Crónica del poder

Los de abjo treats what is perhaps the saddest period in modern Mexican history, a period of aimless slaughter when a whole nation was plunged into strife by leaders who had few clear ideas of what they were striving for. The reader shares the same disillusionment that the author himself must have felt as he met leader after leader whose revolutionary zeal was merely a disguise for base passions and desires.

"Revisionist view of the traditional interpretation of 1923 revolt as a reaction against Obregón's imposition of Calles. Authors study four different regional revolts between 1923-24, all with different leaders and provoked by different causes: Rómulo Figueroa in Guerrero, Enrique Estrada in Jalisco, Guadalupe Sánchez in Veracruz, and Fortunato Maycotte in Oaxaca. Rebels failed because of a lack of central control or unifying program. Adolfo de la Huerta played only a 'decorative role' in the armed movement against Obregón"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Sharply critical analysis of Mexico's recent round of ambitious structural reforms, particularly of oil industry and finance reforms, which author says show direct line of descent from 18th-century Bourbon reforms, politics of Porfirio Diaz and neoliberal ideals of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, historical antecedents vilified by many on left in Mexico. Author was Mexico's youngest elected governor and is currently serving in Congress.

1888, pt. 2, includes meteoroloical observations reported from the Observatorio Meteorológico-Magnético de Central Mexico, for the years 1877-1888.