Han Qi and Jiang Yuyan: The History and Causes of the Socialist Movement in Yucatán, Mexico (1917–1924)
Between 1917 and 1924, a socialist movement took place in the Mexican state of Yucatán. The regime it established was proclaimed as the "first socialist government in the Americas," and the movement's leader, Felipe Carrillo Puerto (often referred to as "Carrillo"), was hailed as the "Red Apostle of the Maya," a "hero of the proletariat," and Mexico's "greatest promoter of socialism." His image was depicted by Mexican muralists in numerous locations, including the courtyard of the Yucatán state government palace and the National Palace in Mexico City. This movement represents a significant chapter in Mexican history. However, within domestic Latin American historical studies [in China], this period is seldom mentioned, and to date, no specialized monographs have been published. This article attempts to introduce the history of this movement and focus its discussion on the causes of its emergence.
I. The Course of the Yucatán Socialist Movement
Following the Mexican Revolution, Yucatán was characterized by political chaos. Between 1911 and 1915—a period of just over 50 months—the state cycled through 14 governors, with few serving terms longer than three months. Due to the inequality and injustice created by the state's plantation owners during the Porfiriato [1], uprisings against the old Díaz regime broke out just months before the start of the Revolution. Local groups sought political avenues to compete for public power in constitutional elections. However, this power remained manipulated by Olegario Molina, a former governor who later served as the Minister of Development in the Díaz government. Along with his son-in-law, Avelino Montes, and a small group of wealthy henequen [2] plantation owners, this oligarchy controlled the Yucatán government under Governor Enrique Muñoz Aristegui.
After the Revolution began, the new president Francisco I. Madero appointed new governors, but they were quickly replaced. When Venustiano Carranza came to power, he sent Eleuterio Ávila and later Toribio de los Santos to Yucatán to lead the revolution there, but neither could withstand the pressure exerted by the oligarchy on the new state government. In February 1915, with the support of the Molina-aligned plantation owners, Abel Ortiz Argumedo led an armed revolt against the state government headed by Santos. He occupied the capital, Mérida, declared himself governor and military commander of the state, and sent a telegram to Carranza explaining the reasons for his uprising. Carranza responded by sending the more capable General Salvador Alvarado to suppress the rebellion.
During his three-year tenure as Governor of Yucatán (1915–1917), Alvarado stabilized the political situation and implemented several important reforms. When his term ended in 1917, he wished to remain in office, but under the provisions of the 1917 Constitution, a candidate had to be a resident of Yucatán for at least five consecutive years—a qualification he lacked. Consequently, he recommended Carlos Castro Morales as the new governor; meanwhile, Carrillo, who had distinguished himself in the land reform movement, was elected chairman of the Socialist Party. It was at this moment that the Yucatán socialist movement began, which can be divided into two main stages:
The first stage, from Carrillo's election as chairman of the Socialist Party of Yucatán in March 1917 to his formal inauguration as governor in 1922, was the movement’s formative phase.
Following the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution in February of 그 year, Alvarado’s eligibility for re-election was denied. To facilitate Morales’s candidacy for governor, Alvarado oversaw an internal reorganization of the Socialist Workers' Party (PSO). In the internal election on March 16, Carrillo was elected chairman, and the Socialist Workers' Party was renamed the Socialist Party of Yucatán (PSY). Under Carrillo’s leadership and promotion, Morales—who began his career as a railway worker—was successfully elected governor in November, while Carrillo was elected as a local deputy and president of the legislature.
In March 1918, Carrillo led the first Socialist Workers' Congress in his hometown of Motul. It was attended by over 200 delegates representing 26,000 socialists from across the region. This meeting marked a significant turning point, signifying the party's transformation from a populist party into a mass socialist party. Although the congress’s slogan was "Liberty and Land," its rhetoric drew closer to orthodox communism. The congress also invited the American Socialist and Marxist Robert Haberman to conduct political mobilization of the delegates. He preached ideas of scientific socialism to the representatives, discussing class exploitation and class struggle, advocating for the breaking of class reconciliation, and directing his critique toward US imperialism, thus sowing the seeds of revolution in the hearts of the attendees.
Using plain language and getting straight to the point, Haberman said: A henequen worker labors all day but earns only 5 pesos; yet this is only a fraction of what he produces, as statistics show each worker produces 15 pesos worth of product daily. The plantation owners use 5 of those 15 pesos to buy tramways, loaders, machinery, and other items, but they also take 5 pesos from each of you every day. For every 100 people working on their plantations, they earn at least 500 pesos a day—enough to fund their lavish lifestyles and overseas travel. Haberman appeared to be explaining Marx's theory of surplus value. He continued: You build fine houses, but you live in dwellings that even animals would dislike; you cut the henequen, but the profits from it go to others... When you are sick, you have no doctor; your family often goes hungry, or you must seek alms from your comrades. He pointed out: "There is a remedy for this plight," and that is socialism. True socialism consists of two parts: economic socialism and political socialism. The activities of the Socialist Party of Yucatán represent political socialism, but we do not yet have economic socialism. "That is why merchants, Zionists [3], and landlords use every means to exploit you to feed themselves... Economic socialism means that all public wealth, railroads, shops, and even all the henequen fields of Yucatán belong to the workers. When these workers become the masters of the henequen, they will still go to work, but if they earn 15 pesos, they will receive 15 pesos, and through their own labor, they will live very well."
While Haberman identified public ownership as the way forward for workers, he also expressed anti-imperialist sentiments. He said: "You have heard Carrillo speak of the danger of American capitalism, which is true. But what you need to do is unite with the socialist movement of the entire world. You do not need cannons to fight the capitalist gringos; that battle would be like sheep against lions. I will tell you how to deal with the capitalist Americans. American workers are also slaves; they are oppressed just like you, and they do not want war with Mexico, because once war breaks out, the workers will lose their lives and everything else. You do not need rifles and cannons, dear comrades; all you need is a good socialist party... If all workers unite, their power will be greater than that of the rich with their rifles and cannons." He concluded with: "Workers of the world, unite! What have we to lose? Our chains. On the contrary, we will win the world."
The Motul Congress discussed agrarian issues, party building, party cooperatives, party schools, socialist education, and women’s rights. It established the organizational system of the "Leagues of Resistance" (Ligas de Resistencia), thereby strengthening the ideological and organizational construction of the Socialist Party. This became a milestone in the development of socialism in Yucatán. Following the congress, the "party’s progress became more solid. Every day it reached more workers, developed its leadership groups, and used its propaganda to persuade workers, making them feel increasingly united, increasingly identified with their proletarian interests, and increasingly willing to engage in political struggle—not only for immediate demands but for profound social change."
