[Mike’s summary of the Mexican Revolution is a needful overview of this history which continues to reverberate not only in Mexico, but here in the United States as well. Madero’s as well as Wilson’s perfidy are with us still. Our neighbors to the south have suffered much and it is important that we be at least somewhat conversant with their story.]

[This will be a 4-part post: Prologue and Beginning; Civil War and Ending; Scorecard; US Interventions. Each is worth your time — RMB]

The Mexican Revolution 1910-1920 – Part 1 — Mike Ashe

Prologue

Historians write that the defining event of modern Mexican history was the Revolution. Was it?

I think to answer that question one has to examine its cost in human lives, and how did it truly advance the interests of the Mexican people. The stated motives for waging an internal conflict were to fight for social reform: “La tierra es para el que trabaja” (the land is for those who work it) or “Tierra y Libertad” (Land and Freedom). 

The mottos sounded honorable, but were they achieved?

Cost in human lives of 2-3 Million, includes combatants and civilians. The suffering was horrendous. Women and girls were hidden away from the advancing armies that raped and pillaged the population. No one was safe from the scourges of war, which lived on even after the war ended; fighting continued for decades.

With all its social faults, the Porfirio Diaz economy was robust and stable, the envy of the world. That ended abruptly in 1911 and 10 years of war left the country’s economy in shambles just ahead of a world-wide depression in the late twenties. Recovery was slowed even more with unbelievable cruelty and bloodshed during the Cristeros war (300,000-600,000 casualties). 

Diaz’s vision was to build an infrastructure realizing that without it the country would not prosper. Sadly, the Mexican infrastructure has never been built out to a degree that would support a country blessed with such enormous resources. I place blame on the self-serving Generals who waged and promoted endless conflicts and assassinations throughout this unfortunate period in history.

Also, in the post-revolution period conditions did not get much better with its corrupt ruling class that did little to promote the social justice which was supposedly the primary reason for ending the Porfiriato. 

The one-party system (Partido Revolucionario Institucional-PRI) established by President Calles (1924-28) did little to serve the nation’s interest but rather to consolidate power in the central government. With the one-party system the president simply picked his successor (NO DRAMA).  It was not until 2006 that Vicente Fox from Partido Acción Nacional-PAN) that a president was elected from another party.

As an aside — my Mexican wife (Maria Cristina de Ashe, a US Citizen since 1980) worked as a Secretary – Admin for Minera Autlan in Mexico City when I met her. The firm was a mining company (manganese ore) owned by Don Enrique Madero and his Son Enrique Jr.   

The Madero’s were direct descendants of Francisco Moderno and Enrique Jr. was active in Mexican politics in the PAN. I’ve seen him on tele-mundo several times after Vicente Fox’s election.

There were several popular heroes of the revolution including Madero, Zapata, and in my opinion the unpopular Carranza would be another. Carranza was a skilled, experienced political leader; in other words, “A Statesman”.  Madero and Zapata did not enrich themselves but rather died for the cause of freedom.

The other heroes are the Mexican people which I love dearly: they are hardworking, funny, committed to their savior Jesus Christ, to the Virgin of Guadalupe, and to their beloved Mexico.

I’ll leave it up to the reader to answer to the questions above.

Beginning

The Revolution was triggered by liberal intellectuals who began to challenge the Porfiriato and in late 1910 Francisco Madero (a UC Berkley – Educated intellectual) issued his Plan de San Luis Potosi from his exile in the US that called for the uprising. His plan was to establish a democratic republic and to abolish unlimited presidential terms. At the same time Emiliano Zapata (from the state of Morelos) started recruiting thousands in the south (beginning in 1909) to fight for land reform in support of El Plan de Ayala.  

In May 1911 Mexican President Porfirio Diaz resigned and left the country and Francisco Madero was elected president in that same year.

[His parting words were that “Madero has unleashed the tiger; let’s see if he can tame it.” He could not, as subsequent posts will document — RMB]