Use excerpts 1-5 to determine why Mexicans wanted change in 1910. Write a 1-2 paragraph response. The excerpts are from The Rule of Profirio Diaz, 1909 by Channing Arnold and Frederick Frost and The Land Systems of Mexico, 1923 by George McBride.

Use excerpts 6-8 to explain what Mexicans hoped to gain from the revolution and whether or not those were achieved. Write 1-2 paragraph response.

• “But though Mexico has had…an ‘iron master,’ the quietude of the country is only skin-deep. Law and order is represented by a blend of a rough-and-ready justice, a sort of legalized lynch-law.”

• “President Diaz has succeeded because he does not know what mercy means [and] because a rifle bullet is his only answer for those who question his authority.”

• If some criminal is captured...he is put on trial, sentenced to twenty years, and within…one week…[he is shot dead] by five or six soldiers…The next morning the official newspaper states, ‘Last night the notorious criminal So-and-So made an attempt to escape while being exercised in the prison yard, and was shot dead.’”

Excerpt #2-

• “Nominally Mexico is a republic: really she is nothing of the sort”

• “There is a Senate, a Chamber of Deputies, periodic elections of state representatives, a governor and council in each State of the Federation; but for upwards of a quarter of a century these have all been but pawns on a chessboard…Porfirio Diaz is an autocrat.

• “[Diaz] is an autocrat fiercer, more relentless, more absolute than any recent czar has been…He is more: he is a born ruler…Diaz is literally living over a volcano: he is an extinguisher of the fierce furnace of his country's turbulence.”

Excerpt #3-

• “The Haciendas of Mexico…are very great; it is estimated that 300 of them contain at least 25,000 acres each...The Mexican hacienda seldom contains less than 2,500 acres”

• “The typical Mexican landowner…usually maintains a residence in the capital where he spends the greater part of the year…he may go to Europe or the United States....The hacendado is, therefore…less a farmer than an absentee landlord.”

• “The laborers on the haciendas, in most parts of Mexico, are of Indian blood or are mestizos. . . The peons upon a Mexican hacienda are theoretically free...By a system of advance payments, the hacendados are able to keep them permanently…upon the estates to which they belonged.”

• “The daily wages paid to the peons who work on the haciendas have always been very low....so meager is the compensation that he is kept in the most abject poverty, and few opportunities of escape from the bondage ever present themselves.”

Excerpt #4-

“The haciendas are settlements complete in themselves. Indeed, few of these estates have less than a hundred, while many of them have as many as a thousand inhabitants…They include all the customary accessories of an independent community, such as a church, a store, a post office, a burying ground, and sometimes a school or hospital. The permanent population consists of an administrator, a group of foremen, and the regular peons, together with the families of these individuals. Over this aggregation the owner presides in a more or less patriarchal manner…

In the eyes of the Mexicans the value of an hacienda does not lie in the money return yielded by the annual crops…With…an absentee owner, a hired administrator, and poorly paid peons, the typical Mexican hacienda yields little more than enough to feed its numerous population…The haciendas and their owners have, in most respects, dominated the life of Mexico. This domination is less economic than social or political…The social and political influence is more direct and powerful. Throughout the history of Mexico the landholding class has generally dominated social conditions. It has set the standards of morals, education, and amusement for the middle class and has determined the conditions under which the manual laborer must live. Moreover, the great landowners have ruled the country. This small class, numbering 8,000 to 10,000 proprietors, has at all times exercised an [important] influence in national affairs….”

Excerpt 6-Madero’s Plan de San Luis Potosi, 1910

Peoples in their constant efforts for the triumph of the ideal of liberty and justice, are forced, at precise historical moments, to make their greatest sacrifices. A force of tyranny…after we won our independence oppresses us in such a manner that it has become intolerable. Peace, its basis is not law, but force…to enrich a small group who, abusing their influence, have converted the public charges into fountains of …personal benefit. The legislative and judicial powers are completely subordinated to the executive. Mexican people have protested against the illegality of the last election…but this violent and illegal system can no longer subsist. I declare the late election illegal, and the Republic being without rulers, provisionally assume the Presidency of the Republic until the people designate their rulers pursuant to the law. In order to attain this end, it is necessary to eject from power the audacious usurpers whose only title of legality involves a scandalous and immoral fraud. To compel Gen. Diaz by force of arms, to respect the national will.

Excerpt 7-Zapata’s Plan de Ayala, 1911.

We who undersign, constituted in a revolutionary junta to sustain and carry out the promises which the revolution of November 20, 1910 just past, made to the country, declare solemnly…to end the tyranny which oppresses us and redeem the fatherland from the dictatorships which are imposed on us…

Madero went to shed their blood to reconquer liberties… and not for a man to take possession of power, violating the sacred principles which he took an oath to defend under the slogan…outraging thus the faith, the cause, the justice and the liberties of the people. Madero, the same who initiated the above-cited revolution, who imposed his will and influence as a governing norm on the Provisional Government…causing with this deed repeated sheddings of blood and misfortunes for the fatherland in a manner deceitful and ridiculous…For these considerations we declare the aforementioned Francisco Madero inept at realizing the promises of the revolution of which he was the author, because he betrayed the principles with which he tricked the will of the people and was able to get into power. Mexicans: consider that the cunning and bad faith of one man is shedding blood in a scandalous manner, because he is incapable of governing…we raised up our weapons to elevate him to power, we again raise them up against him for defaulting on his promises to the Mexican people.

Excerpt 8-
Important Points of the Constitution of 1917--It was a premier document of the Mexican Revolution. Carranza eventually accepted a draft made by delegates but never fully implemented it; the Constitution was never fully embraced by any of the presidents until the era of Lazaro Cardenas. The 1917 constitution was similar to the constitution of 1857. It was adapted on February 5, 1917 and is still the governing document in Mexico today.

  • Article 3dealt with the public education system declaring that schools should be free to the public and that no religious organization could operate a primary school.
  • Article 24was a religion controlling measure stating that public worship was to be regulated by the government. Other anti-church legislation was to be found in article 5, and in article 130 forbidding the creation of a state religion and made the institution of marriage a civil matter also doing away with religious oaths.
  • Article 27called for regulation that denied aliens the ability to acquire land, unless they considered themselves to be a Mexican citizen, and not to seek the help of a foreign country to protect their land and rights. Also under this article religious institutions were forbidden from owning land and all places of public worship were declared to be property of the Mexican nation. This article further empowered the Mexican government to cut up the large land holdings of private individuals and "establish new centers of rural population with such lands".
  • Article 32called for the treatment of Mexican citizens to be above the treatment of aliens and that only Mexican citizens could serve in the Mexican military system.
  • Article 33called for the expulsion of aliens without any judicial process. Aliens could also be thrown out of Mexico by orders of the president.
  • Article 123addressed the rights of the working Mexican and organized labor. The right guaranteeing the worker to organize unions and establish an eight hour work day was greatly embraced by the masses. Other grievances such as overtime, child labor, and work place safety laws were given attention. This provision seemed to have something for everyone including expectant mothers who could look forward to a three month maternity leave as well as minimum wage guarantees. Of interest, the feminist movement was taking hold and a declaration that equal pay for equal work was also included and those wages were to be paid in cash, not script.