Diplomacy, 1940-1942
When Mexico nationalized its oil resources in 1938, it put the lately improved relations with its neighbor to the North on trial. However, in the context of global turmoil and common interests, an intensive diplomacy ensued soon thereafter and by 1942, Mexico and the United States had become close allies. By studying these diplomatic exchanges from both perspectives, I show how such a fast and unprecedented rapprochement became possible.
Rehabilitation, 1942-1944
The U.S. Railway Mission supported the Mexican National Railways financially and technically in the rehabilitation of 1900 miles of railroad tracks, spanning from the U.S.-Mexican border to Mexico’s tropical south. Studying the physical rehabilitation of these tracks sheds light on the agency and conditions of Mexican track workers, the consequences resulting from U.S. tropes about the tropics, and the precarious relation of infrastructure and environment.
Operation, 1941-1946
During the war, Mexican railroads transported minerals and guest workers to the United States and wheat and corn, often harvested by Mexican braceros, and industrial products to Mexico. They enabled a growing transnational economy, but they also disrupted it at times. Research into the flow of goods and people reveals reciprocity and mutual dependence, and it shows how the vulnerability of the railroad network caused shortages of vital goods.
Modernization, 1943-1946
Mexican railroad workers stood at the forefront of the Mexican labor movement and their union held a strong position inside the National Mexican Railways, which was a concern both to the Railways’ management and the Mexican government. Arguing that the Railways not only needed physical rehabilitation, but also that of its people, the U.S. Railway Mission proposed Fordist reforms, which would result in higher efficiency and the weakening of organized labor. I show how a modernization at the cost of workers’ rights was contested and only successful where it did not infringe too much on the latter.
Balance
My project shows that railroads were both the basis and bottleneck of U.S.-Mexican cooperation in World War II. They were the subject of unprecedented and direct cooperation on the ground, and they enabled (and limited) economic exchanges that would transform U.S.-Mexican relations from adverse neighborship to ambivalent partnership.
Longue durée
Mexican railroads exemplify the ambivalent partnership to the date. The so-called Tren de la Muerte runs on the same tracks that were rehabilitated during World War II and it still transports goods and people from the South of Mexico to the border, but only the goods pass legally. The people, travelling as stowaways, must cross the border illegally.