Carrillo served as acting governor from November 13 to December 24, 1918, during which he presided over the Henequen Regulatory Commission and promulgated a new Labor Law for the state of Yucatán, gaining experience in government administration.
As the presidential election for the Republic approached, Carranza selected Ignacio Bonillas as his candidate. Since the Socialist Party of Yucatán supported Álvaro Obregón, Carranza decided to strike at Carrillo’s power. During the local legislative elections in November 1919, Colonel Isaías Zamarripa was ordered by Carranza to go to Yucatán to persecute the socialists there and burn the archives and property of the "Central League of Resistance." Carrillo was arrested and exiled from Yucatán.
However, the political situation soon took a turn. After Obregón took office as President of the Republic in 1920, Carrillo returned to Yucatán on June 18. That same year, he was elected as a federal deputy. In 1921, after entrusting the position of interim governor to his close friend Manuel Berzunza, Carrillo—acting as chairman of the party and the Central League of Resistance—turned his attention to mobilizing the agrarian regions of Yucatán and restoring the Leagues of Resistance. He recruited socialist allies locally, allied with local caciques [4], and established a tight-knit system of family and friends. This system later became the core of both the party organization and the state administrative apparatus. The expansion of the Leagues of Resistance and the alliance with the caciques enabled Carrillo to implement a broad revolutionary program.
In August 1921, the Second Congress of the Socialist Party of Yucatán was held in Izamal. The congress discussed and approved the renaming of the party to the "Socialist Party of the Southeast" (PSS) and established a Federal League of Resistance Committee to coordinate and guide the leagues in Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. At the same time, the socialist tendencies expressed at the meeting became more explicit, proposing the "expropriation without compensation of all arable land for collective use, and the nationalization of industry for the benefit of the 'proletarian state' to achieve the 'communist goals' of the Leagues of Resistance." The congress called on the Yucatán government and its branches to intensify efforts to socialize the state’s means of production, including all public utilities and services still in private hands, and to strive for the implementation of agrarian and industrial communism. The congress also reminded the government of Marx’s maxim: "The emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves." Furthermore, the congress discussed joining the Third International; it was decided not to join the organization but to maintain contact with it. Finally, the congress decided to support Carrillo’s candidacy for governor for the 1922–1926 term.
On November 6, 1921, facing a multi-party field that included the Liberal Constitutionalist Party, the Yucatán Liberal Party, and the Democratic Party, Carrillo won the election with 94.6% of the vote. He took office as governor in February of the following year.
The second stage lasted from Carrillo’s inauguration in February 1922 until his murder on January 3, 1924. During these brief 22 months, Carrillo led the pursuit of "20... [text continues]"
The "most radical social experiment in Latin America in the first half of the 20th century" was manifested in the promulgation and implementation of a series of reform policies.
First was the implementation of land reform. This was the focus of Carrillo’s policy. Following his ascension to power, land reform progressed rapidly. Aside from the state of Morelos, Yucatán distributed more land than any other state in the country. As previously mentioned, the slogan of the Socialist Party was the same as that of the Zapatista revolutionaries: "Land and Liberty." Carrillo's land distribution included the expropriation of henequen [5] plantation lands. In his inauguration speech on February 1, 1922, Carrillo announced to his supporters: "The land is yours. You were born here, you grew up here, and you will end your lives here, having broken your backs harvesting crops in the fields for masters who once snatched your land. But according to the new law, you have the right to reclaim the land; the new law recognizes this legitimate right, and the land shall remain yours; you are the people who labor, and these harvests naturally belong to you."
The aim of the first phase of the land reform was to distribute land to all villages and towns within the state. From January 1922 to early 1924, more than 23,000 peasants in 78 villages were granted 438,000 hectares of land. Adding the 150,000 hectares distributed to 26 villages in 1921—when Carrillo served as chairman of the Socialist Party of the Southeast and Berzunza was governor—a total of nearly 600,000 hectares were distributed, benefiting over 30,000 families. Carrillo’s land reform process was institutionalized, with every Thursday designated as the time for announcing new land grants and physical delivery, the so-called "Agrarian Thursdays" (Jueves Agrarios). On these days, Carrillo or his assistants would travel to the ejidos [6] receiving land to participate in colorful delivery ceremonies. During the Obregón administration, one-quarter of the national land distribution in Mexico was achieved in Yucatán, which became the country's greatest engine for land reform.
In 1923, land reform entered its second phase, which sought to gradually socialize the henequen plantations. The hope was to systematically expropriate existing henequen plantations, convert them into collective farms, and hand them over to the workers living on or near the plantations. Carrillo promulgated two important land decrees respectively. The first was the "Law on the Confiscation and Expropriation of Abandoned Hacienda Lands" of November 28, which stipulated that lands abandoned by large estate owners (hacendados) be transferred to worker collectives for operation, with nominal compensation provided. The second was the decree of December 4, which stipulated that the Export Commission would transfer 25% of all henequen revenue as profit and credit to workers to stimulate the development of henequen cooperatives. The Carrillo government provided approximately one million pesos in loans to henequen growers to improve fiber quality by purchasing more modern decorticating machines; meanwhile, it provided henequen workers with modern agricultural technology and management methods so they could successfully manage the fiber farms. Additionally, he negotiated with American companies through the Export Commission, successfully raising the export price of henequen.
To restore production diversification in Yucatán and achieve food self-sufficiency, Carrillo also advocated for the establishment of other types of production cooperatives, such as those for corn, sugar cane, and dairy cows. After distributing land, Carrillo sent agronomists into corn-growing and cattle-raising areas to introduce strategies and techniques for collective planting and marketing of communal crops, and to persuade farmers making milpas [7] to use improved seeds and introduce modern corn planting systems to increase yields.
The goal of Carrillo's land reform was "to collectivize the operation of the farms and ultimately socialize property relations throughout Yucatán." However, the two radical decrees of the second phase of land reform caused immense panic among the plantation oligarchy, which perhaps led to Carrillo's eventual assassination.
Second was the implementation of rationalist education (educación racionalista). The new government advocated for rationalist education, requiring all schools to be based on freedom—that is, free from the control of priests and other religious personnel. Schools were to abolish all rewards and punishments, exams, diplomas, and titles, emphasizing the acquisition of knowledge through manual labor in fields, shops, laboratories, and school work areas. Influenced by the revolutionary schools of the Soviet Union, Carrillo's concept of "rational education" linked the educational process to the class struggle, envisioning the transformation of the peasant from a pariah into a class-conscious worker. The "Rational School" would cultivate people "fit for life and liberated from all dogma, fighting for the transformation of society"; the purpose of education was to mold the "New Man" for the new society. Carrillo hoped that education would help him establish a socialist regime.
