On Progressivism and Revolutionary Nationalism: Rural Reconstruction and U.S.-Mexico Relations during the 1920s

This paper examines the career of Mexican agronomist Gonzalo Robles in order to offer a revisionist interpretation of U.S.-Mexican relations after the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Scholars have by and large examined U.S.-Mexican relations as product of the negotiations between U.S. imperialists and Mexican revolutionary nationalists and have subsequently argued for a putative conservative turn in the Revolution as a result of both U.S. influence and Mexican officials shifting to conservatism. Against prevalent views, I argue that U.S. influence in both the making and the pace of Mexican social politics developed within the terms of transatlantic progressive networks. U.S.-Mexican relations were ultimately underpinned by mutually compatible visions of social reform. To show this, I examine the career of agricultural engineer Gonzalo Robles. While French agronomy had served as the initial reference point for Mexican agronomy since the late 19^th century, by the late 1920s U.S.-Mexican connections became more important, as suggested by the career of Robles. In 1922 Robles was commissioned to examine agricultural programs in Europe, the U.S., Russia, and Latin America. When in 1928 Robles was assigned to plan agricultural schools and direct the newly formed National Bank of Agricultural Credit, he found U.S. agronomy more relevant to Mexico’s circumstances. By 1928 the stabilization of diplomatic affairs allowed both governments to form mutually beneficial experimental programs. Within the next decade, U.S. and Mexican agronomy would serve as reference for each other. In sum, this paper suggests that Mexican social politics can be better grasped within the terms of a shared transatlantic progressivism that began in the late 19^th century and continued after the Revolution.