Social Revolution In Mexico In The 1930's

The Mexico of the 1930s was primed for change. While the Great Depression threatened never to end and political instability seemed to run in a ravenous cycle, Mexico still smoldered through the 1930s, in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. Though the Revolution had blitzed through the country, leaving death and deepened social turmoil, one could posit that a majority of the occurrences of the mayhem were those meant to inspire positive societal change. For example, under Francisco Madero, the peasantry raged at his failure to implement land reform for the poor. The overthrow of Victoriano Huerta illustrated the citizenry’s refusal to accept violent tyranny. And, the construction of the 1917 Constitution, under Venustiano Carranza, solidified
A broad designation of social revolution, as taken from Samuel P. Huntington’s Political Order in Changing Societies, is “a rapid, fundamental, and violent domestic change in the dominant values and myths of society, in its political institutions, social structure, leadership, and government activities and policies.” Through this lens, one can unite the myriad of developments during the 1930s to see the comprehensive social revolution in Mexico, sparked by the agenda of President
Ejidatarios had received small plots of land before, including under the presidency of Diaz; nevertheless, this distribution was so trivial, a mere hectare, for example, that a family could not grow any commercial surplus. Given as a meager wage supplement, the agrarian reform before the 1930s remained an effort at ensuring dependency on the state and as insurance against Campesino revolt. Conversely, to the intention of creating a sustainable development of structural change, as well as popular support, Cárdenas gave out adequate land to farm a surplus. Often, additional resources necessary to cultivate that excess were also provided, demonstrated in loans where 3% of the agricultural state budget was selected for credit; construction of roads and canals, as well as safeguarding systems of irrigation under a federal agrarian department. Such drastic land reform was not a mere concession; the effects molded social perspective on ownership, means of earning wages, and the relationship between the government and