Research notes:


Research notes: I've really been delving into the network of Mexican propagandists, spies, lawyers, and businessmen working for "First Chief" Venustiano Carranza in the United States during the Mexican Revolution from 1914 to 1917. Historian Michael M. Smith has best explored this vast network to date, but there is still much to do to clarify its operations. It was truly impressive and had a huge impact on how the Wilson Administration and U.S. public viewed Carranza's Constitutionalist forces. It shows in many ways that it was the Constitutionalists' organizational capacities, not only in Mexico, but also abroad, that gave them the greatest edge and led to their ultimate victory. Modesto C. Rolland was crucial in this network as a founder of the Latin-American News Association and the Mexican Bureau of Information, which published books, pamphlets, spoke at public events, and sent weekly articles to over 500 U.S. newspaper, President Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. Congress, U.S. periodicals, and Mexican expatriates. I find it fascinating that engineers played such a prominent role in this network. Rolland was not the only one. For example, Francisco Urquidi, who Rolland initially worked under (and fought with) in New York, was a former classmate of Rolland's in the National School of Engineering in the early 1900s. They had an excellent capacity in organization and distribution, but they were also clever writers. There talents went beyond engineering the physical environment. A number of Mexican engineers during the revolution became prominent propagandists, essayists, newspaper editors, and political advisors, roles not typically attributed to engineers in the United States.


--Justin Castro