Those who are responsible for the publications of the Biblioteca del Instituto National de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana have tended—whether due to necessity or choice I cannot say—to republish material which appeared in another form or to give original release to older manuscripts lather than to commission new works. The result has been to make more readily available historical materials rather than historical studies. Such is the case of the volume at hand. The Institute has chosen to republish journalistic articles by Juan de Dios Bojórquez which appeared over the years in Excélsior.
Bojórquez, who wrote under the pseudonym “Djed Bórquez,” was a member of the Constituent Assembly which in 1916-1917 drafted the Mexican Constitution at Querétaro. He considers the Revolution of 1910 as the third era of an ongoing phenomenon, with earlier periods represented by the Independence and the Reform movements. And since popular aspirations have not all been fulfilled to the extent that it can be said that the Revolution has complied with its promises, Bojorquez takes the characteristic position of the old revolutionary that Mexico still finds itself in the third phase.
All but three of these brief articles represent the author’s recollections of personalities—from his youth, from the days of active revolution, and from subsequent events. The three exceptions include an article on Lincoln and Juárez and two articles commemorating the 150th anniversary of the siege of Cuautla during the independence struggle. The articles customarily are four pages long and are preceded by an introductory paragraph. While occasionally touching on some commemorative event or revolutionary reunion, more than thirty of the fifty sketches deal with one or more individuals ranging from Jesús García, humble machinist martyred in Nacozari in 1907, to novelist Mariano Azuela, to Venustiano Carranza. There are two articles on the dwindling group of survivors of constituyentes and another pair on the deceased members of the Bloque de Obreros Intelectuales.
The writer expressed his confidence that students of Mexican history would find his notes of interest because “they are first hand.” By this he meant either that he had witnessed what he had described or that he was certain of the truth of what he wrote. Certainly the investigator of twentieth-century Mexican history will be interested in the recollections and views of this active participant in the Mexican Revolution.
