Three Fabulous Things About Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

Today, November 20, is the anniversary of Mexico's 1910 Revolution, a national holiday in Mexico, so this post is especially apt.

This past week I had the delightful privilege of presenting my work about the leader of that revolution in Ciudad Juárez's Museo de la Revolución en la Frontera (Museum of the Revolution on the Border).

From El Paso, Texas, snap your fingers and you're in Ciudad Juárez. Yes, alas, Ciudad Juárez is notorious for its troubles but, with another snap of the fingers, I can mention three fabulous things about this historic Mexican border city:

1. El Museo de la Revolución en la Frontera
The elegant and restored customs house is now a museum dedicated to the Mexican Revolution on the border. The Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910, convulsed all of Mexico, but it began in the north at the border. Well worth a visit!

This video gives an overview of this impressive museum (in Spanish):

2. La Nueva Central 
¡Café con leche! ¡Huevos con machaca! I could eat breakfast here every day for the rest of my life and I am not kidding! Check out the raves about this historic café, like a journey back to 1958, on TripAdvisor.

View of the cathedral from the front of La Nueva Central coffeeshop
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

Here's a screenshot from my video of historians Roy "Ben" Brown, John Eusebio Klingemann, having just finished breakfast, heading out to the conference... I was going to make a GIF from this video of us all laughing for some reason I cannot recall, but demonios, my GifGrabber app went wiggy.

Roy "Ben" Brown and John Eusebio Klingemann

3. The conference, "La Revolucion vista desde los extranjeros" (The Revolution as Seen by Foreigners) in the above-mentioned museum

It's over, y'all missed it, but there should be another conference next year, and isn't the photo fun? It shows businessmen on a rooftop in El Paso watching the Battle of Ciudad Juárez-- the two cities are that close, separated only by the Rio Grande (or the Río Bravo, as the Mexicans call it).

Visit this book's webpage at
www.cmmayo.com

Thanks to Dr. Roy "Ben" Brown, Dr José Francisco Lara, Jorge Carrera Robles of INAH, and Liliana Fuentes, Director of this beautiful museum, and Ana Hilda Vera, who makes everything happen, I was greatly honored to be invited to present Odisea metafísica hacia la Revolución mexicana, the Spanish translation by Agustín Cadena of my book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual.

Commenting on my book about Madero's book was noted historian of the Mexican Revolution and the Escobarista Rebellion, Dr. Georgette José Valenzuela, of the UNAM (Mexico's National University in Mexico City).

My book has been out since 2014, so there are several talks and other information up on my website, notably:

> Transcript of my presentation at the 2016 Center for Big Bend Studies: "The Secret Book by Francisco I. Madero, Leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution" (For scholars this is the go-to PDF.)

> Why Translate? The Case of the President of Mexico's Secret Book
My talk for a panel on politics and translation at the American Literary Translators Association conference

> My review of Whitey Strieber and Jeffrey K. Kripal's Super Natural, which is also an essay about my own encounter with a mystical text, that is, Madero's Manual espírita

> Films and videos

> Gigazoodles more at "Resources for researchers"

> Y en español, chorros más

Dr John Eusebio Klingemann, who chairs the Department of History at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, presented his research into the archives of the US consuls in Chihuahua 1913-1914. This was the tumultuous period after the fall of Madero's government, the revolution against the usuper government of Victoriano Huerta-- and as with the 1910 revolution, fighting in the north of Mexico, and especially around the border, was leading and vital.

Commenting on Klingemann's work was UTEP's Samuel Brunk, expert on the Mexican Revolution, author of a noted biography of Emiliano Zapata, and a specialist on borderlands environmental history.

Pictured left, below, is Dr. Georgette José Valenzuela as she delivers her paper, "La Revolucion mexicana comenzó en 1910, pero ¿cuándo dice la historiografía al respecto que terminó? (The Mexican Revolution Began in 1910, but What Does the Historiography Tell Us About When It Ended?) It was a fascinating and superb work covering the many controversies and standing questions.