The new government founded the National University of the Southeast (now the Autonomous University of Yucatán), the Vocational Institute of Arts and Crafts, and the Academy of the Mayan Language. In 1922 alone, 417 public schools were opened. At the same time, agricultural schools were created to train peasants, urban night schools were established to educate workers, and there were plans to develop industrial schools. Carrillo also attached great importance to Mayan language instruction, making language teaching (both Spanish and Mayan) a priority of his educational policy. At that time, indigenous Mayans accounted for nearly half of the state's population, and indigenous participation was essential for the Yucatecan government.
Third was the support for the feminist movement. The new government defended women's rights. Given that Yucatecan society suffered not only from class oppression but also gender oppression, the Motul Congress decided that the resistance leagues (ligas de resistencia) of the Socialist Party of Yucatán should not only accept women but also defend their rights, especially political rights. Carrillo's sister, Elvia, was a feminist, and Carrillo fully supported her feminist initiatives. By 1923, there were at least 49 feminist leagues in Yucatán. They worked to eliminate alcoholism, drug abuse, and prostitution; established community kitchens; taught women to read and write to prepare for new professions; and promoted household management methods and hygiene practices, becoming an indispensable part of the resistance leagues of the Socialist Party of the Southeast. As the first female state legislator in Mexico, Elvia participated in the Pan-American Conference of Women and led the radicals in championing resolutions on birth control, the establishment of childcare centers, support for single mothers, and increased vocational training for women. Carrillo also supported family planning, legal divorce, the introduction of sex education curricula in schools, and the establishment of mobile health units. In 1922, Yucatecan feminists collaborated with the state government to promote the use of contraceptives by publishing articles in El Diario del Sureste and El Popular, delivering speeches at socialist congresses, and printing and distributing at least 5,000 copies of Margaret Sanger’s pamphlet, Regulation of Offspring or the New-Married Couple: Safe and Scientific Means to Prevent Conception. The new government also established socialist baptisms and community weddings, replacing old Catholic versions of these sacraments with red flower arrangements and orchestral performances of The Marseillaise and The Internationale.
Fourth was the promotion of a cultural revival movement. Given that Yucatecan art had long merely imitated European art, "falling into the wrong path paved for it by Europe," Carrillo hoped to create an art that the people could embrace. No one recognized more clearly than he the need for someone to awaken the Indians from their ignorance and provide an art they could understand, telling of their customs, religion, home, and race. Carrillo gathered artists together and preached socialism and democracy to them, saying: "There are admirable Mayan ruins on the Peninsula; artists should draw inspiration from there and create an art that serves the people." He invited writers who championed Mayan culture to teach in the resistance leagues and published works written in the Mayan language, such as Journey Through Yucatán and the Popol Vuh (the "Mayan Genesis"), striving to shape a Mayan, popular cultural art on the Peninsula.
On January 25, 1923, he signed an agreement to establish the Archaeological Museum of Yucatán, which saw 17,000 visitors in its first year. He also instructed that all buildings being constructed in the city of Mérida and other cities in the state should feature Mayan motifs, and that the Mayan language should become an official language of Yucatán. With help from the Carnegie Institution in the United States, the new government surveyed Chichen Itza and established an archaeological center there, the first of its kind in Mexico. To facilitate access to the largest group of archaeological remains, a highway connecting Dzitas and the Chichen Itza ruins was opened in July 1923. At the opening ceremony, Carrillo said: "To me, this event is of vital significance to the socialist movement, and I believe the moral impact it will have on the progress of our agenda will be very beneficial." He asserted that the enslaved Mayans could participate in social construction as actively as anyone else, and "the most powerful means to reawaken this idea... is to elevate the greatness of the Mayan race's past, making their civilization, progress, art, and everything in history that represents true and positive value widely known." He once said: "The revolution in Yucatán has one primary goal: to enable the Mayan Indians to attain the status of free men, to liberate them from the consequences of personal servitude and from the cultural and spiritual stagnation that slavery gradually imposed on them. Whether the revolution here succeeds or fails must ultimately be measured by this standard." Carrillo thus linked socialism with the revival of Mayan civilization, giving socialism a distinct indigenous character.
Fifth was the emphasis on the construction of the legal system. Carrillo focused most on seeking ideological and legal advice to carry out institutional reforms and economic restructuring for the collective interest from within the state governance structure and legal framework. In 1904, the Argentine law professor Alfredo L. Palacios proposed and passed several laws to improve working conditions; in 1913, Enrique del Valle Iberlucea, Argentina’s first Socialist senator, drafted a Labor Code favorable to workers. Carrillo learned of these through correspondence with his friends in the Argentine Socialist Party. During his administration, many reforms were accomplished through legal channels. The new government promulgated a series of laws, including the Social Security Law, the Divorce Law, the Family Relations Law, the Labor Law, the Tenant Law, the Law for the Expropriation of Public Utilities, the Law for the Revocation of Public Mandates for Elected Officials, and new Prison Regulations. Among these, the Divorce Law and Family Relations Law aimed to protect children born out of wedlock and promote family planning; the new Prison Regulations required more humane treatment of prisoners. Additionally, the first Environmental Pollution Law was promulgated. The thrust of the new government's legal system was to appeal to the public interest.
It is evident that the Carrillo government carried out extensive economic and social reforms under the guidance of socialist ideals. His economic reforms in particular, which attempted to change private ownership, opposed control by foreign capital, and emphasized class struggle and the leadership of the working class, represented a major step forward from the reforms of previous governments. However, because the land reform was too radical and struck at the interests of the plantation oligarchy and foreign monopoly capital, they were determined to see Carrillo dead. Following the coup by Adolfo de la Huerta in November 1923, his subordinate Juan Ricárdez Broca dissolved Carrillo’s revolutionary government in early December 1923. Carrillo was arrested on the coast of Quintana Roo on December 21. In the early morning of January 3, 1924, he and twelve assistants (including his three biological brothers) were shot in Mérida. The Yucatecan socialist movement was forced to a halt.
II. Why Did the Yucatecan Socialist Movement Occur?
The timing of the Yucatecan socialist movement happened to overlap with the Mexican Revolution and the Soviet "October Revolution," and these two major contexts undoubtedly exerted an influence. But we are very curious: how was this influence applied? Why did the "first socialist government in the Americas" arise in Yucatán? Research indicates that there are roughly several specific reasons:
1. The Spread of Socialist Thought in Mexico
As early as 1828, Robert Owen, a leading representative of European Utopian Socialism, wrote to the Mexican government requesting to conduct a utopian experiment in Texas and Coahuila, which belonged to Mexico at the time. In 1848...
