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Dear Reader, This book was referenced in one of the 185 issues of 'The Builder' Magazine which was published between January 1915 and May 1930. To celebrate the centennial of this publication, the Pictoumasons website presents a complete set of indexed issues of the magazine. As far as the editor was able to, books which were suggested to the reader have been searched for on the internet and included in 'The Builder' library.' This is a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by one of several organizations as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. Wherever possible, the source and original scanner identification has been retained. Only blank pages have been removed and this header- page added. The original book has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. 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Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster >EOPLE HEIR-STRUGGL OR-FREEDOM ' 1 H?<:i>i;t! : GUTIERREZ -DE - LARA EDGCUMB'PINCHON Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/mexicanpeopletheOOgutiuoft Copyright by Underwood &- Underwood. N. Y. WHAT TilE MEXICAN PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING FOR The revolution in Mexico is distinctly a fight for the land which was taken from the small land-holders early in the Diaz reign. This picture shows some of the natives who bought the land, following the seizure by the Constitutionalists, of the 73,OOO-acrcestate of Felix Diaz, in Matamoros 'he Mexican People: Their Struggle for Freedom BT L. GUTIERREZ DE LARA Author of "Story of a Political Refugee" and "Les Briboncs" AND EDGCUMB PINCHON Illustrated from Photographs GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO. 1914 /9/7 <*>. SL Copyright, 1914, by I PAGE & COMPANY ff DOUBLEDAY, An rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages^ including the Scandinavian PREFACE THIS book is deliberately given the title of "The Mexican People: Their Struggle for Freedom." We know that to the average mind Mexico and freedom seem almost antithetical terms; that is why we wrote this book. The Mexican people have democratic traditions as grand, pure, and sane as those of any race in the world. Like all peoples, they have suffered bitter oppression at the hands of their own master class, but unlike the majority of peoples their weakness has made of them the peculiar prey of the foreign exploiter as well. For a hundred years they have maintained the bloodiest, most heroically abandoned fight for their liberties, not only against their own master class but against that master class leagued with Spain, with the United States, with France, and with England. We have long wished to tell of this struggle. It constitutes one of the most exalted dramas of the social process. If by this book, wrought out amidst many difficulties, we shall awaken the spirit of brotherhood and understanding in the hearts of some, for the battling proletariat of Mexico, our work will not have been without reward. L. GUTIERREZ DE LARA. EDGCUMB PINCHON. ' c .. , : 1 CONTENTS Preface v CHAPTER PAGE I. The Real Mexico 3 II. The Genesis of the Mexican Master Class ... 7 ^III. The Origin of the Mexican Agrarian Revolts . 15 IV. Political and Ecclesiastical Constitution of Mexico in the Colonial Period 19 JV. The Revolution of Independence 26 VI. The First Empire 61 VII. The Republic 74 VIII. The Presidency of Bustamante . ... 87 . IX. The Texas War . / , . : * , . 100 X. Clerical Prsetorianism and the Supreme Con- servative Power 121 ,. ... ..... XI. The War with the United States 139 XII. Clerical Intrigues for the Establishment of a Monarchy in Mexico 167 XIII. The Ayutla Revolution 179 XIV. The Constitution of 1857 201 XV. The Upholding of the Constitution .... 220 XVI. The French Intervention of 1861-1865 ... 233 XVII. The Withdrawal of the French Troops and the End of the Empire 257 vii / viii CONTENTS CHAPTER . PAGE XVIII. Reestablishment of the Republic and the Constitution of 1857 265 XIX. Agrarian and Political Democracy 271 XX. The Diaz Cuartelazo 289 XXI. Porfirio Diaz, President of Mexico 297 XXII. The Dictatorship 312 XXIII. The Railroads 335 XXIV. The Revolution of 1910-1914 341 XXV. The Downfall of Madero 351 Epilogue. A Dispatch from the Front 359 ILLUSTRATIONS What the Mexican People Are Fighting For Frontispiece FACING PAGE President Diaz and His Cabinet 20 The Cost of the Battle of Ojinaga . / . 