HISTORY 354

HISTORY OF

Spring 2019

T/Th 10 – 11:15am Bartlett Hall, room 61

Professor Kevin A. Young Office hours: T 2:30-4:30, Th 11:30-12:30 [email protected] Herter 624

This course traces the ’s society, economy, politics, and culture. We will analyze the turbulent formation of Mexico, the legacies of Spanish colonialism, the 1846 U.S. invasion of Mexico, land conflicts of the 19th century, the origins and course of the famous Revolution of 1910, the consolidation of a conservative one-party state following the Revolution, the so-called “Mexican miracle” of the 1940s-1960s, the adoption of neoliberal economic policies starting in the 1980s, and the ongoing political struggles of workers, peasants, women, students, and indigenous people in recent decades. Equipped with this historical grounding, we will then try to make sense of Mexico’s current problems. In recent years have continued to face high poverty levels, an authoritarian and corrupt (if formally “democratic”) state, and massive levels of drug-related violence – factors which help explain the high rate of emigration. At the same time, many Mexicans are struggling to build a better country and world. This course explores the history behind Mexico’s present.

Diego Rivera, “The History of Mexico,” located in Mexico’s National Palace

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Course Goals and Key Questions

The study of history is not about memorizing facts or trivia; it involves learning from the past so that we can understand the present and help to shape the future. This undertaking is inescapably political in nature. Although certain basic facts about the past are beyond dispute, their meaning is always contested: that is, there is no single correct interpretation of why certain things happened, of whether those things were positive or negative, or of what life was like during a given era. Historians are not objective conveyors of history, but political actors whose “biases” – that is, our values, assumptions, material interests, and goals for the future – inevitably influence our perspectives. Likewise, the people whom we study all have their own values, assumptions, interests, and goals. Throughout the course we will examine how these factors have shaped life for diverse groups of people in Mexico, as well as how they have shaped different people’s interpretations of the Mexican past.

As you will see, I have provided a short list of key questions on the syllabus for each week to help guide your reading. Please think about answers to these questions as you read the material, and also formulate your own questions and comments in preparation for each class.

Course Requirements

Requirements include active class participation, six short quizzes, two essays of 4-5 pages each, and a final exam. Passing at least 5 of the 6 quizzes will excuse you from the final exam.

Participation (20% of total grade)

Participation includes attendance and active engagement in all class sessions. You are expected to read all of the assigned readings (including documents) prior to the start of class on the day for which they are assigned, and to come to class with comments and questions in mind. The lectures and class discussions will be partly, but not entirely, based on the readings – meaning that merely attending class is not a substitute for doing the readings, nor vice versa. If you must miss a class for valid reasons (health, religious holidays, family emergencies, etc.), please notify me by email, preferably in advance. More than one unexcused absence or multiple instances of tardiness will hurt your grade, with 3 percentage points deducted for each additional unexcused absence and 2 for every unexcused instance of lateness. If you do miss a class, I expect you to do the readings, obtain the notes from a classmate, and then see me if you have questions about what you missed.

6 Quizzes or Final Exam (40% of total grade; the first is worth 5%, the rest are 7% each)

The 6 quizzes will be unannounced, but you may use your reading notes. They will consist of short answers and identifications designed to gauge your comprehension of the course material. If you take and pass at least 5 of the 6, you are exempt from the final exam. If you miss class on

2 the day of a quiz, you may only make up the quiz if you provide written documentation justifying your absence.

2 Essays (20% and 20% of total)

Each of the 4-5 page essays will require you to formulate an original argument and to support that argument with evidence from class readings and lectures. Due Friday, March 1 and Friday, April 19. Papers submitted late will lose points based on the following timeline:

1-12 hours late: 5 points 24-48 hours late: 15 points 12-24 hours late: 10 points 48+ hours late: 20 points

No late papers will be accepted after 11:59pm on Tuesday, May 7.

Other Rules

Academic honesty. Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at UMass Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take reasonable steps to address academic misconduct. Any person who has reason to believe that a student has committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate department Head or Chair. Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent. Please see here for more information: http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/academic_policy.

Accommodations. UMass is committed to providing an equal educational opportunity for all students. If you have a documented physical, psychological, or learning disability on file with Disability Services, you may be eligible for reasonable academic accommodations to help you succeed in this course. If you have a documented disability that requires an accommodation, please notify Disability Services (http://www.umass.edu/disability/) as soon as possible.

