Chapter 25: Society and Culture During the Porfiriato PDF

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Printed by: quinn.smid!@avc:.edu. Printing is for pcil80D8l, privare uso only. No part of1his book may bci npn,dua,d or tnmsmitb:d without pabliahcr'a prior permisaion. VIOl.a1ms will be proeec:uted. CHAPTER 25 SOCIETY AND CULTURE DURING THE PORFIR IATO he changes in Mexican society and rulrure during e l'orfiriato paralleled those In the T political and economic realms. ~lost notewonlgiierhaps was the fact that a middle class began to grow and view Mexico differently. For the first time Mexico had shown its potential and had begun 10 catch up with a ra1>idly changing world. Tiw nation's achie,iements in technology and culrure went on display atl1t1nd the globe at world fairs and e,cpo!ftions in Europe and the United States. POPULATION The stability of the Porfuiato resulted in Mexico's first period bf ,prolonged population growth. In the ab.sen e of ,vn r and hs social dislocations an, with modest gains recorded in health and sanitation. the population grew from 8,743,000 in 1874 10 15,160,000 in 1910. From 1~10 10 1874 the 11verage annual populatloo growth had been about 43,000, but during the &jfaz era populallon increased at an a er.ige of 180,000 per year. Mexiro City and the Uh? capitals grew even more rapidly than lhe population at large, increasing some 88.5 p rwu during the epoch. From a popula~ of200,000 111 1874, Mexico City in 1910 was h,9me to 471,066 Mexicans. Railro;id development. mining activipes. and po rt improvements caused a number of u'ny villages to burgeon into 10wn; anil cities. Torre6n,.11 the intersection of the Mexican Central Railroad and the lmemational Railroad (runoing from Eagle Pass, Texas, to Du- rango), jumped from fewenhan 2,000 inhabi tants in 1876 10 over43,000 in 1910; Sabln3S. Coabuila, from 788 to 14,555; and Nucvo Laredo from l,283 to almost.9,000. The two pon terminuses of tbeTchuantepec Railroad recorded simi lar gains. Pueno Mexico bad only 267 inhabitants In 1884 but reached 6,616 by 1910, while Salina Cruz grew from 738 in 1900 to almost 6,000 total some ten years later. Colonel Greene's copper town of Cananea hardly existed at the beginning of the Porfiriato. From a popu lation o( abou t 100 in I 876. it cata- pulted to almost 15,000 in 1910. 345 Printed by: [email protected]. Printing is for pmcma1, priva&e me only. No part of'lhis book may be reprodnced or transmitted without publisher's prior permisaii>n. Violatvn will be prosec:utcd.  346 TIU MODttNIZ.ATIO.S OF WE..XICO 100 90 80 70 - 60 "2 i !50 i! i= 40 JO 20 10 1870 1910 1869 1910 18'8 1910 1881 1910 1872 1910 1872 1910 Durango Monloray Population o(Seleaed Mexican Chi~ duriug the: Porfirlato 4-out((': Kc-llh A. O.wln. ,.""lt1td.Ddrffl0t'I ,u,b,U\I' 1e.. r.arutd ~ dJC C'n.t.lb.lco,· Hor.,1,1,, i\(r~ U,72) ·181-Sl4 k»hnl\arrtr1,Alt!flt'O AGnttr.,JStdffl(\\'~hJ >l\,D,C.. ')11).Sl e URBANIMPROVME NTS The rapid growlh of lowns and ci1ies throughout the republic wa,-~npanied by an obvious dynamism ln society. 'rravelers mal'\--eled a1 the amoum of co°1truction going on everywhere. lo the Oaxacan capital (known as the Emerald City), offidafs and elites developed tourism, spons, and leisure aaivities; used urbon pl3nnlng and a~itecture to be.1utlfy and socially otder thediy-:,;nd implcmemed reforms in sani1atlon;r[d social hygiene. The Catholic drnrch suppggars, domestics. Street vendors, and 1he unemployed-remained b.uely ,1Jt:c1~lfl.,. Corn, beans, chile, and pulque still constinned the staples; meat WllS almost totally absenL The grossly deficient diet and lmsaniwrj living conditions made tile masses susce lible 10 a ,vide array of debilitating dlseaReS, and the large majority passed their entltt II~ withoul a single vish to a qualified doaor..lif,:c-expeaancy remained constam-abou thiny years. Infant monalil)' remained unacc'f.tably high, averaging 30 perccn1 form~ of the Porfiriato. A Prou?stalH missionary in Diaz's Mexico recalled bis impressions. I used LO sk. "I low miln)' of you. fat~.1.ncl mothers. ha..: children in 1,~_,,111· Usually all hands would promptly go up W~1Je the replies came. 