¹ Loosely translated: “Serf of the Russians, patron of foreigners, you have left Mexicans only their hides because of your obstinacy—which is the mother of your understanding; for it is very difficult to get a fool to accept correction. Be content to return to Uruapán [Cárdenas’ hometown], since fools are certainly killed. And if you care to do something in our favor, something you can be proud of, then stop the work of your illustrious brother, Lombardo Toledano.” A copy of the poem, which appears to have been well-circulated, is attached to a memorandum from Lewis Boyle, Counsel in Agua Prieta, to the Secretary of State [hereafter SS], April 22, 1939, Records Relating to the Internal Affairs of Mexico, U.S. State Department, National Archive [USDS] 812.00/30727.

² This process is well documented by institutional historians. On the military, see Lieuwen, Edwin, Mexican Militarism: The Political Rise and Fall of the Revolutionary Army (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1968),Google Scholar on the church see, among others, Quirk, Robert, The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1910–1929 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973).Google Scholar

³ Lieuwen, , Mexican Militarism, pp. 115, 122–26Google Scholar; Alicia Hernández, Chávez, La mecánica cardenista, pp. 106–09.Google Scholar In the PRM the army was only organized on a national level, and Secretary Avila Camacho selected its delegates. Junior officers were encouraged to join other party sectors, further diluting the influence of the officers’ corps.

⁴ Mexicana, Acción Católica, Estatutos Generales de la ACM (Mexico City: Gráficos Michoacán, 1930), p. 9 Google Scholar; Bailey, David, Viva Cristo Rey: The Cristero Rebellion and the Church-State Conflict in Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974), p. 290 Google Scholar; J. Reuben Clark, Ambassador, to SS, October 20, 1932, USDS, 812.00/ 29799; Cummings, Richard, Military Attaché, to War Department, “Quarterly Stability of Government Report,” January 17, 1933, USDS, 812.00/ 29823.Google Scholar

⁵ “Tumultos estudiantiles habidos en Puebla,” Excelsior, October 5, 1934; “Se lanzaron a la huelga de los alumnos en Tampico,” Excelsior, October 6, 1934; “Se forma el frente único para luchar en contra de la ‘educación socialista’,” Excelsior, October 14, 1934.

⁶ Britton, John A., Educación y radicalismo en México: Los años de Bassols, 1931–1934 (Mexico; Secretaría de Educación Pública, 1976), pp. 23, 27–33Google Scholar; Meyer, Lorenzo, Los inicios de la institu-cionalización: La política del Maximato (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 1968), pp. 172–74Google Scholar; “El gremio Estudiantil formula declaraciones,” Excelsior, November 23,1933; “Manifiesto de la Confederación Nacional de Estudiantes,” Excelsior, November 3, 1933; Mabry, Donald, The Mexican University and the State: Student Conflicts, 1910–1971 (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1982), pp. 104–06.Google Scholar

⁷ “La colecta en favor de los sacerdotes Veracruzanos,” La Palabra 2:69 (October 18, 1931): 1; Cummings, “Quarterly Report,” April 7,1933, USDS 812,001 29845; Nathaniel, and Weyl, Sylvia, The Reconquest of Mexico: The Years of Lázaro Cárdenas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1939), p. 168.Google Scholar

⁸ Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana, “Porque debe usted asociarse a la Confederación Patronal,” pamphlet, Mexico City, 1934, Archivo Plutarco Elías Calles, Fondo Confederación Patronal, 48/10.0.0. In truth, businessmen had little to fear, since the progressive Labor Law was not enforced, see Clark, Marjorie, Organized Labor in Mexico (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1934), p. 259.Google Scholar

⁹ For the best overview of the activities of the Gold Shirts see Campbell, Hugh, La derecha radical en México, 1929–1949 (Mexico City: Editorial Jus, 1976).Google Scholar

¹⁰ “Propositos de la Acción Cívica Nacionalista,” El Pueblo (Hermosillo), March 29, 1936.

¹¹ Esperanza F. G. de Santibañez to Cárdenas, , April 24, 1936, and “Manifiesto a la Mujer Mexicana,”Google Scholar; no date, both in Archivo General de la Nación [hereafter AGN], Fondo Lázaro Cárdenas [FLC], expediente 111/1568.0. The ACF worked for the enfranchisement of women, helping create the irony that the right (which enjoyed widespread female support) pushed for women’s suffrage against a reluctant “revolutionary” government; Saragoza, Alex, The Monterrey Elite and the Mexican State, 1880–1940 (Austin: University of Texas Press), p. 183.Google Scholar

¹² Meyer, Jean, El sinarquismo: ¿un fascismo mexicano? (Mexico City: Cuadernos de Joaquín Mortiz, 1979), pp. 46–47 Google Scholar; Vila, Vicente, “Abascal: Cabeza sinarquista,” Así 33 (June 28, 1941): 22–24 Google Scholar; Daniel Ríos Zortuche, Vice President of UNVR, to Cárdenas, May 16, 1936, AGN, FLC, 606.3/20.1.1. Cárdenas was an honorary member of the UNVR at first, but the organization soon expelled him. Juan Guardiola, Agrarian Committee of San Carlos, Coahuila, to Cárdenas, November 30, 1938, AGN, FLC, 542.1/2415.1.17.

