Bibliography
Autumn Term
Throughout the terms, I would encourage students to read the relevant chapters from Brian Hamnett, A Concise History of Mexico and Gilbert Joseph and Jurgen Buchenau, Mexico Once and Forever Revolution
Extracts can be found here https://clas.warwick.ac.uk/Extracts/Index/AM219
WARNING: Most weeks you will be asked to read a few chapters. But, on a few occasions you will be asked to read entire books. This is a) the job of a historian b) good preparation for third year c) often the best way to access and understand complex issues.
If you are a bit of a slow reader, it might be best to start these relatively early. They are
Peter Guardino, The Dead March: A History of the Mexican American War (Term 1, Week 5)
Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution, A Very Short Introduction (Term 1, Week 9)
Jose de León, The Land of Open Graves : Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail (Term 2, Week 9)
Modern Records Centre Resources
We will visit the Modern Records Centre (MRC) during one of the seminars to look at the documents they have that are useful for studying the history of Modern Mexico. Here are some slides with general information about the MRC. Here is a list of documents related to Mexico that you can find in the MRC. Here is a source review form for use in the archives.
Week 2: Mexico, its people, and its regions
For an introduction to the importance of regional history, read the Introduction to Eric Van Young (ed.), Mexico’s Regions or Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution, pp. 2-15, or the Introduction to Thomas Benjamin and Mark Wasserman, Provinces of the Revolution
Week 3: Mexico Independence (1810-1821)
Why did Mexicans fight a war for Independence from Spain?
Who participated in the Wars of Independence?
Brian Hamnett, A Concise History of Mexico, Chapter 5, Part 1 (CORE READING)
There are three versions of Hamnett, Concise History
Eric Van Young, In the Gloomy Caverns of Paganism in Archer, The Birth of Modern Mexico (CORE READING)
AND
Robinson, Barry M. The Mark of Rebels: Indios Fronterizos and Mexican Independence.The University of Alabama Press, 2016. 'Introduction: Local Loyalties in an Imperial Context', pp1-15
Primary Sources
"IV. Trials of the Young Republic". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph, Timothy J. Henderson, Robin Kirk and Orin Starn, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 169-332. (Especially Sentiments of the Nation, The Plan de Iguala and, if you're writing an essay The Siege of Guanajuato by the conservative historian Miguel Alaman might be useful)
Further Reading:
Catherine Andrews. 'Alternatives to the constitution of Cadiz in New Spain: republicanism and the insurgent constitutional decree of Apatzingan (1814)', Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, 22:3, (2016) 163-180.
Eric Van Young, The Other Rebellion: popular violence, ideology, and the Mexican struggle for independence, 1810-1821
Christon I. Archer, (ed.) The birth of modern Mexico, 1780-1824
John Tutino, From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico : Social Bases of Agrarian Violence, 1750-1940
Ducey, Michael, “Village, Nation, and Constitution: Insurgent Politics in Papantla, Veracruz, 1810-1821,” Hispanic American Historical Review, vol.79 (1999), pp. 463-93
Christon Archer, "Independence and the Generation of the Generals" in A companion to Mexican history and culture / edited by William H. Beezley
Sabau, Ana. Riot and Rebellion in Mexico: The Making of a Race War Paradigm, New York, USA: University of Texas Press, 2022.
Podcast:
Eric Van Young talks about his book, Stormy Passage: Mexico from Colony to Republic 1750-1850. Rowman and Littlefield, 2022. on New Books Network.
Week 4: Democracy and Dictatorship (1821-1846)
Why did Mexico suffer such political instability post-Independence?
Mark Wasserman, Everyday life and politics in nineteenth century Mexico : men, women, and war, Chapters 1-2 (CORE READING) E-Book available here.
- Will Fowler. "Civil Conflict in Independent Mexico, 1821-1857: An Overview." in Earle, Rebecca (ed.) Rumours of Wars: Civil Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Latin America. vol. 6.;no. 6.;, Institute of Latin American Studies, London, 2000, 49-86.
