Mexico: Biogaphy of Power

This is required reading for anyone who wants to understand modern Mexico and the (gradually improving) mess that it is in. The book, a hefty 800 pages, is a combined English volume of three separate books by Enrique Krauze published in Spanish. The translation by Hank Heifetz is superlative. After touching on pre-1810 Mexican history, the book gets down to business after the Spanish have been tossed out on their collective keisters in that year. We see the independent nation's early confusion as it lurched about for a few decades under inept leaders like its first "emperor," a joke named Iturbide, and then silly Santa Anna who bounced in and out of the presidential chair countless times, losing much of the nation's acreage to the better-organized and focused Americans. National Darwinism at work. Benito Juarez was the first serious leader. And then the French tried to take over in the form of Emperor Max and his nutty wife, Carlota. That did not last long, thanks in great part to Juarez. Finally, rising from the smoke and ashes, Porfirio Diaz brought some order and advancement to the nation for 30 years until his despotism too was shown the door, bringing on the Revolution in 1910. Diaz made it to Europe with his skin intact, but he died five years later. The dates of the Mexican Revolution are not set in cement, depends on whom you ask. Nobody ever raised their fist, shot a Mauser shell into the clouds, and declared it done with. Krauze sees it lasting longer than most observers, putting the end date around 1940. You could make an argument that it really did not end until 2000 when Democracy finally bloomed with the open election of President Fox of the longtime opposition party known as the PAN. The book looks at Mexican history through the life stories of its leaders, and Krauze portrays them excellently and interestingly. Many were thugs. Many, especially in the 20th century, were well-educated and cultured. Many were well-educated, cultured thugs. Some were sincere. Some where not. All were fascinating. Great history. Reads like an adventure novel, but it's real.

I am moving to Mexico City next year to live and work for two years, with NO previous background on Latin America or Mexico. This book delivers a solid overview of modern Mexican history without being as dry as your average textbook. I greatly enjoyed Krauze's approach of presenting Mexican history through mini biographies of it leaders for the last two hundred years. You feel like you are reading a series of related essays, which helps in making your way through a book of this size (700+). This book helped me realize how fascinating and rich Mexico and its history are. It takes you up to about 1995, so you'll need something else to bring you up to present day (such as "Opening Mexico").

I have to confess I haven't read the English version of this book. But if it's anywhere as good as the 3-volume Spanish version, it is probably excellent.Mexico, particularly in Latin America, is a mythical country. It has always had a vibrant popular culture. In Colombia, it used to be said that the upper class aspired to be English, the middle class wanted to be American, and the lower class wished to be Mexican. This is no slight on Mexico, just a statement of its powerful pull over others. Amazingly, such an important country has never had such a strong historiography as much smaller ones, like Cuba. This has many reasons, one of them being that the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI), probably the most effective political party in history, was able to co-opt most intellectuals either with favors or intimidation.Therefore, much Mexican history used to revel in a hagiographical version of its pre-Columbian splendor and to celebrate politically correct milestones, such as Hidalgo's cry, Juarez's victory over Maximilian or the 1911 revolution, while glossing over other important but more embarrasing episodes, such as Iturbide's empire, Santa Anna's 30 year reign that led to the less of the Northern half of the country to the US, Maximilian's closeness to Indian land rights (Indians in Mexico were never better treated than under Maximilian), the remarkably efficient Porfiriato (a 35 year-long dictatorship), or the extremely brutal aftermath of the revolution. This promoted a mythological self-view of Mexico that paved the ground for the economic catastrophe of Lopez Portillo and the political catastrophe of Salinas de Gortari.For anyone interested in looking behind the cobwebs of official history and popular culture, Krauze is a Godsend. In his work one can view the greater trends of Mexican history, and understand how a country may be both statist and hospitable to private business, officially anti-clerical but deeply religious, often in unorthodox ways, extremely violent but highly cultured, with an often radical foreign policy that belied a very conservative political culture.As a Colombian I was very surprised at the conservative failure to win power from the 1870s to current President Fox (in Colombia the conservatives have run the country for well over half of its existence). One, of course, has to see the origin of this in the alleged betrayal of the conservatives who supported Maximilian's empire, even though Maximilian himself wasn't conservative at all. And Mexico's complex attitude to religion can be traced to such ambivalent figures as Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (a nun-poet who was deeply critical of male domination in the Church) and Father Hidalgo (a revolutionary priest who is one of Mexico's Founding Fathers, who was close to freemasons and loved to indulge in forbidden readings and female companionship). Mexico's strong nationalism is of course fueled by its closeness to the most powerful country in the world. Lik

If you know nothing about Mexican history and don't know where to begin, this is THE book to read. Mind you, it's a little too long but you won't be disappointed. It's very well written, it's fun, it's insightful, and has a no nonsense approach one appreciates after reading tons of biased harangues on the subject, both pro and con.A MUST for any American, Mexican or Mexican-American who wants to learn about a country so often misunderstood by contempt, demagoguery, prejudice or simple plain ignorance.

Using biographies of Mexican leaders, the author takes us from pre-independence Mexico to today. It offers a real insight into Mexican politics and the problems the current administration faces. Surprisingly readable for an "academic" book.