UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Por la Patria Chica: Indigenous Rebellion and Revolution in the Oriente Central de México, Tlaxcala and Puebla, 1853-1927 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7ww3s54s Author Rios, Gerardo Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Por la Patria Chica: Indigenous Rebellion and Revolution in the Oriente Central de México, Tlaxcala and Puebla, 1853-1927 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Gerardo Ríos Committee in Charge: Professor Eric Van Young, Chair Professor Christine Hunefeldt Professor Everard Meade Professor Michael Monteón Professor David Pedersen Professor Pamela Radcliff 2017 The Dissertation of Gerardo Ríos is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2017 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page…………………………………………………………………………. iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………. iv List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………... vi Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………... vii Vita……………………………………………………………………………………… ix Abstract of the Dissertation……………………………………………………………..x Introduction: Tlaxcala in the National History………………………………………...1 A Genealogy of Mexican Liberalism and its Discontents………………………...5 Reevaluating the Mexican Revolution…………………………………………...21 Re-Indiginizing the Mexican Revolution………………………………………...24 Dissertation……………………………………………………………………....30 Afterthought……………………………………………………………………...34 Chapter 1: The State of Tlaxcala in the Natural History: A Forgotten Narrative………………37 The Mexican Revolution of Ayutla and the Rise of Mexican Liberalism……….52 The Rise of Próspero Cahuantzi…………………………………………………65 Chapter 2: Dreaming in the Volcano’s Shadows: Juan Cuamatzi and The Indigenous Origins of the Mexican Revolution in Tlaxcala, 1905-1913............. 74 The Conflict between Pueblos and the State Government……………………….80 The Late Prósperato: A Pax Porfiriana in Tlaxcala?............................................84 The Apogee and Teilight of Juan Cuamatzi……………………………………103 The Impact of Maderismo in Tlaxcala………………………………………….157 Tlaxcala’s Maderistas Reform………………………………………………….169 Chapter 3: The Eagle Falls: General Domingo Arenas, and the Revolution in the Los Volcanes, 1914-1917………………………………………………………….175 Prologue………………………………………………………………………...175 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..176 The Politicization of Domingo Arenas…………………………………………183 Domingo Arenas: The Indian Leader of the Central Sierra…………………….186 Arenismo as a form of “History from Below”………………………………….190 Explaining the Ideology of Domingo Arenas…………………………………..193 iv The Revolutionary Indigenism of Domingo Arenas……………………………202 Arenas and Zapatismo: A Complicated Relationship…………………………..207 The Twilight of Domingo Arenas………………………………………………245 The Eagle’s End………………………………………………………………...259 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...270 Chapter 4: Redemptive Agrarianism in a Revolutionary Era: The Land Reform of Domingo Arenas, 1915-1928……………………………………………………….274 Effective Land Reform in the Oriente Central………………………………….284 Conclusion: The Benefits of Revolutionary-era Effective Land Reform………315 Chapter 5: The Rebel with a Cause? Cirilo Arenas and the Revolution in Central High-Sierra México, 1917-1920……………………………………………..321 Prologue………………………………………………………………………...321 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..323 Cirilo Arenas and the Mexican Revolution………....…………………….........336 Arenismo versus Zapatismo in the Los Volcanes Region……………………...341 The Apogee of Constitutionalist Arenismo under Cirilo……………………….347 Emiliano Zapata and the Náhuatl Manifestos…………………………………..352 The War against all comers……………………………………………………..368 The Remobilization and Decline of Arenismo…………………………………382 The Crimes of Execution of Cirilo Arenas……………………………………..396 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………..433 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...450 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Map: The Los Volcanes of Puebla and Tlaxcala (The Oriente Central de México)……………………………………………………………………………….38 Figure 2: Map: Major Zone of Revolutionary Activity in Tlaxcala from May 1910- April 1920………………………………………………………………………………..39 Figure 3: Photograph Source: Crisanto Cuellar Abaroa, Domingo Arenas: Caudillo Agrarista (Tlaxcala, Tlax.: Difusión Cultural del Estado, 1961)……………188 Figure 4: Source: Porfirio del Castillo, Puebla y Tlaxcala en los Días de la Revolución ……………………………………………………………………………...189 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, José Ríos Torres and Ana María Higuera Lozano. My father passed away ten years ago, but I think of him every day, and I work