Bad Mexicans

Starred review from March 21, 2022
MacArthur fellow Hernández (Migra!) explores in this stellar history the legacy of Mexican revolutionary Ricardo Flores Magón (1873–1922) and his magonista movement. Dubbed malos Mexicanos, or “bad Mexicans,” by President Porfirio Díaz, the magonistas and their political party, the Partido Liberal Mexicano, paved the way for the 1910 Mexican Revolution, according to Hernández. Combining exhaustive research with dramatic storytelling, Hernández chronicles Díaz’s seizure of power in an 1876 coup and the ensuing rush of foreign investment that saw U.S. citizens take control of the Mexican railroad, oil, and mining industries. The exploitation of ordinary Mexicans sparked rebellion, and some activists, including Magón, fled over the border to plot Díaz’s overthrow. Hernández vividly details how the “brilliant and ill-tempered” Magón “cultivate the support of Anglo-American radicals” including Eugene V. Debs, while “outrunning and outsmarting” U.S. law enforcement, and paints a harrowing picture of the harsh treatment Mexicans faced in the U.S. Touching on long-running themes in the U.S. government’s relationship with Latin America—including the prioritization of corporate profits over human welfare and the propping up of autocrats in order to protect allegedly vital economic and security interests—Hernández offers a vital reconsideration of American imperialism and the Mexican American experience. This is history at its most elucidating. Photos.

Starred review from March 15, 2022
An astute historical analysis of how Mexican resistance to longtime authoritarian President Porfirio D�az resonated on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. In her latest, Lytle Hern�ndez, a MacArthur fellow and professor of history and African American studies at UCLA, delivers a gripping cross-border study. D�az installed himself as president in 1876 and, for close to three decades, invited U.S. investment in Mexico at the expense of his country's most disadvantaged and marginalized citizens. In response, brothers Jes�s and Ricardo Flores Mag�n, whose family suffered financial ruin at the hands of D�az and his policies, organized a grassroots resistance movement called the magonistas, a group the president disparaged as "malos Mexicanos." While the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) is usually discussed in the context of its influence on Central America, the author argues convincingly that it "also remade the United States." Indeed, the magonista movement had headquarters in San Antonio, St. Louis, and Los Angeles, and its members were partially motivated by the mistreatment of Mexicans in the U.S., especially the consequence-free murders of immigrant laborers, "act[s] of racial terror akin to the lynching of African Americans in the South." As Lytle Hern�ndez shows, the U.S. government continued to provide support to D�az's corrupt regime, including the hiring of spies to infiltrate the magonista movement. Eventually, D�az made a series of tactical errors that resulted in the loss of American support--and, ultimately, an end to his dictatorial rule. All of these events shaped not just the formation of modern Mexico; they also defined the tenor of Mexican-American relations that continues to this day. The author combines a masterful grasp of archival material and accessible prose, transforming what could have been a dry academic work into a page-turner. Lytle Hern�ndez fully develops each character and thoroughly contextualizes each historical event. Furthermore, her inclusion of Indigenous and feminist voices is both refreshing and necessary. A beautifully crafted, impressively inclusive history of the Mexican Revolution.

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