Under the influence of the 19th-century European revolutions, the term "socialism" and related concepts spread widely in Mexico. After the Italian immigrant Plotino Rhodakanaty arrived in Mexico in 1861, he published Socialist Manual, or the Essentials of Fourier’s Doctrine. His significant contribution was promoting the transformation of mutual-aid organizations into economic struggle organizations with the character of trade unions. In 1862, Matías Romero, the Mexican Ambassador to Washington, translated Marx’s article "The Disorder in Mexico," becoming the country’s first translator of Marx’s works. In 1869, Santiago Villanueva, a supporter of the First International [8] in Mexico, distributed pamphlets of the Statutes of the International Workingmen’s Association among workers. Driven by his efforts, the country’s first proletarian organization aimed at defending the interests of the working class, "The Great Circle of Mexican Workers" (El Gran Círculo de Obreros de México), was established in 1871. This group founded the newspaper The Socialist (El Socialista), which, along with subsequent publications like The Social Revolution, Son of Labor, and The International, reported social news regarding the Paris Commune, the First International, and strike movements. In 1876, the first Mexican Workers’ Congress was held; after a fierce debate among the 135 delegates on whether to maintain a class struggle [9] stance, they proposed ten petitions to improve workers’ conditions. In 1874, a branch of the First International appeared in Mexico. In 1878, the first Socialist Party was established in the city of Puebla, and the following year, seventeen political organizations of various sizes joined it. The party’s chairman, Alberto Santa Fe, possessed a profound analysis of the national situation, arguing that the root of Mexico’s suffering was not political but social, and that the way out lay in agrarian reform and industrialization. He led a peasant uprising but met with failure. In 1881, the Socialist Party was banned by the authorities, after which Mexican socialism temporarily entered a low ebb. In 1884, the Communist Manifesto was published in Mexico for the first time.
By the end of the 19th century, Ricardo Flores Magón became an important figure in the dissemination of socialist thought. As early as 1892, he participated in student movements against the Díaz dictatorship. In 1900, he founded the newspaper Regeneration (Regeneración) in Mexico City, criticizing the Díaz government and propagating anarchism and socialism; in 1906, he presided over the creation of the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM). However, when Francisco I. Madero invited him in 1910 to join the plan to overthrow the Díaz government, Magón refused. He believed that Madero’s pursuit of a purely political revolution was insufficient as it lacked social construction; he argued for a simultaneous economic revolution to abolish the state and private property. According to the research of García Cantú, Ricardo Flores Magón and Héctor Victoria represented the continuation of two major socialist trends of the 19th century. The latter was a Yucatecan delegate to the 1916 Constitutional Convention, who extended the ideas regarding the improvement of labor conditions and increased worker welfare—originally proposed by "The Great Circle of Mexican Workers"—into the 1917 Constitution. Magón, meanwhile, was considered the only true 19th-century revolutionary in Mexico. He is regarded as one of the key figures driving social change in the Mexican Revolution [10]. He borrowed the concept of "Land and Liberty" [11] from the Russian Narodniks, shouting the slogan "Long live Land and Liberty!" and dispatched PLM members such as José Guerra and Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama to the state of Morelos to bring this slogan to Zapata's insurgent forces. At that time, Felipe Carrillo Puerto happened to be working within Zapata's ranks, serving as a commissioner on the agrarian commission. Influenced by Soto y Gama, he read extensively on socialist thought. Later, Carrillo brought the experiences of the Zapatista movement back to Yucatán.
2. The Communal Traditions of the Maya People Facilitated the Settlement of Socialist Thought
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Yucatán Peninsula was the home of the Maya people. However, due to the hot, dry climate, poor soil, and lack of gold or silver mines, the colonialists did not pay much attention to the region or develop many areas. Although large estates (haciendas) focused on maize production and cattle ranching appeared in some places, traditional indigenous village communities (pueblos) were still preserved in most parts of the peninsula until 1800, with the Maya accounting for two-thirds of the population. This unique demographic character gave the region a particularly strong indigenous flavor.
During the Classic period, the Maya possessed a glorious culture. Maya customs, farming techniques, prayers, chants, rituals, literacy, and mystical expressions had been passed down to the Maya of that era from before the conquest. Maya village communities were formed on the basis of "primitive communism" [12], each having its own communal lands (ejidos). To ensure the collection of indigenous tributes, the Spanish Crown stipulated through law that Spaniards and Indians live separately, preserving the original Maya village communities and thereby allowing the Maya to continue living in collectivist societies.
However, with the rise of the great estates—and especially after the post-independence government ceased to provide legal protection for communal lands—Maya land was continuously encroached upon. In the first half of the 19th century, Yucatecan agriculture began a commercial transformation, first with the development of sugar plantations, and followed in the late 19th century by a boom in henequen (sisal) fiber production. During this process, the situation of the Maya went from bad to worse. They demanded the return of seized lands and respect for their rights of autonomy, but they were defeated in the "Caste War" [13], driven to remote communities, or bound to henequen plantations as debt peons, living lives of misery. Nevertheless, the collectivist memory and "genes" of the Maya were not lost with the expropriation of communal lands. Once the political and military repressive forces of the authorities were removed and new popular political mobilization revived, the Maya would actively participate in the construction of a new society.
Therefore, there was a natural bond between Maya society and the socialism Carrillo aimed to establish. As Carrillo mentioned in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Chichén Itzá highway: "The particularity of Yucatecan socialism lies in the revival of the Maya nation." He stated that "the road to Chichén Itzá is like a symbolic bridge connecting the past greatness of this race—whose ruins have stood for generations—to its new glory now flying under the socialist triangular flag, so that the descendants of the Maya may enjoy an equal human status with all others." The seeds of socialism already existed within the ancient Maya civilization, and the Maya village community served as the cultural foundation for the socialist path.
3. The Economic and Social Structure of Yucatán Hidden Demands for Transformation
Before the Revolution, Yucatán had formed an economic structure dominated by the cultivation and export of henequen. The geographical conditions of Yucatán were favorable for the growth of henequen, the fiber of which had long been used by locals to make rope and other handicrafts. In the 1850s, commercial production of henequen gradually expanded, particularly after the appearance of the automatic knotting harvester (the McCormick reaper) in the United States, which caused demand for henequen fiber to skyrocket. To meet the expanding North American market demand, the original large estates on the peninsula were transformed into henequen plantations, utilizing new fiber-stripping machines. By 1881, the area planted with henequen had reached 46,000 hectares, accounting for 72.6% of the state’s total cultivated land. By the 1890s, seven-eighths of the state’s population was involved to some extent in the cultivation, processing, or sale of agave fiber. According to research by the famous American historian Frank Tannenbaum, by 1900, at least 75% of all rural residents in Yucatán lived on large estates (latifundios). The expansion of these estates led to "the near-complete disintegration of the original village communities... and the almost total concentration of property in the hands of a few large plantation owners." Maize, once self-sufficient, now relied on imports. On the other hand, the export value of henequen fiber reached 22.5 million pesos by 1900; railroads, ports, telegraphs, telephones, and urban public utilities serving henequen production all saw development. Trust groups led by the International Harvester Company of the United States, through their agents on the peninsula, realized control over the capital and markets of henequen production, intensifying the dependency of the peninsula’s economy.
