From Involution to Revolution in Mexico: Liberal Development, Patriarchy, and Social Violence in the Central Highlands, 1870–1915

Abstract

AbstractForces loyal to Emiliano Zapata rose to demand land and community autonomy in the revolution that brought destruction and transformation to Mexico after 1910. Men fought to right historic wrongs, land losses that began in the colonial era and political exclusions that mounted during the nineteenth century. Yet those historic grievances were already deeply felt and clearly expressed during the political and social conflicts of the 1860s and 1870s. Revolutionary mobilization did not surge until 1911, after three decades of political stability and commercial development under the authoritarian liberal regime of Porfirio Díaz. This article examines the social consequences of that dynamic liberal development in the highland basins south of Mexico City, the Zapatista heartland after 1910. It argues that population growth, land concentration, and mechanization fueled a commercial expansion that led to proliferating insecurities among the rural majority, insecurities lived by young men as threats to the patriarchal roles they presumed their birthright – their one advantage in communities defined by dependence and hard labor. The first result was a rising tide of violent crime within families and communities during decades of political stability. Then, after the political break of 1910, villagers refocused their rage outward in revolutionary assaults on those who presumed to rule and profit. Young men from communities south of Mexico City turned to revolution only after successful liberal development undermined their chances to live as patriarchs, even as dependent laboring patriarchs. They fought for land, community – and patriarchy.