Mexican History

Daily life in a Mayan kingdom was a complex, multi-faceted -- and often times difficult -- way of life.  Their geographic area encompassed a portion of Mesoamerica, from Southeastern Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula down into Northern Central America.  Mayan territory included Pacific coastline, mountainous highlands, and forested lowlands.  Scholars today believe the total area covered approximately 125,000 square miles.  Each area had its own unique challenges, from the fertile Pacific side, with warm, tropical conditions, to the highlands, with cooler, more temperate-like zones.  Volcanoes, rivers, mountains and forests fill Mayan Mesoamerica, each with its own sub-zone and micro climate.  Unlike North American tribal societies, where large animals were followed seasonally, the food sources of the Maya -- fish, small animals, deer, and birds -- remained mostly stationary, permitting earlier members of Mayan society to establish deep roots in particular locales.

Las escasas aportaciones existentes sobre la evolución de la población en Tabasco desde la conquista hasta finales del siglo XVII, sumado a la imposibilidad de aceptar algunos datos y resultados de los trabajos realizados al respecto, nos obligan a plantear la necesidad de cometer un análisis más pormenorizado sobre el tema en cuestión. Ello se explica por hecho de haber detectado una serie de errores en la interpretación de los documentos utilizados para esos estudios, que son prácticamente los mismos que hemos manejado nosotros. Tales consideraciones acreditan por sí solas la necesidad de efectuar dicho análisis. Realizaremos un examen de la evolución de los diferentes grupos poblacionales, como son el grupo indígena, el español o el mestizo, negro, mulato o naboría. Conocer el número estimado de pobladores posibilitará una mejor comprensión de la situación de marginalidad institucional a la que se vio sometida la región durante el periodo analizado.

This dissertation examines the participation of indigenous workers in the colonial mining industry of the Guanajuato-Michoacán region and the impact that this industry had on those workers and their communities of origin. In the present-day states of Guanajuato and Michoacán, Mexico, there existed a vibrant and lucrative mining economy throughout the colonial period (1521-1810). Michoacán’s mining industry produced a steady supply of copper and silver, and Guanajuato is best known for its extremely wealthy silver mines, especially after the mid-eighteenth century, when it became the world’s greatest producer of silver. The region’s mining industry created a very competitive labor market in which mine owners used different strategies to recruit and retain a labor force. Although mine owners paid many workers for their labor, the industry also relied on coerced forms of labor, including slavery, encomienda, repartimiento, and debt peonage.
Many scholars who have studied the economic significance of the mining industry in the region, and its impact on the world economy, have not adequately examined the composition of the labor force. Those who have studied the labor force have focused on particular mining centers, overlooking the regional context within which the mines operated. Miners competed with one another and with other industries for workers. This competition put considerable pressure on the region’s indigenous communities to provide the bulk of the labor force. Also, labor demands led many people to migrate, altering the demographic composition of the region. Using a regional history approach and ethnohistorical methodologies, the dissertation examines the nature of the labor institutions that were utilized to recruit workers to the mines, and the impact of the mining industry on indigenous workers and their communities. Ultimately, this dissertation uses a variety of original sources to highlight the important role that indigenous men and women played in the mining industry of Guanajuato, and the persistence of an indigenous identity in this mining town. My findings contribute to the fields of labor history, ethnohistory, and mining history.

The 20th anniversary edition of EL TIGRE (2021) – with a new Preface about the relationship between Televisa and President López Obrador and the legacy of Azcárraga Milmo – is available at the following sites:
IN THE USA (e-book): www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EJTIEFG;
IN MEXICO (paperback): www.amazon.com.mx/El-tigre-Azc%C3%A1rraga-imperio-Televisa/dp/6073199775; (e-book): www.amazon.com.mx/El-tigre-Azc%C3%A1rraga-imperio-Televisa-ebook/dp/B00EJTIEFG/ OR www.gandhi.com.mx/catalog/product/view/id/8222604/;
IN THE UK (e-book): www.amazon.co.uk/El-tigre-Azc%C3%A1rraga-imperio-Televisa-ebook/dp/B00EJTIEFG/.