'Teng,, anro, 'Tmgo odto.... Deplorable ignorance as Lil pro1~, nim,y conditions in th home and thec:.ue or children is responsible for a large proportion or this Math h:u,.,,.~ among th~ liule one,c Children's d iseases, as mea,les and scarlet fever, carry m ultitudes away.3 The lower-class barrios of Mexico City-Li Merced, La l'Jlma, and Nonoalco-had no indoor plumbing and only one public bathhouse per fifteen thousand people. Garbage col- lection was sporadic at besL Only 1he completion of Mexico City's drainage canal regislered 3 Aldidly changing world. Tiw nation's achie~ents in technology and culrure went on display an:rund the globe at world fairs and expmfrions in Europe and the United States. POPULATION The stability of the Porfuiato resulted in Mexico's first period o/ ,prolonged population growth. In the abse11ce of,,.,., ,. and hs social disloca1io1u w, wit!\ modest ga ins recorded in healm and sanitation. the population grew from 8,743,000 in 1874 10 15,160,000 in 1910. From 1iito 10 1874 the 11ver.1ge annual populalloo growth had been about 43,000, b111 during the ()faz era populallon increased at an a er.i"'ge of 180,000 per year. Mexiro City and the'5LJte capitals grew even more rapidly than lhe population at large, increasing some 88.5 p rcem during the epoch. From a populal.j9'n of200,000 i11 1874, Mexico City in 1910 was h.9me to 471,066 Mexicans. Railroad development. mining activijes, and port improvements caused a number of t.i'ny villages LO burgeon into town; an't! cities. Torre6n,.11 the intersection of the Mexican Central Railroad and the lmemational Railroad (running from Eagle Pass, Texas, to Du- rango), jumped from fewenhan 2,000 inhabi tants in 1876 10 over43,000 in 1910; Sablnas. Coabuila, from 788 to 14,555; and Nuevo Laredo from l,283 to almost.9,000. The two pon terminuses of tbeTehuantepec Railroad recorded simi lar gains. Puerto Mexico bad only 267 inhabitants In 1884 but reached 6,616 by 1910, while Salina Cn12 grew from 738 in 1900 to almost 6,000 total some ten years later. Colonel Greene's copper town of Cananea hardly existed at the beginning of the Porliriato. Fro m a popu lation of abou t 100 in I 876. IL cata- pulted to almost 15,000 in 1910. 34 5 Printed by: quinn.smi1h@avc:.ec1n. Printing is for pi,ncmal, privata uae only. No part of1his book may ba n,pmduced or trammitted wilhont pabliahet11 prior permilllion. Vwla1on will be proJec:Uted.  346 TIU MODttNIZ.ATIO.S OF WE..XICO 100 90 80 70 - 60 "2 i !50 i! i= 40 JO 20 10 1870 1910 1869 1910 18'8 1910 1881 1910 1872 1910 1872 1910 Durango Monloray Population o(Seleaed Mexican Chi~ duriug the: Porfirlato 4-out((': Kc-llh A. O.wln. ,.""lt1td.Ddrffl0t'I ,u,b,U\I' 1e.. r.arutd ~ dJC C'n.t.lb.lco,· Hor.,1,1,, i\(r~ U,72) ·181-Sl4 k»hnl\arrtr1,Alt!flt'O AGnttr.,JStdffl(\\'~hJ >l\,D,C.. ')11).Sl e URBANIMPROVME NTS The rapid growlh of lowns and ci1ies throughout the republic wa,-~npanied by an obvious dynamism ln society. 'rravelers mal'\--eled a1 the amoum of co°1truction going on everywhere. lo the Oaxacan capital (known as the Emerald City), offidafs and elites developed tourism, spons, and leisure aaivities; used urbon pl3nnlng and a~itecture to be.1utlfy and socially otder thediy-:,;nd implcmemed reforms in sani1atlon;r[d social hygiene. The Catholic drnrch suppggars, domestics. Street vendors, and 1he unemployed-remained b.uely ,1Jt:c1~lfl.,. Corn, beans, chile, and pulque still constinned the staples; meat WllS almost totally absenL The grossly deficient diet and lmsaniwrj living conditions made tile masses susce lible 10 a ,vide array of debilitating dlseaReS, and the large majority passed their entltt II~ withoul a single vish to a qualified doaor..lif,:c-expeaancy remained constam-abou thiny years. Infant monalil)' remained unacc'f.tably high, averaging 30 perccn1 form~ of the Porfiriato. A Prou?stalH missionary in Diaz's Mexico recalled bis impressions. I used LO sk. "I low miln)' of you. fat~.1.ncl mothers. ha..: children in 1,~_,,111· Usually all hands would promptly go up W~1Je the replies came. 