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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2020
This article analyzes a 1969 education reform in Mexico that resulted in the closure of 14 of the then 29 escuelas normales rurales (rural teacher-training colleges) and the annihilation of their internal student organizing structures. I argue that the reform was politically motivated and impelled by the anxieties produced by student politics in the Cold War era. I show also how the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) participated in the authoritarian surveillance of students during the presidency of Díaz Ordaz and in a long campaign to delegitimize the Federación de Estudiantes Campesinos Socialistas de México (FECSM), the federation that united the students from these schools.
I am grateful for the support of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the constructive feedback of the two anonomous reviewers.
1. The escuelas normales rurales (or variations such as the escuelas regionales campesinas) were created in the 1920s after the Mexican Revolution. For a history of their founding and early years, see Alicia Civera Cerecedo, La escuela como opción de vida: la formación de maestros normalistas rurales en México, 1921–1945 (Zinacantepec, Mexico: El Colegio Mexiquense, 2008).
2. Gabino, “Nos tocó vivir la guerra sucia,” in Memorias Inquietas: de estudiantes rurales a guerrilleros urbanos, Carla I. Villanueva and Aleida García Aguirre, eds. (Mexico City: Colectivo Memorias Subalternas, 2019), 97.
3. Rafael, “Dentro de los males, estuvo bien,” Memorias inquietas, 182.
4. The FECSM was founded in 1935 at the Roque campus in Guanajuato. The FECSM still exists and remains the national student federation of the normales rurales.
5. Civera Cerecedo, La escuela como opción de vida.
6. Examples include Briano, Sergio Ortiz, Entre la nostalgia y la incertidumbre: movimiento estudiantil en el normalismo rural mexicano (Zacatecas: Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, 2012)Google Scholar; Padilla, Tanalís, “‘Latent Sites of Agitation’: Normalistas Rurales and Chihuahua's Agrarian Struggle in the 1960s,” in México Beyond 1968: Revolutionaries, Radicals, and Repression during the Global Sixties and Subversive Seventies, Pensado, Jaime M. and Ochoa, Enrique C., eds. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2018)Google Scholar; Santo, Marcelo Hernández, Tiempos de reforma: estudiantes, profesores y autoridades de la Escuela Normal Rural de San Marcos frente a las reformas educativas, 1926–1984 (Zacatecas: Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, 2003)Google Scholar; Gregorio Hernández Grajales, El normalísimo rural en Chiapas: origen, desarrollo y crisis (Self-published, 2004); and Aguirre, Aleida García, La revolución que llegaría: experiencias de solidaridad y redes de maestros y normalistas en el movimiento campesino y la guerrilla moderna en Chihuahua, 1960–1968 (Mexico City: Colectivo Memorias Subalternas, 2015)Google Scholar. A doctoral dissertation on the FECSM, which should be used with caution because it is based on the highly censored and biased DFS files, is Mónica Naymich López Macedonio, “Historia de una relación institucional. Los estudiantes normalistas rurales organizados en la Federación de Estudiantes Campesinos Socialistas de México y el Estado mexicano del siglo XX (1935–1969),” (PhD diss.: Colegio de México, 2016).
7. Most of the field-changing research on education in Mexico is about the immediate post-Revolution years. Examples are Quintanilla, Susana and Vaughan, Mary Kay, Escuela y sociedad en el periodo cardenista (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1997)Google Scholar; Vaughan, Mary Kay, Cultural Politics in Revolution: Teachers, Peasants, and Schools in Mexico, 1930–1940 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997)Google Scholar; and Rockwell, Elsie, Hacer escuela, hacer Estado: la educación posrevolucionaria vista desde Tlaxcala (Mexico City: Colegio de Michoacán, CIESAS, CINVESTAV, 2007)Google Scholar.
8. Wil G. Panster, “Zones and Languages of State-Making: From Pax Priísta to Dirty War,” in México Beyond 1968, Pensado and Ochoa, eds., 45.
9. Cecilia Greaves, “La búsqueda de la modernidad,” in Historia mínima: la educación en México, vol. 1., Pablo Escalante and Dorothy Tanck Estrada, eds. (Mexico City: Seminario de Historia de la Educación en México, Colegio de México, 2010), 202.
10. Political surveillance of the normales rurales had been part of the bureaucratic culture of the SEP since their founding, but in the 1960s, this practice merged with the government's Cold War anxieties regarding students. See Civera Cerecedo, La escuela como opción de vida.
