The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976 Page: 3
528 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Destruction of the Mexican Cattle Industry
revolutionary groups that sought to wrench control away from old-line
adherents of Porfirio Diaz. During Diaz's long tenure as president of Mexico
(1876-19i i1), the latifundios, or large landed estates, grew with rapidity.
Prior to I9Io, nineteen latifundios controlled nearly half of the State of
Chihuahua, Mexico's largest state. Companies such as the Palomas Land
and Cattle Company, an American-based concern immediately across the
border from Columbus, New Mexico, and the Babicora Ranch of publisher
William Randolph Hearst, as well as the vast holdings of Luis Terrazas,
became particularly odious symbols of the old regime.'
The Mexican Revolution began to disintegrate shortly after Madero took
power in I9II. Splinter groups pronounced against him. One of these,
headed by Pascual Orozco, Jr. (former commander of Madero's revolu-
tionary army), centered in Chihuahua, posed a major threat to the govern-
ment, and detracted from Madero's feeble attempts to bring democracy to
Mexico. Along the Mexican border federales (government troops) syste-
matically procured cattle and horses in an effort to prepare themselves for
the onslaught of Orozco's colorados. In addition, the federales aimed to
protect United States landholdings in northern Chihuahua.9
Orozco recognized the economic potential that northern Mexico's cattle
presented for his counterrevolution. His forces stole cattle from northern
haciendas and sold these in the United States in exchange for arms and
ordnance. Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Relations requested that the
United States Department of State stop all cattle importations from rebels.
The United States could not, however, under existing statutes, refuse the
importation of cattle which met sanitary requirements.,
The orozquista rebellion established the pattern of forced seizure and
cattle rustling for the remainder of the Revolution. Orozquista commanders
7Francisco R. Almada, La revolucidn en el estado de Chihuahua (2 vols.; Mexico City,
x964), I, 58-60.
sFor a detailed study of Orozco, see Michael C. Meyer, Mexican Rebel: Pascual Orozco
and the Mexican Revolution, 1g9o-19g5 (Lincoln, x967). Orozco was a former mule-
skinner turned revolutionary general. He and Francisco Villa were instrumental in de-
feating Diaz's forces at Ciudad Juarez in 19 I. Orozco broke with Francisco Madero in
1912 when he led his colorado troops against his former leader. For a while, Orozco and
Huerta were opposed to each other. By I915, however, they would make common cause
in an attempt to begin a counterrevolution in Mexico. See also Michael C. Meyer,
Huerta: A Political Portrait (Lincoln, 1972).
9Luther T. Ellsworth to Philander C. Knox, March 27, 191g2, Papers of the Department
of State relating to the Internal Affairs of Mexico, 1910o-929, File 812.o0/3435,
Record Group 59 (National Archives). (References to Record Group 59 will here-
after be cited as RG 59.)
10Manuel Calero to Knox, June 22, 1912, File 812.oo/4291, ibid.; F. Mac Veagh to
Knox, July 1, I912, File 812.00/4348, ibid.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976, periodical, 1975/1976; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101203/m1/21/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.