The Making of the Mexican Border: The State, Capitalism, and Society in Nuevo León, 1848-1910

by Juan Mora-Torres

The issues that dominate U.S.-Mexico border relations today—integration of economies, policing of boundaries, and the flow of workers from south to north and of capital from north to south—are not recent developments. In this insightful history of the state of Nuevo León, Juan Mora-Torres explores how these processes transformed northern Mexico into a region with distinct economic, political, social, and cultural features that set it apart from the interior of Mexico. Mora-Torres argues that the years between the establishment of the U.S.-Mexico boundary in 1848 and the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 constitute a critical period in Mexican history. The processes of state-building, emergent capitalism, and growing linkages to the United States transformed localities and identities and shaped class formations and struggles in Nuevo León. Monterrey emerged as the leading industrial center and home of the most powerful business elite, while the countryside deteriorated economically, politically, and demographically. By 1910, Mora-Torres concludes, the border states had already assumed much of their modern an advanced capitalist economy, some of Mexico's most powerful business groups, and a labor market dependent on massive migrations from central Mexico.

360 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

Reviews

[Empanadani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author chooses the period 1848-1910 as the ending of the frontier and the creation of the border as signaled by the so-called defeat of Native Americans on both sides of the borders. The book then goes on to speak, first, of Porfirio Diaz' efforts to bring the entirety of Mexico into one centralized political system. The most interesting portion to me was in the later chapters where Mora-Torres describes the proletariatization of the regiomontanos in Monterrey and how it differs from the debt-peonage system in the rest of Nuevo Leon. It lacked pictures and maps, though, besides the front cover which does a good job of describing the Mexican State (not state) fixation on industrialization as a measure of progress.
[skimmed, did not read in depth but got a good understanding]