11. The DFS was a massive surveillance agency that infiltrated all aspects of Mexican politics and civil society.
12. Pensado and Ochoa, México beyond 1968, 271.
13. “El problema de la Escuela Normal de San Diego Tekax: el Prof. Espinosa Granados declara que existe una conjura,” Diario de Yucatán, August 3, 1969.
14. Ilan Semo, “La oposición estudiantil: ¿Una oposición sin atributos?” DIE-CINVESTAV, Cuadernos de Investigaciones Educativas 11 (March 1983).
15. I also visited the Atequiza normal rural in the state of Jalisco but the directors denied me access.
16. Circular 4, from DGEN to the normales rurales, January 1969, Archivo Histórico Escuela Normal Rural Aguilera [hereafter AHENRA], folder: Circulares de la Dirección General de Enseñanza Normal, 1966–1969.
17. “Necesaria desaparición de las ‘Escuelas Normales Rurales,’” letter from the Confederación de Jóvenes Mexicanos, published in El Universal, March 14, 1968.
18. Dorn, Charles and Ghodsee, Kristen, “The Cold War Politicization of Literacy: Communism, UNESCO, and the World Bank,” Diplomatic History 36:2 (2012): 373–398CrossRefGoogle Scholar, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2011.01026.x; Inés Dussel and Christian Ydesen, “Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexico, and the Struggle over International Understanding and History Writing: The UNESCO experience,” in UNESCO without Borders: Educational Campaigns for International Understanding, Aigul Kulnazarova and Christian Ydesen, eds. (London and New York: Routledge, 2017); SEP, “Informe sobre el movimiento educativo en México durante el año escolar 1968-1969,” for the XXIII Session of the International Conference of Public Education, (Switzerland: SEP, 1970).
19. Report of the Federación de Estudiantes Campesinos Socialistas de México [hereafter FECSM], versión pública, October 28, 1965, Archivo General de la Nación, Fondo Gobernación, Dirección Federal de Seguridad [hereafter AGN-DFS], caja 61, leg. 1/31. (October 28, 1965 report). In the successive citations in this article, the abbreviation ‘vp’ following a document name designates the versión pública of a document, that is, the censored public version government document.
20. The conference was called the Primera Asamblea Nacional de Educación Normal Rural. According to some DFS reports, the main reason the proposals were not adopted was the intervention of José Santos Valdés. José Santos Valdés, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 198 legajo único.
21. For more details about the march see Carla Irina Villanueva, “For the Liberation of Exploited Youth: Campesino-Students, the FECSM, and Mexican Student Politics in the 1960s,” in México Beyond 1968, Pensado and Ochoa, eds.
22. “Repudio en la ruta de la ‘Marcha Roja,’” El Universal, January 9, 1968, Archivo Histórico Escuela Normal Rural San Marcos [hereafter AHENRSM], folder: sobre el 68, algunas referencias.
23. Circular no. 5, Dirección General de Enseñanza Normal, Subdirección Técnica, January 22, 1968, AHENRA, folder: año escolar 1967/1968, exp. 100.1.
24. February 17, 1968, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 3/31, p 60.
25. February 28, 1968, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 3/31, p 91.
26. Ramón Bonfil Viveros replaced Alfonso Sierra Partida as director of DGEN in January or February 1968, a change that was perceived as part of the strategy against students and did not go over well with the FECSM. All normalistas rurales were to receive a recreational stipend, which was given first to the local student associations to be passed on to the individual students, a transfer that rarely happened. The stipend funds often remained in control of the local student associations and were commonly used to fund school activities. FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 3/31.
27. March, 1968, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 3/31, p 296 - 324.
28. Confederación Nacional Campesina, “A los estudiantes de las Escuelas Normales Rurales,” letter published in El Universal, March 2, 1968.
29. “Necesaria desaparición de las ‘Escuelas Normales Rurales.”
30. The commission met in September 1968 and included six working groups that functioned under the Consejo Nacional Técnico de la Educación (CNTE). The working groups met throughout the year and were coordinated by top SEP officials such as Celerino Cano, Lucas Ortiz, Alfonso Sierra Partida, and Ramón Bonfil. “El maestro y la Reforma Educativa: consideraciones y tesis expuestas por el Secretario de Educación Pública, licenciado Agustín Yáñez, al celebrarse el Día del Maestro, el 15 de mayo de 1969,” El Maestro 1, July 1969, 123; Documentos de consulta para iniciar la reforma educativa: guión de la Sección II, (Mexico City: Consejo Nacional Técnico de la Educación, 1968).
