It has been a while since I have posted anything new on the blog, so I thought I would catch everyone up on some of my more current research.
I am currently writing the last chapter of my doctoral dissertation on wireless communications in Mexico, 1899-1934. If all goes as planned, I will be defending in spring 2013. Although the dissertation is not about Rolland, I do discuss his work with radio during the 1910s and 1920s. But this project, and preparing for the first classes that I will teach on the history of modern Mexico at the University of Oklahoma, have kept me from giving my full attention to further investigating Rolland.
That said, I have managed to gather more sources, and I have been organizing what documents I have, so that I can start writing a full-length book on the life and times of Modesto C. Rolland as soon as I finish the first draft of my dissertation. In other words, I plan on getting started this fall. I have already acquired a tremendous amount of primary and secondary materials for the project, but I plan on making one more trip to Mexico in the near future in order to follow up on a few new leads on source materials in Baja California, Mexico City, and Michoacan. I also would like to look in the U.S. National Archives and in El Paso newspaper collections.
For those interested, here are a few sources that I have recently looked at:
“Importancia de la
mexicanización del personal técnico en las Líneas Nacionales,” Mexico Nuevo, 3 Jul. 1909, 3.
“Por las escuelas,” El Diario 12 Aug. 1909, 7.
“Conferencias de
ingeniería,” El Tiempo, 15 Oct. 1909,
3.
Rolland, Modesto C. “A Trial by Socialism in Mexico:
What the Mexicans are Fighting For,” Forum
(July 1916): 79-90.
Rolland, Modesto C. “Why Mexico is Neutral.” The Public 20, no. 999 (25 May 1917):
509-10.
Rolland, Modesto C. “Petroleum in Mexico.” The International Socialist Review 17,
no. 3 (September 1917): 149-53.
Rolland, Modesto C.
“Introducción,” in Apuntes sobre tarifas
de transporte y transmisión: En busca de un sistema coordinador de Ferrocarriles
y Camiones. México, DF: “Avante,” 1938, 1.
Jordan, David Starr. The Days of a Naturalist, Teacher, and Minor Prophet of Democracy,
Volume 2, 1900-1921. New York: World Book Company, 1922.
Klich, Lynda. “Estridentópolis: Achieving a Post-Revolutionary
Utopia in Jalapa.” DAPA 26 (2012):
106-131.
Anderson, Mark Cronlund. Pancho Villa’s Revolution by Headlines. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 2001.
Carranza, Luis E. Architecture
as Revolution: Episodes in the History of Modern Mexico. Austin: University
of Texas Press, 2010.
Dorsey, Florence. Road
to the Sea: The Story of James B. Eads. New York: Rinehart & Company,
1947.
Tibol, Raquel. Frida
Kahlo: An Open Life. Translated by Elinor Randall. (Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press, 1999.
All of these sources mention, or were written by, Modesto C. Rolland.
As I get the project underway I will make a greater effort to keep everyone informed of my progress.
Thanks for your continued interest!
Saludos,
J. Justin Castro
