The Parallel Lives

 Last time, I discussed the first phase of Mexico’s Revolution, when Francisco Madero challenged the three decades-long dictator, Porfirio Díaz, in the 1910 election.

      Díaz won the election, but Madero called for a revolt against Díaz on November 20, 1910. Madero’s forces defeated the army’s forces, causing Porfirio Díaz to resign and flee to Paris. 

     Because Madero failed to hold together a strong government, a power vacuum spread across Mexico that lasted for the next ten years. Mexico’s Revolution turned violent and bloody.

     Strong personalities, powerful warlords, vied and jockeyed for top position. Among others, there was Victoriano Huerta, Pascual Orozco, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano Carranza, and finally Álvaro Obregón.

     It helps to contrast Mexico’s Revolution to the United States Civil War. 

     Whereas the U.S. Civil War was fought between North and South, Mexico’s Revolution had a number of competing generals, each with an army, and each attacking another army. 

     Whereas the U.S. Civil War had two functioning governments, with Lincoln presiding in the North and Jefferson Davis in the South, Mexico’s Revolution lacked a functioning government. 

     Whereas the U.S. Civil War battles were fought between soldiers, Mexico’s Revolution massacred civilians en masse, without hesitation, no mercy.

      Whereas the U.S. Civil War caused the deaths of some 600,000 soldiers, from both North and South, historians hesitate to fix a number for the Mexican Revolution, due to a lack of statistics. 

     Best estimates place the number between one million on the low side, and two and a half million people on the high side. 

     Whereas the percentage of casualties in the U.S. Civil War was about 2%, from a population of 30 million, the percentage of casualties in the Mexican Revolution was almost 7% on the low side to almost 17% on the high side, from a population of 15 million, per the 1910 census.

     Whereas the U.S. Civil War lasted for four years, April 1961 to April 1965, Mexico’s Revolution lasted for ten years, from November 20, 1910, until near the day, November 30, 1920, when Álvaro Obregón was inaugurated President, and the fighting began to subside.

     The Mexican people endured an immense amount of pain, death, and bloodshed.

     Historians believe that between 1 and 2 million of Mexico’s citizens immigrated north into the U.S. during Mexico’s Revolution, near 10% +/- of its population. Again, statistics are difficult to determine. Some migrated north in a given year but then returned months later.  

     Migration north did not cease once the fighting subsided. In one year alone, 1923, some 1000 people crossed the border everyday throughout the year.

     This migration into the U.S. was due to the Revolution’s bloody violence, devastation, severe unemployment, plus economic and political collapse.  

     Peace began to appear a possibility in 1920, when a Constitutional faction led by Venustiano Carranza called for a new constitution. Delegates from across the country arrived in Querétaro in November 2016, and on February 5, 1917, delegates voted for a new Constitution for Mexico. 

     Article 27 insisted upon land reform, Article 123 spelled out labor rights for factory workers, and Article 3 called for a secular state that restricted the Catholic church and provided for free, mandatory, and secular education.

     Although an assassin’s bullet ended Carranza’s life and his presidency, on May 21, 1920, his death is considered close to the end of the Revolution’s violent phase.

     My vote for best quote on the Mexican Revolution, “the proud country’s citizens endured a horrible present to escape an intolerable past to forge a better future.”