HISTORY 361: The Mexican Revolution: Birth, Life, Death

Fall 2004
Mr. Volk

Rice 309
Office Phone: 58522
Email: Steven.Volk@oberlin.edu

José Clemente Orozco, "The Flag" (1928) - Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin, OH)

ACCESSING THE COURSE: Course materials can be found on the Blackboard system. This electronic bulletin board will post the syllabus, paper assignments, some reading materials, and visual materials useful for the course. You must register to get into the system, and I will provide information on how to do this and how to use the system in the first week of classes. In the meantime, check out the on-line information on accessing Blackboard. It is important that everyone registers for the Blackboard system as it provides me with an easy way to email the class.

The Mexican Revolution is one of a handful of monumental social, political and cultural movements which shaped the 20th century landscape. Along with the Russian and the Chinese revolutions (and, to a lesser extent, the Cuban), the Mexican Revolution has generated a massive amount of writing, film, art, and music. Perhaps not surprisingly, historians and other social scientists disagree about nearly aspects of the revolution, from when it began to whether it actually existed. The purpose of this seminar is to introduce you to some aspects of the historiography of this critical set of events that comes to be known as the "Mexican Revolution." The basic organizing device for the course is chronology - not the chronology of the Mexican Revolution per se, but the chronology of its historiography. In a relatively chronological fashion, we will tracing the narrative development of the Mexican Revolution (as it appears as history, literature, film, and music), and suggesting what this says about our understanding of the revolution itself. Therefore, the course will have occasion to circle back on itself, covering historical events we have already traversed, in order to locate new interpretations and arguments. In the process, it is my objective to present a course which is as much about "History" as it is about "history," in other words, it will be as much about the narrativization of historical subjects as about the historical subjects themselves.

This presents me with an immediate difficulty as to how to begin the course. While many of you will have taken History 110 and will have a good background in Mexican history, others haven't. And even those who have taken 110 may not have the best background on the Mexican Revolution. My normal solution would be to assign a general, and relatively short text on the topic so that you can get up to speed. But, of course, this class will be designed to suggest that writing about the Mexican Revolution is very much shaped, if not determined, by its location within an ongoing historiographical argument. Thus, to privilege one text as "authoritative" seems to defeat the purpose of the course. With that said, I would still recommend two texts for those who have not studied Mexican history and/or want to begin with a general text on the revolution so that, at the least, chronologies, names, places, and events can take shape.

Brian R. Hamnett, A Concise History of Mexico (Cambridge and NY: Cambridge University Press), 1999. This is strongly recommended for those who have not had any Mexican history. It's not a great read, but will give you the background you will need.

Michael J. Gonzales, The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1940 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press), 2002. This is recommended for those who want to begin with a relatively straightforward and short text on the Revolution.

Assignments:

Weekly:
We will discuss the nature of the assignments during the first class. What follows is the model I typically use for seminars:

Four students will be in charge of each class session. Two of the four will write a short (3-5 page) paper suggesting some basic analytic and/or historiographic issues raised in that week's readings. I will provide some guidance for these papers in terms of the questions to be asked. These two are responsible for posting the papers to the "Blackboard" system by the Tuesday afternoon (no later than 6:00 PM) prior to each Wednesday evening's class at which point we will all discuss the readings.

The other two students will serve as respondents to the papers, summarizing the main points of the assigned paper and starting the general discussion.

All the other members of the class are required to bring discussion questions to class based on their reading. I will collect these questions at the beginning of class. The number of times that you will each be assigned to write papers and serve as a respondent will depend on the total number of students in the course, but, generally speaking, you will likely be responsible for writing papers for two classes and serving as a respondent for an additional two classes. During the first class, we will assign responsibilities as well as grading options for these papers. I will provide written feedback on all papers; respondents will get a check+, check, or check- as a grade.

Final Assignment:
Your final assignment will be a research paper of approximately 15-20 pages in length on any subject covered in the course. Please note the dates in the syllabus when your research topic, first bibliography, and further elaboration of the topic are due.

Required Reading: Recommended for Purchase.

We will either read these books entirely or large portions of them. They are on order at the Oberlin Bookstore, can be purchased on line (often Amazon.com has copies that are quite a bit cheaper than list, and used copies that are cheaper still), or on reserve at the library. You can also get them at the appropriate time from OHIOLINK.

Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution, trans. Jr. E. Munguia, intro. Ilan Stavans (New York: Modern Library), 2002 [1915].

Anita Brenner and George R. Leighton, The Wind that Swept Mexico: The History of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1942 (Austin: University of Texas), 1984 [1943].