31. “Principios doctrinarios para la Reforma: parte relativa del cuarto informe que rindió al Congreso de la Unión el C. Presidente de la República, licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, el 1o de septiembre de 1968,” El Maestro 1, July 1969, 17.
32. “El Maestro y la Reforma Educativa: Consideraciones y tesis expuestas por el Secretario de Educación Pública, licenciado Agustín Yáñez, al celebrarse el Día del Maestro, el 15 de mayo de 1969,” El Maestro. num. 1, segunda quincena de Julio, 1969, 123.
33. November 10, 1968, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 4/31, p 162.
34. Some schools categorized the November 1968 problem as a strike. The students at the Escuela Normal Rural de San Marcos in Zacatecas, for example, said that they went on strike. See Hernández Santos, Tiempos de reforma, 285.
35. Leticia Montes Rodríguez, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 318.
36. November 10, 1968, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 4/31, p 162.
37. November 11, 1968, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 4/31, p 178.
38. Teresa Aviña Garcia, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 318.
39. Letter from parent from the parents’ association (sociedad de padres de familia) of Cañada Honda, November 24, 1968, Archivo Histórico de las Escuela Normal Rural de Cañada Honda [hereafter AHENRCH].
40. There were a series of conferences and planning meetings apart from what took place in Saltillo. Some were regional and some were national.
41. To contain the student outcry after Saltillo, SEP officials claimed that the documents produced at the conference were merely suggestions and that the proposed reform would have to be ratified in July 1969 by the CNTE. While ratification may have been key to the legal process needed for the reform to pass, the reality was that the SEP began implementing the reform before the July CNTE meeting. Then, on July 29, 1969, the CNTE officially approved the reform at its VIII Asamblea Nacional Plenaria.
42. The reorganization of teachers was also problematic. Some teachers were expected to relocate to other schools, and once the school year began not all campuses had the necessary teachers. Letter to Ramón G. Bonfil from principal of Escuela Normal Rural de Aguilera Andrés Silva Zavala, September 30, 1969, AHENRA, folder: minutario 1969/1970.
43. “Declaratoria del IV Congreso Nacional de Educación Normal,” El Maestro 1, July 1969, 67.
44. “Declaratoria del IV Congreso Nacional de Educación Normal,” 68.
45. For example, newspapers in Durango and Chihuahua printed the same inaccurate report: that “all 14” of the normales rurales were to be closed and converted to secondary technical- agricultural schools. Mario Rojas Sedeño, “Serán aulas agropecuarias todas las normales rurales: producirán magnífica mano de obra campesina,” El Sol de Durango and El Heraldo de Chihuahua, both July 24, 1969.
46. SEP-DGEN, Más y mejor educación para los campesinos de México: las escuelas técnicas agropecuarias y las normales rurales, August 1969, AHENRCH.
47. SEP-DGEN, Más y mejor educación para los campesinos de México, AHENRCH.
48. SEP-DGEN, Más y mejor educación para los campesinos de México, AHENRCH.
49. “La separación de los dos ciclos de la enseñanza,” El Diario de Yucatán, August 3, 1969.
50. “Sólo será reestructurada la Normal de Santa Teresa,” La Opinión de Coahuila, August 6, 1969.
51. August 1969, Letter from Jose I. Alonso Carreón to governor of Puebla, Rafael Moreno Valle, August 1, 1969, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 5/31.
52. “Acto de justicia a la juventud campesina,” El Heraldo de México, July 24, 1969; “La Liga Campesina elogia las reformas a normales rurales,” El Sol de Durango, August 2, 1969; “Durango: apoyo campesino a las escuelas agropecuarias,” La Opinión de Coahuila, August 2, 1969.
53. Rodolfo Rojas Maciel, “Normales Rurales: transformadas en escuelas técnicas agropecuarias,” El Heraldo de Chihuahua, August 5, 1969.
54. Declaración de Atequiza, printed in La Voz de México (Suplemento: Documentos de la Federación de Estudiantes Campesinos Socialistas de México, Primer Seminario por la Reforma Democrática a la Educación Normal Rural), September 6, 1969.
