The Southwest Meets the Huasteca; The Struggle for Mexican Oil

Author

Patrick Madaus

Date of Award

2024

First Advisor

Daniel Neilson

Second Advisor

Chris Coggins

Abstract

This thesis argues that the racial categories and modes of extraction and labor exploitation forged by Anglo settlers in the American Southwest, were transposed into Mexico proper by American oil companies upon the discovery of oil in the Huasteca region of Mexico. The political situation opened up by the Mexican Revolution and the organizing of Mexican oil workers successfully, if unevenly, challenged the system of racialized labor exploitation which the American oil companies created in Mexico. The conflict between American oil companies and Mexican oil workers was situated within a broader context of imperialism and unequal exchange between the United States and Mexico. The government of the Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz aided American capitalists in their exploitation of Mexican labor and resources under the guise of economic modernization. Yet in the process Diaz alienated large segments of Mexican society leading to a revolutionary upheaval which would profoundly change not only Mexican society but relations between the United States and Mexico. It was within this context that the Mexican oil workers would lead the charge to take Mexico’s oil resources out of the hands of foreign, in particular, American oil companies’ control.

Recommended Citation

Madaus, Patrick, "The Southwest Meets the Huasteca; The Struggle for Mexican Oil" (2024). Senior Theses. 1672.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/sr-theses/1672