What is Cardenismo? Origins and history of the movement

The history of humanity and how it has structured its society is complex and troubled. Throughout history there have been many revolutions and socio-political movements that have been generated to change society, often when there are widespread situations of great social unrest, famine, famine and perception of inequality among the citizens. The clearest and most well-known example of this is the French Revolution.

However, it is not the only one, just as Europe is not the only continent in which they have occurred. And it is that another example, this time in Mexican lands, we can find it in the political movement known as cardenismo, about which we are going to talk throughout this article.

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What is Cardenismo?

Cardenismo is called a political type movement that took place in Mexico, throughout the thirties, and that owes its name to its main promoter, President Lázaro Cárdenas del Río. This political movement occurred at a time of great conflict, after a revolution in the peasantry, and is characterized by the search for an improvement in the situation of peasants and other classes workers.

It is defined as a socialist movement that despite the fact that initially it had little acceptance by the estates it sought to favor, with the passage of time ended up generating important socioeconomic changes, to the point of being considered one of the political periods that have generated the most changes in the country's situation.

A bit of history: the origins of this movement

In order to understand what Cardenismo is and how it arises, it is first necessary to take into account the situation from which it starts. The origins of this political movement can be found in the coming to power of Porfirio Díaz under the promise of establishing a democracy and its subsequent tenure in office, becoming a dictator and staying in power by force of arms and the support of a circle privileged.

As the years passed, the population, and especially the worker and peasant sectors, began to suffer serious repercussions, there being no protection for the working classes and poverty and great differences. Movements against the regime began to emerge, as well as multiple conflicts and armed struggles in which leaders such as Madero and Zapata participated. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 arose, which arose to overthrow the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz.

After the removal and flight of the dictator, the new leader and organizer of a large part of the Revolution, Madero, began to make great changes. However, he was assassinated in 1913, which returned the country to a situation of great social tension, political struggles, and inequality. The War of the Cristeros also occurred shortly after, an armed conflict in protest of the policies exercised by President Obregón and his successor Plutarco Elías Calles.

Calles was a soldier who defended the need to put an end to political tension through arms and sought to further empower the army, with a vision contrary to the working class. In addition, at this time the effects of the Great Depression would be seen, something that left the whole of the Mexican people in a precarious situation.

In 1933, with the elections a year away, two great confronting positions appeared: the traditional and military-style of Calles or another much more centered on the workers and workers, which sought a democratic regeneration and which was led by Lázaro Cardenas. During the 1934 elections it was this second one who would win, something that would make Cárdenas president again and start Cardenismo.

Cárdenas would propose in order to reduce the high level of social conflict renew political life and return to an ideal of democracy, as well as fighting for the rights of the different estates and social groups and trying to reduce social differences and the abuses of large landowners and businessmen. Likewise, the Mexican president was open to relations with other countries and welcomed a large number of immigrants fleeing conflicts such as the Spanish Civil War.

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Main political reforms

There were multiple changes that Cardenismo tried to make in order to improve the situation of the country and recover sociopolitical stability, some of which were highly controversial in their moment.

The first of these is linked to a profound reform at the agrarian level, which sought to distribute the land among the workers and peasants and reduce the power of the large landowners. It was intended to promote the development and cultivation of the land, iron out social differences and transform the social fabric.

Associations such as the National Peasant Confederation and the Confederation of Workers of Mexico were formed, and the power and role of unions and strikes was promoted. In this sense, laws were also advocated in which

Educational policies also arose to improve the education of the working classes, pretending to offer a training of progressive and socialist orientation with which he also intended to reduce religious fanaticism as well as to train professionals skilled. He introduced free, secular and compulsory education up to the age of fifteen., and generated an increase in literacy in rural areas.

Another of the best-known moments of the Cardenista period is the expropriation of oil fields and oil companies, something that sought to regain control of these resources for the country itself but which in turn was a great source of conflict and discomfort for the business owners of the companies. The railway industry was also nationalized.

end of cardenismo

Despite the changes in social policies that Cardenismo introduced, the truth is that this political movement faced numerous difficulties that led to its downfall.

For starters, your various policies in pursuit of the search for equality and education of the people, although they generated an improvement in the level of literacy, they could not be fully applied due to the entrenchment of the social differences as well as the risks and lack of preparation that teachers faced in an environment that was often hostile.

Policies such as the nationalization of oil, which led to international unrest, and the high level of spending during the application of a country that in those times it did not have excessively favorable economic conditions (we must also bear in mind that the world was still feeling the effects of the Great Depression) did that a deep economic crisis appeared.

In addition to this, some sectors of society considered that the Cárdenas regime betrayed the spirit of the Revolution, in addition to resorting to populism and being influenced by the influence of foreign countries and their systems politicians. Cardenismo was accused of being both fascist and communist (especially the latter), something that, together with the aforementioned elements, gradually diminished its popularity.

Likewise, former landowners and businessmen saw social and economic reforms as something threatening and many citizens began to view the established change policies as excessively radicals.

Some riots and revolts such as Saturnino Cedillo appeared, which led to various deaths, and fear of the emergence of a new civil war began to appear. All this caused that with time the voices of discontent were increasing, and the opposition (initially very divided) was gaining prestige.

The last years of the 1940s were turbulent, Cardenismo passing to a more moderate due to the great social tensions and beginning to prepare the electoral campaigns for 1940. President Cárdenas tried to generate free elections, one of the objectives of Cardenismo being to try to revitalize the ideal of democracy.

However, during these there were numerous accusations of corruption and manipulation. Cardenismo came to an end in these elections, obtaining the presidency the leader of the recently reformulated Party of the Mexican Revolution Manuel Ávila Camacho.

Bibliographic references:

• Knight, A. (1994). "Cardenismo: Juggernaut or Jalopy?" J. of Latin Am. Studies 26.
• Becker, M. (1995). Setting the Virgin on Fire: Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán Peasants, and the Redemption of the Mexican Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.