Module 1: The Meso-American Geo-Cultural Formation

Question 1

Concept of Revolution by Oxford Dictionary

Answer 1

1. an attempt, by a large number of people, to change the government of a country, especially by violent action
2. A great change in conditions, ways of working, beliefs, etc. that affects large numbers of people

Question 2

Porfiriato (1876-1910)

Answer 2

1. Porfirio Diaz, Mexican-French War Veteran
2. Dictatorship (under a Presidentialist facade)
3. Modernization:
   -Foreigner landowners and investments
   -97% of Mexican pop. Landless
   -Economic development over concentration wealth

Question 3

The Mexican Revolution (1910-1934)

Answer 3

1. Revolutionaries: Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, Venuziano Carranza, and Francisco Madero
2. Conflict among revolutionary’s perspectives
3. Armed Movement
4. Agrarian Reform: land redistribution
5. Nationalize natural resources: eg. Petroleum

Question 4

Porfirio Dias vs. Francisco Madero

Answer 4

1. 1910 Mexican elections: Porfirio Diaz vs. Francisco Madero (Anti-Re-elections plan)
2. Madero was arrested by the Porfirio administration during the elections
3. San Luis Plan/Madero’s Revolution: Armed movement against Porfiriato
4. Madero was supported by revolutionaries like Zapata, Villa, Huerta, and Carranza. Ciudad Juarez (North of Mexico) was taken by the revolutionaries
5. May 25th, November: Diaz renounced his position as president and fled to France

Question 5

Francisco Madero vs. Emiliano Zapata

Answer 5

1. Madero does not implement the Agrarian Reform as promised
2. Conflicts between Madero and Zapata in the South of Mexico (1912)
3. US Administration supported Mexico’s coup by Victoriano Huerta (1913-14). As a result, Francisco Madero and his vice-president were murdered
4. Guadalupe’s Plan (Mar. 26th, 1913): Constitutionalist Revolution by Carranza, Villa, and Zapata
5. 1914: Zapata occupied South Mexico, and US marines occupied Vera Cruz
6. Huerta tried to align with Germany, but the US intercepted Huerta’s attempt and arrested him

Question 6

Venustiano Carranza vs. Emiliano Zapata

Answer 6

1. Aguascalientes Convention: unifying Mexican Revolutionaries leader (one new leader)
2. 1917 Constitution
   -Separation of Powers: Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary
   -Freedom of Speech
   -Separation between State and Religion
   -Social Rights: Agrarian Reform, 8-hour work day
3. Revolutionaries Leaders Killed: Zapata (1919), Carranza (1920), Pancho Villa (1923), and Obregon (1928)
4. Total losses range from 1.9 to 3.5 million

Question 7

1920’s and 1930’s Mexico

Answer 7

1. Emergence of Mexican Nationalism
   - 1917 Constitution:
   - Foundation of National Revolutionary Party (1929): unify different revolutionaries’ factions
2. Lazaro Cardenas Administration (1934-1940)
   - Strong State Role: Mexican State National Sovereignty
   - Nationalize and Control Natural Resources
   - Promotion of Union Organizations
   - Land and Education Reform: Ejidos and integration of Indigenous populations

Question 8

The Concept of Mestizaje in Mexico

Answer 8

1. National Mexican Identity Formation through Mestizaje
   - Latin American Nation State Formation: population’s unity
   - From popular to populist: National Identity as a way of controlling Mexican population
   - Mestizos mixes with European blood
   - Mestizaje = Ideology of Whitening
2. “The myth of mestizaje was used ‘to promote national amnesia about or to salve the national conscience in what concerns the dismal past and still colonized condition of the most indigenous people in Latin America”

Question 9

“La Raza Cosmica” (1925) — Jose Vasconcelos

Answer 9

1. Jose Vasconcelos, Mexican philosopher and Minister of Education (1921-1924)
2. “Cosmic Race”: a future formation of a fifth race (agglomeration of all races) in Latin America
   - “The cosmic race is thus the culmination of a lengthy progress of amalgamation and homogenization, in which all traces of alterity are eventually erased. This immediately brings to mind the ideologeme of the melting-pot, in which diversity is distilled in a new purity”

Question 10

Mestizaje and Civilization

Answer 10

1. “Vasconcelos, like many of his predecessors, also sees mestizaje in the cultural sense as part of civilizing mission, in which education leads to the integration of indigenous sectors of society in which he took an active part as Minister of Education. He condemns several leaders of the Mexican Revolution for waiting the return to the “primitivism of Montezuma”
2. Mestizaje as way to integrate indigenous people in Mexico to the “Modern Mexican Nation State”

Question 11

Indigenismo

Answer 11

1. Indigenous people receive a role from Mexican State:
   - National Cultural Pride vs. Past Relics (and still the poorest group in the country)
   - Celebration of Indigenous Culture in Mexico without Indigenous person in power
2. Celebrating diversity with no substantial change in the Mexican power structure

