The above photos are pictures of key leaders and layers in the Mexican revolution in the early 20th century. The first picture on the left is a picture of Porfirio Diaz, followed by Francisco I. Madero, the Pancho Villa in the third picture and finally Emiliano Zapata at the centre of the crowd in the fourth picture. There is no much information regarding what was going on in every picture especially the first three photos which show only the picture of the person named above. However, the last photo suggests there was a gathering and more probably a political gathering, campaign or something of that nature.
It is important to write about these pictures in this paper about Mexican revolution as these people in the pictures were the key players (Hipolito-Delgado). In attempting to gather more knowledge on what was happened during these times, therefore, one would need to consider the role each of the above people played in the Mexican revolution and perhaps more why they played that particular role that they did.
Background
The Mexican revolution that lasted for a decade between 1910 and 1920 was the longest and worse bloody political struggle that was ever experienced in Mexico. The aftermath of the revolution was an end to the 30-year long dictatorship with and the establishment of a republic governed by the constitution. Porfilio Diaz, the then president of the nation had implied dictatorship in the country which led to the revolution to overthrow him.
The beginning of the of the revolution was marked after there was a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction with the policies imposed by Diaz, particularly oligarchical and elitist policies. these policies were more inclined in favour of industrialists and the landowners. In 1908, Diaz the then president announced that he welcomed democracy to be incorporated into the Mexican politics. He then showed interest in running for the presidential elections a seventh time, this provoked many people who were opposed to his long dictatorial leadership to strongly refuse his move (Easterling). Among them was Francisco Madiego who in 1910 emerged as the head of the Antireeleccionistas and thereby announcing that he would be running for the same seat with Diaz. Diaz ordered for the arrest of Madiego and went on to announce himself as the dues elected winner after a mock election that took place in June 1910 (Hipolito-Delgado). After his announcement, he had Madero released from prison who then headed to Texas where he made a publication, plan De San Potosi. In his publication, Madero was calling for a revolt in November the same year.
The revolt failed but it acted as a spark of its success in the later years, in many divisions of the country. In the north quarters, two figures namely Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco mobilized armies and they started to put attacks on the garrisons of the government. Emiliano Zapata led a bloody campaign in the south that was directed against the political bosses in the rural settings in the south (Knight). At the beginning of 1911, the forces that were leading the revolution forces Diaz to resign and then made a declaration hat Madero is the president from then henceforth.
Chicano community
While the revolution to finally overthrow the dictatorial government took over a decade, a lot of blood was shed and many citizens ran to the neighbouring USA. This community was comprised of the Mexicans who migrated to the USA (Delgado Bernal et al.). The experiences in the new foreign land as refugees and still blood revolution going on in their country was not easy. Like any other political instability, the most affected by the revolution were women and children. However, many men were killed as they were active participants in the revolution. Although one can view the revolution as was an important tool to rebuild the government and political system in the country, it the process involved a lot of bloodshed and turmoil by those people who went to the USA.
There were a variety of challenges that encountered the Chicano community. From the psychological torture, they went through for having been disrupted from their country and forced to leave their property in the rub for peace and being separated from family to the reputation or the view they received from the Native Americans (Delgado Bernal et al.). Critical areas like education and job training of the immigrants were one of the key things that were affected. This forced the immigrants to work basically in the farms in the US and thus they were considered illiterate and poor by the Native Americans. They were therefore employed in the jobs that required fewer skills and therefore were given mostly job in agriculture.
Given the scope of the problems that faced the Chicano community and the notion the Americans created for the immigrants, the name Chicano became commonly associated with the bad characteristics that the community had, although the characteristics as discussed above were forced by situations (Easterling). In this regard then, the name Chicano became associated with the poor people, those with fewer skills, ignorant, uneducated and backward (Hipolito-Delgado). The newspapers then popularized the notion of everyone in Chicano community being immoral, unprincipled and bandits. After the revolution, many Chicanos did not go back to their country and were assimilated to be Mexico-Americans. This effect of discrimination went on to the present day where the Chicanos are discriminated. The negative view and perception created in the revolutions time have gone through a century. However, there have been many attempts to revert this.
- Delgado Bernal, Dolores et al. “Chicana/Latinatestimonios: Mapping The Methodological, Pedagogical, And Political”. Equity & Excellence In Education, vol 45, no. 3, 2012, pp. 363-372. Informa UK Limited.
- Easterling, Stuart. (2013). The Mexican Revolution: A Short History 1910-1920
- Hipolito-Delgado, Carlos P. “Exploring The Etiology Of Ethnic Self-Hatred: Internalized Racism In Chicana/O And Latina/O College Students”. Journal Of College Student Development, vol 51, no. 3, 2010, pp. 319-331. Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Knight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. Oxford University Press, 2016.
