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Rural Educational Reform in Yucatán: From the Porfiriato to the Era of Salvador Alvarado, 1910-1918

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Ramón D. Chacón
Ramón D. Chacón*
Affiliation:
University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, California
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Extract

The majority of leaders who participated in the 1910 Mexican Revolution agreed that educational reform was essential if the laboring classes were to be assimilated into Mexican society. Despite these deepfelt concerns, in the arena of social reform, education during the years 1910-1920 played a tertiary role behind agrarian and labor reform, issues which received the greatest national attention. Thus, at the national level education failed to attract serious reform until the 1920s. There were, however, other reasons that explain the lack of support for educational change. The political instability that existed due to revolutionary internecine warfare, the shortage of revenues, and the lack of a national education policy further obstructed an educational reform movement. The shortcomings in governmental direction were compounded even more because in 1914 the central government adopted an educational policy of decentralization that gave the states control over education. This experiment in decentralization, lasting from 1914 to 1920, was a fiasco and left little doubt that the national government should assume control over education.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , October 1985 , pp. 207 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1985

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References

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27 For example, there were a number of states, among them Coahuila, Sonora, San Luis Potosí, Michoacán, and Oaxaca, that were impressed with Alvarado's revolutionary achievements in Yucatan and requested information pertaining to reforms established under his administration. See Alvarado to General Jesús A. Castro, Oaxaca, January 13, 1916; Major Alberto Martín to Alvarado, December 13, 1916; Florencio Avila y Castillo, Director of the Department of Information and Propaganda (Yucatán), to Federico Gutiérrez, Director of the Department of Information and Propaganda (San Luis Potosí), January 26, 1916; Avila y Castillo to José Ariatias, Director of the Department of Information and Propaganda (Coahuila), January 26, 1916, AGEY. Well-known for his egotism, Alvarado believed that ne more than any governor had succeeded in instituting a revolutionary program. To prove his point, he challenged other governors to demonstrate to the nation who had governed best in their respective regions. See Ricalde, Gamboa, Yucatán, 2: 595.Google Scholar

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35 “Informe que de su gestión como gobernador provisional del estado de Yucatán, rinde ante el congreso del mismo, el ciudadano General Savador Alvarado,” January 5, 1918, AGEY.

36 Alvarado, , Actuación revolucionaria, p. 52.Google Scholar

37 “Informe del General Salvador Alvarado,” 1918, AGEY.

38 Speech of General Salvador Alvarado, Governor of the State of Yucatán, at the Closing of the Second Pedagogic Congress Held at Mérida (New York: n.p., 1916), pp. 6–13; Ricalde, Gamboa Yucatán, 2: 413–14.Google Scholar

39 Alvarado, Salvador, Decreto no. 109, “Reglamento de la ley de enseñanza rural,” May 26, 1915, AGEY; The decree is also cited in Diario Oficial, May 28, 1915, pp. 1482–85.Google Scholar

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41 Ibid.

42 Ricalde, Gamboa, Yucatán, 2: 404–05.Google Scholar

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44 Torres Flores to Gregorio Torres Quintero, the Director of Public Education, December 8, 1916, AGEY.

45 La Voz de la Revolución, September 21, 1915, p. 1.

46 Salvador Alvarado to the Military Commander of Izamal, September 2, 1915, AGEY; Diario Oficial, September 3, 1915, p. 3187.

47 “Expediente formado con motivo de que el Jefe del Departamento de Educación Pública comunica que el Sr. Diego Peniche ocurio a esa Departamento pidiendo la clausura de la escuela rural establecida en su finca Chenku del Departamento de Espita,” March 1, 1918, AGEY.

48 Diario Oficial, October 4, 1916, pp. 3271–72; Breves apuntes acerca de la administración del General Salvador Alvarado como, gobernador de Yucatán (Mérida: Imprenta del Gobierno Constitucionalista, 1917), p. 10.

49 Breves apuntes acerca de Alvarado, p. 10. Pablo Ayala, a jornalero, was reportedly imprisoned for thirty days because he demanded that his son work in the fields and did not permit him to attend school. See La Voz de la Revolución, January 12, 1916, p. 1. These measures apparently contributed to higher levels of school attendance. Government reports, for example, suggest that attendance in rural schools was satisfactory. See “Informe que rinde el Inspector Administrativo del Departamento de Valladolid, Epirgememio González,” June 7, 1917; “Informe del Inspector Administrativo del Depar-tamento de Mérida, R. Villanueva,” June 22, 1917; David Vivas, Director of the Department of Public Education, to Alvarado, August 21, 1917, AGEY.

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51 Ibid.

52 Diario Oficial, April 16, 1915, pp. 905–06.

53 General Salvador Alvarado’s Message to the Nation Regarding His Administration as Governor of Yucatán (New York: Las Novedades, 1917), p. 21.

54 Diario Oficial, September 13, 1917, p. 4245.

55 General Alvarado’s Message to the Nation, p. 21.

56 Diario Oficial, September 13, 1917, p. 4525.

57 El Municipio Libre, March 30, 1917, pp. 275–77.

58 Agustín Franco, Director of Rural Education, to the Rural Schoolteachers, April 12, 1916, AGEY.

59 Ibid.

60 La Voz de la Revolución, April 14, 1916, pp. 1, 4. Besamanos, the colonial custom of workers kissing the hand of the hacendado and members of his family, was abolished by Alvarado. It lasted months into his administration and perhaps had persisted because the planters prohibited its use in the presence of government offcials. Alvarado regarded besamanos as a perverse custom which had to be uprooted not only to end servilism, but also to undermine the landowner’s influence over the workers. He wrote that besamanos represented a “sign of submission and vassalage which the planters sought to maintain in order to make themselves appear to be a superior race which should be revered, respected, and venerated as if they were divine beings.” See Alvarado to the Director of the Department of Labor, the Director of the Department of Public Education, and the Military Commanders of the Districts, March 7, 1916, AGEY.

61 La Voz de la Revolución, April 14, 1916, pp. 1, 4.

62 Quoted in “Informe que rinde acerca de la conducta de varios maestros rurales el Jefe del Departamento de Educación Pública, Gregorio Torres Quintero,” June 6, 1916, AGEY.

63 Carlos Loveira, Director of the Department of Labor, to Alvarado, May 15, 1916; May 25, 1916, AGEY.

64 The charges are cited in “Informe del Comandante Militar de Hunucmá al jefe del Departamento de Educación Pública, Gregorio Torres Quintero,” November 23, 1916; Salvador Alvarado to Torres Quintero, June 28, 1917, AGEY.

65 The townspeople’s petition is cited in Juan Sandoval, Municipal Commissary of Hacienda Dzid-zìlché, to the President of the Ayuntamiento of Mérida, July 4, 1917, AGEY.

66 “Informe que rinde Torres Quintero,” June 16, 1916, AGEY.

67 Ibid.

68 Alvarado to Agustín Franco, July 20, 1915, AGEY.

69 See legajo, Florencio Avila y Castillo, “Oficina de Información y Propaganda Revolucionaria, 1915,” AGEY.

70 “Informe del General Salvador Alvarado,” 1918, AGEY.

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