ABSTRACT
The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) propelled a cultural renaissance at home and sparked the imagination of leftist intellectuals throughout Latin America, who dreamed of a future in which a commitment to social justice would replace centuries of oppression and inequality. The conflict, which began as liberal opposition to the re-election of Porfirio Díaz, president since 1876, became an unequivocal expression of discontent from Mexico’s disenfranchised communities. 1 United in the south under Emiliano Zapata and under Pancho Villa in the north, revolutionaries demanded land reform, improved working conditions, and betterments to social welfare from the state—calls answered by the Constitution of 1917. The post-revolutionary moment became a time of spirited optimism during which different public actors worked together to construct a new society.
