UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE WIRELESS: RADIO, REVOLUTION, AND THE MEXICAN STATE, 1897-1938 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By JOSEPH JUSTIN CASTRO Norman, Oklahoma 2013 WIRELESS: RADIO, REVOLUTION, AND THE MEXICAN STATE, 1897-1938 A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY ______________________________ Dr. Terry Rugeley, Chair ______________________________ Dr. Sterling Evans ______________________________ Dr. James Cane-Carrasco _______________________________ Dr. Alan McPherson _______________________________ Dr. José Juan Colín © Copyright by JOSEPH JUSTIN CASTRO 2013 All Rights Reserved. Acknowledgements There are a number of people who have aided this project, my development as a professional scholar, and my success at the University of Oklahoma. I owe a huge debt to Dr. Terry Rugeley, my advisor and mentor for the last four and a half years. From my first day at the University of Oklahoma he encouraged me to pursue my own interests and provided key insights into the historian’s craft. He went out of his way to personally introduce me to a number of archives, people, and cities in Mexico. He further acquainted me with other historians in the United States. Most importantly, he gave his time. He never failed to be there when I needed assistance and he always read, critiqued, and returned chapter drafts in a timely manner. Dr. Rugeley and his wife Dr. Margarita Peraza-Rugeley always welcomed me into their home, providing hospitality, sound advice, the occasional side job, and friendship. Thank you both. Other professors at OU helped guide my development as a historian, and their assistance made this dissertation a stronger work. My committee—Dr. Sterling Evans, Dr. Jim Cane-Carrasco, Dr. José Juan Colin, and Dr. Alan McPherson—deserve special thanks. Each one of them read this dissertation, of course, and spent considerable time pointing out errors and providing comments on how to make my manuscript clearer, more readable, and sounder in argument. Other members of the history department were also immensely helpful, especially Dr. Albert Hurtado and Dr. Raphael Folsom. The former improved my writing skills and my knowledge of the U.S. West and the Mexican-American borderlands, the latter read portions of this dissertation, provided sound advice, and introduced me to important professional contacts. Dr. Robert iv Griswold, the chair of the department, consistently supported my work, research trips, and conference presentations, always making sure to obtain for me as much financial support as possible. I would like to give my sincere gratitude to the OU history department staff—all of you were excellent! You were kind, considerate, and always helpful. I would especially like to thank Kelly Guinn, Barbara Million, and Rhonda George. You keep the department rolling, and you do it well. You were absolutely essential to my orderly progress at OU. You were also warm and enjoyable to be around. I received substantial assistance from Dean T. H. Lee Williams and the Graduate College, the Office of the President, and Dr. Kenneth L. Hoving. All of them provided generous financial assistance that made my project possible. The Presidential International Travel Fellowship allowed me to improve my Spanish-speaking skills at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara and to begin my forays into Mexican archives and culture. The money I received as a Hoving Fellow allowed me to pursue my research in the United States and Mexico in ways that would have been impossible without it. I owe a considerable debt to a number of people outside of OU who assisted my endeavors. In Mexico, Dr. José Luis Ortiz Garza and Dr. Erika Pani provided crucial assistance. Dr. Pani generously gave her time to assist me and another graduate student with letters of recommendation. Dr. Ortiz Garza has become a good friend and colleague. He generously shared his knowledge and research materials with me. My work greatly benefitted from his advice and comments. After spending a couple rough weeks in a shoddy hotel near Mexico City’s Zócalo or historical square, Marioli v Lombrera allowed my family, my colleague Ariana Quezada, and me to rent her furnished apartment that rested conveniently between the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the San Ángel de Quevedo metro stop in Mexico City, providing an excellent place to live while conducting research. Jorge M. Rolland C. and Deanna Catherine Wicks provided valuable insights on their grandfather, Modesto C. Rolland, and welcomed my family with tremendous hospitality. A number of other scholars have generously provided critiques of early chapter drafts. My work particularly benefitted from Dr. John Britton, Dr. Elena Jackson Albarrán, Dr. Sonia Robles, Dr. Matt Karush, and the late Dr. Paul Vanderwood. Dr. Claxton read over an entire draft of this dissertation and consistently emailed me about possible sources and new works on Latin American communications