ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Transnational Flows that Made Necaxa

• In Event: Wires Across Borders: Transnational Perspectives on Electrical Histories

English Abstract

The construction of the Necaxa hydroelectric complex (1903-1914) in central Mexico entailed an intertwined process of possession and dispossession, displacement and erasure. For Mexico, a fossil-fuel-hungry country, advances in hydraulic engineering had made the vision of an electrical-powered industrial future not just desirable but achievable. Historically, the forging of new energy landscapes has not only entailed the reengineering of spaces, nature, labor, livelihoods, aesthetics, and imaginaries but has also violence that reinforces inequalities. The transnational movement of ideas, bodies, techniques, capital, and machinery made the imaginary and physical construction of Necaxa. In the late nineteenth century, American water technicians fanned out across the globe with concepts, methods, and tools to put natural resources in circulation; the hubris and detritus of their infrastructural projects reverberated throughout regions, shattering livelihoods and relationships. This paper argues that a transnational perspective is essential for understanding the history of energy and modernity. It presents Necaxa as a site of transnational encounter and conflict, populated by foreign water technicians from the United States and Europe, alongside local workers and villagers. It examines the roles of these foreign experts as well as the tools and indigenous knowledge of the local people in reshaping the region.

Author

• Diana J. Montaño, Washington University in St. Louis