THE TRUE OUTCOME OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION - FULL VERSION

SORRY TO ALL OUR FRIENDS OF NUESTROS RANCHOS. I JUST DISCOVER THAT MY
PREVIOUS MESSAGE BY SOME TECHNICAL REASON WAS CUTED AFTER THE FIRST
PARAGRAPH, SO HERE IT GOES AGAIN THE FULL TEXT:

1. The true outcome of the Mexican Revolution (Salvador Quirarte)
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The Mexican revolution started is 1910 as the first social movement in the
world of the 20th. century, even before the Russian revolution happened.
The original factors triggering the social explosion of this country was a
reaction to a social and political model established by the Spaniards 400
years before.

Let us remember Mexico was not a single country when the Spanish conquers
arrived. The most advanced group at that time was the Aztec kingdom, but
there were many other different groups and tribes across our lands.

The centralized monarchic model of the Spanish government was imported and
imposed for 300 years by their soldiers to all those tribes, after they have
been defeated or invaded. The Virreinato of the New Spain was divided
in several regional divisions. One of them was Nueva Galicia.

Central Mexico was the richest and more civilized geographical area, so the
conquerors settled in the former Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City)
and expanded their control in all directions to reach all kind of human and
material resources, such as slaves, gold, silver, good land for agriculture,
etc.

The borders were defined all the way down to the limits with South America,
where the other large Spanish Virreinato was established based on the former
Inca´s territory. To the North the borders were defined by the capacity of
the Spanish army to maintain secure Spanish colonial populations under the
attacks of the Indian tribes of North America, that were not so culturally
advanced as the tribes in the south.

Without formal roads and the only way to travel was using mules and horses,
which may take weeks and months. Maintain control and governance over remote
regions was a really hard task. Imagine what means to keep control and rule
over Arizona or California from Mexico City or Madrid.

In the 17th. century the new generations of Spanish descendants already born
in America started to claim their rights to the lands, people and richness
of the Nueva España, that continue to be exported to the Kingdom in Spain.
Most of the economic, social and political decision powers still remained
back there..

It took 300 years to allow that movement to really evolve and empower the
people in America to succeed fighting the war of Independence.

At that point , after the Independence war ended, the government model was
still centralized, that is the same than before. Dozens of internal fights
and local wars between different groups, leaders and former local
tribes happened until Porfirio Diaz took control as President and
established two important values:

- Unification - Either peaceful or enforced with weapons and blood

- Progress - Implementing wide modernization and investment works,
funded by a financial system based in the fortune of a very small number of
rich families, fully aligned with the President Diaz.

Porfirio Diaz remained in power for 30 years consolidating many good and bad
things:

For the first time Mexico was a true country.

There were peace and progress and Mexico moved in to start having industries,
communications as railroads, telegraph &, postal services, education and
universities, roads, corporate businesses, cultural development, art, music
and an identity as one single nation.

On the other side, the price paid by the Mexican people after all those 30
years was very high. No freedom, no democracy, high corruption and no social
evolution and justice.

Those were the critical drivers that triggered the explosion happened in
1910.

A small thinking and educated middle class and the outstanding leaders of
the oppressed and poor people in the lands initiated diverse movements in
different cities and regions, some more civilized as Madero and Carranza and
others with guns and blood as Zapata and Villa, fight hard and offered their
own lives with hundreds of thousands of their followers to change things
around.

After many tries to settle a consolidated government, a new generation took
over and Avila Camacho became president.

He and the three presidents that followed him were the key builders of the
Mexican nation in the 20th. century.

Avila Camacho established a democratic system based in the participation of
all citizens. How he do it?

He invented the PRI, a unique political party that host all political and
social groups and ideologies, assuring their loyalty to the system by
allowing them, and only them to participate and share the benefits of manage
the politics and the public budgets. He was a general, leading the new armed
forces that won over all other groups during the revolution.

Avila Camacho was followed by Lazaro Cardenas, who was also a general of the
army.

He was a socialist, influenced in some way by the innovating ideas of the
ideologists that created the communist movements in Europe. Cardenas
continued and improved the political and social developing and management
system of the government based in one single party (PRI).

But perhaps the three top contributions he had were the following:

1 – He anticipated the importance of the petroleum industry as a great
generator of cash revenue and nationalized the oil industry just when the
WWII was generating great demand and many producers were affected by the
war. So the national oil company started generating a new income to the
Mexican government which by that time did not have a relevant fiscal
capability.

2 – He prepared the future by assigning a civil (not military) candidate to
follow him after his six years period. This change kept out definitively the
military out of the politics and the power.

3 – And may be his most important contribution, was to promote, fund and
sponsor the creation of a new Mexican identity. Musicians as Silvestre
Revueltas, painters as Diego Rivera and David A. Siqueiros, writers as
Salvador Novo, among many others artists and i8ntelectuals contributed to
build a Mexican image, full of roundness and traditions, with a mix of
pre-Hispanic and Hispanic values.

Miguel Aleman became president and leverage in all the successful strategies
of Cardenas, eliminating those that he does not need any more.

Aleman with the new and relevant income of the oil and the global economic
growth opportunity after the WW, implemented a country wide impressive
growth model.

He erased the socialist flavor form the PRI, making attractive the country
for local and foreign investment. As a civilian president he generated
confidence and trust abroad. He built massive public works like highways,
dams, ports, housing, airports, social security. etc. The loyalty model of
the PRI based in sharing of power and budget evolved to become a very
sophisticated model of corruption where almost all participants in the
productive chain of the government budget receive a piece of the benefits.

The result in the short term was peace, progress and jobs.

It is important to mention that as a following trend of the Mexican identity
strategy started by Avila Camacho and Cardenas, Miguel Aleman supported the
development of an outstanding first class film industry. The gold stage of
the Mexican movies with great Mexican actors like Cantinflas, Pedro Infante
and Jorge Negrete, actresses such as Maria Felix, Dolores del Rio and Sara
Garcia and music flourished at that time, displacing Hollywood in almost all
Spanish speaking markets in the world.

When corruption started to spread to all levels, President Aleman was wise
enough to choose a very honest and tough successor.

Ruiz Cortines came in, and realign the rules of corruption placing strict
controls in the government top officials performance.
After Ruiz Cortines, the magic and beauty of the PRI system started to
degenerate. Twenty four years later the PRI lost the presidential
elections.

I am convinced all of the above was the outcome of the Mexican Revolution
Salvador Quirarte