Cycles of Conflict, Centuries of Change, Crisis, Reform, and Revolution in Mexico (review)

This edited collection stems from an admirable effort by the editors in 1998, to draw together a group of leading historians to analyze key aspects of the developments that led to the benchmark conflicts of 1810 and 1910, and link them to dramatic political changes occurring at the beginning of the twenty-first century. As John Tutino notes, contributors were allowed to explore these issues independently, and no effort was made to achieve a common approach. That decision is this collection's strength and weakness.

The philosophy behind this choice was the hope that the essays would grapple with fundamental economic and political problems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and by juxtapositioning different emphases and interpretations, lead to "new and more integrated understandings" (p. 9). In implementing this strategy, two issues arise. First, as is the case with many collections, the caliber of the contributions varies. Some of these essays are among the best interpretations this reader has encountered on this period, provocative and thoroughly researched; others are merely provocative. Further, because the contributors considered interesting parallels between 1810 and 1910, many speculated on what recent political developments might suggest about 2010. In interpreting significant social and political changes since 2000, the volume is hampered by the fact that only some of the contributors revised their original contributions to incorporate many developments occurring during the six-year gap before actual publication.

Among the many provocative insights that are valid then and now, is Eric Van Young's argument that "the further one descended from the commanding heights of political and economic power, the more diluted the perception of a generalized societal crisis. . ." (p. 28). This interpretation has proven its validity repeatedly as intellectuals and observers in Mexico have consistently predicted social violence in response to specific economic and political conditions, most recently in the aftermath of the 2006 presidential race, applying their vision of events to ordinary citizens' views. In his interesting portrayal of liberal developments in the nineteenth century, Antonio Annino offers the convincing argument that the center of Mexican political space was located in the rural areas, the result of an unforeseen rupture. His interpretation suggests potential parallels with the contemporary period, where democratic processes also emerged from the grass roots, and opposition parties gained a dramatic foothold in the 1990s, demonstrated statistically by Leticia Reina. As Alan Knight aptly concludes, the historical record largely supports the notion that "any future crisis will also be unpredictable and unforeseen…" (p. 174). Reina's more detailed assessment of the current trends is largely accurate, but in lamenting the fact that in 2000 43 million Mexicans still were living under PRI mayors, she misses a larger point. Many of these leaders have taken on the characteristics of their opponents, and electoral results clearly demonstrate that voters are selecting leaders at the local level on the basis of their performance, not on their party credentials. Nevertheless, as Tutino argues, a significant, underlying question is despite the new democratic political procedures, will serious structural conditions generate other forms of behavior to challenge those conditions?

A number of interpretations about recent events are, to say the least, incomplete or misleading, and appear to be based largely on personal observation. For example, Lorenzo Meyer suggest, when explaining former President Salinas de Gortari's decision to incorporate the Catholic Church as a newly revitalized political actor, "Many people committed to the Church did support the neoliberal transformation. But most ended up in the coalition created by Vicente Fox and the PAN—the old Catholic party—helping oust the PRI in 2000" (p. 298). This assertion ignores complex contradictions when one looks at religion and politics in Mexico, including the fact that Church leadership has opposed neo-liberal economic policies before and after Fox, that Fox too favored those policies, and that most Catholics are not inclined...