| Winner,
2004 Thomas McGann Prize for the Best Book on Latin America,
the Rocky Mountain Council on Latin American Studies
" This
is a critical, seminal work on Mexican history. . . . One of the
greatest strengths of the book is its debunking of myths and poorly
documented claims that permeate writing about Oaxaca."—Howard
Campbell, University of Texas at El Paso
"The
book represents many years of remarkable excavations in local, state,
and national archives. No other regional history of any other Mexican
state exhibits this thorough a survey of sources. The book is encyclopedic
in its coverage."
—Mark Wasserman, Rutgers University
"Twenty
years in the making, Chassen-López's new study is certain
to claim an important place in the regional literature on modern
Mexico. Finally we have a fine-grained social, economic, and political
history of Porfirian modernization in Don Porfirio's backyard! This
fine volume showcases Chassen-López's mastery of political
economy, peasant, and resistance studies and regional historiography
and methodology."-Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University
"This
magnificently researched work is the most comprehensive, in-depth
study to date of a Mexican region in the critically important period
of economic growth and nation- and state-building between 1880 and
1910. It elucidates for Mexico's 'forgotten south' the complexity,
modernity, and national integration it has long been denied."-Mary
Kay Vaughan, University of Maryland
From
Liberal to Revolutionary Oaxaca aims at finally setting Mexican
history free of stereotypes about the southern state of Oaxaca,
long portrayed as a traditional and backward society resistant to
the forces of modernization and marginal to the Revolution. Chassen-López
challenges this view of Oaxaca as a negative mirror image of modern
Mexico, presenting in its place a much more complex reality. Her
analysis of the confrontations between Mexican liberals’ modernizing
projects and Oaxacan society, especially indigenous communal villages,
reveals not only conflicts but also growing linkages and dependencies.
She portrays them as engaging with and transforming each other in
an ongoing process of contestation, negotiation, and compromise.
The
book is organized in three parts. The first examines Oaxaca’s
infrastructure and economy, addressing whether its native sons,
Presidents Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz, neglected
their own state in the drive toward Mexico’s modernization.
The second part looks at the society, studying the dynamic interplay
of class, ethnicity, and gender and critically examining claims
that the indigenous people of Oaxaca acted as an obstacle to progress.
The final part connects the economic and social transformations
in Oaxaca with the state’s changing political culture and power
relationships and reinserts Oaxaca into the larger dynamics of the
Mexican Revolution. By linking developments at the local, state,
and national levels throughout and making frequent comparisons with
developments in other states, Chassen-López compels a reassessment
not only of Oaxacan history but of Mexican history in general during
this period. |
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Contents
List of Tables and Maps
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I–Infrastructure and Economics
1 “A Thousand Whistles”
2 From Time Immemorial to the Porfirian Finca: The Dilemma of Land
Tenure
3 The Commercialization of Agriculture
4 The Promoter’s Paradise: Mining, Industry, and Commerce
Part II–Society: Class, Ethnicity, and Gender
5 Society: “Decent” and Otherwise
6 Indigenous Usos y Costumbres and State Formation
7 The Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca: Negotiating Modernity
Part III–Political Culture and Revolution
8 Liberal Politics: the Dual Legacy
9 Porfirian Politics: A CientÕfico Governor
10 Precursor Politics
11 Revolution in the South
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index |
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