A Social History of Mexico's Railroads
A Social History of Mexico's Railroads

Author: Teresa Miriam Van Hoy

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780742553286

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Largely absent from our history books is the social history of railroad development in nineteenth-century Mexico, which promoted rapid economic growth that greatly benefited elites but also heavily impacted rural and provincial Mexican residents in communities traversed by the rails. In this beautifully written and original book, Teresa Van Hoy connects foreign investment in Mexico, largely in railroad development, with its effects on the people living in the isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico's region of greatest ethnic diversity. Students will be drawn to a fascinating cast of characters, as muleteers, artisans, hacienda peons, convict laborers, dockworkers, priests, and the rural police force (rurales) join railroad regulars in this rich social history. New empirical evidence, some drawn from two private collections, elaborates on the huge informal economy that supported railroad development. Railroad officials sought to gain access to local resources such as land, water, construction materials, labor, customer patronage, and political favors. Residents, in turn, maneuvered to maximize their gains from the wages, contracts, free passes, surplus materials, and services (including piped water) controlled by the railroad. Those areas of Mexico suffering poverty and isolation attracted public investment and infrastructure. A Social History of Mexico's Railroads is the dynamic story of the people and times that were changed by the railroads and is sure to engage students and general readers alike.

The Civilizing Machine
The Civilizing Machine

Author: Michael Matthews

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2014-01-01

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 0803249438

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In late nineteenth-century Mexico the Mexican populace was fascinated with the country’s booming railroad network. Newspapers and periodicals were filled with art, poetry, literature, and social commentaries exploring the symbolic power of the railroad. As a symbol of economic, political, and industrial modernization, the locomotive served to demarcate a nation’s status in the world. However, the dangers of locomotive travel, complicated by the fact that Mexico’s railroads were foreign owned and operated, meant that the railroad could also symbolize disorder, death, and foreign domination. In The Civilizing Machine Michael Matthews explores the ideological and cultural milieu that shaped the Mexican people’s understanding of technology. Intrinsically tied to the Porfiriato, the thirty-five-year dictatorship of Gen. Porfirio Díaz, the booming railroad network represented material progress in a country seeking its place in the modern world. Matthews discloses how the railroad’s development represented the crowning achievement of the regime and the material incarnation of its mantra, “order and progress.” The Porfirian administration evoked the railroad in legitimizing and justifying its own reign, while political opponents employed the same rhetorical themes embodied by the railroads to challenge the manner in which that regime achieved economic development and modernization. As Matthews illustrates, the multiple symbols of the locomotive reflected deepening social divisions and foreshadowed the conflicts that eventually brought about the Mexican Revolution.

A Social History of Mexico's Railroads
A Social History of Mexico's Railroads

Author: Teresa Van Hoy

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2008-02-21

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1461700310

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Largely absent from our history books is the social history of railroad development in nineteenth-century Mexico, which promoted rapid economic growth that greatly benefited elites but also heavily impacted rural and provincial Mexican residents in communities traversed by the rails. In this beautifully written and original book, Teresa Van Hoy connects foreign investment in Mexico, largely in railroad development, with its effects on the people living in the isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico's region of greatest ethnic diversity. Students will be drawn to a fascinating cast of characters, as muleteers, artisans, hacienda peons, convict laborers, dockworkers, priests, and the rural police force (rurales) join railroad regulars in this rich social history. New empirical evidence, some drawn from two private collections, elaborates on the huge informal economy that supported railroad development. Railroad officials sought to gain access to local resources such as land, water, construction materials, labor, customer patronage, and political favors. Residents, in turn, maneuvered to maximize their gains from the wages, contracts, free passes, surplus materials, and services (including piped water) controlled by the railroad. Those areas of Mexico suffering poverty and isolation attracted public investment and infrastructure. A Social History of Mexico's Railroads is the dynamic story of the people and times that were changed by the railroads and is sure to engage students and general readers alike.

Traqueros
Traqueros

Author: Jeffrey Marcos Garcilazo

Publisher: University of North Texas Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 157441464X

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Perhaps no other industrial technology changed the course of Mexican history in the United States--and Mexico--than did the coming of the railroads. Tens of thousands of Mexicans worked for the railroads in the United States, especially in the Southwest and Midwest. Construction crews soon became railroad workers proper, along with maintenance crews later. Extensive Mexican American settlements appeared throughout the lower and upper Midwest as the result of the railroad. The substantial Mexican American populations in these regions today are largely attributable to 19th- and 20th-century railroad work. Only agricultural work surpassed railroad work in terms of employment of Mexicans. The full history of Mexican American railroad labor and settlement in the United States had not been told, however, until Jeffrey Marcos Garcílazo's groundbreaking research in Traqueros. Garcílazo mined numerous archives and other sources to provide the first and only comprehensive history of Mexican railroad workers across the United States, with particular attention to the Midwest. He first explores the origins and process of Mexican labor recruitment and immigration and then describes the areas of work performed. He reconstructs the workers' daily lives and explores not only what the workers did on the job but also what they did at home and how they accommodated and/or resisted Americanization. Boxcar communities, strike organizations, and "traquero culture" finally receive historical acknowledgment. Integral to his study is the importance of family settlement in shaping working class communities and consciousness throughout the Midwest.

Railroads in Mexico
Railroads in Mexico

Author: Francisco Garma Franco

Publisher: Sundance Publications Limited

Published: 1985-11-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780913582398

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The Railroads of Mexico
The Railroads of Mexico

Author: Fred Wilbur Powell

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-25

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9781330195055

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Excerpt from The Railroads of Mexico Mexico's centennial year, 1910, marked the end of normal conditions throughout the country. Porfirio Diaz, who had brought order out of chaos, was an old man. The voices of discontent were no longer quiet, and the world was asking with renewed interest the question, "After Diaz, what?" Hardly had the great anniversary celebration been concluded when insurrection broke out in the north, and a reign of disorder set in which has continued with varying degrees of violence until the present. When the power that maintains public order breaks down, property interests suffer; and railroads are peculiarly liable to loss and destruction. The regularly constituted government avails itself of its right to take over the lines for military use; equipment is seized for the transportation of troops, munitions, and supplies; and the service essential to the maintenance of commerce and industry is disorganized if not brought to a complete standstill. Revenues fall off, outlays for construction and maintenance are curtailed, and the return to investors is suspended. More serious still is the effect of the activities of the forces of rebellion and disorder. Bridges are destroyed and tracks are torn up to prevent the movement of trains; equipment is seized and buildings arc burned. All varieties of railroad property arc destroyed, sometimes purely for the sake of destruction. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.