The Making of the Mexican Border: The State, Capitalism, and Society in Nuevo Leon, 1848-1910 (review)

The work of Juan Mora-Torres is a welcome addition to the growing body of literature dealing with the transformation of northern Mexico from a frontier to an international border with the United States during the last decades of the 19th and early part of the 20th century. Too often ignored by both Mexican and U.S. historians, the northern states, over which broad generalizations nonetheless abound, have emerged as an important area of study in Mexican history. Undoubtedly, the United States cast a broad shadow over the region, yet traditional culture and society persisted, adapting to this new reality. Rather than some peculiar or distinct experience, the north shares many patterns of development with other regions in Mexico. Instead of fetishizing a history of purported northern differences, the dissimilarity that the region exhibits parallels other equally diverse processes in areas as distinct as Sonora or Yucatán. Over time, the existence of a critical mass of northern regional histories will provide the basis to draw informed comparisons between the northern states and the rest of Mexico.

Mora-Torres begins by providing an assessment of Nuevo León before the imposition of the international border. As elsewhere in the north, a small Mexican population inhabited a hostile environment and confronted an even more tenacious indigenous population that defended its lands. Likewise, these conditions initially weakened the power of the elites and limited the reach of the church. Whether or not this lessened social, class or ethnic distinctions and produced a more egalitarian society remains questionable. Nonetheless, relative isolation from the seat of power in Mexico City and political turmoil in the center augmented the power of political interest in the north and produced an element of self-rule.

The imposition of the border in 1848 initiated Nuevo León's gradual integration into Mexico. At first the border "intensified the contradictions" existing within Nuevo León society as well as tensions with the Mexican state (p. 23). With the support of both political and economic interests, the onset of border relations bolstered campaigns to exterminate the region's indigenous population. They also buttressed the power of caudillos such as Santiago Vidaurri and Gerónimo Treviño who established close ties with Nuevo León's emerging business sectors. Access to U.S. markets fueled contraband and many of the northeast's most important business families, including a young Evaristo Madero, built "empires rooted in contraband" (p. 33). As Monterrey gradually became the center for the emerging northeastern trade, business and commercial interests relocated to the city. Merchants pooled their resources and provided the capital for Monterrey's early industrialization (p. 92) while Porfirian protectionist strategy and U.S. policy aided the rise of Nuevo León's emerging industries. The process of integration forced adaptations within the state, among commercial interests, within the nascent working class and even in the existing land tenure systems.

An already weak hacienda system did not fare well with the advent of the border economy. Besides sharing space with ranchos and other comunidades, hacendados lacked access to credit and remained on the periphery of Nuevo León's economy. The growth of Monterrey and the presence of the border undermined the power of landed interests who resorted to debt peonage and the support of local government authorities to maintain a dwindling labor force. The border provided Nuevo León's laborers and campesinos with an escape from these deplorable conditions and many opted to search for alternatives in Texas and elsewhere.

In Monterrey, the elites, related by marriage and business partnerships, recreated their lifestyles as they did elsewhere in Mexico, in the Casino Monterrey, the Jockey Club or the Teatro Juárez. A growing working class, composed of immigrants from throughout the country...