THE COSTS OF MODERNIZATION AND

SOCIETY AND CULTURE OF THE PORFIRIATO

"Gran calavera eléctrica" (Grand electric skull) by José Guadalupe Posada,

1900-1913
1876-1910 1
OBJECTIVES
 What made the Porfiriato possible
 Who gained and who lost

 Society and culture during the Porfiriato

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RURALES IN FIELD UNIFORMS DURING PORFIRIATO

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DICTATORSHIP BY FORCE
 Díaz ruled Mexico in and out of presidency
from 1876-1911
 Did so by force:
 Silenced, discouraged, bought opposition and
played them against each other
 Democracy a pretence
 Censored or silenced the press and journalists
 Used the rurales and army to enforce Pax
Porfiriana
 Racism
 José Limantour: Social Darwinism
 Francisco Bulnes: 5 million white Argentinian
worth more than 14 million Mexicans.
 Justo Sierra: Indian is educable, but failed to
build schools to serve them.

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 THE HACENDADOS
 Porfiriato marked largest transfer of land
 Executive Decree on Colonization and Survey
Companies (1883)
 Transferred land from ejidos and small landowners to
survey companies and few wealthy families
✕ Ejidos lost 134 million acres of best land
✕ By 1910 few hundred families owned over 8000 haciendas

✕ Terrazas-Creel family—Don Luis Terrazas was largest

landowner in Latin America, 7 million acres.
✕ In addition, Don Luis owned mines, textile mills, railroads,
etc.
✕ Other families included: García Pimentels and Torre y Miers

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DON LUIS TERRAZAS AND QUINTA CAROLINA MAIN HOUSE

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THE PEONES
 Situation worse than it was 100 years
before.
 Making same wages as 100 before—35¢ a
day.
 Essentials (corn, beans, chiles) increased.
 Working conditions terrible
✕ Low wages, punishment, long hours, tienda
de raya
✕ Henequen plantations—slave-like conditions
✕ Yaqui Indians
 Other conditions
✕ Lack of judicial system
✕ Contrast between hacienda main house and
homes of peones.
✕ High infant mortality rates.
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JACAL ON A HACIENDA

Do you still believe modernization was worth the price? Why? Why
not? 8
 POPULATION
 For the first time since independence,
population grew considerably.
 From under 9 million to 15 million
 Large portion of growth in major cities.
 Some growth in villages traversed by railroads and
new mining exploitations

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GENDER AND CLASS
 Upper class women
 Gained new grounds—entering male
dominated professions.
 Women who worked, just above prostitution
 Consumerism, new lay associations,
charitable causes
 Children raised by working class women
 Middle class women
 In Oaxaca made political and economic
gains: Juana Catarina Romero or Juana
Cata.
 Gente decente
 Working class women
 Provide all manner of services for elite
women, including taking care of children of
elite.
 Their children end up in orphanages
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CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE
 Realism and modernism:
 Realism: poor are lazy and no good
✕ José López Portillo y Rojas
 Modernism
✕ Amado Nervo: El bachiller (1895)
 Temptation of young priest
 Art
 Gerardo Murillo or Dr. Atl
 History
 Joaquín García Icazbalceta
 Justo Sierra

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