55. According to Marcelo Hernández Santos, this conference was proposed by the Juventud Comunistas de México at the XII FECSM Congreso, which took place at the Escuela Normal Rural Mactumactzá, Chiapas, in May 1968. Hernández Santos, Tiempos de Reforma, 246–247.
56. Declaración de Atequiza.
57. Declaración de Atequiza.
58. For the importance of the Cárdenas era for the normales rurales, see Padilla, Tanalís, “Memories of Justice: Rural Normales and the Cardenista Legacy,” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 32:1 (2016): 111–143CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
59. Manifesto de Ayotzinapa, printed in La Voz de México (Suplemento: Documentos de la FECSM), September 6, 1969.
60. “En defensa de las normales rurales contra la Reforma antipopular y reaccionaria,” La Voz de México (Suplemento: Documentos de la FECSM), September 6, 1969.
61. “En defensa de las normales rurales.”
62. “En defensa de las normales rurales.”
63. “En defensa de las normales rurales.”
64. “En defensa de las normales rurales.”
65. Adolfo Lozano Pérez, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 301.
66. “Representantes de la SEP en las escuelas normales rurales,” El Diario de Yucatán, August 30, 1969.
67. Patricia Montenegro, “Líderes de las normales rurales. Serio problema para la educación: su labor es contra el país,” El Heraldo de México, August 3, 1969.
68. “Vigilancia militar en una escuela normal rural en San Diego, Yucatán,” La Opinión de Coahuila, August 5, 1969.
69. “Remitido,” El Diario de Yucatán, August 1, 1969; “Manifesto e inconformidad de padres de familia,” El Diario de Yucatán, August 8, 1969.
70. PISMA, “Detienen a líderes de normalistas yucatecos,” La Opinión de Coahuila, August 16, 1969.
71. August 15, 1969, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 6/31, p 206 - 209.
72. PISMA, “Detienen a líderes de normalistas yucatecos.”
73. “Denuncias contra la policía del estado. Que atacó en la colonia Catilla Cámara a 5 estudiantes,” El Diario de Yucatán, August 24, 1969.
74. “Buscan apoyo para evitar que se cierre la Normal de Santa Teresa,” La Opinión de Coahuila, August 5, 1969; July 29, 1969, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 6/31.
75. “Buscan apoyo para evitar que se cierre la Normal de Santa Teresa.”
76. Buscan apoyo para evitar que se cierre la Normal de Santa Teresa.”
77. “En defensa de las normales rurales.”
78. August 6, 1969, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 5/31.
79. August 6, 1969, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 5/31.
80. “Declaraciones de los alumnos de Sta. Teresa,” La Opinión de Coahuila, August 13, 1969; August 13, 1969, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 6/31.
81. “Sólo será reestructurada la Normal de Santa Teresa.” La Opinión de Coahuila, August 6, 1969.
82. “Intentarán tomar subrepticiamente escuelas normales rurales del país,” La Opinión de Coahuila, August 7, 1969.
83. “Intentarán tomar subrepticiamente escuelas normales rurales del país.”
84. Instrucciones para los CC. Directores de las Escuelas Técnicas Agropecuarias y Normales Rurales, AHENRSM, folder: diversos (1968-69).
85. “Alumnos de Santa Teresa en protesta permanente,” La Opinión de Coahuila, August 26, 1969; August 26, 1969, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 63, leg. 7/31.
86. August 6, 1969, FECSM, vp, AGN-DFS, caja 62, leg. 5/31.
87. “En defensa de las normales rurales.”
88. Héctor Mayagoitía, head of the Dirección de Enseñanza Técnica within the SEP, visited Santa Teresa on September 10. He spoke with students and staff, stressing that the SEP expected discipline and order in the schools.
89. Gabino, “Nos tocó vivir la guerra sucia,” Memorias Inquietas, 98. His statement was meant to imply that students did not have an option; authorities were going to proceed in the way they saw fit, regardless of how students felt about it.
90. For a study of the events surrounding the missing Ayotzinapa students, see Hernández, Anabel, La verdadera noche de Iguala: la historia que el gobierno quiso ocultar (Mexico City: Penguin Random House, 2016)Google Scholar.
91. For an analysis of repression in rural Mexico, see McCormick, Gladys I., The Logic of Compromise in Mexico: How the Countryside was Key to the Emergence of Authoritarianism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
92. Olga Moreno, “Apoyo al programa de reformas para la Escuela Normal Rural,” El Heraldo de México, August 6, 1969.