Rosario Castellanos, The Book of Lamentations, trans. Esther Allen, intro. Alma Guillermoprieto (NY: Penguin USA), 1998 [1962].

John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (NY: Vintage), 1970 [1968].

Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz (Noonday Press), 1991.

Timothy J. Henderson, The Worm in the Wheat: Rosalie Evans and Agrarian Struggle in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley of Mexico, 1906-1927 (Durham: Duke University Press), 1998.

Eric Zolov, Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press), 1999.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, Our Word Is Our Weapon. Selected Writings of Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, ed. Juana Ponce de León (NY: Seven Stories Press), 2001.

Paco Ignacio Taibo II, '68 (New York: Seven Stories Press), 2004.

Zapata's soldiers breakfast at Sanborns, Mexico City, 1914

SYLLABUS

NOTE: This semester classes begin on Thursday, Sept. 2. Our class doesn't meet until the following Wednesday (and, furthermore, at the end of the semester, classes will end on a Tuesday, which means that there is one less Wednesday class this semester. For that reason, I would like to begin with an introductory class/get together. We will meet at the start of the semester, before or first scheduled class on September 8. I will email you to get a sense of what will work for you. At that class I will give a bit of an overview lecture and we will discuss the class.

Sept. 8: Like a Leaf in a Hurricane: Welcome to the Mexican Revolution

Carlos Monsiváis, "Mexico 1890-1976: High Contrast, Still Life," Mexican Postcards, ed. and trans. by John Kraniauskas (London: Verso), pp. 1-30. [Available on ERES. I will also have the "postcards" (photographs) that are referred to in the text available in "Course Documents" on the Blackboard system.]

Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution, trans. Jr. E. Munguia, intro. Ilan Stavans (Modern Library), 2002 [1915].

If you want to go further:

Martín Luís Guzmán, El águila y la serpiente (Madrid), 1928.

Agustín Vera, La revancha (San Luís Potosí), 1930.

Sept. 15: The Revolution Will be Photographed.
(NOTE: This class is scheduled for the night that Rosh Hashanah begins. We will discuss rescheduling the class.)

Anita Brenner and George R. Leighton, The Wind that Swept Mexico: The History of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1942 (Austin: University of Texas), 1984 [1943].

Photography of Tina Modotti [Selection of Tina Modotti photographs will be available in Course Documents]

If you want to go further:

Frank Tannenbaum, Peace by Revolution: An Interpretation of Mexico (NY: Columbia University Press), 1933.

Andrea Noble, Tina Modotti: Image, Texture, Photography (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press), 2000.

Tina Modotti, "Woman with Flag," 1928 - Museum of Modern Art, New York

Sept. 22: The Revolution in Film

Vámanos con Pancho Villa (1936; Fernando de Fuentes, director, from a novel by Rafael Muñoz). 92 minutes. (Begin reading Castellanos)

If you want to go further:

Rafael Muñoz, ¡Vámanos con Pancho Villa! (Mexico), 1931.

Nellie Campobello, Cartucho and My Mother's Hands (Austin: University of Texas Press), 1988 [1931].

Gregorio López y Fuentes, ¡Mi General! (Mexico), 1934.

Sept. 29: Revising the Revolution: Literature

Rosario Castellanos, The Book of Lamentations, trans. Esther Allen, intro. Alma Guillermoprieto (NY: Penguin USA), 1998 [1962].

If you want to go further:

Elena Garro, Recollections of Things to Come, trans. Ruth L.C. Simms (Austin: University of Texas), 1986 [1969].

Oct. 6: Rescuing Zapata for Morelos

 

 

 

John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (NY: Vintage), 1970 [1968].

Additional Screening: ¡Viva Zapata! (1952, Elia Kazan, director, with Marlon Brando)

Emiliano Zapata - Detail from a Diego Rivera mural

Oct. 13: Cuba and the Death of the Mexican Revolution

Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz (Noonday Press), 1991 [1960].

If you want to go further:

Ramon Ruiz, The Great Rebellion. Mexico 1905-1924 (NY: W.W. Norton), 1980.

John Tutino, From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico: Social Bases of Agrarian Violence, 1750-1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 1987.

Jorge Ibarguengoitia, Los relámpagos de agosto (Guanajuato), 1963.

Oct. 20: Fall Break

Oct. 27: The Crisis of '68
(NOTE: I will be out of the country, but the class will meet to discuss the reading as usual.)

Paco Ignacio Taibo II, '68 (Seven Stories Press), 2004.

