People and Power in Modern Mexico

This course is an introduction to the social, economic, and political development of modern Mexico. We start with an analysis of the effect that colonial patterns of domination had on Mexican society after independence in the early 19th century. Thereafter, we examine two centuries of state and nation formation. Throughout this period, we explore issues such as the attainment and preservation of power, national identity, foreign influences, modernization, authoritarianism, revolution, and economic cycles. We trace these processes of Mexico's development through the analysis of the lives and work of Mexico's leaders, that is, a biography of power, and the environment that surrounded them. Throughout the course, students will explore the complexity of Mexican society and gain a deeper understanding of the major challenges facing the nation, including how to enforce and abide by the law, how to confront drug trafficking and violence, how to approach globalization, how to overcome poverty and inequality and, more fundamentally, how Mexico could free itself from that part of the past that is only weight and sickness in order to convert the biography of power into the story of all Mexican lives, that is, to evolve towards democracy (Krauze, 1998: 798).