Waking the Dictator: Veracruz, the Struggle for Federalism, and the Mexican Revolution, 1870-1927 (review)

Social historians of Veracruz have produced a variety of groundbreaking works over the past two decades. Yet for all the interesting work being done, few have attempted a full-scale political history of the state during the revolution. Indeed, comprehending "the Revolution" in Veracruz—or anywhere else for that matter—is a complicated business fraught with any number of difficulties. Realizing this, a variety of monographs have focused on aspects of the state's political economy, labor relations, agrarian reform and urban centers. Others have worked the biographical fields, producing important books on key political figures such as Cándido Aguilar, Heriberto Jara and Adalberto Tejeda. Supported by state funding available for a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the state archive also published a wonderful set of regional photographic histories.

Attempting a synthetic treatment of Veracruz political history, Karl Koth argues that events in Veracruz can ultimately be related to a struggle for state sovereignty in tension with a succession of heavy-handed national administrations. Working his interpretation of rebellions in Papantla (1891, 1896) and Acayucan (1906) as well as the brutal massacre of textile workers at Río Blanco (1907) into this overarching thesis, Koth makes effective use of archival materials detailing the relationship between Governor Teodoro Dehesa and the Díaz administration. Taking the influence of the Partido Liberal Mexicana (PLM) as well as growing dissatisfaction with the Díaz regime into account, Koth contends (in contrast with previous interpretations) that a significant cross-class alliance dedicated to the overthrow of Porfirio Díaz surfaced in Veracruz almost immediately after Francisco Madero's call to arms. Yet as revolutionary events took shape, Koth suggests that the allegedly "federalist" inspired revolt against the "centrist" Porfirian system was gradually corrupted by a series of "neo-porfirian" national governments. In elaborating this main argument, Koth ably details the careers of many important members of the revolutionary generation in Veracruz and devotes considerable attention to the counter-revolution led by Félix Díaz. Treading lightly over the period from 1917 to 1927, the author is less convincing when he continues to view nearly all events in Veracruz through the essentializing lens of federalism vs. centrism.

As the book jacket states, Koth aspires to write "the first modern, comprehensive, and analytical history of the Porfiriato and Mexican Revolution in Veracruz." Valuable as this attempted synthesis may be for its vast accumulation of historical material, Koth's work is, however, marred by factual errors, misspellings and characters not properly introduced or simply unaccounted for. Koth incorrectly describes anarchist Herón Proal and the Veracruz renters' movement, for example, as a struggle against "Spaniards and U.S. citizens especially [who] owned many of the dwellings [in the port of Veracruz]" (p. 234). In reality, U.S. real estate interests in the city were negligible at best. Furthermore, in his account of the labor movement in the state, no mention is made of the radical CGT (Confederación General de Trabajadores) or the important Federación Local de Trabajadores del Puerto de Veracruz (FLTV). In addition, no credit is given for the historic photographs undoubtedly drawn from Mexican archives.

More troubling is Koth's tendency towards overstatement. Off handed assessments of complex issues (the United States is described at one point as "an emerging and belligerent imperialist power to the north, for which the state was merely a tool of big business" [p. 247]) are annoying. Also problematic is Koth's somewhat uncritical reliance on U.S. and British consular reports for descriptions of social and political conditions in Veracruz. While his source material suggests a wealth of primary documents, there is sadly little "voice" accorded the Veracruzan actors themselves. Perhaps this appropriately reflects Koth's largely "top down" approach to...