Students of the Mexican Revolution will find the papers left by Aquiles Serdán, the first martyr of the Madero movement, a helpful addition to the source materials on modern Mexico. Almost all of the fifty-two documents of the Serdán collection cover the period from August 1909 to November 1910. The papers were preserved by Serdán’s sister, Carmén. The Instituto National, which edited these papers has performed a service in making available other valuable source materials. This particular volume contains a brief introduction, written by Antonio Pompa y Pompa, giving the important facts of Serdán’s background.
The documents consist of letters to Serdán from various individuals, particularly Madero, political pronunciamientos, occasional memoranda describing instances of Porfirista persecution and brutality, and organizational data of the Anti-Reelectionist Club. No letters written by Serdán himself are included. Although not of major importance, the papers are useful in conveying a first-hand impression of the dangerous atmosphere in which Madero’s followers worked and of the personal bravery of the unfortunate Serdán.
In only two respects could the collection have been improved. It would have been helpful to insert brief comments describing the overall circumstances of the Madero movement, the better to understand the context in which Serdán and his friends labored in Puebla. Also it would have been an aid, in connection with the content and dates of the documents, to point out that Serdán spent the last three months of 1909 in prison and several months before November 1910 in exile in San Antonio, Texas.
