Sex, Money, and Murder on the Isthmus: Rumor, Disinformation, and the Politics of Denunciation in Revolutionary Mexico

Abstract

Abstract In 1915, the Constitutionalist faction of Venustiano Carranza moved into southern Mexico, promising revolutionary justice and retribution against The Reaction. Unfamiliar with the social topography of the region, Carranza’s men depended on information gleaned from dubious sources to make key political decisions. Groups competing for the Constitutionalists’ patronage flooded Carranza’s correspondence, accentuating their own revolutionary bona fides while exposing their enemies. The result was a political milieu of denunciation, and nowhere was this milieu more acrimonious than in Juchitán, a coveted transportation hub in the isthmus region of Oaxaca. Using the Carranza archive in Mexico City, this essay examines denunciations sent from Juchitán in early 1915. These letters reveal an unmediated “popular voice,” unbound from the public sphere, its code of honor, and its recognition of the realm of privacy. The shift of public politics into the private sphere had two important consequences. First, unsubstantiated information—rumors, gossip—gained a prominent position in local politics. Second, it opened the door to political participation to marginalized groups, particularly the working classes and women. This essay examines two letters in detail, one from an “honorable worker” and the other from a prominent woman, both dealing in rumor, gossip, and conspiracy. Despite their inherent unreliability, these letters give us a window into the construction of the camarilla, prevailing perceptions about politics and the accumulation of wealth, and the possibilities and limits of women’s participation in high politics.