The Mexican Aristocracy: An Expressive Ethnography, 1910-2000 (review)

This recent book by Nutini completes work he began several years ago. Unlike most ethnographers of Mexico, Nutini has chosen not an indigenous group as the focus of his research, but instead concentrates on the Mexican aristocracy. In his first book, The Wages of Conquest: The Mexican Aristocracy in the Context of Western Aristocracy (1995) Nutini described the beginnings of the aristocracy with the conquest of Mexico, and its consolidation through the colonial period. The nineteenth century did not see an erosion of the aristocracy, but rather very slight changes in its nature. The Mexican revolution and subsequent political and economic changes it unleashed, marked the decline of the Mexican aristocracy, as it lost its basis in the large landed estate. Most aristocrats were financially unable to withstand this damage. Others had already diversified, and withstood the blow. By the end of the twentieth century, Nutini sees the aristocracy in its terminal phase as the remnants increasingly intermarry with the emerging plutocratic class created by the political and economic development of post-revolutionary Mexico.

Rooted firmly in anthropology and ethnology, this book is a fascinating glimpse at the decline of one of the singular groups in Mexican history. Its conclusions will illuminate the work of historians as they study the important social and economic changes that occurred in Mexico from the time of Lázaro Cárdenas through López Portillo. It is a fascinating study.