"IV. Trials of the Young Republic". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph, Timothy J. Henderson, Robin Kirk and Orin Starn, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 169-332. Women and War in Mexico
Primary Sources
"IV. Trials of the Young Republic". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph, Timothy J. Henderson, Robin Kirk and Orin Starn, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 169-332. (Especially Women and War in Mexico and The Glorious Revolution of 1844 Everything pp 196-283 would be useful for essays)
The Pronunciamiento in Independent Mexico 1821-1876,University of St Andrews, AHRC
For a definition of a pronunciamiento, see Rosie Doyle's entry on the Barricades project website.
Here are some translations of pronunciamientos from the St Adrews project: The Federalist Declaration of Aguililla, 1937.Declaration of the women of Zacatlan, 29 of July 1833
Further Reading
Brian Hamnett, A Concise History of Mexico, 186-196
Peter Guardino, Peasants, politics, and the formation of Mexico's national state: Guerrero, 1800-1857
Peter Guardino, The time of liberty: popular political culture in Oaxaca, 1750-1850
Karen D. Caplan. Indigenous Citizens: Local Liberalism in Early National Oaxaca and Yucatán. Stanford University Press, 2009.
Timo H. Schaefer, Liberalism as Utopia: The Rise and Fall of Legal Rule in Post-Colonial Mexico, 1820–1900
Will Fowler (ed.), Independent Mexico : The Pronunciamiento in the Age of Santa Anna, 1821–1858
John Tutino, “The Revolution in Mexican Independence: Insurgency and the Renegotiation of Property, Production, and Patriarchy in the Bajío, 1800-1855,” Hispanic American Historical Review.
Peter Guardino, “Barbarism or Republican Law? Guerrero's Peasants and National Politics, 1820-1846”, Hispanic American Historical Review
Terry Rugeley, Yucatán's Maya peasantry and the origins of the Caste War
Alice Baumgartner. South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves and the Road to Civil War. Basic Books, 2020.
Sabau, Ana. Riot and Rebellion in Mexico: The Making of a Race War Paradigm, New York, USA: University of Texas Press, 2022.
Richard Warren, "Finding the Voices of Nineteenth Century Urban Mexico." History Compass, 1, 2003.
Richard Warren. Vagrants and Citizens: Politics and the Masses in Mexico City from Colony to Republic (Wilmington, Del., Scholarly Resources, 2001).
Podcast:
Eric Van Young talks about his book, Stormy Passage: Mexico from Colony to Republic 1750-1850. Rowman and Littlefield, 2022. on New Books Network.
Week 5: The Mexican American War (1846-1848)
What were the causes of the Mexican American War?
Peter Guardino, The Dead March: A History of the Mexican American War (CORE READING...SORRY)
Primary Sources
"IV. Trials of the Young Republic". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph, Timothy J. Henderson, Robin Kirk and Orin Starn, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 169-332. (Especially, Mariano Otero, Considerations Relating to the Political Situation in the Mexican Republic in the Year of 1847)
Samuel Chamberlain's Paintings
Further Reading
By historians of Mexico:
Pedro Santoni, Mexicans at Arms : Puro Federalists and the Politics of War, 1845-1848
Timothy Henderson, A glorious defeat: Mexico and its war with the United States
Linda Arnold, 'The U.S. Intervention in Mexico', 1846–1848 in A companion to Mexican history and culture / edited by William H. Beezley
By historians of the US and the borderlands:
Brian DeLay. War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
Pekka Hamalainen. The Comanche Empire.New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
Podcasts:
BBC In Our Time The Mexican American War with Thomas Rath and others.
Peter Guardino interviewed on the History Does You podcast episode on The Mexican American War
Week 7: Civil War and Benito Juárez (1848-1876)
Why and how did Benito Juárez come to power?
Why did the French Intervention precipitate a civil war?
Why did the Liberals win?