If you want to go further:

Elena Poniatowska, Massacre in Mexico (translation of La Noche de Tlatelolco, trans. Helen R. Lane (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press), 1984 [1971].:

Nov. 3: FINAL PAPER TOPIC DUE

Nov. 3: Towards a Post-Revisionist Approach

David C. Bailey, "Revisionism and the Recent Historiography of the Mexican Revolution," The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 58, No. 1. (Feb., 1978), pp. 62-79. [Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-2168%28197802%2958%3A1%3C62%3ARATRHO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0].

Alan Knight, "Revisionism and Revolution: Mexico Compared to England and France," Past and Present, No. 134. (Feb., 1992), pp. 159-199.
[Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-2746%28199202%290%3A134%3C159%3ARARMCT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F].

John Foran, "Reinventing the Mexican Revolution: The Competing paradigms of Alan Knight and John Mason Hart," Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 115-131. [Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0094-582X%28199623%2923%3A4%3C115%3ARTMRTC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K].

If you want to go further:

Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press),1986.

John Mason Hart, Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1987.

Gilbert M. Joseph and Daniel Nugent, eds., Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modern Mexico (Durham: Duke University Press), 1994.

Nov. 10: Agrarian Struggle Revisited and Revised

Timothy J. Henderson, The Worm in the Wheat: Rosalie Evans and Agrarian Struggle in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley of Mexico, 1906-1927 (Duke, 1998).

If you want to go further:

Jennie Purnell, Popular Movements and State Formation in Revolutionary Mexico: The Agraristas and Cristeros of Michoacán (Durham: Duke University Press), 1999.

Allen Wells and Gilbert M. Joseph, Summer of Discontent, Seasons of Upheaval: Elite Politics and Rural Insurgency in Yucatán, 1876-1915 (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 1996.

On urban struggles:

John Lear, Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens: The Revolution in Mexico City (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press), 2001.

Andrew Grant Wood, Revolution in the Street: Women, Workers, and Urban Protest in Veracruz, 1870-1927 (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources), 2001.

Zapatistas crossing cornfields, Morelos

Nov. 17: FINAL PAPER BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE

Nov. 17: Cardenismo Revised

Marjorie Becker, "Black and White and Color: Cardenismo and the Search for a Campesino Ideology," Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 29, No. 3. (Jul., 1987), pp. 453-465. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-4175%28198707%2929%3A3%3C453%3ABAWACC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G

Marjorie Becker, "Torching La Purísima, Dancing at the Altar: The Construction of Revolutionary Hegemony in Michoacán, 1934-1940," in Gilbert Joseph and Daniel Nugent, eds., Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modern Mexico (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994), 247-264. [Available on ERES]

If you want to go further:

Marjorie Becker, Setting the Virgin on Fire: Lázaro Cárdenas and the Redemption of the Mexican Revolution (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press), 1995.

Adrian A. Bantjes, As If Jesus Walked on Earth: Cardenismo, Sonora, and the Mexican Revolution (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources), 1998.

Nov. 24: The Cultural Turn
(NOTE: Thanksgiving break is Nov. 25. If you want to reschedule the class, we can do that.)

Eric Zolov, Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press), 1999. [NOTE: The song selection from Refried Elvis will be available either on CD or as a link in Course Documents.]

If you want to go farther:

Gilbert Joseph, Anne Rubenstein & Eric Zolov, Fragments of a Golden Age. The Politics of Culture in Mexico since 1940 (Durham: Duke University Press), 2001.

Carlos Monsiváis, Mexican Postcards, trans. and ed. John Kraniauskas (London: Verso), 2000.

Dec. 1: FURTHER ELABORATION OF FINAL PAPER TOPIC DUE

Dec. 1: Zapata Strikes Back

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, Our Word Is Our Weapon. Selected Writings of Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, ed. Juana Ponce de León (NY: Seven Stories Press), 2001, Part I.

If you want to go further:

Jeffrey W. Rubin, Decentering the Regime: Ethnicity, Radicalism, and Democracy in Jucitán, Mexico (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press), 1997.

John Womack, ed., Rebellion in Chiapas (NY: New Press), 1999.

Neil Harvey, Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy (Durham: Duke University Press), 1998.

Miguel Cuanalo, Aqui Estamos (Zapatistas)

Dec. 8: Things Fall Apart

Amores Perros (2000, Alejandro González Iñárritu, dir.) - film viewing to be arranged. No required reading.

If you want to go further:

Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon, Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux), 2004.

Dec. 14 (Tuesday): FINAL PAPER DUE AT 4:30.
Please Note: If you request, you can be given an extension until December 22 at 2:00 PM (i.e., the time the final examination for this course would have been given). There will be NO extensions after Dec. 22 without an official incomplete, and you must ask for an extension if you plan to turn in your paper after Dec. 14 (and until the final due date of Dec. 22).