The commercial transformation of henequen production on the peninsula also brought changes to the social structure. By 1915, Yucatecan society was basically polarized into two extreme social strata: the plantation-owner class and the debt-peon class. However, the former was not a unified entity; it was divided between a few families of the so-called "Divine Caste" (casta divina)—as satirized by Alvarado—and other ordinary plantation-owning families. The "Divine Caste" referred to 20 to 30 families allied with political officials and foreign capital, who at any given time could control approximately 50% of the fiber production and ultimately control 80% to 90% of the state’s total production through foreign trade and finance. They also invested in urban commerce, real estate, and small industries, constituting a true regional oligarchy. The second group consisted of over 370 other small and medium-sized plantation owners who, although belonging to the wealthy entrepreneurial class, were often in a state of debt or operational instability due to market price fluctuations and lack of capital. Nevertheless, together with the former, they constituted the ruling class of Yucatán.
Henequen plantations required a massive agricultural workforce, drawn from two primary sources. First were the "deportees" brought from outside (including Yaqui people from northern Mexico, political dissidents, criminals, and vagrants from the center, and Maya rebels from Quintana Roo) and contract laborers (expropriated peasants from central Mexico, proletarians from Mexico City, Puerto Ricans, and even Chinese and Koreans). Second were the local Maya laborers and communal peasants who had been stripped of their land. Once these people entered the henequen plantations, they became de facto prisoners; plantation owners used various methods to induce them into debt, turning them into debt peons. The labor intensity was immense, and workers who failed to meet quotas were frequently whipped or fined. Henequen workers had become actual slaves. According to research by John Kenneth Turner, approximately two-thirds of the Yaquis who came to Yucatán died within a year. In a state population of 300,000, there were 250 slaveholders, but the majority of slaves belonged to 50 henequen plantation owners who held over 100,000 slaves. Henequen laborers were confined within the plantations and forbidden from contact with the outside world. Through federal, state, and private police systems, as well as a monopoly on local government and judicial power, plantation owners effectively suppressed organized resistance and escapes by laborers. Given the monoculture nature of henequen production, workers were essentially under the dual exploitation of plantation owners and foreign capital. Besides rural henequen workers, Yucatán also had smaller numbers of urban workers, railway workers, and dockworkers.
Additionally, on the eve of the revolution, Yucatán had a middle class comprising 3% to 5% of the population, made up of intellectuals, journalists, professionals, small merchants, and small rural producers, most of whom served the agro-commercial elite. The rural petty bourgeoisie was a group composed of small-scale henequen and grain producers who lacked political influence and were vulnerable to taxation or economic crises. Rural caciques often emerged from this class.
The polarization of social strata, extreme forced labor, and debt slavery had already turned the Yucatán Peninsula into a "social hell," urgently requiring a revolution. In 1909...
After visiting the henequen plantations of Yucatán, Francisco Madero remarked in 1910: “If there is to be a social revolution in Mexico, it will begin in Yucatán.” Yucatán, relatively isolated and possessing a multi-layered police system, was at that time in urgent need of a shock from external forces. Only when the bulk of the old regime’s political and repressive power was neutralized by external forces could the Mayan revolutionary tradition be awakened, thereby forming a genuine political mobilization of the masses.
4. Alvarado’s Early Reforms Laid the Foundation The reforms of Salvador Alvarado from 1915 to 1917 constituted a "top-down" bourgeois revolution aimed at abolishing oligarchic rule and its armed forces. Given that Yucatán was the wealthiest state in Mexico at the time, President Venustiano Carranza viewed it as a vital source of revenue for the central government. Consequently, he dispatched Alvarado to lead an army into the city of Mérida on March 19, 1915. Alvarado quickly abolished the old repressive apparatus that supported the oligarchy and established a local committee composed of planters, merchants, the middle class, and workers—a populist government based on a multi-class alliance. The new government initiated the political mobilization of the Yucatecan masses in a moderate fashion. To increase pressure on the planters and the exporting bourgeoisie during negotiations, Alvarado founded the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOT) on June 2, 1916, while simultaneously carrying out a series of economic and social reforms.
In terms of economic reform, he abolished the system of debt peonage [14], liberating approximately 100,000 laborers; he negotiated with international monopoly capital to raise the price of henequen; to reduce export costs, he established Yucatán's first merchant fleet; he expanded the Yucatecan railway system; he restored and modernized the cordage industry; and he established a market regulatory commission responsible for importing and selling basic necessities at cost. He also initiated land reform: per the federal government’s 1915 Agrarian Law, he tasked the agrarian commission led by Felipe Carrillo Puerto with implementing land distribution, allocating several thousand hectares to 12 villages and distributing many more hectares to individuals as parcels.
Regarding educational reform, the new government promulgated the General Law on Public Education, established rural schools, and mandated that education must be secular, free, compulsory, and comprehensive. In 1916, an educational congress was convened, schools for agriculture and fine arts were founded, and a conservatory of music and the Peninsular Society of Fine Arts—one of the most famous cultural institutions of the time—were established. Libraries were set up in every municipality and on some plantations, totaling more than 100. By 1918, over 1,000 schools had been established, served by 2,000 teachers with a budget of 2.5 million pesos, representing 40% of the state government’s total expenditure budget. Schools were regarded as the lever to rescue the indigenous populace—who once possessed the most miraculous culture of antiquity—from ignorance.
In the sphere of women’s liberation, Alvarado prohibited machismo, advocated for equality between men and women, combated alcoholism, abolished brothels, implemented co-educational schooling, and opened government positions to women. He promoted the first Feminist Congress of Mexico, held in Yucatán on January 13, 1916, which passed decrees and put forward advanced proposals to guarantee women’s livelihoods and voting rights.
In terms of legislation, the new government promulgated the Agrarian Law, the Labor Law, the Fiscal Law, the Land Registry Law, and the Law on the Municipal Organization of the State—collectively known as the “Five Sister Laws.” Among these, the Agrarian Law provided for the establishment of an agrarian bank; the Labor Law established Conciliation and Arbitration Boards to resolve labor disputes and mandated maximum working days and minimum wages for both rural and urban areas; the Fiscal Law established a single consumption tax; and the Land Registry Law included the concept of integrating public property registration into the Land Management Bureau. Except for the last one, all the “Five Sister Laws” were promulgated before the 1857 Constitution was replaced by the 1917 Constitution, exerting a significant influence on the drafting of the new national constitution. Over three years, the new government issued 753 decrees, constructing a genuine legal structure.
