The Blood Contingent
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The Blood Contingent z Blood Contingent The Military and the Making of Moderns Mexico, 1876–1911 Stephen B. Neufeld University of New Mexico Press | Albuquerque © 2017 by University of New Mexico Press All rights reserved. Published 2017 Printed in the United States of America 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Neufeld, Stephen, author. Title: The blood contingent : the military and the making of modern Mexico, 1876–1911 / Stephen B. Neufeld. Description: First Edition. | Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2016023753 (print) | lccn 2016028897 (ebook) | isbn 9780826358042 (printed case : alk. paper) | isbn 9780826358059 (pbk. : alk. paper) | isbn 9780826358066 (electronic) Subjects: LCSH: Mexico. Ejército—History—19th century. | Mexico. Ejército—History—20th century. | Mexico. Ejército—Military life—History. | Soldiers—Mexico—History. | Mexico—History, Military. | Mexico—Politics and government—1867–1910. | Nation-building—Mexico—History. | Nationalism—Mexico—History. | Political culture—Mexico—History. | Social change—Mexico—History. Classification: LCC UA603.N48 2017 (print) | LCC UA603 (ebook) | DDC 355.00972/09034—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023753 Cover illustration: Drum Corps (oil on panel, 1889), Frederic Remington. Courtesy of Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. Designed by Lila Sanchez Composed in Minion Pro 10.25/13.5 Contents Illustrations 000 Acknowledgments 000 Introduction Breaking Ranks: The Army’s Place in Making Mexico 000 Chapter One Recruiting the Servants of the Nation 000 Chapter Two Sculpting a Modern Soldier through Drill and Ritual 000 Chapter Three Women of the Troop: Religion, Sex, and Family on the Rough Barracks Patio 000 Chapter Four The Traditional Education of a Modern Gentleman-Officer: The Next Generation of Sword and Pen 000 Chapter Five The Touch of Venus: Gendered Bodies and Hygienic Barracks 000 Chapter Six The Disordered Life of Drugs, Drinks, and Songs in the Barracks 000 Chapter Seven The Lieutenant’s Sally from Chapultepec: Junior Officers Deploying into Nation 000 v vi Contents Chapter Eight Hatred in Their Mother’s Milk: Savage, Semisavage, and Civilized Discourses of Nation 000 Epilogue 000 Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000 Illustrations Figures 1.1 Barracks of Tlatelolco, 2010 000 2.1 José Guadalupe Posada, Calavera de los patinadores 000 2.2 José Guadalupe Posada, Fusilamiento de Capitán Clodo Cotomiro 000 2.3 José Guadalupe Posada, El fusilamiento del soldado Bruno Apresa, 1904 000 3.1 José Guadalupe Posada, La soldadera maderista, ca. 1911 000 3.2 José Guadalupe Posada, La gorra de cuartel 000 4.1 “Salón de clases del 1er. Regimiento de Artillería Montada,” 1906 000 4.2 “Sala de estudio en el Batallón de Zapadores,” 1906 000 5.1 “Primer patio del Cuartel del Batallón num. 13, en la Piedad (D.F.)” 000 5.2 Barracks at Piedad, 1921 000 6.1 José Guadalupe Posada, La terrible noche del 17 agosto de 1890 000 7.1 “Guerreros,” México Gráfico, September 1891 000 7.2 “Ingenieros militares,” 1907 000 7.3 “Justicia militar,” 1907 000 8.1 José Guadalupe Posada, Los sucesos de Tomóchic, 1892 000 Maps 7.1 Military zones and deployment of main Mexican army and naval units, 1902 000 vii viii List of Illustrations 8.1 Major railways, rail links under construction, and military railways, 1902 000 Tables 2.1 Average shooting percentages, 6×2m target 000 5.1 Rations for troops 000 Acknowledgments Writing The Blood Contingent has been a long and sometimes arduous process that began in the earliest years of this century. This book simply could not have come into being without the assistance, guidance, and input that I have received along the way—as importantly to me, those thanked here have also been instrumental in teaching me how to be a scholar and have fostered my passion for Mexican history. My graduate advisors are due thanks for their generosity of time and intellectual support. Bill French has been an inspira- tional scholar for me and a good friend, always willing to listen and comment on my work. Kevin Gosner was unfailingly reliable and brought a degree of calm to the insanities of the PhD program. Bert Barickman’s keen insight and intellectual fervor continue to make him a role model I can only hope to emu- late; his brilliant and honest appraisals make this a better work. My major advisor, William Beezley, gave generously of his time and lent a sharp editorial eye, and he has shaped this work in significant ways. He had everything to do with my going to the University of Arizona, having invited me to the famed Oaxaca seminar in 2003 and convincing me to move to the desert thereafter. While researching in Mexico City a number of individuals also made this work possible. At the CONDUMEX/CARSO archives, Josefina and the effi- cient