Electronics. Please do not use laptops, recorders, cell phones, or other electronic devices in the classroom. There is an abundance of academic research on the ways that these devices impede classroom learning. The only exception to this rule will be at designated times when we are doing in-depth discussion of the readings, during which I will allow you to use a computer or phone to access the .pdf files.

Names and Pronouns: Everyone has the right to be addressed and referred to by the name and pronouns that correspond to their gender identity, including the use of non-binary pronouns. Please try to avoid assuming another student’s pronouns based on their name, appearance, or

3 behavior. I will make a habit of using neutral pronouns (“they/them/their”) in reference to everyone unless a student indicates a different preference, and I ask that students do the same when referring to their peers.

Course Readings

When doing a reading, focus on the main argument(s) and how the reading relates to the core themes and questions of the course. Think about the questions posed on the syllabus. Avoid focusing too much on the details. I am happy to discuss reading strategies with you, particularly if you are new to UMass or to reading-intensive courses, so please come to my office hours or email me to set up an appointment if you find yourself struggling. I want to help you succeed.

The following book is available for purchase from Amherst Books. You can also buy used copies online at sites like https://www.abebooks.com/, http://www.betterworldbooks.com/, and http://www.alibris.com/. Hard copies are also available on 3-hour Reserve at Du Bois library.

Ramón Eduardo Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People (New York: Norton, 1993)

All additional materials will be available as .pdf files or URLs on the Moodle site. Many of the shorter readings come from The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, ed. Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002), and will be grouped together in .pdf files in the Moodle folder entitled The Mexico Reader.

I may make minor modifications to the syllabus during the semester, in which case I will notify you as far in advance as possible.

CLASS SCHEDULE

––– WEEK 1 –––

1. How did pre-Hispanic societies of present-day Mexico compare to Spanish society, ca. 1492? 2. What institutions and ideologies characterized the Spanish colonization of “”? 3. What’s at stake in historical narratives of the conquest, colonialism, and independence? That is, why have certain people and groups favored certain interpretations of those events over others?

Jan. 22 Pre-Hispanic societies & the Spanish Conquest

Jan. 24 Colonialism and independence

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 54-92, 144-165 • José María Morelos, “Sentiments of the Nation,” in The Mexico Reader, 189-191 • Agustín de Iturbide, “Plan of Iguala,” in The Mexico Reader, 192-195 4

––– WEEK 2 –––

1. What changes and continuities characterized the period 1821-1855? Why? 2. On what matters did Mexico’s criollo elites disagree, and where did they agree? Why? 3. What were the causes and consequences of the U.S. invasion of Mexico? 4. How did non-elite Mexican and U.S. populations feel about the war?

Jan. 29 The Aftermath of Independence, 1821-1855

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 166-167, 175-204

Jan. 31 The U.S. Invades

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 205-219 • James K. Polk, “A Special Message Calling for a Declaration of War against Mexico,” May 11, 1846 • “The War on Mexico,” in Voices of a People’s History of the United States, 2nd edition, ed. Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2009), 153-166 • Josiah Strong, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (excerpt), 1-2 • Anonymous, The Mexican War and Its Heroes (Philadelphia, PA: J. P. Lippincott & Co., 1860), iii-16, 21-28

––– WEEK 3 –––

1. How did Liberal Party intellectuals and politicians try to transform Mexico? 2. What were the key features of the “,” meaning the rule of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911)? 3. Who were the winners and losers during the Porfiriato?

Feb. 5 : Mexican Liberalism, 1850s-70s

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 220-241 • “A Conservative Profession of Faith,” in The Mexico Reader, 220-225

Feb. 7 “Order and Progress”: The Porfiriato

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 255-90 • B. Traven, “Scenes from a Lumber Camp,” in The Mexico Reader, 279-284

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––– WEEK 4 –––

1. What were the causes of the 1910 revolution? 2. Many observers have commented that there were in fact “two revolutions” that started in 1910. What do they mean? 3. Why did many peasants rally behind ? 4. What do the testimonies of Pedro and Esperanza reveal?

Feb. 12 The Coming of the Revolution, ca. 1900-1910

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 302-318 • “Liberal Party Program, 1906,” in Mexico: From Independence to Revolution, 1810-1910, ed. W. Dirk Raat (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 273-280

Feb. 14 Madero and His Tiger

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 318-338 • Francisco Madero, “Plan of San Luis Potosí” • Emiliano Zapata and Others, “,” in The Mexico Reader, 339-343 • “Pedro Martínez,” in The Mexico Reader, 375-386

––– WEEK 5 –––

1. How did Carranza defeat the forces of Zapata and Villa? 2. Why was the 1917 Constitution so significant? 3. Did Mexico really have a revolution, or just a “great rebellion”? What’s the difference?