and the history of science and technology in general. Of course this dissertation could not have been possible without the existence of the archives that make their documents available. I appreciated the generous assistance of the staffs of the Archivo General de la Nación de México, Archivo Histórico del Distrito Federal, Archivo Histórico Genaro Estrada de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Archivo Histórico Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de Estudios de Historia de México, Fideicomiso Archivos Plutarco Elías Calles y Fernando Torreblanca, Universidad Iberoamericana, Acervos Históricos, Wisconsin Historical Society, Nettie Lee Benson Library at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bizzell Library of the University of Oklahoma. Especially kind and helpful were Lic. Filiberto García Solís of the Biblioteca “Samuel Ramos” de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras at vi UNAM and the women who run the Biblioteca de la Escuela de Telecomunicaciones y Telegrafía. Crucial to my survival and success during my doctoral studies at OU were a number of fellow graduate students who have become dear friends. Many of them made comments on portions of this dissertation: Ariana Quezada, Gary Moreno, Doug Miller, Jeff Fortney—thank you. Ariana shared an apartment with my family and me in Mexico City in 2011 and we spent many memorable days travelling across Mexico. Her family in Jalisco and Zacatecas showed me true hospitality. You will always be welcome in our home, Ariana. Gary Moreno, more than anyone else, was my compañero at OU. We spent many a day and night talking shop, bullshitting, recreating nineteenth-century Mexican board games, and drinking beer at the “The Library.” He made OU more enjoyable, and he made me a better scholar and teacher. Doug Miller also became a dear friend to me. His sharp eye and excellent composition skills never failed to improve every paragraph he read of mine. I immensely enjoyed our talks and playing music as the Night Owl Chorus. You helped me maintain a more holistic self. Keep in touch. Most deserved of thanks is my family, especially my wife Angela and my daughter Olivia. My family in its larger entirety has consistently supported my goals, something I truly appreciate. I am especially thankful for the support of my mother, who died while I was completing my research in Mexico City. I wish we could have spent more quality time together on this planet, but I cherish the experiences we shared. Sometimes I imagine you and Grandpa Jack roaming the stars. My father remains one of my most ardent fans, no matter what I am doing. You are crazy and wild, and you vii have been inspiring and infuriating; for that, I am grateful. Your sense of adventure has always been contagious. You have consistently fed my imagination, reminding me to stay amazed and to find beauty in the strange and profane. My brother David has remained my best friend. You make this world a much better place and I love you with all my heart. As anyone who has completed a doctoral degree while married—or has been married to someone completing a doctoral degree—knows, the journey is not an easy one; it is a true test of the limits of tolerance, patience, and love in a relationship. Angela, I apologize for the increased stress and anxiety, yours and mine. Know that you have been my rock and that I cherish you. And to Olivia: I am not sure what experiences you will remember from our time in Norman, Oklahoma, and Mexico. We had fun playing pirates in the Jardín de la Bombilla, getting your face painted by clowns at Los Bisquets de Obregón (“the coffee playground”), and building houses out of legos in our small apartment on Biloxi Drive. This dissertation took too much of my attention away from you, which was hard on us both sometimes. I love you and I look forward to our adventures still to come. viii Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv-viii Abstract x Introduction—A Tale of Two Revolutions 1-22 Chapter One—Scientists and Inventors, Empires and Latin America: Early Global Wireless Communications 23-53 Chapter Two—Imperial Designs for a Mexican Nation: Wireless in Porfirian Mexico 54-89 Chapter Three—Revolutionary Radio 90-127 Chapter Four—Reconsolidating the Nation-State 128-168 Chapter Five—The Pragmatic President, the Diversification of Radio, and the De la Huerta Rebellion 169-218 Chapter Six—Military Operations, Structural Development, and Foreign Relations 219-254 Chapter Seven—Broadcasting State Culture and Populist Politics 255-307 Conclusion—Forty Years of Radio Technology 308-318 Works Cited and Selected Bibliography 319-344 ix Abstract This dissertation explores the interplay of early radio technology and twentieth-century state power in Mexico. It argues that wireless technology was crucial to government attempts at incorporating frontiers, foreign policy, the outcome of the Mexican Revolution, and the formation of the single-party state that ruled from 1929 to 2000.