The Alvarado government designed and implemented a relatively comprehensive reform, hoping to help end feudalism in Yucatán and serve as a model for all of Mexico. However, this reform was not intended to eliminate the latifundios (large estates), nor did it seek to alter the agrarian structure in favor of the peasantry; rather, it aimed to obtain more fiscal revenue. During Alvarado’s tenure, almost no land from the henequen plantations was distributed; most of the distributed land was uncultivated or planted with other products. His priorities were the abolition of debt peonage, the establishment of rural schools, and the creation of healthcare services for peasants. The goal was to transform those he considered "neo-feudal lords" into modern capitalists and semi-slave debt peons into workers or a true proletariat. To increase the output of henequen plantations, he specifically hired 21,136 workers from other regions of Mexico, expanding the henequen cultivation area to 338,552 hectares by 1916—double that of 1910. During his term, the funds provided to the Carranza government in the form of taxes alone reached 12 million pesos (approximately $6 million USD). Evidence suggests he sent at least 20 million pesos from the Regulatory Commission funds to Mexico City, along with an interest-free loan of 30 million pesos forcibly extracted from the planters. Alvarado’s thought was not based on Marxist ideology; he defended private property rights, did not oppose US imperialism, emphasized class conciliation, did not recognize the right of workers to strike, and believed only in state interventionism.
Alvarado was indeed able to strike a balance between the interests of capitalists and workers and maintained the state’s economic prosperity. This was due not only to his 7,000-strong army and his organizational skills but also to the timing of his arrival in Yucatán. It was a period of robust demand in the global henequen market and a golden era for Yucatecan production; the vast revenues from henequen made class conciliation possible. Simultaneously, as the 1917 Constitution had not yet been promulgated, he enjoyed a degree of autonomy in this relatively isolated region, free from central constraints. However, by the second half of 1917, President Carranza began to obstruct his reforms; the president merely wanted to integrate the region with the rest of the country and did not want Alvarado to push forward with truly radical reforms. Alvarado left Yucatán in 1918.
The "top-down" reforms implemented by Alvarado sparked socio-political mobilization on the Yucatán Peninsula, awakening the revolutionary consciousness of the lower classes and, to a large extent, laying the foundation for Carrillo Puerto’s "bottom-up" socialist revolution.
5. The Socialist Party and the Resistance Leagues Played a Vital Role The Yucatecan socialist movement fully utilized the role of the political party. The predecessor of the Socialist Party of Yucatán (PSS) was the Socialist Workers' Party established by Alvarado. After Carrillo Puerto assumed the party chairmanship, he reorganized it and expanded its scope to two other states, renaming it the Socialist Party of the Southeast (PSS), with a red equilateral triangle as its emblem. The uniqueness of this party lay in two aspects. First, it named its grassroots party organizations "Resistance Leagues" (ligas de resistencia)—revolutionary alliances formed by urban and rural revolutionary organizations to resist the threat of retaliation from the oligarchy and its allies. Urban unions were renamed Resistance Leagues after Alvarado's departure, and rural Resistance Leagues began to be organized under Carrillo Puerto’s leadership in mid-1917. Local Resistance Leagues were unified under the leadership of the "Central Resistance League." Second, during Carrillo Puerto’s tenure as governor, the governor served as both the party leader and the president of the Central Resistance League. Local Resistance Leagues acted as constituent units and instruments of both the party and the government, forming an organizational structure of "party-government integration," which allowed the party’s role as a vanguard [15] to be exercised with high efficiency.
In April 1918, the local legislature granted legal personality to the Resistance Leagues of the Socialist Party of Yucatán, enabling their members to exercise civil rights and pursue labor claims. The Resistance Leagues were somewhat similar to local "Soviets," serving as mediums for the development of social and political life in small communities. They reached deep into every town, village, and even plantation; activities such as political elections, land distribution, women’s rights, school construction, urban beautification, and anti-alcoholism propaganda were all advanced through the Resistance Leagues. Every Monday, the Resistance Leagues held a meeting known as "Red Monday." The themes included education, music, poetry, dance, theater, and athletic competitions. Members also discussed economic issues, land distribution, labor-capital conflicts, and other matters vital to their interests, seeking solutions. The Resistance Leagues provided genuine social security for their members; when a member faced difficulties, the League would solicit donations to alleviate their situation. Peasants also received a wealth of useful information and political inspiration during these meetings. The Resistance Leagues became organizations that truly promoted class consciousness and self-development.
The organization of the Resistance Leagues possessed clear characteristics of democratic centralism. The Central Resistance League exerted significant control over local leagues, collecting membership dues and dispatching technical representatives to guide or promote their work. The Central Resistance League possessed immense political power and could modify government resolutions through pressure; simultaneously, it held considerable economic power, implementing actions through its budget—it owned a petroleum enterprise with capital of 500,000 pesos, and subordinate party organizations established various cooperatives. When problems arose in villages or towns—whether regarding labor disputes, land struggles, or demands for improved services—as long as a party member petitioned, the local Resistance League would accept the case and report it to the Central Resistance League based on its importance, which would then arrange for a swift resolution. The outcomes were usually significantly in favor of the workers.
Carrillo Puerto once remarked: “The Resistance League is not just a political party or an educational institution, nor is it merely an instrument of local government; it is a combination of all these functions. It is the tool for the revival of the Mayan people and their culture, giving them the power they need to execute a broad social program... The Resistance League belongs to Yucatán... it is a tool for spiritual growth.” During Carrillo Puerto’s term as governor, the membership of the Resistance Leagues rose sharply. By the end of 1922, there were approximately 73,000 members across 417 Resistance Leagues. A year later, membership had far exceeded 80,000.
6. Carrillo Puerto’s Personal Factors Were Crucial Carrillo Puerto was a tall, handsome man with fair skin and green eyes, a typical Criollo of the Yucatán Peninsula. He was born in 1874 in the city of Motul, within the henequen-producing region of Yucatán, the second of fourteen children. His father had followed Benito Juárez in the war against the French intervention and later earned a living running a grocery store. Compelled by necessity from a young age, he engaged in many occupations, including farmer, cattle herder, logger, blacksmith, circus performer, country carter, muleteer, butcher, train ticket inspector, retailer, stevedore, journalist, agronomist, revolutionary, and legislator. This turbulent life and these rugged experiences gave him a broad understanding of the suffering of Mayan peasants, workers, and those on the social margins, stimulating his dissatisfaction with the social status quo. His leadership qualities were evident even as a minor; he once incited Indians to tear down barricades that prevented them from entering their own cornfields, for which he was imprisoned following charges brought by the planters who had erected the barriers. At every stage of his life, he resisted injustice. In every instance of setback, he built profound ideological convictions, determined to change his environment and aspiring to construct a just new society.
