The United Mexican States [VOCAB]

Bracero Program

Bracero Program

World War II program that allowed millions of Mexicans to work temporarily in the United States.

Caciques

Local military strongmen who generally controlled local parties in Mexico during the nineteenth century.

Felipe Calderón

Mexico’s conservative president from 2006 to 2012; he was responsible for waging a war against drug cartels that led to a major increase in violence.

Camarillas

Vast informal networks of personal loyalty that operate as powerful political cliques.

Lázaro Cárdenas

Mexican president from 1934 to 1940, who implemented a radical program of land reform and nationalized Mexican oil companies.

Venustiano Carranza

Mexican revolutionary leader who eventually restored political order, ended the revolution’s violence, and defeated the more radical challenges of Zapata and Villa.

Caudillos

National military strongmen who dominated Mexican politics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Chamber of Deputies

The lower house of Mexico’s legislature.

Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM)

Mexico’s dominant trade union confederation, which was a main pillar of the PRI’s authoritarian regime.

Constitution of 1917

Document established by the Mexican Revolution that continues to regulate Mexico’s political regime.

Hernan Cortés

Spanish conqueror of Mexico

Criollos

Mexican-born descendants of Spaniards during the period of Spanish colonial rule.

Cuauhtémoc

Aztec military leader defeated by the Spanish conquerors.

Porfirio Díaz

Mexican dictator who ruled from 1876 to 1910 and was deposed by the Mexican Revolution.

Federal Electoral Institute

Independent agency that regulates elections in Mexico; created in 1996 to end decades of electoral fraud.

Vicente Fox

Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006 and the first non-PRI president in more than seven decades.

Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)

U.S. immigration legislation (1986) that toughened American immigration laws while granting amnesty to many longtime undocumented workers.

Import substitution industrialization (ISI)

Political-economic model followed during the authoritarian regime of the PRI, in which the domestic economy was protected by high tariffs in order to promote industrial growth.

Informal sector

A sector of the economy that is not regulated or taxed by the state.

Benito Juárez

The nineteenth-century Mexican president who is today considered an early proponent of a modern, secular, and democratic Mexico.

Francisco Labastida

The first-ever PRI candidate to lose a presidential election; he was defeated in 2000 by Vicente Fox of the PAN

Latifundistas

Owners of latifundia (huge tracts of land).

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)

Current Mexican President; Morena member

José López Portillo

Former President (IPR); had ties to CIA

Francisco Madero

37th President; was an advocate for democracy

Maquiladoras

Factories that import goods or parts to manufacture goods that are then exported.

Maya

Mexico’s largest indigenous group, concentrated in the south of the country.

Mestizos

Mexicans of mixed European and indigenous blood, who make up the vast majority of Mexico’s population.

Mexican-American War

The 1846—48 conflict between Mexico and the United States that resulted in U.S. acquisition of much of the current Southwest of the United States.

Mexican miracle

The spectacular economic growth in Mexico from the 1940s to about the 1980.

Mexican Revolution

Bloody conflict in Mexico between 1910 and 1917 that established the long-lived PRI regime.

MORENA (National Regeneration Movement)

New leftist political party formed by AMLO, two-time presidential candidate for the PRD and current president of Mexico.

Municipios

Country-level governments in Mexican states.

Nahuatl

Mexico’s second-largest indigenous group, concentrated in central Mexico.

National Congress

Mexico’s bicameral legislature.

National Supreme Court of Justice

Mexico’s highest court.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

An agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the United States that liberalizes trade between the three countries, renegotiated in 2020 and replaced with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Partido Acción Nacional (PAN)

Conservative Catholic Mexican political party that until 2000 was the main opposition to the PRI.

Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD)

Mexico’s main party of the left.

Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI)

Political party that emerged from the Mexican Revolution to preside over an authoritarian regime that lasted until 2000.

Patron-client relationships

Relationships in which powerful government officials deliver state services and access to power in exchange for political support.

PEMEX

Mexico’s powerful state-owned oil monopoly.

Enrique Peńa Nieto

Mexico’s president from 2012 to 2018, and the first PRI member to be elected president since the return of democracy in 2000.

San Andrés Peace Accords

An agreement reached between the Zapatista Army of National Liberalization and the Mexican government (1996); granted the indigenous population of Chiapas autonomy over their territories.

General Antonio López de Santa Anna

8th President; served 11 terms

Secretary of government

A top cabinet post that controls internal political affairs and was often a stepping-stone to the presidency under the PRI.

Secretary of treasury

Mexico’s most powerful economic cabinet minister.

Senate

The upper house of the Mexico’s legislature.

Televisa

Mexico’s largest media conglomerate, which for decades enjoyed a close relationship with the PRI.

Francisco (Pancho) Villa

Northern Mexican peasant leader of the revolution who, together with Emiliano Zapata, advocated a more radical socioeconomic agenda.

War of the Castes

Massive nineteenth-century uprising of Mexico’s indigenous population against the Mexican state.

Emiliano Zapata

Southern Mexican peasant leader of the revolution most associated with radical land reform.

Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)

Largely Mayan rebel group that staged an uprising in 1994, demanding political reform and greater rights for Mexico’s indigenous people.

Ernesto Zedillo

Mexico’s president from 1994 to 2000; he implemented political reforms that paved the way for fair elections in 2000.