Popular Organizing for Public Services

Abstract

Contrary to dominant historical narratives of state-controlled modernization projects in Mexico, this article argues that urban residents from a range of social classes also played a central role in the expansion of modern urban infrastructure in Morelia, Michoacán from 1880 to 1930. Based on letters and collective petitions sent to local authorities by city residents, this article demonstrates how urbanites held the municipal and state governments accountable to their professed priorities of development, liberalism, public health, and modernity. Drawing on shared interests and neighborhood identities, residents came together across social class lines to initiate, organize, finance, and build piped sewers and to demand that local government properly maintain city streets. Thus private, neighborhood-based initiatives played an important role in the modernization of urban infrastructure. This popular investment in the city further contributed to the articulation of urban identities and popular claims to the modern city.