México : la revolución, los discursos políticos y la idiosincracia de las clases dirigentes vistas a través de la novela La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962) de Carlos Fuentes

Abstract

The Mexican Revolution, which has always been considered one of the most important events that took place in the post-independence period throughout Latin America, promised much but achieved very little. The objective of this report is to participate in a very extensive debate caused by this historical process. This is done in a somewhat original way; the image of the revolution represented in literature and that of the speeches delivered by the triumphant politicians of the revolution will be compared. This will be done through a detailed analysis of the novel The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962) by Carlos Fuentes, which besides being a synthesis of the main events in the history of Mexico since its Independence represents, also, the closing of the cycle of the narrative of the revolution. The next step is the comparison between the vision configured by Fuentes and that offered by two foundational speeches from two different and crucial periods in the political history of post-revolutionary Mexico: the one delivered by Venustiano Carranza at the inaugural session of the Constituent Congress of the States Unidos Mexicanos (1916), in which Carranza presents the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1917, and the other of Plutarco Elías Calles at the opening of the ordinary sessions of the Congress in 1928 in the aftermath of the murder of Álvaro Obregón, assassinated after being re-elected for a second term. Crucial issues in the history of the Mexican Revolution will be addressed, such as the distribution of land, political corruption and the forging of a hero who looks more like an antihero, and the different stances in relation to the topics raised in this research will be contrasted.