La Política Del Buen Amigo: Mexican-Latin American Realtions During the Presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas, 1934-1940
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La Politica del Buen Amigo: Mexican- Latin American Relations during the Presidency of Lazaro Cardenas, 1934-1940 Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Kiddle, Amelia Marie Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 12:11:36 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193655 LA POLÍTICA DEL BUEN AMIGO: MEXICAN-LATIN AMERICAN REALTIONS DURING THE PRESIDENCY OF LÁZARO CÁRDENAS, 1934-1940 by Amelia Marie Kiddle _____________________ Copyright © Amelia Marie Kiddle 2010 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2010 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Amelia Marie Kiddle entitled La Política del Buen Amigo: Mexican-Latin American Relations during the Presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas, 1934-1940 and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 05/03/2010 William H. Beezley _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 05/03/2010 Kevin Gosner _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 05/03/2010 Bert J. Barickman Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: 05/03/2010 Dissertation Director: William H. Beezley 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Amelia Marie Kiddle 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The multi-country archival approach I employed in researching this dissertation made it an expensive proposition, and I am grateful for the Foreign Government Award I received from the Canadian Bureau for International Education, which provided funding from the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a year in the Mexican archives. In addition to the pre-dissertation research funding I received from the Tinker Foundation, and the University of Arizona Department of History and Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, the latter two also provided timely assistance to support my forays into the Cuban, Guatemalan, UK, US national archives. The Manuscript Society provided essential funding for my research in the Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The Herbert Taylor Barnes Foundation provided invaluable financial support throughout the course of my graduate studies, and I am especially grateful for the assistance it has provided. My committee members have been a constant source of encouragement throughout the research and writing of my dissertation. My advisor Bill Beezley’s good ideas, boundless energy, and constant faith in this project have been a source of inspiration. Bert Barickman shared his brilliance and friendship, as well as excellent, exhaustive, (and exhausting) guidance in Brazil. Kevin Gosner provided steady guidance and a voice of reason. David Ortiz shared his knowledge of Spanish history and his comments on these chapters over drinks at The Shanty. Walter Brem has been a fount of archival information and restaurant recommendations. In Mexico, I benefited from Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas’s continued interest in my progress, Guillermo Palacios’s guidance and mentorship, Carmen Nava Nava’s knowledge and enthusiasm, and Cecilia Zuleta’s friendship and collaboration. I am grateful for the assistance of more archivists and librarians than I could possibly name here, but special mention must go to Alejandro Padilla Nieto and the staff of the Archivo Histórico Genaro Estrada. I am also glad to have shared my time in the archives with such good friends; I thank Amanda López, Steve Neufeld, Ryan Kashanipour, María Muñoz, Sophia Koutsoyannis, Claudia Carretta, Erika Hosselkus, Joseph Lenti, and Steve Andes, for their interest in my work, and for being such great fun. The constant support I received from my family made the trials and tribulations of graduate school bearable, and even enjoyable. My parents, David and Elizabeth Kiddle, have had more faith in me than I could ever have hoped. My sister Jennie’s love and humour always helped me put things into perspective. Most of all, my husband Jonathan Jucker—my travelling companion, copy editor, and best friend—has been an invaluable partner in this long journey. Thank you. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………….6 ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………….7 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………...8 CHAPTER ONE. LA POLÍTICA DEL BUEN AMIGO IN LATIN AMERICA………..19 CHAPTER TWO. LA MINISTRO AND EL DUELISTA: GENDER AND THE FOREIGN SERVICE IN LATIN AMERICA…………………………………..43 CHAPTER THREE. REPÚBLICAS ROJAS: THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR AND MEXICAN RELATIONS WITH LATIN AMERICA………………………….92 CHAPTER FOUR. SELLING THE OIL EXPROPRIATION OF 1938………………140 CHAPTER FIVE. A TALE OF TWO CONFERENCES: THE III CONFERENCIA INTERAMERICANA DE EDUCACIÓN AND THE PRIMER CONGRESO INDIGENISTA INTERAMERICANO……………………………………..…186 CONCLUSION. THE VOYAGE OF THE DURANGO: FINAL THOUGHTS ON LA POLÍTICA DEL BUEN AMIGO………………………………………………..263 APPENDIX A. DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATION BY LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRY, 1934-1940…………….………………………………………….297 APPENDIX B. DIPLOMATS POSTED TO LATIN AMERICA, 1934-1940…..…….301 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………....304 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Annual Budget (Projected and Actual) for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…34 Figure 1.2 Annual Budget for Salaries and Other Expenses in the Foreign Ministry, the Foreign Service, and the Consular Service, 1934-40……………………………35 Figure 2.1 Ambassadors and Ministers’ Years of Birth…………………………………48 Figure 2.2 Ambassadors and Ministers’ States of Origin………………………………..50 7 ABSTRACT Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940) did more than any other president to fulfil the goals of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, by nationalizing the oil industry, establishing rural schools, distributing an unprecedented amount of land to peasants, and encouraging the organization of workers. To gain international support for this domestic reform programme, the Cárdenas government promoted these accomplishments to other Latin American nations. I argue that Cárdenas attempted to attain a leadership position in inter-American relations by virtue of his pursuit of social and economic justice in domestic and foreign policy. I investigate the Cárdenas government’s projection of a Revolutionary image of Mexico and evaluate its reception in Latin America. In doing so, this dissertation expands the analysis of foreign policy to show that Mexico’s relations with its Latin American neighbours were instrumental in shaping its foreign relations. I argue that the intersections between culture and diplomacy were central to this process. 8 INTRODUCTION Demonstrators rallying for domestic political reforms in Uruguay in 1938 carried placards bearing the image of Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas. Catholic Action groups in Chile had held masses in 1935 to protest his government’s persecution of Catholics and the threat this allegedly posed to Catholicism in Latin America. Clearly, the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas held broad significance for Latin Americans during the ideologically polarised decade of the 1930s. Cárdenas spearheaded a reform programme that garnered both acclaim and censure in the region. This dissertation examines Mexico’s relations with the rest of Latin America during the Cárdenas presidency (1934-1940) and weighs his government’s efforts to lead the region on the basis of the ideas contained in its domestic political reform programme. Generally considered to have been the most Revolutionary of the presidents who followed the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Cárdenas’s domestic political programme has received significant attention in the literature.1 Patterns of land tenure in the countryside had remained largely unchanged until Cárdenas undertook a large-scale agrarian reform programme, distributing an unprecedented amount of land to campesinos (rural workers). He is also famous for the 1938 expropriation of US and Anglo-Dutch oil companies 1 The literature on cardenismo is vast: see especially Alan Knight, “Cardenismo: Juggernaut or Jalopy?” Journal of Latin American Studies 26:1 (Feb., 1996): 73-107; Adolfo Gilly, El cardenismo, una utopia mexicana (Mexico City: Cal y Arena, 1994); Marjorie Becker, Setting the Virgin on Fire: Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán Peasants, and the Redemption