hard to honor his memory. I also want to thank my siblings, Alex, Adriana, and Ana Lilia. I’d also like to thank my adopted siblings Alex and Azucena García. My cousins, too many to list here, also come to mind. I also like to thank my many close friends outside of academia, and my many martial arts partners throughout the years. Participating in the art of Jiu-jitsu and submission fighting has kept me sane. Since the writing of a dissertation is ultimately an academic endeavor, I would like to express a great debt of gratitude to my academic adviser and friend, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, Eric Van Young. Eric, “the smartest person in the room,” as his colleagues have referred to him, is the most supportive and generous adviser possible. I hope this dissertation makes him proud. Professor Michael Monteón, an academic mentor as well, has guided me through the entire process of writing this dissertation, which began in a research seminar he taught on Latin America’s national period. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Everard Meade, an expert on modern México, who served students in our department for almost a decade. Lastly, I owe a big debt of gratitude to Christine Hunefeldt, Pamela Radcliff, and David Pedersen, all wonderful professors and mentors serving on my dissertation committee. I would also like to thank my graduate adviser at San Diego State University, Professor Thomas Passananti for believing in me and guiding me throughout the years. Conducting the research necessary to complete this dissertation would not have been possible without the help and advice of the staffs from the Archivo General de la vii Nación, México (the biggest thanks go to my guru and cuatisimo José Zavala, who greeted me warmly every morning by saying “que onda mi niño.” the Archivo Histórico de la Defensa Nacional, México, the Centro de Investigaciones Históricas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (“¡Goya, Goya, cachún, cachún, ra-ra!”). I owe a very special thanks to the staff from the Archivo Histórico del Estado de Tlaxcala, where I researched thousands of folios for over three years. A special thanks go to Señorita Carmelita Saavedra, who always helped me find all the documents I needed. Lastly, and certainly not least, I’d like to thank my hermanas and hermanos, and cuates, from graduate school at the University of California, San Diego. I thank warmly, though in no particular order of importance, the following camaradas: Young Hyun Kim, Alina Méndez, Rosana Womack, Ulices Piña, Luis Sánchez-López, Maria Carreras, Kate Flach, Kevan Aguilar, Amie Campos, Johnathan Abreu, Patrick Adamiak, Nazar Bagci, Ricardo Kerguelen, Barbara Zepeda-Cortés, Alessandra Brivio, Juan Carmona Zabala, Foster Chamberlain, James Deavenport, Jennifer Huerta, Laura Gutiérrez, Troy Araiza Kokinis, Edwin López Rivera, Manuel Morales Fontanilla, Leonidas Mylonakis, Ivana Polic, Jorge Ramírez, Alexis Meza, Reuben Silverman, Christopher Stroot, Claudia Vizcarra, David Shafer, Romina Robles-Ruvalcaba, Jane Dabel, Matthew Herbst, and Eberly Barnes. A special thanks go to my cuate Ricardo Fagoaga Hernández. We had too many good times! We are all in this graduate school mess together, but I trust that we will use our acquired knowledge, and perhaps wisdom, to help build a better tomorrow. viii VITA 2003 Bachelor of Arts, San Diego State University 2007 Master of Arts, San Diego State University 2009 Master of Arts, San Diego State University 2017 Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Latin American History Minor Field: Colonial Latin America (Emphasis on Ethnohistory) Professors Eric Van Young and Professor Christine Hunefeldt Minor Field: Sociocultural Anthropology Professor David Pedersen ix ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Por la Patria Chica: Indigenous Rebellion and Revolution in the Oriente Central de México, Tlaxcala and Puebla, 1853-1927 by Gerardo Ríos Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, San Diego, 2017 Professor Eric Van Young, Chair This dissertation analyzes the historical roles of indigenous people in the state of Tlaxcala and its border region with the state of Puebla from 1853 to 1927. This time period is characterized by political conflicts, state modernizing projects, widespread rural violence, and autocratic rule. By focusing on the collective and individual historical roles of rural indigenous actors from the central Mexican Sierra Madre range, known nationally as the Oriente Central, this study challenges established discourses insisting that indigenous people were passive “sacks of potatoes” manipulated by state actors. Led by indigenous caudillos who proved resourceful