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Back to Hist 353 Lecture Index page Mexico: The Era of Lazaro Cardenas I. Lazaro Cardenas - President 1934-40, dominant to 1946

• A. Breaks the power of Calles, brings and end to Sonoran Dynasty
• B. Radical nationalist project - last great reformist period of the Mexican Revolution
• C. Culmination of the social revolution
• D. Continuities with Sonoran Dynasty - state-building, developmental capitalism
• E. Origins of Cardenismo (his political ideas/movement)
  • 1. In the Revolution itself
  • 2. In the Depression and the resentments it brought
  • 3. In the successive political crises
  • 4. Rejection of Sonoran values by disillusioned veterans of the wars of 1910-1920
  • 5. In the increasingly interventionist economic policies of Calles

II. Agrarian Reform

• A. Why?
  • 1. Strict political reasons - do in enemies, reward supporters
  • 2. Cardenas had a rural background, and a real affection for peasants
  • 3. Vision of the ejido tied to state-run capitalist development
    • a. ejido - the communal lands of an Ameridian community
    • b. became principal vehichle to rejuvenate the countryside
    • c. land distributed collectively for political and economic reasons
    • d. liberate the peasants from large landowners
    • e. way to give peasants land without breaking up the countryside into tiny plots
    • f. this meant the peasants could be empowered by getting land while working large farms to produce goods for export
    • g. money earned from export could be used for national development
    • h. thus it is a way to marry peasants' cravings for land with government's desire to build industry
• B. Achievments
  • 1. Distributed 45 million acres, compared to just 19 million by Sonoran Dynasty
  • 2. 800,000 people got land this way
  • 3. 47% of Mexico's arable lands went to ejidos - this was not junk land
  • 4. Government pumped money into ejidos - support, training, roads, electricity, etc.
  • 5. This government support was crucial to ejido's economic success
  • 6. Done all-out, not gradually
  • 7. Provided real social uplift
  • 8. Not as productive as private farms, but commercially viable
• C. Problems
  • 1. weakened as political will faded
  • 2. After Cardenas, much of the supporting institutions evaporated
  • 3. Stratification between those on ejidos and rural laborers
  • 4. became way of controlling peasantry
• D. Long-term
  • 1. Since 1910, 245 million acres have been redistributed in Mexico
  • 2. But unable to keep up with population growth
  • 3. Thus in 1980s there were 4 million landless rural workers - more than in 1910

III. Education

• A. Agrarian reform and education closely linked
  • 1. Cardenas carried on Obregon's use of the rural teacher as foot-soldier of the revolution
  • 2. Only a "modern" peasant could take advantage of ejido and agrarian reform
• B. "Socialist Education" - revolution imposed from above
  • 1. secularization of education - taking control of education away from priests
  • 2. sex-education
  • 3. collectivist ethic and class consciousness
  • 4. social change through education (something the Positivists had believed in)
  • 5. Promotion of Vasconselos's idea of indegenismo as an assault on poverty and inequality
• C. Response of Peasants
  • 1. peasants mostly tepid
  • 2. failed to inspire them or invigorate rural loyalty to government
• D. Implementation
  • 1. many more public schools built
  • 2. Particularly in communities defined as Indian (those communities that spoke Indian languages)
  • 3. Designed to liberate Indians without destroying their cultures
  • 4. Problematic, as they were taught as peasant, not as Indians
  • 5. Makes Indians a problem for national government, undermining local bosses
• E. The rural teacher (maestro)
  • 1. meant to be new priest - government saw Indians as a mass that had to be molded
  • 2. teachers had success where they responded to local needs and customs
  • 3. work was inherently political and risky
  • 4. many were met with violence when they challenged established practices too much
• F. Catholic response
  • 1. provided primary competition/opposition
  • 2. took strong stance against "socialist" education, including sex ed, medical services.
• G. Long-term impact
  • 1. illiteracy went down
  • 2. schools became strong vehicle for nationalism, for binding nation together
  • 3. generally failed to radicalize the peasantry

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