EL TIGRE: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa is a biography of the Mexican media mogul Emilio Azcárraga Milmo (1930-1997). Founder of the giant Grupo Televisa - the world's largest Spanish-language broadcaster - Azcárraga was Latin America's answer to Rupert Murdoch. He inherited a TV & radio company and turned it into a colossus, involved in publishing, pay-TV, film, popular music, soccer, and the fine arts. He socialized with presidents and helped shape Mexico’s politics. He became the richest man in Latin America. He consistently generated controversy, through his monopolistic approach to business, his fiery and paternalistic management style, his support of the "perfect dictatorship" of long-ruling party the PRI, his extravagant lifestyle, and his incorrigible womanizing.
In EL TIGRE, Andrew Paxman and Claudia Fernández explore the turbulent life of this charismatic but secretive magnate and trace the evolution of his company, from a radio station founded by his father in 1930 to the present day. They study the traditionally symbiotic relationship between Televisa and the PRI; they examine Azcárraga's influence upon lawmaking, the church, the arts, and Mexico's relationship with the USA; and they survey the story of the telenovela, the much-exported form of soap opera with which Azcárraga turned both Televisa and U.S. network Univision into multi-billion dollar businesses.
EL TIGRE is unique as an unauthorized biography of a Mexican businessman. It reveals both the secret world of Mexican big business and the little-known humanity of a man widely regarded as an arrogant autocrat. It encourages debate about political privilege, broadcast regulation, private sector feudalism, the democratization of Mexico, and racism, classism & sexism in the media.

A lo largo del siglo XIX, se extendió en América Latina un proyecto de carácter liberal que modificó la estructura jurídica del Estado, que creó la figura legal del ciudadano como el sustento primordial de la estructura política. Junto a la figura del ciudadano, se crearon nuevas instituciones políticas y asociaciones sociales que acompañaron la formación ciudadana de la política nacional. En este trabajo nos concentraremos en la creación de las mutualidades de artesanos en México, pues estas asociaciones son un ejemplo que puede ayudar a entender este proceso
general de transformaciones.

One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. This article is an excerpt of pages 98-99 from the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson with a numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depicting the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Mural photograph: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Durante más de una década, un país tan extenso y complejo como México, “tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos”, se ha enfrentado a múltiples dificultades y retos en la esfera política, social y económica. El libro analiza la realidad política y social mexicana desde inicios del siglo XXI hasta hoy, un periodo que coincide con las dos presidencias “panistas”, la de Vicente Fox (2001-2006) y la de Felipe Calderón (2007-2012), y en el que no parece que el país haya avanzado por un camino de mayor estabilidad, crecimiento o satisfacción ciudadana. Este estudio profundo de la dinámica política mexicana en un contexto pluralista evalúa dos sexenios de gobiernos que impulsaron políticas que fracasaron a la hora de situar a México en la senda del desarrollo y la equidad social.

This article examines borderland violence in the eastern U.S.-Mexico borderlands during the U.S.-Mexico War. By analyzing and comparing military mobilization, local experiences of violence, and gendered national ideologies on each side, it explores how the conflict called the Mexican and U.S. nation-states into being, both in this region and beyond. Whether actively participating or not, diverse borderlands people experienced the war primarily within the gendered context of pre-existing local kith, kin, and community relationships. Alongside ideologies that portrayed the nation-state as a fictive national family, such local ties powerfully structured the ways in which borderlanders reckoned their places within the emerging U.S. and Mexican nation-states. In these ways, they actively joined in creating both state power and the meanings of nationalism at the grassroots level.

Lawrence, in the first essay, downplays the importance of himself and every social commentator, reminding his reader that the author is just a man sitting on a verandah, writing in an exercise book.
Notwithstanding, he manages not a view sweeping observations on the relationship between Indigenous Americans and Europeans and most aspects of their culture.

The first essays are set in and around Xaxaca. The second group are about the Hopi Indians iof New Mexico and their religious facility with rattle snakes.

A lovely little book and a new reason to fall in love love with DH.

This book presents a case study of one of Latin America’s most important and symbolic spaces, the Zócalo in Mexico City, weaving together historic events and corresponding morphological changes in the urban environment. It poses questions about how the identity of a place emerges, how it evolves and, why does it change? Mexico City’s Zócalo: A History of a Constructed Spatial Identity utilizes the history of a specific place, the Zócalo (Plaza de la Constitución), to explain the emergence and evolution of Mexican identities over time.

