The Paths of Forced Labor: Re-tracing Slavery in 19th Century Mexico

• In Event: Capitales en tránsito: producción, circulación e intercambio cultural en México

Abstract

If Mexico’s past relationship to slavery has often been blurred and disavowed, what would be the vantage point from which episodes of slavery can be unmasked? During the 19th Century two episodes of slavery connected the edges of the nation’s territory: the Northern border and the Yucatán Peninsula. Enslaving indigenous rebel communities, up-rooting them and sending them elsewhere to do forced labor was how the Mexican Government repressed two of the most important indigenous rebellions of the century: the Caste War and the Yaqui insurgencies. Though largely understudied in Mexico’s official historical narrative, photographs and fictional accounts of the rebellion captured the occurrence of these episodes using a varied array of literary tropes and rhetorical figures. This presentation will explore how certain historical episodes can be recovered and re-thought through a close-reading of texts and pictures that challenges the coherence of national boundaries and re-traces the often forgotten paths of forced labor. I will consider two novels, contemporary to the Caste War, written by Severo del Castillo and Pantaleón Barrera, as well as the account of the Yaqui Rebellion written by US journalist and writer, John Kenneth Turner. By analyzing the representation of episodes of slavery this paper will engage in a critique of the limits of understanding Mexico’s 19th century through the paradigm of the Nation, as these often erased and forgotten episodes reveal Mexico’s connection to broader geographies and can only be seen from an trans-national perspective.

Author

• Ana Sabau Fernández, UC Riverside