Revolutionaries Remaking Capitalism, Families Sustaining Capitalism, Capitalism Breaking Families and Communities

The historic Mesoamerican communities surrounding Mexico City and the more Hispanic Afro-indigenous people in the Bajío, forged contrasting cultures while sustaining the silver economy that drove global capitalism from 1570 to 1810. Then predations that broke family sustenance led Bajío producers, guerrilla men sustained by maize-making women, to drive a revolution that broke mining, global trades, and Spanish power while claiming family production on the land. Silver revived and industry began after 1830, sustained by family growers, and opening new roles to women at all levels of society in a new capitalism that flourished past mid-century--until the US imposed a gold standard in 1873, ending Mexico's capital independence. Mexican families struggled on, driving a second revolution after 1910, sustaining a new national-industrial capitalism from the 1930s--to see everything break in the face of globalization after 1950.