Starting from the pre-Hispanic period to present day, the work illustrates how the Zócalo reveals spatial manifestations as part of the larger socio-cultural zeitgeist. By focusing on the history of changes in spatial production – what Henri Lefebvre calls society’s "secretions" – Bross traces how cultural, social, economic, and political forces shaped the Zócalo’s spatial identity and, in turn, how the Zócalo shaped and fostered new identities in return. It will be a fascinating read for architectural and urban historians investigating Latin America.

Analyzing and understanding the Aztec view of the cosmos is critical to extracting meaning from their texts, symbols, and belief system.  The entire Aztec world view is constructed from that foundation, with myriad variations and overlapping concepts.  The fullness and intricacy of Mexica spirituality linked the world of heaven to the success (or failure) of mankind; it could "web the space between the mundane and the supramundane, lacing the world of ritual to the world of the everyday, and each to the sacred."  Religious symbolism, published to the population of the Central Valley of Mexico through art, literature, and ceremony, was an attempt to unify the people behind the central authority.

The Grolier Codex is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

This article talks about Miguel Hidalgo, considered the precursor of the Independence of Mexico. This is a brief overview of his life and work, from historical sources and specialized studies. It is a contribution in the framework of the Bicentennial of the beginning of the Mexican Independence movement.

The Grolier Codex (Codice Maya de Mexico, CMM) is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

In May 1520, on the day of the Feast of Toxcatl, a troop of Spaniards assaulted the Templo Mayor, the main temple in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. The incident was a turning point in the conquest of Mexico. In spite of this, the circulating descriptions have not been properly read against the primary documental sources or the historiographic antecedents that challenge their assertions. A survey of these sources suggests that the popular perceptions of the event owe less to the facts of the matter than to subsequent elaborations. In the different accounts, ranging from official inquiries to full-fledged histories, the episode evolves from a preventive strike into a malicious and bloody massacre. Early reports illustrate the contentious politics of the conquest that brought the event to light but also obscured its details. Nevertheless, the histories by Francisco López de Gómara and Bernal Díaz del Castillo categorically indicted Pedro de Alvarado. In the works of Bernardino de Sahagún and Diego Durán, echoes of first-crusade historiography in the gruesome depiction of the assault complicate their identification as bearers of an indigenous perspective.

With the publication of its first book, the Museum of Mormon History in Mexico is helping to initiate an era in which international Mormon history is produced and published in local languages by local people. Fernanco R. Gómez Páez, president of the museum, and Raymundo Gómez González, director of the museum, coauthor of this book, and an engineer, founded this independent museum to house the historical materials gathered by their aunt, Conseulo Gómez González, an influential early convert to Mormonism in Mexico. The publication of an intellectual biography of Plotino Constantino Rhodakanaty, the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Central Mexico, marks the expansion of their efforts from historical preservation to the production of local Mormon history. The title translated as "Mormon Eagle or Christian Anarchist" juxtaposes Rhodakanaty's prominent place in Mormon history with his significant role in Mexican intellectual history.

examines the global entanglement of the Mexican labor movement during the Mexican Revolution. It describes how global influences made their entry into labor culture through the cinema, theater, and labor festivals as well as into the development of consumption patterns and advertisement. It further shows how the young labor movement constituted its discourse and invented its tradition at meetings and in the columns of newspapers. The local conditions constitute the framework for the examination of Mexican labor's perspectives on and engagement with contemporary events of global significance. Thereby, this book demonstrates how workers turned to the global context in search of guidance and role models, embracing global developments and narratives. It also reveals the differentiations from this context in order to create a unique local identity. This approach allows new perspectives on the role of a neglected revolutionary actor and on the influence of global developments in a revolution that has been predominantly interpreted from a national point of view. It shows the way global ideas were brought to life in the framework of revolutionary Mexico City-providing new insights into the grand-narratives of Globalization and Revolution.

