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On September 16th, 1810 Father Miguel Hidalgo declared war against Mexico’s colonial government and led a militia from the town of Dolores to Guanajuato, a city that held economic importance for Spain. Eleven years of fighting followed. On August 24, 1821, the Spanish crown recognized Mexican Independence under the Treaty of Cordoba. One hundred years later, on November 20th 1910, a revolution largely fought by indigenous Mexicans began, led by Emiliano Zapata and Francisco “Pancho” Villa. The indigenous people of Mexico had lost large amounts of land under dictator Porfirio Diaz who held power for 34 years. The land was confiscated in the name of modernization and industrial development. The Diaz regime also trampled human rights and dramatically worsened economic equality. While wealth was concentrated among a few aristocrats most Mexicans were considered “landless”. By 1900 Americans and US companies owned over a quarter of the land in Mexico, leading to the US government’s intervention in Mexican politics. Submitting to this pressure in 1916 the United States sent 10,000 U.S. troops into Mexico in a failed attempt to capture Pancho Villa. The revolution continued until 1920 when General Álvaro Obregón assumed power. Fighting continued and coup attempts were made until 1934 with the election of Lazaro Cardenas, who implemented the provision of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico. Cardenas ran under the Party of the Mexican Revolution and in 1946 the new President Manuel Ávila Camacho renamed the party the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI, which ruled Mexico for decades until 2000.

GUEST: Writer John Ross has lived in Mexico since 1985. He is a beat poet and writer as well as an independent journalist and the author of many books, including, “El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City,” “The Annexation of Mexico – From The Aztecs to the IMF,” and “Zapatistas! Making Another World Possible – Chronicles of Resistance 2000-2006.”