History of the World Crisis

Lecture 16: 
The Mexican Revolution

(Press Description)
 by
J. C. MARIATEGUI
 
Delivered to the “Gonzales Prada” People’s University,
Lima, December 1923.

 

 


Translated by: Juan R. Fajardo, 2016.
Source of the text: Translated from Historia de la crisis mundial, in Obras Completas, volume 8, https://www.marxists.org/espanol/mariateg/oc/historia_de_la_crisis_mundial/index.htm
Editorial Note: This text is available in print as part of: José Carlos Mariátegui, History of the World Crisis and Other Writings, Marxists Internet Archive Publications (2017); ISBN 978-0-692-88676-2.


 

 

Press Account:

(Originally Published in La Crónica, Lima, December 25, 1923.)

 

“The Mexican Revolution - Lecture by José Carlos Mariátegui”

Before a large audience, José Carlos Mariátegui delivered his antepenultimate lecture[1] about the history of the world crisis. The course program assigned to the lecture a topic of exceptional interest in the current moment: The Mexican Revolution. In the program for Mariátegui’s course of lectures the Mexican Revolution is, naturally, not the current civil war between General Obregón’s government and the De la Huerta faction, but rather the whole transcendental revolutionary period begun with the overthrow of Porfirio Díaz’s dictatorship by Francisco Madero.

Mariátegui showed the Mexican Revolution’s origins. He explained the agrarian question’s substantive importance in the latest events in Mexican history. He also dealt with the social and economic aspects of the Revolution.

He gave the history of Madero’s movement, the weaknesses and compromises which undermined the government of this generous leader, the reactionary activity brought about by Huerta’s coup, and Madero’s murder. He then moved on to examine the events which brought General Venustiano Carranza to power. He also dealt with the 1917 Constitution, detailing, above all, its Articles 27 and 123.

He then spoke about Obregón’s regime and the agrarian reform. He later dedicated much of his lecture to expounding on the educational work of José Vasconcelos. He lauded the great figure of Vasconcelos, his revolutionary ideology, and his high and pure idealism.

Lastly, he presented the various aspects of Mexico’s social and proletarian movement, and concluded by inviting the workers to greet, in the Mexican Revolution, the first light of the transformation of the Hispanic-American world.

The audience gave Mariátegui long applause, and, at the initiative of the student, Luis F. Bustamante, agreed to invite the organized proletariat to sign a message of greeting to Vasconcelos and entrust its delivery to Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre. The worker, Carbajo, read a letter from Haya de la Torre communicating the first impressions of his stay in Mexico, which was greeted with great applause.[2]
 

 

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[1] This could be a misunderstanding by the reporter, or an indication that the course program called for 18 lectures instead of the 17 which make up Historia de la crisis mundial. Whichever the case may be, it appears that no record or mention has been preserved of any lecture or talk by Mariátegui in this series beyond number 17.  - Trans.

[2] V. R. Haya de la Torre, who went on to found the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party, was then a radical student leader who had been instrumental in bringing the ideas of Argentina's University Reform Movement to Peru and in establishing the “González Prada” People’s University. At the time of this lecture, Haya was in exile and had only days earlier arrived in Mexico, sponsored by Vasconcelos, who was then Mexico’s Minister of Public Education. - Trans.