Resumen

FALCON, Romana. Underground Currents: Forestry Disputes between Towns and Haciendas in Mexico City’s Río Magdalena Watershed (1856-1913). Hist. mex. [online]. 2020, vol.70, n.1, pp.7-60.  Epub 28-Ago-2020. ISSN 2448-6531.  https://doi.org/10.24201/hm.v70i1.4075.

A major historiographic oversight in Mexico has been the relationship between towns and haciendas, where the majority of the country’s inhabitants lived between independence and the revolution. This article explores some important aspects of this contradictory relationship, focusing on a region of dense forests in southwestern Mexico City, in the Río Magdalena watershed. The perspective taken is one of social history, examining the relationship of lumberjacks, charcoal sellers, shepherds and common people with the surrounding haciendas. It demonstrates both continuities from the colonial era as well as changes - in this case, when the collapse of the Porfiriato allowed townspeople to air their grievances, sometimes violently. It emphasizes subtle social dynamics that remained relatively hidden for a long time, but that severely disrupted the statu quo when the floodgates were breached. The revolution would end up giving the common people the majority of the disputed forests in the form of ejidos.

Based on an extensive archival survey, particularly the Mexico City History Archive and the General Agrarian Archive, the roots of unrest are analyzed: the rights to use and possess forest lands, both in terms of personal and moral grievances. The arguments of the disputants, which combine new and traditional ideas and values, are also examined. The key figures in terms of maintaining the social order became the focus for popular hatred: hacienda administrators, with their usual tyrannical networks.

Palabras llave : Towns; Haciendas; Forestry Rights; Agrarian Conflicts; Moral Grievances.