The U.S. – Mexico border takes up a lot of attention these days—some of it justified, a good deal of it fabricated. But the border has been with us a long time. The opportunities and the challenges it brings are as old as the land on both sides.
Instead of sealing ourselves off out of fear, racism or hate, we would be better served to understand modern border culture and its history better. A great place to start is with Kelly Lytle Hernández’ Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire & Revolutions in the Borderlands. Published by Norton Press it won the Bancroft Prize in 2023, made the long list for the National Book Award and was listed as a best book by The New Yorker in 2022.
Anarchists, Socialists and Rebels
Bad Mexicans tells the story of Ricardo Flores Magón and the magonistas. They were migrant rebels and radicals who sparked the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The magonistas were journalists, miners, and workers determined to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Díaz.
Díaz had been in power for thirty years. During that time he brought stability, but the price was high. All real power over Mexico was in the hand of U.S. industrialists and imperialists, men like Guggenheim and Rockefeller. The magonistas brought down on themselves not just the Mexican government. The wealth and power of U.S. industry and the United States Government itself sought to kill them. The U.S. sought to keep Díaz in power and protect U.S.investment, regardless of what it was doing to the people of Mexico.
It sets the magnoistas on the run across the entire continent of North America. St. Louis, Toronto, San Antonio, El Paso, San Franciso and Los Angeles all play a vital part in this saga of money, power and violence.
Beyond Borders
Hernández is not just telling a story. She is teaching the rich and complicated history of Mexico and the American Southwest. One theme she conveys effectively is that U.S. history and Mexican history are not two different subjects. The history of Mexico is the history of the United States of America. The countries have been intertwined for centuries. The pull and effect each has on the other impacts every person, no matter which country they live in.
In particular, the level and the level of control of U.S. industry held over Mexico staggers the mind.
It was only when Porfirio Diaz lost the trust of U.S. business that he finally fell from power.
Hernández paints a striking picture of Mexico, and the hemispheric and global implications of the 1910 revolution. This includes the first mass movement of people north of the border fleeing war, hunger and poverty.
It raises questions that impact our lives and our politics to this very day.