Guy Thomson, 'Benito Juarez and Liberalism.' In the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, (New York, Oxford University Press, 2018) https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-461 (CORE READING)
Erika Pani, Republicans and Monarchists, 1848–1867 in A companion to Mexican history and culture / edited by William H. Beezley ebook in library (CORE READING)
Brian Hamnett, A Concise History of Mexico, 206-228 (CORE READING)
Primary Sources:
"IV. Trials of the Young Republic". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph, Timothy J. Henderson, Robin Kirk and Orin Starn, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 169-332. (Offer of the Crown to Maximillian, Letter from Empress Carlotta and Triumph of the Republic, 1867 Benito Juarez)
Mark Wasserman, Everyday life and politics in nineteenth century Mexico : men, women, and war, Chapters 5 and 6
José Angel Hernández, Mexican American colonization during the nineteenth century: a history of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
Brian Hamnett. Juarez. Longman, 1993.
Patrick J. McNamara, Sons of the Sierra: Juárez, Díaz, and the people of Ixtlán, Oaxaca, 1855-1920
Guy Thomson, 'Bulwarks of Patriotic Liberalism: the National Guard, Philharmonic Corps and Patriotic Juntas in Mexico, 1847-1888,' Journal of Latin American Studies 22, 1990:31-68.
Alice Baumgartner. South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves and the Road to Civil War. Basic Books, 2020.
A documentary about the period:
Patria. Dir. Matías Gueilburt, Mexico, 2019
Week 8: Porfirio Díaz: The Liberal Dictator (1876-1910)
What were the effects of Porfirian economic changes on land tenure?
To what extent was late nineteenth century Mexico economically dependent?
Paolo Riguzzi, From Globalisation to Revolution? The Porfirian Political Economy: An Essay on Issues and Interpretations, Journal of Latin American Studies, JSTOR CORE READING
Elisa Speckman Guerra, Disorder and Control: Crime, Justice and Punishment in Porfirian and Revolutionary Society in A companion to Mexican history and culture / edited by William H. Beezley (CORE READING)
Primary Sources
UT Austin Exhibition: Pictures of the Porfiriato
"IV. Trials of the Young Republic". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph, Timothy J. Henderson, Robin Kirk and Orin Starn, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 169-332. (Porfirio Díaz visits the Yucatán, Scenes from a Lumber Camp and President Díaz, Hero of the Americas).
Further Reading
Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution, vol. 1, pp. 1-174 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
John Coatsworth, Railroads, Landholding, and Agrarian Protest in the Early Porfiriato, HAHR, JSTOR
Gilbert Joseph and Allen Wells, Corporate Control of a Monocrop Economy: International Harvester and Yucatan's Henequen Industry during the Porfiriato, HAHR, JSTOR
Matthew Butler and Antonio Escobar Ohmstede, “Transitions and Closures in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Mexican Agrarian History” in Mexico in transition: new perspectives on Mexican agrarian history, nineteenth and twentieth centuries/ México y sus transiciones: reconsideraciones sobre la historia agraria mexicana, siglos XIX y XX
Emilio Kouri, A Pueblo Divided, pp 107-280
Frederick Katz, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa,
Week 9: The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920
How radical was the Mexican Revolution?
Land, workers rights, or democracy? What drove the Mexican Revolution?
Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution, A Very Short Introduction (CORE READING) 1 2 3 4
Gabriela Cano. "Amelio Robles’s Gender Battles in the Zapatista Army". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022, pp. 328-337. (CORE READING)
Primary Sources
The Mexican Revolution and the United States, Library of Congress Handout
For a discussion of the use of photographs as a source for the study of the Mexican Revolution see: Mraz, John. "What Can Photographs Tell Us about Mexico's History?". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022, pp. 257-276.
Plan de Ayala, 1911 (Translated and reproduced for Modern Latin America, Brown University).
Enrique Flores Magon, 'The Mexican Struggle' The Herald of Revolt. November 1912. MRC
Helga Baitenmann. Matters of Justice : Pueblos, the Judiciary, and Agrarian Reform in Revolutionary Mexico, Nebraska, 2020.
Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution: Bourgeois? Nationalist? Or Just a 'Great Rebellion'?, Bulletin of Latin American Research, JSTOR
John Womack, “The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920”, in Leslie Bethell, ed., Mexico Since Independence (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991), 125-200
Alan Knight, "The Working Class and the Mexican Revolution, c. 1900-1920", Journal of Latin American Studies, JSTOR
Alan Knight, "The Mexican Revolution: Bourgeois? Nationalist? Or Just a 'Great Rebellion'?", BLAR, JSTOR
John Womack, “The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920”, in Leslie Bethell, ed., Mexico Since Independence (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991), 125-200
Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution
John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution
Friedrich Katz, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa
Elizabeth Salas, Soldaderas in the Mexican military: myth and history
Smith, Stephanie J.. Gender and the Mexican Revolution : Yucatan Women and the Realities of Patriarchy, University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
Stephanie Mitchell and Patience A. Schell (eds.),The Women's Revolution in Mexico, 1910-1953. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006.
Christine B Arce. México's Nobodies : The Cultural Legacy of the Soldadera and Afro-Mexican Women, State University of New York Press, 2017.
Podcasts:
"Was the Mexican Revolution a Success?" Alan Knight's lecture at the IHR, 2012.
"The Mexican Revolution", In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 2011.
Week 10
Land and Labour Reform, 1920-1940
To what extent was the Mexican Revolution an agrarian revolution?
How successful was the Revolution's agrarian reform?
Choose one of the following core readings:
Alan Knight, "Land and Society in revolutionary Mexico: The Destruction of the Great Haciendas" Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), pp. 73-104, JSTOR CORE READING
Emilio Kouri, "Interpreting the Expropriation of Indian Pueblo Lands in Porfirian Mexico: The Unexamined Legacies of Andrés Molina Enríquez." The Hispanic American Historical Review 82, no. 1 (Feb. 2002). CORE READING
Helga Baitenmann. Matters of Justice : Pueblos, the Judiciary, and Agrarian Reform in Revolutionary Mexico, Nebraska, 2020. (Introduction) CORE READING
Seminar Preparation:
The Pastorela is a Mexican-style nativity play told by the shepherds. The script is usually passed down through generations but is updated to include political satire. You can see more information about the pastorela here:
Teatro Campesino’s Pastorela: https://sites.dlib.nyu.edu/hidvl/ffbg79nz
Borderlore’s description of the pastorela: https://borderlore.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/from-the-borderlore-archives-all-about-the-pastorela-december-2008/
Coates Library Pastorela from the archives: https://lib.trinity.edu/2021/12/la-pastorela-a-christmas-treasure-in-special-collections/
In the seminar, you will choose a period of Mexican history and write a short exerpt of a script including contemporary political satire.
Primary Sources
Helga Baitenmann. Matters of Justice : Pueblos, the Judiciary, and Agrarian Reform in Revolutionary Mexico, Nebraska, 2020.
Bortz, Jeffrey, Revolution within the Revolution: Cotton Textile Workers and the Mexican Labor Regime, 1910-1923
Christopher Boyer, Old Loves, New Loyalties: Agrarismo in Michoacán, 1920-1928, Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 78, No. 3 (Aug., 1998), pp. 419-455, JSTOR
Ann Craig, The First Agraristas
Paul Friedrich, Agrarian revolt in a Mexican Village
Ben Fallaw, Religion and State Formation in Postrevolutionary Mexico
Jocelyn Olcott, Revolutionary women in postrevolutionary Mexico
Heather Fowler-Salamini, Working women, entrepreneurs, and the Mexican revolution : the coffee culture of Córdoba, Veracruz
Mary Kay Vaughan and ,Heather Fowler-Salamini (eds.) Women of the Mexican Countryside
Term 2
Week 1: Cultural Reform, 1920-1940
To what extent was the Mexican Revolution a cultural revolution?
What were the aims of state cultural programs?
How successful were they?
