A portrait of Cientificos
Diaz poses by the Aztec calendar
Fall of Diaz
• Causes
– Economic recession / U.S. depression 19061907
– Food crisis 1907-1910 (crop failures)
– Worker’s strikes
• 1906 Consolidated Copper Mine
• 1907 Textile workers
– Agitation of middle class reformers
– Dissatisfaction of some large landholders /
capitalists (Madero)
• Francisco Madero
• Family was part of elite
social class with political
and economic ties to Diaz
• Agreed with Diaz’ liberal
economic policies but
wanted liberal political
movement under elite
control
• Ran for president under
Anti-Reelectionist Party
ticket in 1910 when Diaz
ignored V.P. request
• Diaz jailed over 5000
supporters and Madero
himself just before
election
An anti-reelectionist demonstration,
1910
Madero and others in exile in El
Paso, Texas, in 1910
Plan of San Luis Potosi
• Written by Madero while in jail
• Published once he was in Texas
• Provisions
– Declared that 1910 elections were null and void
– Madero assumed title of Provisional President
– Called for free elections when conditions
permitted
Armed rebellion begins
• The Northern State of
Chihuahua falls to guerilla
peasant armies led by
Pancho Villa and Pascual
Orozco
• The central state of Morelos,
led by Emilio Zapata, rises in
rebellion against sugar
plantations.
• Both rebellions have their
origin in demands for land
redistribution
Villa
• Pancho Villa (18781923), the “Robin
Hood” of the north
• His parents were
sharecroppers on the
estate of one of the
richest men in
northern Mexico
Villa’s troops in New Mexico, 1916
Photo –
Villa on
Horseback
And, more recently…
Zapata
• Emiliano Zapata, a
guerrilla leader from
the South (18791919) and a role
model for radicals
ever since—presentday rebels in
Chiapas, in southern
Mexico, call
themselves
“Zapatistas.”
• Slogan of “Tierra y
Libertad”
Plan de Ayala, 1912
• All foreign owned lands would be seized
• All lands previously taken from villages
would be returned (ejidos)
• 1/3 of all land held by “friendly” hacendados
taken for redistribution
• All lands owned by enemies of Zapata
movement would be taken
Zapata
• Cover of a corrido LP about
Zapata
• From another corrido:
Finally they buried his body
filled with joy and pleasure
and many, so many wept
for his sins and for his
peace. But his soul
perseveres
in his ideal of "Liberator"
and his fearsome skull
wanders in grief. . .oh terror!
Zapata as anti-globalization activist
Zapata as Corn-God
Marlon Brando as Zapata
What do you think is happening
here?
Diaz waves goodbye, May 1911
• Madero signs treaty
of Ciudad Juarez,
which removed Diaz
but left all existing
institutions intact
Madero takes power
• Madero elected in 1912
• Allows workers to unionize,
• But quickly is at odds with Zapata over land
reform
– Plan of Ayala announced by Zapata
• Peasant outbreaks spread through center
and south of Mexico
• Begins military action against peasant
armies, but fails to impress the right or the
left. Forced to rely on Army commanders.
A soldadera,
one of the
women who
went to fight
Photo – Soldaderas
Madero’s Fall
• Coup led by Victoriano Huerta aided by
American ambassador Henry Lane Wilson—
US angry at Madero’s union policy and lack
of control.
• US troops mass on the border
• La Decena Tragica
– Madero is killed February 1913
• Gen. Victoriano Huerta assumes control
General Huerta
• Served as General for
Diaz, wanted to
reestablish a form of
Diaz regime
• Continues fight against
revolutionaries
• Never recognized by
Woodrow Wilson due to
method of gaining
power
• Henry Lane Wilson is
recalled and U.S. aids
selected members of
Huerta’s opponents
Opponents of the Huerta regime:
Pancho Villa, who begins to rule
Chihuahua as his own personal
fiefdom, and establishes state-owned
collectives
Zapata, who is distributing land to
peasants in the South
And Venustiano Carranza, a member
of Madero’s old party, with the same
goals as the murdered president, and
who quickly becomes the US’
preferred client, and First Chief of the
Revolution.