Question 12

1968- Year For Social Justice Demands

Answer 12

1. May 1968, France: Student and Worker’s Protests
2. USA: Civil Right Movement & Anti-Vietnam War Movement
3. 1968 Mexico Olympic Games: Tommie Smith & John Carlo Protest

Question 13

1968 Mexico Olympic Games

Answer 13

1. Mexican Nationalism to the Global Audience
   - First Olympic Games in Latin America
   - Shows the Mexican State development and modernization globally (Eg. 2022 Qatar, 2014 Brazil, 2008 China)
   - Political Party Hegemony — PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party): 40-year administration
   - Pres. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz (1964-1970)

Question 14

Tlatelolco Massacre

Answer 14

1. Movement for Human Rights in Mexico
2. Student protests against Mexican State repressions
3. Diaz Ordaz power concentration

Question 15

Student Protests (July-October)

Answer 15

1. Rival School Students Conflict (July 22nd)
2. Student Protest Against Police Violence (July 26th)
3. 50,000 Student Strike (August 1st)
4. CNH Foundation (August 2nd)
5. The Mexican Army Occupied Politecnico instituto (September 26th)
6. Tlatelolco Massacre (October 2nd)
7. Mexico Olympic Games (October 12-27)

Question 16

Tlatelolco Massacre (Oct 2nd 1968)

Answer 16

1. 10,000 students assembled at Plaza de las Très Culturas
2. Tanks and helicopters around the plaza
3. Soldiers were dressed as civilians (wearing white gloves)
4. After the Army launched the green flares, shots started coming from the buildings and from the soldiers
5. Estimated losses: from 30 deaths to 700 deaths

Question 17

The Zapatistas

Answer 17

1. Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN)
   - Originally from Fuerzas de Liberacion Nacional (FLN) in 1969
2. 1st Public Appearence on January 1st, 1994, in Chiapas, Mexico
   - NAFTA was signed by Mexico, Canada, and USA
   - After more than 70 years of PRI in power
   -Occupied eight towns in Chiapas state
3. Armed movement (1994-2006)
4. Political movement (2006-today)

Question 18

Zapatistas Goals

Answer 18

1. Defense of Indigenous Rights
2. New Mexican State Model based on democracy, liberty, and social justice
3. “Altermundism”: claims for dismantling neoliberal economic system

Question 19

Zapatista Motto

Answer 19

“Otro mundo es posible” (Another world is possible)

Question 20

First Declaration From the Lacandon Jungle (1994)

Answer 20

“To the People of Mexico: We, the men and women, full and free, are conscious that the war that we have declared is our last resort, but also a just one. The dictators are applying an undeclared genocidal war against our people for many years. Therefore we ask for your participation, your decision to support this plan that struggles for work, land, housing, food, health care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace. We declare that we will not stop fighting until the basic demands of our people have been met by forming a government of our country that is free and democratic”

Question 21

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

Answer 21

1. Signed on Jan 1st 1994 by Mexico, Canada, and the US
2. Eliminate barrier to trade and investment between the US, Mexico, and Canada
3. The freedom of movement it establishes for goods, services, and capital did not extend to labor

Question 22

Ciudad Juarez & Maquilladoras

Answer 22

1. Ciudad Juarez (Mex) — El Paso (USA)
2. Border Industrialization Program (1965) [Pre-NAFTA]
   - From rural workers to industrialized labor force
3. Maquilladora
   - Duty free factories
   - Take raw materials and assemble them for exportation
   - Entry-level position US$ 2 hour (vs. US$ 0.55 Mexican minimum wage)

Question 23

Ayotzinapa & The Narco-State

Answer 23

1. September 26th, 2014: 43 Ayotzinapa Students Kidnapping in Iguala, Guerrero state
2. Ayotzinapa Rural Teacher’s College (Escuela Normal Rural de Ayotzinapa)
   - Leftist Ideology
   - Students Profile: Indigenous and/or Poor Students

Question 24

Why the Ayotzinapa students were kidnapped?

Answer 24

1. They would participate in Oct. 2nd demonstrations (Tlatelolco Massacre Day) in Mexico City
2. They would protest against the public speech by Maria Pineda Villa, Iguala’s mayor wife Jose Luis Abarca Velasquez

Question 25

Mayor Velasquez and his wife Pineda Villa: The Narco-State

Answer 25

1. Velasquez was suspected to order his political rival assassination, Justin’s Carvajal Salgado, and also the NGO Popular Union members kidnapping 2. Villa was revealed as the “principal operator” of Guerreros Unidos local drug cartel

Question 26

Ayotzinapa 43: The Criminal Corruption of the Mexican State

Answer 26

1. “In other words, what happened to the students of the Rural Teachers’ College of Ayotzinapa, in the state of Guerrero, is not the product of the craziness of a primeval and underdeveloped savage culture that likes killing itself. More than that, it is a sample of the corruption, cynicism, impunity and crime that comes from what we know as globalized capitalism” 2. “What I want to argue here is that the existence of drugs and criminal bands in the world mainly obeys the demand of drugs and other goods by the United States and the most developed countries of Europe. 3. Drug growth and traffic, its production, distribution, and consumption have been part of daily economic activities in many countries