(Bi)national Border Rebellions, Linchamientos, and the (Bi)centennials of the Mexican Revolution

Although violence generates a multiplicity of actions and reactions, it also generates an archive. Said archives need to be examined in their own respective historical, social, demographic, and political contexts instead of simply collapsing all cases into a teleology that strings together a series of events.

The case of La Ascension, Chihuahua provides an ideal contemporary and historical example of how local instances of rebellion (now read as “linchamientos”) in this population changed over time depending on the socio-historical variables just mentioned, to say nothing of politics.   

The 1871 “Riot of La Mesilla” prompted local and state officials in the New Mexico Territory to label this particular event as a “political riot” that eventually led to the events of around 100 “Republican” families leaving south for Northern Chihuahua instead of accepting the election results that placed local “Democrats” in power.  Twenty -one years later, for reasons completely unrelated to the “political riot” that took place in La Mesilla, New Mexico another “rebellion” took place, only this time in La Ascension, Chihuahua in 1892. Fast forward to late September of 2010 where five individuals attempted to kidnap a young girl in the town of La Ascension, Chihuahua—a town weary of kidnappings, extortions, ongoing drug wars, and government inaction.    

 Each of these three cases, 1871, 1892, and 2010, occurred in different contexts and with a differing set of archives and individuals. This paper is an exploratory attempt to examine these cases on their own account and with an appreciation for the local, and minute, details that gave rise to such horrific episodes of violence along the international border.  What can closer case studies reveal about much larger patterns of linchamientos and why do these terms change over time?