A somewhat unwilling ally of Villa and
Zapata
Most important general, Alvaro
Obregon
U.S. Intervention
U.S. openly opposes Huerta regime, esp. after
worries Huerta is granting GBr and Ger privileged
access to Mexico
Tampico incident
Veracruz occupation
–Huerta had to pull troops away from
Revolution to Veracruz, leaves him vulnerable
–Revolutionaries also denounce American
intervention, but use respite to gain victories in
major cities outside the capitol, moving
towards Mexico City from North and South
–Huerta flees country
Photo – Zapatistas Moving Through Cornfields
Scenes from the fighting in Mexico
City,
• Villa occupies
the President’s
chair and
Zapata sits to
his left in the
Presidential
palace in
Mexico City,
December
1914
Consolidation…
Carranza vs Villa: Villa wanted the revolution to be a socialist one,
Carranza not
A revolutionary convention met to settle this disagreement, ends up
supporting Villa, while Carranza retreats from the city
Zapata and Villa both occupy the capitol, while Carranza builds up his
army in Veracruz
Carranza then makes calls for land redistribution and workers’ rights,
even rights for women, while secretly promising hacendados a full
restoration of confiscated lands
Carranza’s general Obregon moves back into Mexico City, and
convinces workers’ groups to oppose Villa. Villa is driven out of
Mexico City in 1915 and forced back to the North.
Villa’s army is destroyed at the battle of Celaya, where Obregon uses
trenches, barbed wire, and machine guns to defeat him
Zapata is defeated in Morelos, and the state subjected to devastation.
Carranza is recognized as de facto President of Mexico by Wilson.
U.S. Expedition
• US calls for embargo on
weapons shipments to
Mexico
• Pancho Villa, reacting to
embargo, raids Columbus,
NM
• Woodrow Wilson sends
General Pershing into
Mexico to capture and
punish Villa
• Carranza opposes action,
sees this as a "foreign
invasion" of Mexico
• Expedition is unsuccessful
and finally recalled
Constitutional Convention
• Call for a constitutional convention in 1916
• Convention takes place in 1917
• Carranza presents draft of recommendations
that show little social change, no agrarian
reform and limited regard for labor
• Control of Convention taken by radicals
Constitution of 1917
• Final document was more liberal than
Carranza had intended
• Major clauses
– Article 3 - Secular education
– Article 27 - Land reform
– Article 123 - Labor reform
– Article 130 - Restrictions on Church
Article 3
• Compulsory elementary education
• Public education will be free
• Prohibited religion from having any
influence in public education
Article 27
• Nation is the original owner of all lands,
waters and subsoil
• State could expropriate with compensation
• All acts passed since the Land Law of 1856
transferring ownership of the ejidos was null
and void
Article 123
•
•
•
•
8 hour work day
Prohibited child labor
Equal pay for equal work
Wages must be paid in legal tender not
goods, tokens or vouchers (end the tienda
de raya)
• Right to bargain collectively, organize and
strike
Article 130
• Nation can not create law establishing
religion
• Marriage was a civil contract
• Only individuals born in Mexico can be
"ministers"
• Limited property ownership by church
Carranza's final years
•
•
•
•
Moved to the right
Did not fully implement the Constitution
Received de jure recognition from the U.S.
Remained neutral in World War I
– Zimmermann Telegram
• Announced that Article 27 was retroactive
(U.S. very upset)
Carranza finished off
Zapata in 1919, by tricking
him into meeting with a
supposed rebel general,
Guajardo.
When Zapata arrived, he
was shot by concealed
troops, and his body
displayed to the public.
Carranza's Fall
• Carranza's term ends in 1920
• He supports Ignacio Bonillas (ambassador
to the U.S.) who he could control
• Obregon comes out of retirement to run
• Carranza attempts to manipulate electoral
process in favor of Bonillas
• Obregon and Adolfo de la Huerta led revolt
to oust Carranza
Carranza's Fall (con’t)
• Carranza loads train full of bullion and
heads for Veracruz
• Train is attacked
• Carranza escapes to mountains but is
trapped and murdered there
• Adolfo de la Huerta is named interim
president
Assassination of Pancho Villa,
1923
D
Diego Riverai —
g
Night of the Rich
Diego Rivera – The Exploited
Disembarkation of the Spanish in
Veracruz
• Father Hidalgo
• (1949)
Diego Rivera –
Frozen Assets
Diego Rivera –
Modern Industry
Jose Clemente Orozco – Gods of the Modern World
Diego Rivera – Dividing the Land
Diego Rivera – Blood of the Martyrs