staff went out of their way to find me the best documents and letters. The archivists at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Relaciones Exteriores, and the Biblioteca Lerdo all welcomed me and gave me invaluable assistance. At the AGN, in the midst of a major move of my source materials, the archivists of Gallery Five (in particular Arturo) and the director of acervos were nearly always helpful and commiserated with me when they could not be. I am also grateful to the staff at the SEDENA archives and, in particular, at the F. L. Urquizo Library for their willingness to help me along. Fellow academics also gave freely of their time, and I thank Jane-Dale Lloyd and Carmen Nava for their assistance and comments, as well as Isaac Campos and Linda Arnold for generously sharing important sources with me. ix x Acknowledgments In undertaking research and writing, I also owe a debt of gratitude for financial support. Assistance from the Department of History at the University of Arizona largely made this work possible, and a four-year fellowship from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canada) allowed me to live decently during my studies. Without either, I could not have done this. More recently, California State University (Fullerton) has supported additional research to finish this work, particularly at the college and department level, but also with a sabbatical in the fall of 2015. In the process of revising this work, I’d also like to recognize the excel- lent advice and comments of my anonymous peer reviewers who have made this so much better, and also the thoughtful counsel of Timo Schaeffer, whose informal review was much appreciated. Clark Whitehorn has been an excellent editor to work with, and I am extremely grateful for his efforts. Conference comments from Peter Beattie and Hendrik Kraay have also improved my understandings of military life and recruitment issues. My col- leagues in the CSUF History Department unfailingly offered great insights and support, and I couldn’t ask for better folks to work with; especially useful commentary came from department “brown-bag” symposiums. My stu- dents, too, have shaped my thoughts on Mexico, the military, and history, and I owe them thanks for all that they have taught me. Friends, compañeros, editors, and sounding boards, a number of good people gave me the emotional and intellectual support that this sort of task requires. Amanda Lopez, Maria Muñoz, Ryan Kashanipour, John Klingemann, and Amie Kiddle not only suffered through early drafts but also were fellow travelers in D.F. during the research. At U of A, professors David Ortiz and Jadwiga Pieper Mooney always treated me as a friend and colleague rather than as a mere student. Likewise, Robert Scott and Michael Matthews have not only improved my work but also kept things entertaining and provided me the encouragement to take risks with my writing. Thanks too to my bemused and patient family, and to my “brothers” Robert Fehr and Malcolm Day for their insights on everything from hydrologic sciences to military traditions to asking, “what’s your point?” Finally, deepest thanks to mi amor, Carrie Ann Lawson, for listening to my groaning and complaining and subjecting herself to the weirdness that is my life, both academic and otherwise. We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be. —Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night The miserable soldiers fought blindly for concepts as lofty and incomprehensible as national tranquility, order, peace, prog- ress, duty. What fault was it of the troops if they gave in to hunger, if they appropriated or snatched up whatever lay in their path? . He understood now that these troops could not be blamed for acting out of hunger. It’s what city people did out of perverse ambition, wearing their white gloves and affecting the best manners. —Heriberto Frías, The Battle of Tomochic: Memoirs of a Second Lieutenant Introduction Breaking Ranks The Army’s Place in Making Mexico From the high salons of Chapultepec Castle wealthy and powerful men looked down on a country they perceived as fundamentally without order and dangerously without unity. They remembered the wars of their youth. They meditated on the polished spectacle of European armies. They imagined the rough peasant made literate and patriotic. And they dreamed, too, of a sovereign territory absent of conflicts with dissidents. In the vision they had of making a modern Mexican nation, the armed forces pro- vided a skeleton upon which to incarnate peace. This fantasy prevailed during the years between 1876 and 1911 when Porfirio Díaz’s governments held the reins of power. Consider the deployed military as a symbolic performance with many meanings. Soldiers clothed in French woolen uniforms and gripping rifles of modern make presented to observers a dangerous and highly orchestrated display of ideas.