Technical Fictions, Revolution, and Masculinity at Necaxa

Foreigners came to Mexico in ever-greater numbers during the Porfiriato. The expansion of railroad networks meant reliable, cheaper, and safer transportation means for eager travelers, especially Americans. These visitors--journalists, venture capitalist, photographers, and pleasure-seekers--presented an image of a nation striving to live up to the Porfirian motto of 'order and progress' but also thwarted by profound backwardness. Archaeological explorations were not the only type of excursions in vogue—visits to factories, plants, and other industrial sites. After 1904, a new site about 90 miles northeast from the capital gained popularity. Nestled in the Sierra of Puebla, the Necaxa hydroelectric plant captivated the minds and hearts of foreigners. Irving Crump's 1914 Jack Straw in Mexico or How the Engineers Saved the Great Hydro-Electric Dam found in Necaxa the ideal site to stage an adventure novel for young American boys. As a technological marvel powering central Mexico amid the Revolution, a fictionalized encounter between the American engineers who built and run the hydroelectric dam, aided by a young boy, against the Zapatistas served as a landscape for the clash of two cultures: one industrial run by disciplined and masculine Americans and one traditional, violent-prone, and backward. The dam's defense serves as an allegory for the fight to protect American capital enterprise abroad and the valiant men and boys with the spirit to lead the struggle.