Feb. 19 (No class)

Feb. 21 Carranza’s Triumph and the 1917 Constitution

• Gilbert M. Joseph and Jürgen Buchenau, Mexico’s Once and Future Revolution: Social Upheaval and the Challenge of Rule since the Late Nineteenth Century (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013), 55-85

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––– WEEK 6 –––

1. How did the U.S. government and foreign companies respond to the revolution? 2. What role did the urban working class play in the revolution?

Feb. 26 The U.S. and the

• Charles Macomb Flandrau, “Mexican Traits,” in Mexico, ed. Raat, 232-240 • William Jenkins, “Mexico Has Been Turned into a Hell,” in The Mexico Reader, 357-363 • Governments of Mexico and the United States, “The Bucareli Accords,” in Latin America and the United States: A Documentary History, ed. Robert H. Holden and Eric Zolov (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 125-127

Feb. 28 Urban Workers and the Revolution

• Andrew Grant Wood, “‘The Proletarian Women Will Make the Social Revolution’: Female Participation in the Veracruz Rent Strike, 1922-1927,” in The Women’s Revolution in Mexico, 1910-1953, ed. Stephanie Mitchell and Patience A. Schell (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 151-164 Essay 1 due:

Fri., 3/1 ––– WEEK 7 –––

1. What did Mexican officials mean by the “Indian problem,” and how did they address it? Why? 2. What were the motivations, challenges, and impacts of the Mexican muralist movement? Specifically, how did the muralists reinterpret Mexico’s history (and present)?

Mar. 5 Building a State and “Forging a Nation,” 1920-1934

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 339-363 • Stephen E. Lewis, “The Nation, Education, and the ‘Indian Problem’ in Mexico, 1920-1940,” in The Eagle and the Virgin: Nation and Cultural Revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940, ed. Mary Kay Vaughan and Stephen E. Lewis (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006), 176-195 • Rosario Castellanos, “Modesta Gómez,” in The Mexico Reader, 545-552

Mar. 7 Painting the Revolution

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 364-385 • Website: https://awestruckwanderer.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/art-gallery-diego-rivera-1886- 1957-mexican-painter/ (Examine Diego Rivera murals and descriptions) • Website: http://dasilvahoa.blogspot.com/2016/02/links-to-artwork.html (Examine all the murals by the “big three” muralists: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco)

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––– WEEK 8: Spring Break –––

––– WEEK 9 –––

1. What did the Cristeros want? 2. How did some Mexicans attempt to “revive” the revolution in the 1930s? 3. Was the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas truly revolutionary, or merely a conservative regime that used revolutionary language? 4. How did women activists respond to Cardenismo?

Mar. 19 The Diversity of Resistance: The Cristeros

• Jennie Purnell, Popular Movements and State Formation in Revolutionary Mexico: The Agraristas and Cristeros of Michoacán (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999), 1-23 • “The Ballad of Valentín of the Sierra,” in The Mexico Reader, 418-420

Mar. 21 Reviving the Revolution: Cardenismo, 1934-1940

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 386-409 • Jocelyn Olcott, “‘Worthy Wives and Mothers’: State-Sponsored Women’s Organizing in Postrevolutionary Mexico,” Journal of Women’s History 13, no. 4 (2002): 106-131

––– WEEK 10 –––

1. What major policy changes did Mexican presidents implement after 1940? 2. What were the “Mexican miracle” and the “Pax Priísta”? How are those labels problematic? 3. How did the Mexican government seek to shape its international image? 4. How and why did many Mexicans protest regime policies in the 1960s and 1970s? 5. How did events of the 1960s undermine the legitimacy of the Mexican regime?

