The Mexican Heartland: How Communities Shaped Capitalism, a Nation and World History, 1500-2000 by John Tutino

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Mexican Heartland: How Communities Shaped Capitalism, a Nation and World History, 1500-2000 by John Tutino Julián Durazo Herrmann John Tutino, The Mexican Heartland: How Communities Shaped Capitalism, a Nation and World History, 1500-2000( Princeton: Princeton University Press 2018) John Tutino's most recent book, The Mexican Heartland, is a work of love and a fascinating study of the valley of Mexico [End Page 292] and its immediate surroundings, covering over 500 years of history. By weaving, local, national, and global strands in a complex narrative including political, cultural and economic perspectives, this book is simultaneously illuminating and profoundly stimulating. The Mexican Heartland is no short-term analysis. It draws extensively on Tutino's lifelong studies of Mexican social history and is in constant dialogue with the rest of his work. The book also draws on a breathtakingly extensive bibliography, both in English and Spanish. Moreover, especially for colonial times, Tutino also builds on substantial archival work. The book's local—> national—> global narrative is a powerful instrument and is probably its most enticing dimension. In many ways, The Mexican Heartland seems inspired both by Ferdinand Braudel's La Méditerranée et le Monde méditerranéen à l'époque de Philippe II (Paris: Armand Colin, 1949), and Immanuel Wallerstein's The Modern World System (New York: Academic Press,1974), simultaneously demonstrating the Mexican heartland's global historical clout and its political and economic subordination as a (critical) periphery to world capitalism. Tutino's argument is especially convincing for the colonial period and the Mexican war of independence. Thinking counterfactually, had there been no silver in Mexico, how would the world have been different? The history of silver capitalism in the Mexican heartland shows us that it would have been a very different place; neither Spain and England or China and India would have been the same. Unfortunately, Tutino's coverage of the 20th century is less engaging and does not depart substantially from other histories of Mexico. To take an example, a deeper, more detailed study of Zapata and his heritage - actual and symbolic - would be extremely illuminating, especially when set in the book's local—> national—> global narrative, comparing Zapata's strongholds in Morelos to his limited influence in the Mezquital and analyzing the effects of these developments far beyond. Rephrasing the question above, had there been no Zapata, how would the world have been different? Completing the proposed analysis would certainly yield a much longer book. Once again, Braudel's long books come to mind. Nevertheless, I think this effort is necessary to address its ambitious goals, even more so as the existing literature does not engage with this issue. By linking local history to national and global dynamics in a two-way analysis, Tutino engages in theory-building. The main argument is that as long as political, economic, and cultural autonomies hold, local communities can withstand and even prosper while capitalism develops through the establishment of symbiotic domination processes, marked by powerful equilibria. If capitalist forces are weak, communities take the upper hand and may even give rise to "plenty without profit," (183) such as the Mexican heartland experienced during much of the 19th century. If there is a disequilibrium, conflict festers and can explode in violent confrontations (i.e. the Mexican War of Independence and the Mexican Revolution). If autonomies disappear, symbiotic domination is impossible and gives way to all-out capitalist exploitation, penetrating all dimensions of social life, as seems to be the case today. Tutino notes the critical place of gender relations in this process, but unfortunately this dimension of the analysis is rather weak and dependent on secondary sources. Nevertheless, Tutino's discussion of patriarchy, its social and political effects, its challenges and [End Page 293] transformations - most notably the paradoxical ways patriarchy sustains community autonomies - is tantalizing and invites further investigation. Another seductive theme in the book is the evolution of labour relations in the Mexican heartland, which features prominently in the analysis. Tutino underscores the thin, sometimes invisible lines between free and coerced work in colonial times and later on between formal and informal labour, the essence of which persist until this day. Labour...