Social change in Mexico's Northeast and the rise of Pedro Rojas, 1821-1860

Abstract

Independence engendered economic, political, and social changes in Mexico's Northeast. Regarding the imperial policy that had restricted foreign trade to the ports of Veracruz and Acapulco during the colonial era as a hindrance to prosperity, in 1821 the new national leaders opened additional harbors, including Tampico and Matamoros, to international commerce. Their decision produced a commercial revolution in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila. This area had remained relatively isolated since the early seventeenth century because of its remoteness from the central provinces, its lack of gold and silver mines, and dismal road conditions. Beginning in the 1820s, residents of Mexico's Northeast commenced to exchange some of their goods, and silver from Zacatecas, for foreign merchandise. Besides a mercantile expansion, the inhabitants of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila also experienced new political ideas following independence as liberal and federal concepts infiltrated into the area. The struggle that ensued in the region between liberal-federalists and conservative-centralists culminated with the liberal regime of Santiago Vidaurri. Along with economic and political changes, the people of Mexico's Northeast also received democratic and capitalist ideas from the Anglo-Americans who began arriving in the area in the 1820s. These innovations disintegrated the traditional norteno society that had developed since the seventeenth century and created a favorable milieu for the emergence of the prophet Pedro Rojas. As more nortenos engaged in commercial ventures, adopted liberal ideas, and associated with Anglo-Americans, their hierarchical, patriarchal society, as well as their subsistence economy, started to breakdown. This development produced a social crisis because their ethos and world view started to diverge substantially. By 1860, the predicament had reached a magnitude that enabled Pedro Rojas to launch a successful prophetic career. Proclaiming a religious message that undermined the authority of the Catholic church, Rojas attracted large crowds as he traveled through northern Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. The prophet performed a significant role because he assisted in the formation of a new ethos.