Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was the first major revolution of the 20th century, beginning in 1910. The endpoint of the revolution is a matter of debate, with fighting having continued through the 1920s, but the adoption of the 1917 Mexican Constitution and the U.S. recognition of an interim Mexican president mark a watershed moment. The revolution had a significant impact on the United States and on Mexican Americans. It led to the first major wave of Mexican migration to the United States, with some of their descendants influential in the 1960s Chicano movement. The 1994 Zapatista uprising in response to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was itself an echo of the revolution, motivated by NAFTA's abrogation of Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution.

Dissatisfaction with the 34-year rule of President Porfirio Diaz (1876–1911), referred to as the Porfiriato, was the immediate cause of the Mexican Revolution. All segments of Mexican society rebelled against one aspect or another of the Porfiriato: rural campesinos (agricultural workers), urban workers, miners, wealthy hacendados (large landholders), residents in the north, U.S. exiles, and land reformers in the south. Diaz's motto was Pan o Palo (“bread or the club”), emphasizing the philosophy that one could accept what one was given or accept the consequences.

Even the wealthier classes were unhappy by 1910 because they were not benefiting from the Porfirian largesse. A total of 95 percent of the land, including subsoil rights, was owned by less than 5 percent of the population, the majority of them foreigners.

The revolution began in 1910 with a popular uprising against Diaz. Many factions emerged, some supporting Diaz and others supporting Francisco Madero or other leaders. Millions died during the war and subsequent insurgency. In the rebuilding of the nation during the 1920s, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutionalized Revolutionary Party, or PRI) was established, controlling Mexico's presidency until the 2000 election of Vicente Fox from a rival party.

Roughly 10 percent of Mexico's population, particularly those in the northern states, fled to the United States, many vowing to return upon a firm peace. The majority of those migrants did not return, however, because of the duration of the conflict. They settled down permanently in the United States, usually in communities with an established Hispanic presence. Almost a million legal migrants, and untold undocumented others, came between 1910 and 1920, four years before the establishment of a border patrol between the nations. This was the first time that Mexicans migrated en masse to the United States, which caused concern for immigration detractors who had already limited migration from China, Japan, and various European countries.

The discovery in 1915 of the Plan de San Diego, an attempt by the Venustiano Carranza government to encourage a Mexican American insurgency in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, led to the death of 100 Mexican Americans by vigilante posses. It also deepened American concerns about the long-term loyalty and “Americanness” of Mexican Americans, concerns that were further inflamed by the interception of the Zimmermann telegram in 1917. The telegram was a communication from Germany to Mexico, promising the return of formerly Mexican territories in the American southwest in return for Mexico's support in World War I. These sentiments fed into the immigration legislation of the 1920s and the repatriation program of the 1930s.

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