21 Map for the Period of Independence 28 The Constitutionalists' Agrarian Plan ..... 42 Jose Maria Morelos . 43 Vincente Guerrero President of Mexico in 1827 . 68 General Carranza Addressing a Crowd of Constitutionalists 69 Native Maya Girls 84 Ore Sorting 85 Native Silver Smelter 85 Mexican Types . 116 Chapultepec Castle . .... 117 Mexico Penitentiary 117 Second epoch of the history of Mexico, showing places where war with the United States, Ayutla Revolution, and French Intervention took place 142 The Famous Floating Gardens Near Mexico City . 148 Federals . 149 Constitutionalists 149 A Little Rebel Patriot 164 ix x ILLUSTRATIONS PACING PAGE General Luis Terrazas Claims United States Protection . 164 A Troop of Rurales 165 A Battery of Mexican Federal Artillery 165 The National Palace 196 Constitutionalists and Their Families 196 Chapultepec Castle 197 Mexico City After the Bombardment of February, 1913 . 197 General Carranza on Campaign Yaqui Soldiers General Zapata, Called "The Atilla of the South" ... 213 Zapata and His Men 213 Mexican Planter and Peon 246 Cultivation of Hennequin, Yucatan 246 The Toilers 247 Constitutionalists 258 Yaqui Rebels in Camp 259 A Rebel Barricade in Juarez 259 President Huerta and His Advisers 292 Enrique C. Creel 293 Jose Y. Limantour 293 Ramon Corral 293 Rebel Scouts 308 The People and War News 308 General Pascual Orozco 309 General Pancho Villa 309 Third epoch of the history of Mexico, showing places where ILLUSTRATIONS xi FACING PAGE farmers were disposessed of their lands .... 322 Victoriano Huerta 340 Venustiano Carranza 340 Francisco Madero 341 Porfirio Diaz . , 341 The Climax in the 1912-1914 Revolt 356 Non-Combatants in the Bombardment of Mexico City . 356 Non-Combatants from Ojinaga 357 Federal Lines of Defence at Ojinaga 357 The Mexican People: Their Struggle for Freedom CHAPTER I THE REAL MEXICO IT IS commonly supposed that the Mexican race is made up of degraded half-castes, the joint product of the most backward nation in Europe (the Spanish) and the primitive savages of the southern portion of North America. None of the popular superstitions in regard to Mexico could be more falsely cruel. The Aztecs, Toltecs, Zapotecs, Mistecs, Mayas, and allied races which made up the entire population of Mexico at the time of the Conquest still constitute 60 per cent, of the popula- tion, and in spite of the fact that they have been compelled to adopt Spanish names and the Spanish language, this 60 per cent, of the nation the working class of Mexico still retain their ancient blood in all its purity. Again, these peoples are not Indians.* Modern archaeological and philological research bear emphatic witness to the fact that they are ethnologically as remote from the wild nomads of North America as are the so-called white races themselves. At the time of the Conquest they were in full enjoyment of a civi- lization greatly superior in many respects to that of Teutonic Europe, and certainly superior in every respect to that of the *The real Indians (akin to the North American Indians) form a small propor- tion of the population of Mexico. They reside for the most part in the hills and mountains and are entirely outside of the main currents of Mexican politics. 4 THE MEXICAN PEOPLE Spanish nation which subjugated and enslaved them. Much has been written, particularly by Spanish historians, of the barbarous religious practices of these native races. It is true that the degraded native priesthood, who founded their wisdom- religion in Mexico more than three thousand years ago, prac- tised human sacrifice as did the British druids. Even so, this deliberate blood sacrifice of the Aztecs was intrinsically no more inhuman than the martyr holocausts of Smithfield, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, or the complicated cruelties of the Spanish Inquisition. The magnificent architecture, splendid engineering works, exquisite craftsmanship, and sane social arrangements of these native races of Mexico (or Anahuac, as it was called in pre- Conquest days) mark them out as a people of ancient lineage and advanced culture.

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