'Teng,, anro, 'Tmgo odto.... Deplorable ignorance as Lil pro1~, nim,y conditions in th home and thec:.ue or children is responsible for a large proportion or this Math h:u,.,,.~ among th~ liule one,c Children's d iseases, as mea,les and scarlet fever, carry m ultitudes away.3 The lower-class barrios of Mexico City-Li Merced, La l'Jlma, and Nonoalco-had no indoor plumbing and only one public bathhouse per fifteen thousand people. Garbage col- lection was sporadic at besL Only 1he completion of Mexico City's drainage canal regislered 3 Ald (Mexico City, 1972), 9. Printed by: quinn.smi1h@avc:.ec1n. Printing is for pi,ncmal, privata uae Cllll.y. No part of1his book may ba n,pmduced or trammitted wilhont pabliahet11 prior permilllion. Vwla1on will be proJec:Uted.  Soc!eq and Culwn during ch, Potfiriau, 3 53 Jose L6pez PoniUo y Rojas (1850-1923) typified the realist genre. Born to a promi- nent Guadalajara family, he studied law and traveled widely in Europe, imbibing the French spirit, before dedicating himself to literature. ln his novel Nievas (1887) L.6pez Ponillo rec- ognized that an occasional hacendado might brutalize a campesino, but he found no fault with the system that conditioned the relationship or anything reprehensible in a society that tolerated iL ~!is solution was a simplistic one. It was aU a matter of volition. The poor of Mexico simply had no desire to improve themselves. The modernist writers of the Porfiriato showed themselves 10 be st) listically innova- tive and concerned with refinements in the language. Projecting a new kind of imagery, the modernists favored a symbolic revolt not against Porfirian society but against nineteenth- century rulture. The best and most versatile of the modernist fiction writers was Amado Nervo (1870- 1919). At the tum of the century he moved to Paris- for Mexicans a cultural mecca-where he met lhe founder of r.he Latin American modernist movemen1. the Nica- raguan poet Ruben Dano. Before his literary career ended, N'ervo had written more than 30 volumes-novels, poetry, short stories, plays, essays( and criticism. The theme of his first novel, El bai:hlller (1895), was sensational and even honifying, A young priest, tempted by physical love. castrates himself to avoid seductiol!;)d"this and other works Nervo showed himself a perceptive amateur psychologi.sL His insight into the motivations of lhe protago- nists he created and his appreciation of the conflicts between the material and the spitirual captivated his readers. The Art Academy of San Carlos continued to dominate the an!stic community, but it was poorly supported by the government. The future giants of Mexican an- Diego Rivera and Jo~ Clemente Orozco-studied at the academy and began perfecting tire techniques that would win them world acclaim two decades hence. While teachers. placed heavy emphasis upon copying European models. a few of the students began to b~ak with tradition and experiment with Mexlcan !hemes. _. Diaz and his dentffico advisers, in an as in so many other areas, continued to show preference for all things foreign. To celebrate the centennial of Mexico's independence, the government copstructed a new building to house a SpJIIlish an display and provided a sub- vention of 35,000 pesos for the show. When the-¥exican anists at the academy protested that they wanted 10 put on a national an sho'¢' io coincide with the celebrations. lhey re- ce.ive~little assistance from the governmen Those who saw their exhibition probably un- den1tood why the regime chose not to s ~ n it. It