Ideology And State-Building: The Political Function Of Rural Education In Mexico, 1921 – 1935

One of the most striking features of the politics of the so-called "Sonoran dynasty" which held power in Mexico from 1920 to 1934, particularly under the self-styled "Jefe Máximo de la Revolución, Plutarco Elias Calles, was the emphasis placed on the reform and extension of popular education; indeed, this became the most visible positive achievement of a régime noteworthy in other respects for its corruption and failure to fulfil revolutionary promises. The Sonoran régime has normally been interpreted in terms of the overriding desire to consolidate power, to restore order after a decade of devastating civil war and in the face of chronic factionalism; and beyond this, Presidents Obregón and Calles have been seen as nation-builders, statesmen who for all their shortcomings, grasped the essential vision of the Mexican Revolution and attempted to lay the basis for its fulfilment by forging an effective nation-State. If they ignored other critical issues, above all the overwhelming material problem of agrarian reform, this failure has been explained by the fundamental imperative of consolidating the new Revolutionary State and by the external constraints imposed by U.S. interests.