Mexico, 1910-1968: Revolution and Counterrevolution
Posted By: Liz Goodrich
Date Posted: 4/20/2006
As part of the Deschutes Public Library’s A Novel Idea … Read Together, University of Oregon Associate Professor of History, Carlos Aguirre presents a program titled “Mexico, 1910 – 1968: Revolution and Counterrevolution,” on Saturday, April 22 at 11:00 a.m. at the Sisters Public Library. The presentation is part of the Novel Idea … Read Together, community-reading project offered by Deschutes Public Library and the Deschutes Public Library Foundation. The program is free and open to the public and is sponsored in part by the Friends of the Sisters Library.
In 1910, Mexico started a revolution that radically transformed its social, political, economic, and cultural structures. By 1920, the most violent period ended and a process of consolidation of the new Mexican state started. For several decades, the official party of the revolution (PRI) ruled Mexico without interruption. In 1968, a series of student demonstrations were met with extreme repression, which produced the infamous Tlatelolco massacre perpetrated by the police forces. This marked a turning point and signaled the slow decline of the PRI that concluded with its electoral defeat in 2000.
Currently the Director of the Latin American Studies program at University of Oregon, Aguirre is the author of several books as well as articles that have appeared in various publications. During his presentation, Aguirre, who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1996, will tie the two events together. Although the two revolutions were supported by different groups of people, “the major players in 1910 were peasants, workers, regional chieftans, informal armies, middle classes. In the second (1968), it was mostly high school and university students,” says Aguirre, the two events worked in tandem to bring Mexico to its present political state.
Throughout the month of April, the Library will be hosting a variety of events in support of the Novel Idea … Read Together project. The programs are designed to give residents of Deschutes County a context for better understanding this year’s selected novel, González & Daughter Trucking Co. by María Amparo Escandón. The tale of Libertad, her father and her fellow inmates at the Mexicali Penal Institution for Women, is a story that has feet planted firmly on both sides of the U.S. and Mexican boarder and explores the themes of family, freedom, redemption and the power of storytelling. For a complete listing of Novel Idea programs, please visit call 312-1032.
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