Bakers and Basques: A Social History of Bread in Mexico

7: Unionists, Tlalchicholes, and Canasteros

124 Chapter Seven Unionists, Tlalchicholes, and Canasteros ; / The Spanish monopoly had proven itself to be an essential partner of the governments that emerged in the revolution and its aftermath. Hunger coincided with the brutal factional battles, and the government’s ability to see that people were fed became a crucial sign of political legitimacy. Likewise, scarcity, inflation, and adulteration were signs of corruption, complicity , or ineptitude. In their efforts to ensure the food supply, authorities did not regard the bakery workers as allies. For the first decade after the revolution, they tried to keep labor strife from disrupting the bread supply by sending the police to guard panaderías while replacement workers baked inside. In 1928, though, bakery workers realized the deferred promise of improved working conditions and support by the revolutionary government. The collective contract did not make the heat, the filth, and the cramped quarters in panaderías disappear, but bakers began to work shorter shifts for better pay in accordance with the Constitution of 1917. They had finally approached the much-touted social equilibrium—the notion that labor and capital could confront each other, if not harmoniously collaborate, on somewhat equal terms. For the new political leaders who saw themselves as the fulcrum that sustained this balance, keeping bread on shelves involved complications that no one had foreseen. The collective contract was an important step toward Unionists, Tlalchicholes, and Canasteros 125 resolving the decades-long conflicts between bakery workers and owners, but it gave rise to new challenges that threatened to disrupt the precarious equilibrium . The state’s challenge was to improve working conditions in order to prevent strikes without causing a rise in the price of bread that would erode the spending power of all of the other workers. Such an adjustment required that owners put more of their profits into the hands of the workers. Owners agreed, reluctantly, but not without conditions that drastically altered the relationship between markets and politics. Basques, Mexicans, and Tlalchicholes The union and owners agreed to a contract when the Spanish monopoly was at its peak. The movement of immigrants from the hamlets of Navarre into Mexico City continued to drive the expansion of bakeries and fortify the Basque leadership of the industry.1 There were some 238 legally licensed bakeries in Mexico City, and Spaniards, more than half of whom came from Navarre, owned 175 of these shops.2 As evidenced by the size and strength of their businesses, their dominance was more than numerical. Nationally, the average total value of (reported) investments for each Spanish-owned bakery was $22,242, while the Mexican-owned ones averaged only $6,195. Likewise, the reported annual value of production for Spanish bakeries averaged $56,600, whereas Mexican ones averaged only $28,447 (table 6).3 Undergirding the industry’s formal leadership were the ethnic connections among the Baztanese. The owners’ association president was Victoriano Loperena Illarregui, a native of Arizkun who arrived in Mexico in 1913 and became a board member of Braulio Iriarte’s Modelo Beer. Anastasio Espinosa Suquilvide, also from Arizkun, arrived in 1909, and three of his brothers followed him to Mexico and into the bread business. Hipólito Arrechea Perurena arrived from the Baztán hamlet of Almandoz in 1926, months before his brother Gabriel. Feliciano Anaut left the village of Uztarroz in 1921 with his brother Teodoro. Together they ran a bakery in the Mexico City suburb Tacuba, where they also managed the San José flour mill founded by the Basque Laureano Arrubarrena.4 These immigrants strengthened what Pedro Albaitero had accomplished under Porfirio Díaz—the integration of wheat, flour, and bread into a fairly cohesive commercial enterprise. The bulk of Mexican owners resented the Basques’ dominance but had little choice but to accept their leadership. After the collective contract went into effect, differences between the Mexican owners and the Spaniards Chapter Seven 126 persisted but became less threatening than the conflicts with the small Mexican producers who did not hire union labor and had no obligation to comply with the union contract. In fact, after 1928 almost everyone— Mexican owners of medium-sized bakeries, the Spaniards, unionized workers , and the government—found in the small Mexican producers the main threat to the delicate balance. Value of Investments Nationality Number of Businesses Sum ($) Property ($) Machinery, Tools ($) Vehicles, Furniture ($) Mexican 514 3,184,185 2,831,183 209,035 143,967 Spanish 172 3...