Chapter by Vaughan or Lewis in Stephen Lewis and Mary Kay Vaughan (ed.), The Eagle and the Virgin CORE READING
and
Cano, Gabriela. "Amelio Robles' Gender Battles in the Zapatista Army". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022, pp. 328-337. CORE READING
Primary Sources
Vasconcelos, José. "The Cosmic Race". The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022, pp. 17-21.
¡Que viva México! (Mexican Fantasy), Dir. Sergei Eisnestein Grigori Alexandrov, Nikita Orlov. Mosfilm: 1932, 1978.
Graham Greene. The Power and the Glory. 1940. (Novel set in Garrido Canabal's Tabasco)
Valentin de la Sierra. Corrido from the Cristiada era, here sung by Antonio Aguilar, a well known singer from Zacatecas. For a translation of the lyrics see Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson. The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics. New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022, p. 418
Alan Knight, "Popular Culture and the Revolutionary State in Mexico, 1910-1940" Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Aug., 1994), pp. 393-444, JSTOR
M.K. Vaughan, "Women School Teachers in the Mexican Revolution: The Story of Reyna's Braids", Journal of Women's History, 1990
Stephanie Smith, The Power and Politics of Art in Postrevolutionary Mexico
Paul Gillingham, "Ambiguous Missionaries: Rural Teachers and State Facades in Guerrero, 1930-1950", Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 331-360, JSTOR
Alan Knight, “Revolutionary Project, Recalcitrant People: Mexico, 1910-1940,” in Jaime E. Rodríguez O., ed. The Revolutionary Process in Mexico,
Mary Kay Vaughan, Cultural Politics in Revolution
Stephen Lewis, Ambivalent Revolutions
Ben Fallaw, Religion and State Formation in Postrevolutionary Mexico
Stephanie J. Smith, Gender and the Mexican Revolution: Yucatan Women and the Realities of Patriarchy
Jocelyn Olcott and MK Vaughan, Sex in Revolution
Alexander Dawson, Indian and Nation in Revolutionary Mexico
Stephanie Mitchell and Patience A. Schell (eds.),The Women's Revolution in Mexico, 1910-1953. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006.
Week 2: Counter Revolution and the PRI State (1940-1960)
How authoritarian was the PRI regime?
How powerful was the PRI regime?
How democratic was the PRI regime?
What were the parallels between the PRI state and the Porfiriato? What were the differences?
What role did protest play in the PRI regime?
Listen to Paul Gillingham talking about his recent book, Paul Gillingham, Unrevolutionary Mexico: The Birth of a Strange Dictatorship. Yale UP, 2021., on the New Books in Latin American Studies Podcast here. (CORE READING)
María Teresa Fernández Aceves, "Advocate or cacica? Guadalupe Urzúa Flores: Modernizer and Peasant Political leader in Jalisco" in Paul Gillingham and Benjamin Smith (eds.) Dictablanda: Politics, work and culture in Mexico, 1938-1968 (CORE READING)
Primary Sources
María Candelaria. Dir. Emilio Fernández. Mexico, 1944.
Nostoros los pobres. Dir. Ismael Rodriguez. Mexico, 1948.
Los olvidados (The Young and the Damned). Dir. Luis Buñuel. Mexico, 1950.
