History of the World Crisis Lecture 16: The Mexican Revolution

(Press Description) by J. C. MARIATEGUI

Translated by Juan R. Fajardo, 1998

(Delivered to the “Gonzales Prada” People’s University, Lima, December 1923.)

Press Account:

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

“The Mexican Revolution - Lecture by José Carlos Mariátegui”

Before a numerous audience José Carlos Mariátegui delivered his antepenultimate lecture about the history of the world crisis. The course program assigned to the lecture a topic of exceptional interest in the current moments: The Mexican Revolution. In the course program, 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 expounded on the Mexican Revolution’s origins. He explained the agrarian question’s substantive importance in the latest events in the history of Mexico. He also dealt with the social and economic aspects of the Revolution.

He gave the history of Madero’s movement, the weaknesses and transactions which undermined the government of this generous caudillo, the reactionary activity which engendered Huerta’s coup, Madero's murder. He then moved on to examine the events which led General Venustiano Carranza to power. He also dealt with the 1917 Constitution, illustrating, 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, his revolutionary ideology, his high and pure idealism.

Lastly, he expounded on 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 on Hispano-American world.

The audience gave Mariátegui a 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 his first impressions of his stay in Mexico, which was greeted with great applause.