Fortunate Sons of the Revolution: Miguel Alemán and Civilian Rule in Mexico, 1946–52

From 1946 to 1952, a coterie of young civilians led by Miguel Alemán Valdés took power in Mexico, representing both a symbolic and substantive shift for the nation's political system. This new generation of leaders, who replaced the veterans of the 1910 Revolution, oriented the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) toward a policy program aimed at bolstering the growing urban bourgeoisie and enticing foreign investment, often at the expense of ongoing land and labor reforms. Assessments of the administration's efforts range widely—for some, the “cachorros of the Revolution” represented its definitive end; for others, its ultimate fulfillment. In either case, scholars have been unable to provide a persuasive explanation of the reasons that these leaders, many of whom were sons of revolutionary veterans, pursued such a dramatically new set of social and economic priorities. Most scholarship has treated the administration's agenda as a foregone conclusion owing to broader changes (e.g. import-substituting industrialization) occurring throughout Latin America. By contrast, I argue that internal forces, including these leaders' formative years in the National Preparatory School, along with broader consensus over the changing nature of the Revolution and the introduction of new media technologies (especially the television), were chiefly responsible for a long-lasting reconfiguration of the relationship between the government and Mexican society beginning in this period. For this project, which forms part of my doctoral dissertation, I use a variety of primary sources housed at multiple archives, including the Fundación Miguel Alemán, the Archivo General de la Nación, the Televisa archives, and the Instituto Mora.