Carlos Fuentes. The Death of Artemio Cruz. 1962. (A Novel)
Extracts from the diary of Ruben Jaramillo in The Mexico Reader
Material in the MRC:
Masses and Mainstream, vol.2, no.11, Nov 1949Link opens in a new window "What I saw in Mexico" https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/MSH/1/171/17Link opens in a new window
The New Leader, vol.35, no.15, 14 Apr 1952 Victor Alba, The Coming Election in Mexico https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/MSH/1/200/3Link opens in a new window
ITF Mexican Newsletter, 1944-1945 https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/ITF/11/9/13Link opens in a new window
'Mexico' by Harvey O'Connor, Union of Democratic Control, 1961, and 'Mexico: a study of domination and repression', 1968Link opens in a new window, publications included in a file on 'North American radicalism', in the archives of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs
Correspondence and publications relating to the Trotskyist movement in Mexico, 1942-1946Link opens in a new window, included in the archives of Jimmy Deane
File of letters and printed ephemera received from Mexican employers' federations between 1946-1956Link opens in a new window, included in the archives of the British Employers' Confederation
Further Reading
Jeffrey Rubin, Decentering the Regime: Ethnicity, Radicalism and Democracy in Juchitan, Mexico, Chapter 3
Jeffrey Rubin, "Decentering the Regime: Culture and Regional Politics in Mexico" in Latin American Research Review, 31.1 (1996) JSTOR
Paul Gillingham, "Maximino’s Bulls: Popular Protest After the Revolution" in Past and Present, Past & Present, Volume 206, Issue 1, 1 February 2010, Pages 175–211, JSTOR
Paul Gillingham, "Maximino’s Bulls: Popular Protest After the Revolution" in Past and Present, Past & Present, Volume 206, Issue 1, 1 February 2010, Pages 175–211, JSTOR
Paul Gillingham and Benjamin Smith (eds.) Dictablanda: Politics, work and culture in Mexico, 1938-1968
Paul Gillingham,Unrevolutionary Mexico: The Birth of a Strange Dictatorship.Yale UP, 2021.
Pablo Gonzalez Casanova, Democracy in Mexico
María Teresa Fernández Aceves, "Advocate or cacica? Guadalupe Urzúa Flores: Modernizer and Peasant Political leader in Jalisco" in Paul Gillingham and Benjamin Smith (eds.) Dictablanda: Politics, work and culture in Mexico, 1938-1968
Tanalis Padilla, Rural Resistance in the Land of Zapata: The Jaramillista Movement and the Myth of the Pax-Priísta, 1940–1962
Thomas Rath, Myths of Demilitarization in Postrevolutionary Mexico
Jeffrey Rubin, Decentering the Regime: Ethnicity, Radicalism and Democracy in Juchitan, Mexico, Chapter 3
Jeffrey Rubin, "Decentering the Regime: Culture and Regional Politics in Mexico" in Latin American Research Review, 31.1 (1996) JSTOR
Benjamin T. Smith, "Who Governed? Grassroots Politics under the PRI," Past and Present (Nov 2014), Oxford Journals Online at library just type in Past and Present.
Benjamin T. Smith, The Mexican press and civil society, 1940-1976 : Stories from the newsroom, stories from the street
A satirical film based on a satirical novel about this period:
La ley de Herodes (Herod's Law) Dir. Luis Estrada. Mexico, 1999.
Week 3: The 1960s in Mexico
Did Mexican politics change during the 1960s? If so, why?
Why has 1968 become such a defining date in Mexican history?
How did the 1960s counterculture change social relations in Mexico?
Renata Keller, Mexico's Cold War: Cuba, the United States, and the Legacy of the Mexican Revolution, Chapter 3, Chapter 5, Chapter 6. (CORE READING)
Further Reading:
Jaime Pensado, Rebel Mexico: Student unrest and authoritarian political culture during the long sixties
Jaime Pensado, The Rise of a "National Student Problem" in 1956" in Benjamin Smith and Paul Gillingham, (eds.) Dictablanda: Politics, Work, and Culture in Mexico
Eric Zolov, "Showcasing the Land of Tomorrow, Mexico and the 1968 Olympics", The Americas, Volume 61, Number 2, October 2004, pp. 159-188 Project Muse
Elaine Carey, Plaza of Sacrifices: Gender, Power, and Terror in 1968 Mexico
Eric Zolov, Refried Elvis
Eric Zolov, The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global Sixties
Week 4: The Dirty War in Mexico
How hot was Mexico's cold war?
To what extent was Mexico's Cold War experience similar to that of other Latin American countries?
Fernando Calderón and Adela Cedillo, "Introduction: The unknown Mexican dirty war" and Jorge Luis Sierra Guzman, "Armed Forces and Counter Insurgency" in Fernando Calderón and Adela Cedillo, (eds) Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary struggles and the dirty war, 1964-1982 (Available in E book in the library) CORE READING
O'Neill Blacker, "Cold War in the Countryside: Conflict in Guerrero, Mexico," Volume 66, Number 2, October 2009 JSTOR CORE READING
Primary Sources
México, la revolución congelada (Mexico: The Frozen Revolution). Dir. Raymundo Gleyzer: 1971.
