Powerhouse Chihuahua: Electricity, Water, and the State in the Long Mexican Revolution
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2018 Powerhouse Chihuahua: Electricity, Water, and the State in the Long Mexican Revolution Jonathan Hill Jr The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2539 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] POWERHOUSE CHIHUAHUA: ELECTRICITY, WATER, AND THE STATE IN THE LONG MEXICAN REVOLUTION by JONATHAN M. HILL JR. A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2018 © 2018 JONATHAN M. HILL JR. All Rights Reserved ii Powerhouse Chihuahua: Electricity, Water, and the State in the Long Mexican Revolution by Jonathan M. Hill Jr. This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in History in satisfaction of the dissertation requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy _________________ __________________________________ Date Herman L. Bennett Chair of Examining Committee _________________ __________________________________ Date Helena Rosenblatt Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Mary Roldán Michael J. Rawson THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Powerhouse Chihuahua: Electricity, Water, and the State in the Long Mexican Revolution by Jonathan M. Hill Jr. Advisor: Herman L. Bennett State formation has for decades been a major analytical focus for historians of Mexico, especially during the armed Mexican Revolution (1910–20) and the “long” political and social revolution which continued for decades thereafter. Since the 1980s, the cultural turn in the humanities has produced groundbreaking works in the field and introduced a model of state formation framed around hegemony, subaltern agency, and the nation. While these reflect prevailing approaches, this dissertation joins more recent interdisciplinary work on Mexico in conversation with a ‘material turn’ in the humanities and social sciences. Focusing on the policy debates and infrastructural networks which attended state formation in Chihuahua in the long Revolution, this dissertation brings the subfield of Mexican state formation into conversation with Sociology, Environmental History, and Science and Technology Studies (STS), among others. It explores the little-known history of one of the earliest hydroelectric systems in Mexico, which was built in Chihuahua by Canadian promoters in the waning years of the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911). Drawing on archival documents from relevant federal ministries, private papers, and contemporary engineering literature, this dissertation describes the deliberate and gradual integration of this private energy system into the circuitry of the growing Mexican state. It identifies severe drought in the late 1920s as a major inflection point in this process, since it invited greater federal oversight over water use and set this hydropower system on two related but divergent developmental paths. The first of these was state-led irrigation, which has been explored by Mexican water historian Luis Aboites, and which would come to define the Conchos River basin. The second was private electrical provision, explored here for the first time, which was forced by the 1930s to evolve away from its foundations in hydropower. “Powerhouse Chihuahua” demonstrates the utility of infrastructure in reassessing state formation in Mexico, while also proposing productive avenues for exploring the deep and wide entanglement of foreign capital and state formation in Mexico and throughout Latin America. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Research for this dissertation was generously supported by the Fulbright US Student Program, the joint History Project of Harvard University and the Institute for New Economic Thinking, and the Advanced Research Collaborative at the CUNY Graduate Center. A five-year Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellowship, followed by a Dissertation Year Fellowship at the CUNY Graduate Center allowed me to see this project through to completion. Within the CUNY system, I was lucky to work and think alongside brilliant colleagues across schools, fields, and disciplines. For their patience and generosity, I owe a special intellectual and personal debt to Herman Bennett, Mary Roldán, Michael Rawson, Amy Chazkel, Andreas Killen, Craig Daigle, and Emily Greble, who kept me moving ever forward into new and uncomfortable territory. For their friendship and support, I counted on Kristina Huang, Mila Burns, Geoff Burrows, Teresita Levy, Krystle Farman, Paula Austin, John Blanton, Gordon Barnes, Jorge Matos, Michael Crowder, Erik Wallenberg, Greg Zucker, Scott Johnson, Diana Moore, Chelsea Schields, Micki Kaufman, and Lawrence Cappello, among many others near and far. I would still be wandering the halls of the Graduate Center without the assistance of Helena Rosenblatt, Marilyn Weber, Anne Ellis, Rachel Sponzo, Jennifer Furlong, and the entire staff of the Mina Rees Library. This project was made possible only through the support of my Fulbright sponsor, Luis Aboites, who generously pointed out the most promising archival paths. I was also humbled by the hospitality and engagement of Diego Pulido Esteva, Joel Álvarez de la Borda, Alma Parra, Regina Tapia, David Dorado Romo, and Ligia Arguilez. I am endlessly grateful to Herzonia Yáñez, who shared her city and her home with our new family and became an integral part of our adventure. I relied every single day on the dedication and professionalism of archival staff v throughout Mexico, most especially at the Archivo Histórico de Agua, as well as the Acervo Histórico del Palacio de Minería, headed by Omar Escamilla and Lucero Morelos Rodríguez. This project was strengthened by thoughtful and charitable interlocutors at every stage of its evolution, including the 2015 conference on the History of Energy and the Environment at Harvard University, the inaugural Borderlands History conference at the University of Texas at El Paso, the 2014 Electric Worlds-Mondes électriques conference in Paris, various annual meetings of the American Historical Association and the American Society for Environmental History, and the New York City Latin American History Workshop at Stony Brook Manhattan. In roughly chronological order, these include H.V. Nelles, Matthew Vitz, Mikael Wolfe, David Reid, Diana Schwartz, Isa Blumi, José Angel Hernández, Ulices Piña, Paul Garner, Ian J. Miller, Sunil Amrith, Bathsheba Demuth, John Lear, Doug Sackman, Mario T. García, Christian Rocha, Diana Montano, Harry Franqui-Rivera, Paul Gootenberg, Mark Wasserman, and Jesse Tangen- Mills. I offer my sincere gratitude to all. In helping to clarify my arguments, I am indebted to Simon J. Schaffer and two anonymous readers at the Radical History Review. For their friendship on the conference circuit, I owe Casey Cater and Fredrik Meiton a special thanks. When this project seemed too big or my will too small, friends and family offered both unconditional support and precious perspective. I dedicate this work to those who sacrificed the most to make it possible. To Jeff and Cindy Casper, who offered a peaceful space to write and think when deadlines loomed. To those no longer here who nonetheless inhabit every page – Benjamin, Jonathan Sr., Frank Hill, and Betty Casper. To my mother Cindy, who still supports me unconditionally, for some reason. And to the lights of my life: Diaka, Lucia, and Sé, who gave this work meaning when my brain felt clouded with words. In the lonely ramble of writing, their laughter reminded me that love is always, literally, just outside the door. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1: Concession, 1905–1909 ............................................................................. 27 CHAPTER 2: Construction, 1910–1915 .......................................................................... 61 CHAPTER 3: Confusion, 1916–1919 .............................................................................. 97 CHAPTER 4: Reconstruction, 1920–1925 ..................................................................... 132 CHAPTER 5: Integration, 1926–1930 ............................................................................ 176 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 214 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 227 vii ACRONYMS AFPC – American and Foreign Power Company AGN – Archivo General de la Nación FIC – Fondo Fernando Iglesias Calderón GR – Fondo Ing. Gonzalo Robles AHA – Archivo Histórico del Agua AN – Aguas Nacionales AS – Aprovechamientos Superficiales CT – Consultivos Técnicos AHPM – Acervo Histórico del Palacio de Minería ASARCO – American Smelting and Refining Company CAFERC – Compañía Agrícola y de Fuera Eléctrica del Río Conchos CFE – Compañía Federal de Electricidad CNE – Compañía Nacional de Electricidad CNI – Comisión Nacional de Irrigación EBASCO – Electric Bond and Share Company GE – General Electric MNPC – Mexican Northern Power Company SAF – Secretaría de Agricultura