La investigación que tienen en las manos describe el polémico debate sobre el sufragio femenino que tuvo lugar en los dos principales
periódicos de la prensa tapatía de la época en el marco de lo acontecido en Jalisco y a nivel nacional entre las décadas de 1940 y
1950. Este texto aborda y muestra la diversidad de actores sociales e instituciones políticas, sociales y religiosas que expresaron
variadas y encontradas opiniones y perspectivas en torno al reconocimiento y ejercicio del derecho a voto de las mujeres. Aparecen
grupos con diferentes ideologías y posturas políticas: las líneas editoriales de El Occidental y El Informador, grupos de mujeres
sufragistas, agrupaciones de mujeres vinculadas al PRI y al PAN, la Iglesia católica, asociaciones de mujeres católicas, diputados del PAN,
una variada gama de articulistas de opinión, entre otros. También se abordan y analizan las representaciones de mujer y hombre de
los diversos participantes de este debate y que determinaron las posturas a favor o en contra del sufragio femenino.
El libro quiere ser una pequeña contribución en dos niveles de la historia del occidente del país. Por un lado, a la historia de las
mujeres y de los grupos feministas tapatíos y sus luchas por la demanda de sus derechos a mediados del siglo XX y, por otro, a la
historia política de Jalisco de mitad del siglo pasado.

In a brief fashion, this paper covers the history of the Chicano Art movement from its origins in the 1960s up to some of its more recent expressions. The essay also includes a succinct history of the Chicano socio-political movement, since the author maintains that the Chicano art is interrelated and interdependent to it. On the artistic movement’s history, it is noted the significant influence of the Mexican Muralist Movement and other Mexican artists, like Frida Kahlo. It is also remarked the fundamental importance of the indigenous Mexican Pre-Columbian art forms and myths. On the description of the movement, the paper states that the essence of the Chicano Art movement is to provide an artistic outlet to the Chicanos social demands, helping the Mexican-American community to find and define its own identity as an American ethnic group, with the purpose of empowering it. As the American society becomes more diverse, the Chicano art movement moves forward, progressively assimilating to the American cultural mainstream.

I’ve decided to go back to the document, “Informaciones: Juan Gonzalez Ponce de Leon” AGI/Mexico, 203, N.19 because I have been seeing the same old data concerning the undocumented consort of Juan Ponce de Leon being listed again online. History, especially erroneous theory concerning Juan Ponce de Leon is still being disseminated to our children by stalwart essayists and historians. I guess old things are very hard to let go by some people.

Este ensayo analiza el papel decisivo de Diego Rivera y sus murales de la Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) en la construcción del caudillo Emiliano Zapata como símbolo de la nación. A partir de la primera aparición de Zapata en la sección de Los Mártires Revolucionarios del Patio del Trabajo de la SEP, la activación gradual de este héroe es leída como parte de un programa mural nacionalista y socialista que, basándose en gran medida en formas católicas y en las teorías vasconcelistas, sirvió para reconciliar a las diversas facciones étnicas y políticas del país en los primeros años de la posrevolución. Asimismo, a través de la figura de Zapata, contrario a lo que la mayor parte de la historiografía discute, se demostrará que la entrada del historicismo a los programas murales es tan temprana como 1923.
Palabras clave: Emiliano Zapata, Diego Rivera, muralismo, José Vasconcelos, Posrevolución

The history of Mormonism in Mexico reached a new landmark early in 1997 when Colonia Industrial, a United Order community founded by Margarito Bautista Valencia, achieved, its fiftieth successful year. Second, third, and fourth generations of Mexican Mormons in Colonia Industrial celebrated through sermons and activities that remind them of their legacy. Colonia Industrial, a small, unimposing, exclusive colony of Mexican Mormons, lies in the municipio of Ozumba at the base of Popocatepetl, an active volcano in the central valley of Mexico. While the growth of the LDS church in Mexico (claimed 720,000 members in 1995) dwarfs the small offshoot in Colonia Industrial, these Mexican Mormons' tenacious adherence to the socioeconomic principles of the United Order and plural marriage is a tribute to the testimony and fervor of their founder, Margarito Bautista Valencia.

La Revolución Mexicana de 1910 fue el primer gran conflicto bélico en ser documentado con el nuevo medio cinematográfico desarrollado por los hermanos Auguste y Louis Lumière a fines del siglo XIX. Pero la Revolución también ha sido inspiración para un sinnúmero de películas mexicanas así como extranjeras e incluso algunos de los grandes clásicos de Hollywood tuvieron su inspiración en el conflicto. Este curso dará una panorama de la relación entre la Revolución y el surgimiento y consolidación de este médium, tomando al conflicto tanto como evento histórico en si además de cómo sirvió de inspiración para producciones cinematográficas tanto nacionales así como europeas y estadounidenses. Durante las sesiones se mostrarán segmentos de películas y habrá una bibliografía adicional para aquellos interesados en profundizar su conocimiento en temas específicos.