¹³ Knight, Alan “Cardenismo: Juggernaut or Jalopy?” Journal of Latin American Studies 26 (February 1994): 79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁴ Guzmán, Diego Arenas, “Medios eficaces para combatir comunismo,” El Hombre Libre, March 1, 1937 Google Scholar; “Manifiesto constitutivo del PSDM, que será discutido en la próxima convenci de los Independientes,” El Hombre Libre, May 31, 1937; “Programa del Partido Social Demócrata Mexicano,” El Universal, August 24, 1937.

¹⁵ Acción Cívica Nacional, “Serie de folletos sobre el socialismo y el comunismo ante el sentido común,” 1937, Index of descriptions of booklets, available at Biblioteca Nacional, UNAM, Mexico City.

¹⁶ Diccionario Porrúa, vol. 1, p. 483. The most complete title of the pamphlet was “¿Qué es el Liberalismo?, ¿Qué es el Socialismo?, ¿Qué es el Comunismo?, ¿Qué es el Anarquismo?” (Mexico City, 1937), pp. 9, 11–13. ACN tracts also frequently targeted the Soviet Union for critique, see ACN, Serie de folletos, 1937.

¹⁷ Rodríguez, Abelardo, Notas de mi viaje a Rusia (Mexico City: Editorial Cultura, 1938), pp. 10–11, 22–23.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Rodríguez, , Notas de mi viaje, pp. 23–27, 83–86, 89, 93–94.Google Scholar Rodríguez had reason to resent the Cárdenas government, which had closed down most of his lucrative Baja gambling operations.

¹⁹ “Moscú prepara la siembra de células en los ferrocarriles nacionales de México,” Ultimas Noticias, November 2, 1938; “Está en manos de células de Stalin la Federación de empleados dícese,” Ultimas Noticias, November 3, 1938; Carr, Barry, Marxism and Communism in Mexico (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992), pp. 46, 53, 76.Google Scholar

²⁰ Bowman, Thomas, Consul General to SS, “Monthly Report,” September 1, 1936, p. 7, USDS 812.00/30405.Google Scholar Powell, T.G., Mexico and the Spanish Civil War (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981), pp. 104, 110Google Scholar; Lombardo Toledano to Cárdenas, November 23, 1937, telegram, AGN, FLC, 551/14.2.41; Negrete, Martaelena, Relaciones entre la iglesia y el estado en México, 1930–1940 (Mexico City: El Colegio de México y La Universidad Iberoamericana, 1988), p. 216.Google Scholar

²¹ Fagen, Patricia, Exiles and Citizens: Spanish Republicans in Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973), p. 26.Google Scholar The best source on the school itself is Foulkes, Vera, Los ‘niños de Morella’ y la escuela España-México: consideraciones analíticas sobra un experimento social (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1953).Google Scholar

²² “La Confederación de la Clase Media y los huérfanos españoles,” El Hombre Libre, March 15, 1937; ” Son víctimas del gobierno de Azaña los pequeños llegados a México?” El Hombre Libre, June 11, 1937.

²³ “Una entrevista con El Presidente,” Excelsior, April 14, 1935; Negrete, Relaciones en México, p. 215.

²⁴ “El general Mugica y su programa de gobierno,” El Universal, February 3,1939; Contreras, Ariel José, México 1940: Industrialización y crisis política (Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1977), pp. 30–31.Google Scholar The PRM had difficulty with rightist veterans' groups that vigorously opposed Rodríguez. See “A los veteranos de la revolución,” Omega, November 20, 1938.

²⁵ Michaels, Albert, “Las elecciones de 1940,” Historia Mexicana 21:1 (July- September 1971): 106–109 Google Scholar; Daniels, Josephus, Shirt-Sleeve Diplomat (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1947), p. 80.Google Scholar

²⁶ “El candidato aclamado al arribar ayer,” Excelsior, August 28, 1939; Dagoberto Moneada, Comonfort, Guanajuato, to J. Francisco López C, June 12 1940; Gregorio Marroquín, Ario de Rosales, Michoacán, to Manuel Zermeño Pérez, no date; and Partido Demócrata Republicano pamphlet attached to Jesús Barrera, Chihuahua, to Zermeño Pérez, July 5, 1940, all in Reel 33, Unión Nacional Sinarquista Papers, Subdirección de Documentación, Museo de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