Carrillo Puerto only completed primary school; the formation of his socialist thought was derived more from the "University of Society." Throughout his life, he consciously sought out various political doctrines to find an ideology to guide his actions. His initial understanding of socialist principles may have been introduced in his childhood by a village priest—a Spanish refugee with an anarcho-syndicalist background. As a young man, he read a chapter of Marx’s Capital, as well as books by Proudhon and other European leftist figures. However, before joining the Zapatista organization, his thought remained within the scope of liberalism. He had attacked Porfirianism in the press and, while serving a prison sentence in 1911, translated the 1857 Constitution into the Mayan language. In 1913...
In 1911, he spent a period of exile in New Orleans, where he befriended radical American workers while working as a longshoreman; this horizontal engagement heightened his political consciousness. It was only after joining Zapata's forces in 1914 that he gained a deeper understanding of socialist theory. Within Zapata’s ranks, he quickly earned the title of "Cavalry Colonel" and became a member of the Third Agricultural Commission of the Cuautla district, responsible for agrarian reform. Through his interactions with the Mexican Liberal Party member Soto y Gama, and by reading and discussing anarchist and socialist works with other agronomists, his Marxist worldview gradually took shape. When he heard in 1915 that General Alvarado had arrived in Yucatan, he resolutely returned to his hometown to join the Agricultural Commission established by Alvarado, where he soon demonstrated unique organizational and mobilization skills. As previously mentioned, at the Motul Congress held in 1918, Carrillo invited Robert Haberman, a Romanian-American Marxist, to provide political consultancy to the Socialist Party of the Southeast. Haberman introduced the history and organizational methods of the European and American working-class movements, providing Carrillo and key members of the Socialist Party with a profound education in Marxist thought. By 1920, when Carrillo returned from a brief exile in the United States, he considered himself a Marxist and a communist. Between 1921 and 1923, Carrillo also maintained close correspondence with the Argentine socialist José Ingenieros, which significantly helped enrich his socialist thinking. From Ingenieros, he acquired a Latin American anti-imperialist consciousness and engaged in political reflection on the global political situation transformed by World War I and the Russian Revolution. Ingenieros suggested he maintain links of revolutionary solidarity with the Soviet Union, but simultaneously argued that Latin American social processes did not necessarily have to follow the paradigm of the Russian Revolution. He preferred to speak of Mexican agrarian socialism.
Carrillo’s Socialist Party established links with the Soviet Union. The party's placards featured quotes from the Communist Manifesto; "The Internationale" was sung at the conclusion of all political meetings; and the party’s letterhead bore the resolutions of the Third International. On February 1, 1922, David Dubrowsky, a Soviet envoy of the Leninist faction, attended Carrillo’s gubernatorial inauguration. In 1923, the Carrillo government supported the Soviet government with a shipment of medicine and other supplies, receiving a reply from Lenin along with political advice on handling agrarian issues. The Carrillo government was particularly impressed by the Soviet school system, using it as a reference model for educational reform in Yucatan. Despite this, Carrillo emphasized at the beginning of his administration that he intended to build his government as an independent socialist regime: "We do not intend to imitate Soviet Bolshevism. However, we will certainly establish a system where only the workers have the right to distribute and receive justice." Carrillo proudly proclaimed his government as the "first socialist government in the Americas." Yet his socialism was not a dogmatic imitation, but a pragmatic socialism suited to local social conditions.
Carrillo possessed not only firm socialist convictions but also extraordinary organizational and leadership abilities. Given the cultural characteristics of the Yucatan Peninsula, he focused his work on the countryside, especially the plantations. Having studied Mayan history and language in primary school, and having held a succession of different jobs, he was well-acquainted with the folk customs of the peninsula. Consequently, he was able to skillfully employ the popular language and expressions favored by the Maya to conduct propaganda and agitation among local peasants. He was a brilliant and infectious orator, affectionately called "Green Eyes" [16] by the peasants in local villages and towns.
As a shrewd politician, he recognized that the realization of the socialist program required not only the political mobilization of peasants and workers but also powerful allies at both the regional and federal levels. At the regional level, realizing that the road to Mayan liberation was long while his own time was short, he chose to ally with caciques [17] in his political mobilization. He treated them as political backbones, granting them concessions such as tax reductions, land distribution, wage increases, and expanded employment on plantations; in return, the latter recognized his absolute authority within the state. The caciques not only selectively employed violence against opponents of the regime to ensure the Socialist Party's political monopoly in the region but also served as informal community leaders. Through various radical and coercive means, they guaranteed that local peasants joined the Leagues of Resistance, sometimes even organizing these leagues themselves. Thus, Carrillo achieved the goal of skillfully utilizing the existing power base of the local gentry to serve the Socialist Party. Of course, this also sowed the seeds for the subsequent failure of the revolution.
At the federal level, he coordinated relations with the federal government relatively well. During the Porfiriato [18], Yucatan had always been the federal government's "cash cow." After the revolution began, the political situation there fell into chaos for a time. To obtain funds to support the revolution, President Carranza sent Alvarado to suppress the rebellion, where the latter launched a populist revolution. However, Carranza subsequently shifted to the right during his struggle for central power with Obregón. Carrillo foresightedly sided with the Obregón faction, becoming the first regional leader to declare support for Obregón. Although his bold action was temporarily suppressed by Carranza, the situation reversed quickly after Obregón took power in 1920, allowing Carrillo to make a comeback. Obregón was a relatively radical president, and it was with the support of the Obregón government that Carrillo was able to implement sweeping socialist reforms. He once wrote to Obregón: "The people of Yucatan truly love you, because during your term of government, the progress of the workers is guaranteed." Yet his final downfall was also due to his support for Obregón. In December 1923, former interim president Adolfo de la Huerta launched a rebellion against Obregón. In the face of this severe political crisis, President Obregón was unable to provide assistance to Carrillo. Carrillo was arrested while attempting to evacuate and was later shot by de la Huerta's subordinates.