Mar. 26 Mexico, the United States, and World War II

• Friedrich Katz, “International Wars, Mexico, and U.S. Hegemony,” in Cycles of Conflict, Centuries of Change: Crisis, Reform, and Revolution in Mexico, ed. Elisa Servín, Leticia Reina, and John Tutino (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), 184-210 • Andrew Sackett, “The Two Faces of Acapulco during the Golden Age,” in The Mexico Reader, 500-510

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Mar. 28 The “Mexican Miracle,” the “Pax Priísta,” and 1968

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 410-443 • Elena Poniatowska, “The Student Movement of 1968,” in The Mexico Reader, 555-569 • U.S. Government Documents on 1968: August 23rd through October 12th (4 documents, combined in a single .pdf on Moodle)

––– WEEK 11 –––

1. What was the Mexican “dirty war,” and whom did it target? 2. How else did the Mexican government seek to reestablish political control in the 1970s?

Apr. 2 Resistance and pacification (Guest: Prof. Gladys McCormick)

• Duncan Kennedy, “Mexicans Dig for ‘Disappeared’” (video), BBC News, July 16, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7509930.stm • Gladys McCormick, “The Last Door: Political Prisoners and the Use of Torture in Mexico’s Dirty War,” The Americas 74, no. 1 (2017): 57-81 • Alexander Aviña, “Mexico’s Long Dirty War,” NACLA Report on the Americas 48, no. 2 (2016): 144-149 • Leopoldo de Gyves de la Cruz and COCEI, “The COCEI of Juchitán, Oaxaca: Two Documents,” in The Mexico Reader, 619-624

Apr. 4 Populism and reform in the 1970s

• Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy, 444-466

––– WEEK 12 –––

1. What is neoliberalism, and what neoliberal reforms did the Mexican state enact after 1982? 2. How did neoliberalism signify a major departure from previous economic policies? 3. What cracks in the regime’s power appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s? Why?

Apr. 9 The 1982 Debt Crisis, Neoliberalism, and dissent

• Joseph and Buchenau, Mexico’s Once and Future Revolution, 167-196 (available as EBook) • Anonymous, “Letters to Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas,” in The Mexico Reader, 591-597

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Apr. 11 NAFTA: Winners and losers

• Bill Clinton, “Remarks on the Signing of NAFTA” (1993) • “The Triumph of NAFTA,” The Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2004 • Mark Weisbrot, Lara Merling, Vitor Mello, Stephan Lefebvre, and Joseph Sammut, Did NAFTA Help Mexico? An Update After 23 Years (Washington: CEPR, 2017)

––– WEEK 13 –––

1. Who are the present-day Zapatistas and why did they revolt? 2. How have the Zapatistas sought to transform Mexico? 3. How have neoliberal economic policies affected Mexican workers?

Apr. 16 Working in a Neoliberal World

• Maquilápolis (City of Factories) (68 min., 2006), online at https://youtu.be/WUQgFzkE3i0?t=5

Apr. 18 The Zapatista Rebellion, 1994-present

• Subcomandante Marcos, “The Long Journey from Despair to Hope,” in The Mexico Reader, 646-654 • Marián Peres Tsu, “A Tzotzil Chronicle of the Zapatista Uprising,” in The Mexico Reader, 655-669 • Zapatista Army of National Liberation, “Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle,” 1-4

Essay 2 due: Fri., 4/19 ––– WEEK 14 –––

1. What factors lead Mexicans to migrate, both within Mexico and across borders? 2. What are the consequences of U.S. “border security” policies? 3. What are the roots and consequences of the U.S.-Mexican “war on drugs”? 4. What is responsible for Mexico’s environmental crises?

Apr. 23 Drugs, Violence, & Migration

• Kirk Semple, “Mexico Grapples With a Surge in Violence, and Fears Rise,” New York Times, December 14, 2016 • Julien Mercille, “Violent Narco-Cartels or US Hegemony? The Political Economy of the ‘War on Drugs’ in Mexico,” Third World Quarterly 32, no. 9 (2011): 1637-1653 • Todd Miller, “Border Patrol Capitalism,” NACLA Report on the Americas 48, no. 2 (2016): 150- 156

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Apr. 25 Environmental Crises and Responses

• Joel Simon, “The Sinking City,” in The Mexico Reader, 520-535

––– WEEK 15 –––

1. What forms has political resistance taken in recent years? 2. What have recent Mexican protest movements been demanding?

Apr. 30 Resistance in the 21st Century

• Deborah Poole and Gerardo Rénique, “Oaxaqueños Confront Mexico’s Educational Reforms,” NACLA Report on the Americas 48, no. 4 (2016): 307-10 • John M. Ackerman, “Mexico: Ending the Neoliberal Nightmare,” NACLA Report on the Americas 48, no. 4 (2016): 394-400

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