Material from the MRC
European Committee for the Defence of Mexican Political Prisoners, 1970: file of campaign material, including bulletins, leaflets and press statement
Ruis, 'The Chicanos', 1973, political comic book on Mexican - US relations by a Mexican artist, published by the North American Congress on Latin America
Romain Robinet, "A Revolutionary Group Fighting Against a Revolutionary State: The September 23rd Communist League Against the PRI-State (1973–1975) in Fernando Calderón and Adela Cedillo, (eds) Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary struggles and the dirty war, 1964-1982 (Available in E book in the library)
Tanalis Padilla, "Rural Education, Political Radicalism, and Normalista Identity in Mexico after 1940" in Benjamin T. Smith and Paul Gillingham, Dictablanda: Politics, Work, and Culture in Mexico, (E Book in Library ) 341-360
Tanalis Padilla, Unintended Lessons of Revolution: Student Teachers and Political Radicalism in Twentieth-Century Mexico
Christy Thornton, "A Mexican New International Economic Order?" in Thomas Field, Krepp, Pettina, Latin America and the Global Cold War
Gilberto Joseph Introduction in Gilbert Joseph and Daniella Spenser (eds.), In from the Cold: Latin America's new encounter with the Cold War
Alex Aviña, Specters of Revolution: Peasant guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican countryside
Joseph, Fein, Zolov in Gilbert Joseph and Danielle Spenser (eds.) In from the Cold
A film set in this period:
Roma. Dir. Alfonso Cuarón. 2018.
Week 5: Modern Mexico: Neoliberalism and Democratization
How has neoliberalism affected Mexican society?
Why did the PRI state fall?
Chapter 2, 3, 5 in Stephen Haber, Herbert S. Klein, Noel Maurer, Kevin J. Middlebrook, Mexico since 1980 (CUP, 1980) (ebook in Warwick library) CORE READING
Alyshia Galvez, Eating NAFTA : trade, food policies, and the destruction of Mexico
James Greenberg (ed.) Neoliberalism and Commodity Production in Mexico (Boulder: University of Colorado Press , 2012) (ebook in Warwick library)
Manuel Pastor and Carol Wise, State Policy, Distribution and Neoliberal Reform in Mexico
David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism,
Jonathan Hiskey and Shaun Bowler, "Local Context and Democratization in Mexico", JSTOR
Chappell Lawson, "Mexico's Unfinished Transition: Democratization and Authoritarian Enclaves in Mexico", JSTOR
Jon Shefner, Illusion of Civil Society
Kevin Middlebrook, (ed.) Dilemmas of Political change in Mexico
Kevin Middlebrook, Party politics and the struggle for democracy in Mexico
Wayne A. Cornelius, Todd A. Eisenstadt, and Jane Hindley, editors, Subnational Politics and Democratization in Mexico,
A documentary about this period:
1994. Dir. Diego Enrique Orsono. Mexico, 2019.
Week 7: Modern Mexico: Zapatistas and Indigenous Rights
How did the Zapatistas differ from other indigenous rebel groups?
To what extent have western scholars romanticised the Zapatistas?
Mark Berger, "Review Essay : Romancing the Zapatistas: International Intellectuals and the Chiapas Rebellion" Latin American Perspectives, Vol 28, Issue 2, 2001 SAGE JOURNALS CORE READING
Primary Sources
Selections from Tom Hayden, The Zapatista Reader CORE READING
The Zapatista Women's Revolutionary Law
Further Reading:
Lynn M. Stephen, Dissident Women: Gender and Cultural Politics in Chiapas edited by Shannon Speed, R. Aída Hernández Castillo,
Lynn Stephen, Zapata Lives!: Histories and Cultural Politics in Southern Mexico
Special Edition of The Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol.32, Nos.3&4, July/October 2005
Neil Harvey, The Chiapas Rebellion
Subcommandante Marcos, Our Word in Our Weapon
Alex Kasnabish, Zapatistas: Rebellion from the grassroots to the global
Neil Henck, Subcommander Marcos
A documentary film:
A Massacre Foretold. Dir. Nick Higgins. US,2008
Week 8: Modern Mexico: Migration and the Border
What are the push and pull factors for Mexican migration to the US?
