The Ecology of Oil: Environment, Labor, and the Mexican Revolution, 1900–1938

by Myrna I. Santiago

• ISBN13: 9780521863247
• ISBN10: 0521863244
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-08-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

An exploration of the social and environmental consequences of oil extraction in the tropical rainforest. Using northern Veracruz as a case study, the author argues that oil production generated major historical and environmental transformations in land tenure systems and uses, and social organization. Such changes, furthermore, entailed effects, including the marginalization of indigenes, environmental destruction, and tense labor relations. In the context of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), however, the results of oil development did not go unchallenged. Mexican oil workers responded to their experience by forging a politicized culture and a radical left militancy that turned 'oil country' into one of the most significant sites of class conflict in revolutionary Mexico. Ultimately, the book argues, Mexican oil workers deserve their share of credit for the 1938 decree nationalizing the foreign oil industry - heretofore reserved for President Lazaro Cardenas - and thus changing the course of Mexican history.

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Figures, Tables, and Appendices	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(14)
PART ONE: THE HUASTECA BEFORE OIL
``Paradise'' and ``Progress'': The Huasteca in the Nineteenth Century	15	(46)
PART TWO: THE ECOLOGY OF OIL
Controlling the Tropical Forest: The Shift in Land Tenure Patterns	61	(40)
The Anatomy of Progress: Changing Land Use Patterns	101	(47)
``Masters of Men, Masters of Nature'': Social Change in the Huasteca	148	(57)
PART THREE: CHALLENGING THE ECOLOGY OF OIL
``Coarse in Manner'': Mexican Oil Workers, 1905-1921	205	(51)
Revolutionaries, Conservation, and Wasteland	256	(35)
Revolution from Below: The Oil Unions, 1924-1938	291	(52)
Conclusion	343	(6)
Epilogue	349	(8)
Appendices	357	(8)
A Note on the Sources	365	(4)
Archives Consulted	369	(4)
Selected Bibliography	373	(24)
Index	397