Novels About the Twentieth Century Mexican Presidential Succession During Four Crisis Periods

Abstract

This article traces the evolution of Mexico's presidential incumbent selection process as portrayed in four novels by politically active journalist-authors. These writings reveal the inner workings of the Mexican presidential succession process at crisis periods in its development, thereby providing in ironic fictional guise a measure of the investigative reportage missing from the controlled establishment press. La sombra del caudillo (1929) by Martín Luis Guzmán and Acomodaticio: Novela de un político de convicciones (1943) by Gregorio López y Fuentes treat the presidential succession while the generals still vied for rule after the Revolution of 1910 and before the official party had gained complete control of the process. El gran solitario de palacio (1971) by René Avilés Fabila and Palabras mayores (1975) by Luis Spota expose the official party's fully developed but corrupt incumbent selection system in the aftermath of the failed 1968 social revolution. The first two novels, by using stable irony to expose abuses, manage to convey some hope for reform under the aegis of the Revolution. However, hope gives way to despair in the last two novels, whose unstable irony portrays the official party once again losing control of the system.