How has migration affected the Mexican countryside?
How has migration from Mexico to the United States changed over time?
Jose de León, The Land of Open Graves : Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail (CORE READING)
Further reading:
Greg Grandin, The end of the myth: from the frontier to the wall in the mind of America
Francisco Cantú, The line becomes a river: dispatches from the Mexican border,
Timothy Henderson, Beyond borders : a history of Mexican migration to the United States
Mark Overmyer-Velazquez, Beyond la Frontera: The History of Mexico-U.S. Migration
Rachel St John. Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S. - Mexico Border. 2011
Primary Source: The Guide for The Mexican Migrant in Alexander Dawson, Latin America since Independence, 2010, Chapter 10 (e-book in Library)
Jeffrey H. Cohen, "Transnational Migration in Rural Oaxaca, Mexico: Dependency, Development, and the Household," American Anthropologist, Vol. 103, No. 4 (Dec., 2001), pp. 954-967 JSTOR
Lourdes Arizpe, "The Rural Exodus in Mexico and Mexican Migration to the United States" The International Migration Review, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Winter, 1981), pp. 626-649 JSTOR
David Spener, Clandestine Crossings: Migrants and Coyotes on the Texas-Mexico Border
Peter Andreas, Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide
Lynn Stephen, Transborder Lives: Indigenous Oaxacans in Mexico, California, and Oregon
Jeffrey Cohen, The Culture of Migration in Southern Mexico
Melissa Wright, “Necropolitics, Narcopolitics, and Femicide: Gendered Violence on the Mexico-U.S. Border”, Signs, (36), 2011.
Project websites:
The Undocumented Migration Project
Ecologies of Migrant Care, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, New York University
You'll find some more information about the project in Diana Taylor. Presente!: The Politics of Presence. Duke University Press, 2020. (Chapter 1)
Films and novels:
Ya no estoy aquí. (I'm No Longer Here). Dir. Fernando Frias, Mexico, 2019.
Valeria Luiselli. Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in 42 Questions. 4th Estate, 2017.
Week 9: Modern Mexico: The Drug Trade and the War on Drugs
Benjamin T. Smith, The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade, Part V CORE READING
Paul Kenny and Mónica Serrano, "Mexican state and organized crime : an unending story" in Mexico's security failure : collapse into criminal violence / edited by Paul Kenny and Mónica Serrano ; with Arturo Sotomayor
Victoria Malkin, "Narcotrafficking, migration, and modernity in rural Mexico", Latin American Perspectives, 28, pp 101-128 (SAGE Journals)
Salvador Maldonaldo Aranda, Stories of Drug trafficking in Rural Mexico, European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe,
Peter Watt and Robert Zepeda, Drug War Mexico
Elaine Carey, "Selling is More of a Habit than Using": Narcotraficante Lola la Chata and Her Threat to Civilization, 1930-1960 in Journal of Women’s History, 21.2 (Summer 2009)
Isaac Campos, Homegrown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico's War on Drugs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012)
Charles Bowden, Molly Molloy, El Sicario, Confessions of a Cartel Hitman (New York: Nation Books, 2011)
Terrence Poppa, Drug Lord. The life and death of a Mexican kingpin: A True Story. Seattle: Demand Press, 1998.
Fictional and Documentary TV Programmes:
Somos. Dir. James James Schamus, 2021.
Ayotzinapa: El pasdo de la tortuga. Dir. Enrique García Meza, 2018.
Week 10: Film tbc
Summer term
Week 1 Revision
Week 2 Revision