²⁷ Michaels, , “Elecciones de 1940,” pp. 124–30Google Scholar; Contreras, , Industrialización y crisis política, p. 188 Google Scholar; Narvaez, Paulino Machorro, “El programa de Almazán,” La Reacción 3:74 (February 15, 1940): 11.Google Scholar

²⁸ Contreras, , Industrialización y crisis política, pp. 80–84 Google Scholar; Michaels, , “Elecciones de 1940,” pp. 109, 123Google Scholar; Knight, Alan, “The Rise and Fall of Cardenismo,” in Bethell, Leslie, ed. Mexico Since Independence (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 291, 299.Google Scholar

²⁹ Villegas, Daniel Cosío, La Sucesión presidencial (México City: El Colegio de Mexico, 1978), p. 66 Google Scholar; Michaels, , “Elecciones de 1940,” pp. 116–21Google Scholar; Michaels, Albert, “The Crisis of Cardenismo,” Journal of Latin American Studies 2 (1970): 76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁰ Medina, Luis, Del cardenismo al avilacamachismo (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 1978), pp. 118–19Google Scholar; “El Gral. Almazán dirige un manifiesto al pueblo en vísperas de las elecciones,” July 2, 1940, in Almazán, , Memorias: Informe y documentos sobre la campaña política de 1940 (Mexico City: E. Quintanar Impresor, 1941), pp. 120–23.Google Scholar

³¹ Medina, , Del cardenismo al avilacamachismo, pp. 118–21, 125Google Scholar; Kirk, Betty, Covering the Mexican Front (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1942), pp. 240–44.Google Scholar The final ballot count, entered into the records on August 14, cut Almazán’s tally to just 15,101, or .6 of the total.

³² For a collection of essays by leading scholars and Mexican political figures on periodization, change in the Revolution, and the importance of 1940, see the classic Ross, Stanley, ed., Is the Mexican Revolution Dead? (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966).Google Scholar

³³ One reason why historians have viewed Cardenismo as so significant is that very little work has been done on the period that follows. In a forthcoming book Stephen Niblo chronicles the “counterrevolution” under Aleṁán that undid much of the political legacy of Cárdenas. See Mexico in the 1940s (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1998).

³⁴ Regarding the first interpretation see, among others, Townsend, Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexican Democrat, Nathaniel and Sylvia Weyl, Reconquest of Mexico, and Frank Tannenbaum, The Struggle for Peace and Bread. For revisionist interpretations see, among others, Chávez, Hernández, La mecánica cardenista, Octavio Ianni, El estado capitalista en la época de Cárdenas (Mexico City: Ediciones Era, 1977),Google Scholar and Anguiano, Arturo, El estado y la política obrera del cardenismo (Mexico City: Ediciones Era, 1975).Google Scholar

³⁵ Lieuwen, , Mexican Militarism, p. 125.Google Scholar By sectors, the PRM claimed 1.25 million members in labor (overwhelmingly in the CTM), 2.5 million in agriculture (mostly in the Confederación Nacional Campesina), 55,000 in the army, and 55,000 in “popular” (middle class) organizations. Its limited mobilization notwithstanding, many scholars focused on institutionalization continue to write in terms of a near-total inclusion. “The Revolution mobilized peasants,” writes Spencer, Allan for example, and “peasants recognized Cárdenas’ achievements and worshiped him.” In “The Mexican Revolution under Lázaro Cárdenas: Strategies of Institutionalization,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1990, pp. 284, 286.Google Scholar

³⁶ Markiewicz, Dana, The Mexican Revolution and the Limits of Agrarian Reform, 1915–1946 (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1993), pp. 75, 106, 166.Google Scholar

³⁷ Contreras, , Industrialización y crisis política, pp. 153–82.Google Scholar The author points to PAN’s limited endorsement of Almazán and meetings between the opposition and the PRM to support his case.

³⁸ This thesis is in keeping with a wide range of recent regional and topical studies that show the severe limitations of Cardenismo. See, among others, Becker, Marjorie, Setting the Virgin on Fire: Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán Peasants, and the Redemption of the Mexican Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995)Google Scholar; Fallaw, Ben W., “Cárdenas and the Caste War that Wasn’t,” The Americas 53:4 (April 1997): 551–577 Google Scholar; Vaughan, Mary Kay, “The Educational Project of the Mexican Revolution,” in Britton, John A., ed., Molding the Hearts and Minds: Education, Communications, and Social Change in Latin America (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1994): 106–18.Google Scholar See also the important synthesis of Knight, Alan, “Cardenismo: Juggernaut or Jalopy?” Journal of Latin American Studies 26 (February 1994): 73–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁹ The two obvious legacies, land reform and a nationalized petroleum industry, endured only in marginalized form. The ejidos established by Cárdenas slid into disrepair in the postwar era, eclipsed by the rise of capital-intensive commercial farming in the 1950s; instead of serving as a catalyst for social justice, PEMEX became an organ of aggrandizement for ambitious and corrupt PRI politicians and their allies.