was youthful, exuberant. and ioonoclastic in both teehnique and theme. Gerardo'Murillo, who changed his name to DL At!, a Nahuatl word meaning water, had ~ented with wax, resin, and oil to depict scandalous bacchanals, while other young anists developed lndianist themes. Many of Mexioo's most promising anists exhibited there for the first time, departing from staid European models. Slums and brothels decorated canvases, and somber Indian faces depicted the stark reality of Mexican 1ife. This was not the impression of the stable, conservative, white, progressive Mexico that Dfaz wanted portrayed. In either case. the images being projected from the national stage had little connection to how people were entertaining themselves at the local level at popular performances of religious and civic themes. These celebrations cen ainly embodied aspects oflocal and Printed by: quinn.smi1h@avc:.ec1n. Printing is for pi,ncmal, privata uae Cllll.y. No part of1his book may ba n,pmduced or trammitted wilhont pabliahet11 prior permilllion. Vwla1on will be p!'OleCUted.  354 THE MOOERNIZATIOS OF ~l?XICO regional culture. but over the nineLeemh century they acquired a more national charaaer in their representations of palriotic figures as well as political and ethnic stereotypes. An imponam popular source for learning abouLthe outside world (other regional rulrures and the life of the big dry) could be found in the itinerant puppet theater that enjoyed increasing popularity after independence. Puppeteers traveled throughout Mexico, intro- ducing marioneues who used regional and rural twists to cluddate fearures of Mexican history, cultuie. and civic duty through humor and irony. One of the most popular was Vale Coyote. whose bag of tricks showed the popular dasses how 10 sutVlve in the world of their 'betters. Puppet performances and popular fiestas blended local and national elements. encouraging people to think about how they defined themselves in relation to other Mexicans.' ln another new development. state and local officials began 'J0 place bandstands in community plazas where musical groups, that had accompanie of Maia, u,th Bn"h ,wt-P'en. London, UK: Melhuen, 191I. lkezley, Wllli m H. /udaJ at w Jockty Clul, ar,,1 Othor /!plsodts of Pr,rfirian Ma/ca. llncoln: Onlvenlry of Nebraska Press. 1987. _. Mexic,m National /dowry: M-,,-r, Innuendo, and Popular 0,/rure. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2008. Blum, Ann S. Domemc Ewnamies: Family. Work, and Welfare in Mexico City, 1884-- 1943. Lincoln: Unive1Sity of Nebra.,ka Pre.ss, 2009. I Brushwood. fo hn S. Ml!l'lo/ /u NolN!~ A Nation's S,arcJ, for ldtnriry. Austip~lversity of'l'exas J>ttss, 1966. Bueno, Cluistirta The Pursuit a/ Ruin: An:haeologie History, and the Mskihg ofMDdem Mexico. Albuquerque: Uni =itr qf New Mt'.lcico Press, 2016. Buffington, l!Dbey. A Smuinu,ru,d Eductuion / ~ 1h, Working M4p!"Th Mexia> City Pmny Press. 1900- 1910. Durham,. It: Duke Unm,:yty Pr=. 201 ~- Buffington. Roben. and Pablo Piccnto, ab. '/me Sioriu '!J. of Maia, u,th Bn"h ,wt-P'en. London, UK: Melhuen, 191I. lkezley, Wllli m H. /udaJ at w Jockty Clul, ar,,1 Othor /!plsodts of Pr,rfirian Ma/ca. llncoln: Onlvenlry of Nebraska Press. 1987. _. Mexic,m National ldowty: M-,,-r, Innuendo, and Popular 0,/rure. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2008. Blum, Ann S. Domemc Ewnamies: Family. Work, and Welfare in Mexico City, 1884-- 1943. Lincoln: Unive1Sity of Nebraska Pre.ss, 2009. I Brushwood. fohn S. Ml!l'lo/ /u NolN!~ A Nation's S,arcJ, for ldtnriry. Austip~lversity of'l'exas J>ttss, 1966. Bueno, Cluistirta The Pursuit a/ Ruin: An:haeologie History, and the Mskihg ofMDdem Mexico. Albuquerque: Uni =itr qf New Mt'.lcico Press, 2016. Buffington, l!Dbey. A Smuinu,ru,d Eductuion / ~ 1h, Working M4p!"Th Mexia> City Pmny Press. 1900- 1910. Durham,. It: Duke Unm,:yty Pr=. 201 ~- Buffington. Roben. and Pablo Piccnto, ab. '/me Sioriu '!J.