagers, and guns from federal troops (Gonzales, p. 83) Meanwhile, Emiliano Zapata demanded that lands illegally obtained under the Diaz regime be returned to the villages immediately (Gonzales, p.87). Orozco, attacked the rebel Pancho Villa, who was a Madero supporter, in Chihuahua and forced him to flee into the mountains (Gonzales, p. 88). Orozco then created his own plan called The Plan Orozquista, which called for, among other things, freedom of expression, increased wages and working conditions, and nationalization of the railroad (Gonzales, p. 89). He refused an offer to negotiate and marched south where he was ultimately defeated by Madero supporter, General Victoriano Huerta (Gonzales, p. 90). But popular discontent continued and Madero began to lose support for failure to implement his promised reforms. He would be ousted in 1913 by Huerta and executed (Gonzales, p. 98). Battles intensified and by the summer of 1914, Huerta would be ousted and replaced by Venustiano Carranza (Gonzales, p 161). It would be under Carranza that the Constitution of 1917 would be adopted.
The adoption of the Constitution of 1917 brought the Revolution to an end. Or did it? The presidential election of 1920 ended with Àlvaro Obregón issuing the Plan de Agua Prieta, calling for the overthrow of Carranza. Carranza fled Mexico City, but his train was intercepted and he was assassinated (Gonzales, p. 180). Obregón became President in 1920. He was faced with over 173 labor strikes during his first year as President and 300 the next year, with wages remaining below poverty level (Gonzales, p. 186). Obregón made strides in repairing the economy and land reform but the big winners remained the elites. In 1923, wealth disparity was vast with more than half the land in Mexico owned by less than 2,700 families, with 114 of these wealthy landowners holding 25% of the land (Gonzales, p. 193). Nationalism caused petroleum exports to dwindle by 1924, leaving Mexico in a debt crisis. As the next presidential election loomed, Pancho Villa polled as a favorite. This led to Villa’s assassination through a plot led by Obregón and other political enemies.
Plutarco Elías Calles was the next president. During his reign, which spanned from 1924–1928, there was the Cristero Rebellion, which was an armed conflict between the Calles army and the Catholic church. Calles was unable to defeat the church and had to call in peasant militias and agrarian warlords to fight the Cristinos (Gonzales, p. 214). This inability to control uprisings, let to O’bregón winning back the presidency in 1928. However, before he could even take office, he was assassinated by a religious fanatic, allowing Calles to become a de-facto leader until 1934-a period called Maximato-where he could rule behind the scenes through leadership at the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, without actually holding political office (Gonzales, p. 216).
The next election in 1930 also failed to bring peace. The President-elect, Pasqual Ortiz Rubio, survived an assassination attempt that left him severely injured (Gonzales, p.217). The shooter was tortured by officials until he revealed his connection to Rubio’s opponent, José Vasconcelos. The military then proceeded to hunt down Vascondelos supporters, arresting, torturing and murdering dozens. When the remains were found on a highway between Mexico City and Cuernavaca, it left Rubio with a legacy of scandal (Gonzales, p. 217). He was ousted and an interim president was appointed to fulfil his final two years in office.
After winning the presidency in 1934, Lazaro Cardenas resisted the control of Calles through the PNR and created his own coalition of supporters (Gonzales, p. 222). He also gained control of the government and formed an agenda that successfully covered agrarian reform, socialistic education and economic nationalism (Gonzales, p. 222). Did this signal the end of the Revolution?
Since that time, Mexico has continued to experience periodic armed rebellions, political fraud and scandals, and frequent assassinations (Gonzales, p. 261). Modern political leaders have historically chosen to focus on maintaining political control, and economic development that have unevenly benefited the upper and middle classes at the expense of struggling workers and the poor (Gonzales, p. 262).
A group of rebels in 1994, calling themselves Zapatistas, “demanded political autonomy, native rights, increased government spending on health and education, and redistribution of agricultural lands (Gonzales, p. 261). That sounds a lot like the demands made by revolutionaries in 1910.
References
Bain News Service, NYC (1912). Insurrectos photographed from a refugee train (photograph). Library of Congress. loc.gov. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016649406/
Gonzales, M. (2002). The Mexican Revolution 1910–1940. New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press.
