THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO THE EMERGENCE OF THE RANCHO AND THE SOCIOECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION OF THE CAXCANA, JALISCO, 1939-1959 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY ROMINA ROBLES RUVALCABA CHICAGO, ILLINOIS AUGUST 2017 Copyright © 2017 by Romina Robles Ruvalcaba All rights reserved To my mother, Ana María Ruvalcaba Molina, To my siblings, Raúl and Anabel And to my son, Agustín. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................... v Note on Translation ......................................................................................................................... x Map of the Caxcana ....................................................................................................................... xi List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ xii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ xiii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One .................................................................................................................................. 20 From the Hacienda to the Smallholding: A History of Land Tenure and Rural Workers in the Caxcana Chapter Two .................................................................................................................................. 51 The Large, Medium, and Small-Scale Landowning Rancheros of the Caxcana, Jalisco: A History of the Rise of the Rancho and a Proposed Definition Chapter Three ................................................................................................................................ 90 Juarismo in the Age of Agustín Yáñez: Political Stability and Ideological Clash During Jalisco’s Rural Socioeconomic Transformation, 1939-1959 Chapter Four ............................................................................................................................... 125 The Assasination of Felipe González Gallo and the Eradication of Ranchero Caciquismo in the Caxcana Chapter Five ................................................................................................................................ 164 The Crops, Livestock, and Industry of the Caxcana: An Agricultural History of the Twentieth Century Rancho Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 198 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................. 208 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................. 208 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 216 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe my deepest gratitude to the persons and institutions that helped make this dissertation possible. The Division of Social Sciences, the Department of History, with notable appreciation to David Goodwine and Sonja Rusnak, the Katz Center for Mexican Studies, and the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago provided indispensable support and resources so that I could undertake the long research and writing phases of this dissertation. I would like to thank Emilio Kourí for his support of this project. His teachings, mentorship, guidance, and encouragement were the engine that always allowed me to move my scholarship and academic career forward despite enormous challenges. My most sincere gratitude also goes to Dain Borges for the gracious, kind, and generous way he has always shared his knowledge and provided guidance in ways that have allowed me to remain true to my intellectual and research interests without compromising scholarly rigor. In the process, he has also helped lay the foundation for my academic professionalization; I must also thank him for pushing me to always think beyond my region of study. One of my greatest debts of gratitude is also owed to Mauricio Tenorio for compelling me to face the deep, foreign, and hostile uncharted territory of intellectual and historical exigencies with humility, hard work, and self- awareness but also courage. I cannot imagine having embarked upon my doctoral project without the motivation of his generous guidance and critical voice. My experience at the University of Chicago would have also not been complete without the theoretically enriching teachings of Ramón Gutiérrez, Moishe Postone, and Thomas Holt. Without knowing at the time, they were also preparing me to teach beyond my field of specialization. Lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to Professor Eric Van Young for his advice and encouragement during the v last stages of this project. His belief in the value of my project proved to be pivotal for those remaining moments when morale and self-affirmation were needed the most. I am also very grateful to those professors and mentors that helped set the groundwork for embarking upon graduate studies. At Loyola University, Chicago, Dina Berger became my greatest supporter and mentor, teaching me the foundations of Latin American history with great patience and belief in my potential. For helping spark my interest and passion for microhistory and oral history, I would also like to respectively thank Suzanne Kaufman and Christopher Manning. Last but not least, I would like to thank Elizabeth Lozano, Susana Cavallo, and Denis Heyck for being amazing role models and instilling in me a deep appreciation for interdisciplinary thought; their teachings in theory and literature have carried me through this entire journey. I would also like to thank the staff of the institutions and archives in Mexico City, Jalisco, and Zacatecas that helped me so much during my research trips, particularly those at the Archivo General de la Nación, the Archivo Histórico Agrario de Jalisco, the Hemeroteca Histórica of the Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco “Juan José Arreola,” the Archivo Histórico de Jalisco, the Archivo Histórico Municipal de Yahualica de González Gallo, the Centro de Estudios Históricos de la Caxcana, the Archivo Histórico Particular Frajoza Ruvalcaba, the Archivo del Juzgado del Registro Civil de Mexticacán, Archivo del Juzgado Menor de Cañadas de Obregón, and the Archivo del Registro Civil de Nochistlán de Mejía. I would like to thank the support of the administrators and professors of the Social Sciences and Humanities Divisions at the Universidad de Guadalajara, El Colegio de Jalisco, and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, and Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social Occidente. A special thank you to Sergio Valerio Ulloa, Sergio Mena, Patricia Arias, vi Carolina Ahedo Hernández, Jack Rollwagen, and Laura Rubalcava for always providing welcoming encouragement and providing spaces for developing my project. I would like to also extend my great appreciation to Professor Jaime Olveda for his mentorship and support but also for teaching me about the history of Jalisco and the history of Yahualica. I am greatly indebted to the support of Juan Frajoza and Rosalío López, local historians and chroniclers who opened so many doors for me during archival and field research in the Caxcana; this project could have not been possible without their mediation and I dedicate the humble findings of this dissertation to their admirable efforts to rescue and reconstruct the region’s history. Lastly but not least, I would like to reiterate my enormous gratitude to Claudia Patricia Rivas Jiménez, whose friendship and support during my trips to Jalisco helped me so much during both the happy and taxing moments of my research. I would also like to thank the colleagues and friends who nourished and enriched this journey by making doctoral studies a community of learning and support, notably José Ángel Hernández, Dora Sánchez-Hidalgo Hernández, Alejandrina Ponce Avilés, Pablo Ben, Jaime Pensado, Jennifer Morales-Pensado, Laurencio Sanguino, and María Eugenia Balandrán Castillo. Thank-you, José, for your support, encouragement, and guidance at every stage. I am also grateful to Claudia Rodriguez Solorzano, Citlaly Gómez, José Luis Razo, Antonio Sotomayor Carlo, Almita Miranda, Carlos Bravo Regidor, Monica Herrera, Diana Schwartz, Matthew Barton, Stuart Easterling, Jesús Botello, Patrick Iber, Amanda Hughes Hartzmark, Miles Vincent Rodríguez, Toussaint Losier, Gregory Malandrucco, Robin Bates, John Abromeit, John Acevedo, Benjamin D. Johnson, Dwaipayan Sen, Sonam Kachru, Arvind Elangovan, Tyson Leuchter, Covell Meyskens, Luis Fernando Granados, James Mestaz, Chris Dunlap, Carolyn Purnell, K. Richmond Darko, Ricardo Pressa, Luis Coronado, Carlos Gallegos, Emilio de vii Antuñano, Amir Hampel, Sarah Osten, Christelle Marpaud, Juan Fernando Ibarra Del Cueto, Mikael Wolfe, Julia Young, Casey Lurtz, Liz Fretwell, and Ramaesh Bhagirat. I would like to give a special thanks to C.J. Álvarez for his support and friendship through key moments of my years at Chicago and beyond.