The revolution that began in Mexico in 1910–11 generated pivotal transformations in Mexico and North America. Political wars and social insurgencies mixed to forge a new Mexican regime that promised—and partially delivered—radical land redistributions, unprecedented labor rights, and resource nationalizations that brought new possibilities to Mexicans and newly complex and always contested ties between Mexico and the United States. The Porfirio Díaz regime, which ruled Mexico from 1876 to 1911, had mixed political closures with often predatory liberal development. Postrevolutionary Mexico was no utopia, but popular pressures forced changes that benefited many—while driving others north in search of work and new lives, building an expansive Mexican America on once-Mexican lands.1
Attempts to understand the origins, conflicts, and consequences of Mexico's decade of revolution persist and evolve, long shaped by political polarities, shifting ideologies, and changing interests in Mexico, the United States, and beyond. We now see the decade of...
