In the Absence of Don Porfirio: Francisco Leon de la Barra and the Mexican Revolution (review)

In the Absence of Don Porfirio: Francisco León de la Barra and the Mexican Revolution. By Peter V. N. Henderson. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1999. Photographs. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. xiii, 338 pp. Cloth, $55.00.

In light of this summer's presidential election in Mexico, touted by many to be the most "democratic" ever, the publication of Peter Henderson's latest work is particularly timely. Francisco León de la Barra's transitional presidency in 1911 faced many of the same political issues that contemporary voters will face in July, most importantly corruption and change from the old regime (Porfirian) to the new (Maderista). Similar to his earlier study of Félix Díaz, Félix Díaz, the Porfirians, and the Mexican Revolution (1981), Henderson's political biography of de la Barra rescues a controversial figure of the early revolutionary period from relative historiographic obscurity. Through extensive use of a variety of public and private archival sources from five countries, Henderson carefully demonstrates that de la Barra was more than a solitary and often maligned figure in Mexican history. De la Barra's story is important to revisit (or visit for the first time) in order to better understand the social and political rise and fall Porfirian elites and intellectuals experienced during the Porfirian, Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods. A motif running throughout Henderson's work is that the demise of de la Barra and other "educated Porfirians" represented, "the tragic side of the Mexican Revolution" (p. 233). These individuals who could have continued, in Henderson opinion, to offer "great service" to Mexico were cast aside and ridiculed by the post-Revolutionary government.

The study begins by charting de la Barra's political ascent, assiduously reconstructed from family memoirs and correspondence, from the son of an elite Chilean family to student and then teacher at the prestigious National Preparatory School, where he established himself as an expert on international law and arbitration. Related and well connected to high-level políticos, de la Barra quickly moved through the diplomatic ranks in Latin America, Europe, and the United States before being appointed as Mexico's secretary of foreign relations and finally president in May of 1911. Following the Revolution, de la Barra retreated to Europe and continued his work in international diplomacy until his death in 1939.

Most of the book examines de la Barra's role in the "progressive consensus," a group comprised of "many members of the Porfirian elite, including most of the civilian Maderistas" (p. 24). Challenging the prevailing view of the Revolution, which holds that Madero and the de la Barra interim presidency attempted little in the way of social change, Henderson argues that by the spring of 1911, the progressive consensus had been committed to reform and "call[ed] for political enfranchisement, order, economic development, and modest social change through nonviolent and legal processes" (p. 235). Henderson shows that de la Barra's interim government, largely in conjunction with Madero, actively pursued pro-labor, agrarian, electoral, and education reforms. Yet, consistent with Porfirian economic practices that demanded social quiescence in order to attract foreign capital, the de la Barra government often "lost patience" when people "crossed that thin line into violence or lawlessness" (p. 155), as was the case with worker strikes and the Zapatista uprising in Morelos.

For all of Henderson's judicious insight into de la Barra's career, his analysis of the "first" or popular revolution seems overly simplified. Perhaps too eager to resuscitate de la Barra's place in Mexican history he writes, "the popular revolution did alter attitudes and allow previously subjugated peoples to hold their heads high, completing a process that had clearly begun during the de la Barra presidency" (p. 235). While de la Barra agitated for social reform, his presidency should not be credited...