Bakers and Basques: A Social History of Bread in Mexico
Mexico City’s colorful panaderías (bakeries) have long been vital neighborhood institutions. They were also crucial sites where labor, subsistence, and politics collided. From the 1880s well into the twentieth century, Basque immigrants dominated the bread trade, to the detriment of small Mexican bakers. By taking us inside the panadería, into the heart of bread strikes, and through government halls, Robert Weis reveals why authorities and organized workers supported the so-called Spanish monopoly in ways that countered the promises of law and ideology. He tells the gritty story of how class struggle and the politics of food shaped the state and the market. More than a book about bread, Bakers and Basques places food and labor at the center of the upheavals in Mexican history from independence to the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.
1110948769
Bakers and Basques: A Social History of Bread in Mexico
Mexico City’s colorful panaderías (bakeries) have long been vital neighborhood institutions. They were also crucial sites where labor, subsistence, and politics collided. From the 1880s well into the twentieth century, Basque immigrants dominated the bread trade, to the detriment of small Mexican bakers. By taking us inside the panadería, into the heart of bread strikes, and through government halls, Robert Weis reveals why authorities and organized workers supported the so-called Spanish monopoly in ways that countered the promises of law and ideology. He tells the gritty story of how class struggle and the politics of food shaped the state and the market. More than a book about bread, Bakers and Basques places food and labor at the center of the upheavals in Mexican history from independence to the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.
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Bakers and Basques: A Social History of Bread in Mexico

Bakers and Basques: A Social History of Bread in Mexico

by Robert Weis
Bakers and Basques: A Social History of Bread in Mexico
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Bakers and Basques: A Social History of Bread in Mexico

Bakers and Basques: A Social History of Bread in Mexico

by Robert Weis

Overview

Mexico City’s colorful panaderías (bakeries) have long been vital neighborhood institutions. They were also crucial sites where labor, subsistence, and politics collided. From the 1880s well into the twentieth century, Basque immigrants dominated the bread trade, to the detriment of small Mexican bakers. By taking us inside the panadería, into the heart of bread strikes, and through government halls, Robert Weis reveals why authorities and organized workers supported the so-called Spanish monopoly in ways that countered the promises of law and ideology. He tells the gritty story of how class struggle and the politics of food shaped the state and the market. More than a book about bread, Bakers and Basques places food and labor at the center of the upheavals in Mexican history from independence to the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780826351470
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Publication date: 09/15/2012
Sold by: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format: eBook
Pages: 232
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Robert Weis is assistant professor of history at the University of Northern Colorado.

Table of Contents

Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 "Zelo y desvelo"

The Bread Monopoly and Late Colonial Market Reforms 11

Chapter 2 "A system that offends the hands of brothers"

Small Bakers and the Free Market in Independent Mexico 24

Chapter 3 "An uncle in America"

Chain Migration and the Spanish Monopoly 44

Chapter 4 "Dough Kneaded with Blood" 62

Chapter 5 "We have no bread"

Hunger, Opportunity, and War 83

Chapter 6 The Bakers' Revolution 100

Chapter 7 Unionists, Tlalchicholes, and Canasteros 124

Conclusion 147

Notes 153

Bibliography 185

Index 211

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Related Subjects

History
Latin American History
Mexican History
General & Miscellaneous Mexican History
History
Latin American History
Mexican History
General & Miscellaneous Mexican History

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