Militarism, Ethnicity, and Politics in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, 1917-1930 (review)

Brewster has two purposes in this volume: to trace the evolving centralization of control in Mexico after the Revolution and to explore the nature of cacique (chieftain) rule in the Sierra of Puebla. Gabriel Barrios Cabrera, a local military leader, skillfully controlled the Sierra in the traditional patriarchal manner while also maintaining good relations with the Ministry of War in Mexico City. In 1929, the founding of the precursor to the Institutionalized Revolutionary Party (PRI) marked the end of the era of autonomous local caciques. The Mexico City elite had won. Barrios's career throws some light on the process that gradually turned regional armed bands into something resembling a national army.

Barrios and his brothers were mestizo military leaders whose Sierra troops were mostly indigenous. Legend paints him as a fairly ruthless caudillo who completely controlled the region and manipulated the people. Yet Brewster argues that Barrios knew that his command rested in part upon the soldiers' belief that fighting also meant protecting their families and fields from attack. The men may have refused to fight elsewhere for him, and in fact, many of his troops did stay in the Sierra in 1930 when the Ministry of War ordered that the battalion be transferred to Mexico City.

In spite of his strong position at home, Barrios never challenged the federal authorities in Mexico City. In turn, the Ministry of War overlooked complaints about the cacique as long as he kept order in his strategically important region. By 1930, however, the Ministry of War felt confident enough of its authority to dislodge Barrios from his local power base. Barrios's acquiescence to the transfer of his battalion indicated that he saw himself as an officer in a national army and had also made a hard-nosed assessment that he could not win in a confrontation with Mexico City.

Brewster tells the story well, with more emphasis on Barrios's relationship to his region than on his relationship to the Ministry of War. Did the Mexico City politicians shrewdly offer material rewards in terms of salary, benefits, or opportunities for graft to sweeten Barrios's sacrifice in giving up his local fiefdom? Since Brewster portrays Barrios as more pragmatic than ideological, it is unlikely that political commitment alone convinced him to leave the Sierra.

Brewster has done a masterful job of exploring a variety of public and private archives and has conducted extensive interviews with the Barrios family. (Gabriel died in 1964.) Barrios's relatives may have influenced Brewster to paint a relatively generous, revisionist portrait of the cacique. Gabriel Barrios emerges as somewhat of a modernizer in his espousal of individual initiative, road building, and education and as a realist who knew the limits of his influence both in Mexico City and in the Sierra. This book is a welcome addition to the many regional studies of the Mexican revolutionary period and will also be of interest to those who study the transition from local, private armies to national armed forces under civilian control.