III. Conclusion
Marked by the execution of Carrillo and his twelve revolutionary companions, the Yucatecan socialist movement met with failure. The reasons for this failure were multifaceted. Compared to Alvarado’s administration, Carrillo’s government was based solely on civilian rule and lacked the military support of the federal government. His power base relied primarily on the agricultural sector, but his tenure coincided with a drop in international henequen prices and the decline of the henequen industry, leaving his government without a sufficient budget to implement most of its reform policies. He utilized caciques in the process of political mobilization, but these leaders often engaged in repression, threats, and even kidnappings through nepotism, patronage, and informal political networks, resulting in political corruption that did not aid genuine political mobilization. The goals of his socialist movement were too radical, contradicting the general development direction of the federal government. The Mexican Revolution was, after all, a bourgeois revolution; although radical examples could be found during the Great Revolution and national reconstruction, the politicians of the federal government were not Marxists, and they did not truly desire the emergence of excessive movements in any single region. Furthermore, as a regional leader, Carrillo was too powerful. In the 1920s, as the national revolutionary movement gradually subsided, the federal government was seeking to build an integrated state through corporatism that unified the industrial and agricultural sectors. In this context, radical regional "strongmen" like Carrillo were unwelcome. A local government can only achieve significant results when its actions are consistent with or aligned with the intentions of the central government; otherwise, it is difficult to sustain itself for long.
Despite the movement's failure, it exerted a profound influence. First was its impact on Yucatecan society during the movement's operation. Carrillo’s economic reforms briefly achieved land distribution and the liberation of labor, encouraged production diversification, and promoted changes to the monoculture structure. Politically, it struck at the rule of the plantation oligarchy and raised the political consciousness and social status of peasants and workers. In socio-cultural terms, it created thousands of new schools, established a secular education system, and greatly increased the health, hygiene, and social welfare of the local population. Strengthening Mayan language instruction and building museums and roads to Mayan ruins promoted a cultural renaissance among the Mayan Indians.
Secondly, the movement influenced national reconstruction during the Cárdenas period. The presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas was a radical stage of Mexican national reconstruction. He was undoubtedly influenced by the Yucatecan socialist movement. During his presidential campaign, he proclaimed: "The basic action of the Mexican Revolution in its new stage is to march toward socialism. It is distinct from both anachronistic classical liberalism and the communism currently being experimented with in the Soviet Union. People do not want individualistic liberalism because it only produces the exploitation of man by man and offers natural wealth and the means of production to selfish individuals. Nor does everyone want communism, because our people are unwilling to share the fruits of labor collectively or to have a state boss replace a private boss." The socialism he envisioned was one where workers controlled all means of production and wealth was fairly distributed among the factors of production, eliminating all instances of unearned income. However, he did not believe the state would act as an exploiter; rather, he believed it was necessary for the state to serve as the regulator of production and distribution. Specifically regarding agriculture, his goal was to establish collective ejidos. Cárdenas came to Yucatan in person in 1937 to preside over land reform in the henequen-producing regions. He chose the Yucatan region, along with the cotton-producing La Laguna region in the north, to serve as demonstration windows for the construction of a collective economy. Hundreds of plantation lands were merged into 272 collective farms, managed and cultivated collectively by peasants, while a series of large-scale collective processing plants were established. Carrillo’s idea of collectivizing plantations was put into concrete practice during this land reform. Of course, due to reasons such as the disconnect between the supply of henequen from the plantations and the processing by collective plants, these reforms did not produce the ideal results. Additionally, the socialist education advocated during the Cárdenas period was inspired by the experience of rationalist education in Yucatan. The Socialist Party of the Southeast led by Carrillo was absorbed into the official National Revolutionary Party (PNR) when it was established in 1929, and his experience in party-building was promoted from Yucatan to the entire country. Carrillo’s use of archaeological sites, ancient architecture, and folk art forms to awaken and cultivate the Mayan people's pride in their great cultural traditions became an important component of Mexican cultural nationalism, promoting national integration and state reconstruction.
Thirdly, the Yucatecan socialist movement, as a legacy, has long remained in the memory of the Mexican and Latin American people through various forms. In November 1921, the great painter Diego Rivera and Minister of Education José Vasconcelos visited Yucatan, where they received a warm welcome from the indigenous masses led by Carrillo. The local cities, plantations, and the Chichén Itzá ruins left a deep impression on them. Shortly after his return, Rivera painted Carrillo’s image in the murals of the National Palace, standing alongside Zapata beneath a red flag inscribed with "Liberty and Land." On October 24, 1924, the 31st Legislative Session of the Yucatan State Congress passed a resolution granting Carrillo the title of "Meritorious Servant of the Proletariat" and inscribed his name in gold on the wall of the legislative hall. The resolution stated that Carrillo "organized all workers and peasants of Yucatan into the Leagues of Resistance to improve their economic condition; strove to organize all workers and peasants of the Republic; and at the worker congresses in Motul and Izamal, they adopted highly advanced socialist principles that constitute the pride of labor congresses; his most prominent characteristic was that, to realize his social ideals, his government activities were always full of vitality, energy, and integrity." The Yucatecan socialist movement has been reflected in Mexico's history museums, films, and various artistic creations.
Entering the 21st century, as socialist movements underwent a resurgence in Latin America, people naturally looked back to Carrillo and his socialism. On January 3, 2012, Dr. Marcos Alejandro Celis Quintal, President of the High Court of Justice of Yucatan, spoke at the commemoration of the 88th anniversary of Carrillo’s death...
In a speech delivered on the anniversary [of Carrillo Puerto's death], it was stated: "In recent years, Carrillo’s social model has inspired the government's actions. Yucatecans have once again embarked on the path of building a more just and free society. ... Justice for the Maya is established by rescuing their dignity and improving their living conditions... Carrillo is, more than ever, the bond between our Mayan ancestors and the Yucatan of the 21st century."
In his book The Time of Myths and Carnivals: Indians, Peasants, and Revolution from Felipe Carrillo to Evo Morales, Mexican sociologist Armando Bartra conducts comparative research on the Yucatecan socialist movement of the early 20th century and the communal socialism [19] of Bolivia in the early 21st century. He argues that the Yucatecan socialist movement integrated Mayan civilization with socialism, and that "there is a clear political link between Carrillo and Evo Morales. If we recover the communitarian proposals of the Peruvian José Mariátegui [20], the link between the two becomes even more evident." Furthermore, "what happened in Yucatan less than a hundred years ago foreshadowed the Andean-Amazonian revolution of the early 21st century." A bridge exists between Mayan socialism and Bolivia's "communal socialism."
The tremors of the Yucatecan socialist movement continue to echo across the American continent a century later! (Notes omitted)
(Author Biographies: Han Qi is a professor at the Center for World Modern and Contemporary History Research and the Center for Latin American Studies at Nankai University; Jiang Yuyan is a doctoral student at the Center for Latin American Studies at Nankai University)
Online Editor: Zhang Jian Source: Journal of Shanghai Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), Issue 3, 2023.