Georgette José Valenzuela and Heribert von Feilitzsch
at the Museo de la Revolución en la Frontera, Ciudad Juárez
November 9, 2017 

Mexican Revolution and diplomatic history scholar Heribert von Feilitzsch gave his talk the previous day about Felix A. Sommerfeld. For anyone interested in the Mexican Revolution, von Feilitzsch's books about the German spies in the Mexican Revolution and also operating in the US during WWI are essential reading-- and, in particular, von Feilitzsch's work on Felix Sommerfeld and Arnold Krumm-Heller was essential for my own on Madero.

(And for anyone wondering, hmmm, what's going to happen now that the Tweeter-in-Chief has seriously pissed off the Mexicans for the next two decades, a snap of the finger's worth of reflection upon von Feilitzsch's In Plain Sight: Felix Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico should provide more than a few... shall we say.... unsettling possibilities.)

For my money, the Mexican Revolution, so crowded with personalities and events, is one of the richest and most complex events on Planet Earth, a veritable palace of opportunity for any historian or novelist. And it looks like I will be writing about it for awhile... as those of you follow this blog know, although I happened to have written this book about Madero and his secret book, I am not an academic historian but a literary essayist, novelist, and poet. My work in-progress, modeled on my previous work on Baja California, is a book-length literary essay about Far West Texas, which of course includes a significant stretch of the US-Mexico border... My next blog post will be about the work I presented the following day at the Center for Big Bend Studies, from my book on Far West Texas, not about the Mexican Revolution but a most unusual officer who served with the Tenth Cavalry in the Indian Wars. More next Monday.

> Your comments are always welcome. Write to me here.

Dispatch from the Sister Republic 
or,
Papelito Habla
(This is a link to the page about my longform essay on the Mexican
literary landscape and the power of the book. The page
offers several links to posts on this blog about Mexican literary history.)

Guiseppi Garibaldi's A Toast to Rebellion

Reading Mexico: 

Recommendations for a Book Club 

of Extra-Curious & Adventurous English-Language Readers

Lifting the (Very Heavy) Curtain on the Leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution

MANUEL GUERRA DE LUNA
C.M. MAYO
ALEJANDRO ROSAS ROBLES
November 18, 2014

Though the recent protests in Mexico City's historic center have made it impossible to continue the lecture series on Francisco I. Madero as originally scheduled in the National Palace, the lectures continue at the same day, same time, right next door in Museo de la SHCP / Antiguo Palacio del Arzobispado, Moneda 4. 

I am quite sure the long-ago resident Achbishops must be a-rollin' in their graves, for the topic of this conference is:

FRANCISCO I. MADERO: 
DE ESPIRITISMO AL BHAGAVAD-GITA Y OTRAS INFLUENCIAS ESOTERICAS
(Francisco I. Madero: From Spiritist to the Bhagavad-Gita and Other Esoteric Influences)
Free and open to the public
(en español, por supuesto)

This is an watershed of a conference. For those of you foggy on your Mexican history, Francisco I. Madero was the leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico, 1911-1913. He was also a Spiritist medium, a leading Spiritist organizer and evangelist, and as "Bhima," the name of a Hindu warrior, the author of a secret book, Manual espírita. A handful of Mexican historians, including Enrique Krauze, have written about Madero's Spiritism and how it was the source of his political inspiration and platform. Yet, incredible as it may sound, most historians of the Revolution, apart from a lickety-split footnote, have almost completely ignored it. As I noted in my talk for the American Literary Translators Association, I believe one reason is that most historians, who know next-to-nothing about it, consider Spiritism mere superstition and so beneath their notice. In my book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution, I have much to say about cognitive dissonance and the rich esoteric matrix from which Madero's version of Spiritism sprang.

This lecture series, sponsored by Mexico's Ministry of Finance-- which, by the way, has a long tradition of stellar cultural calendar with free book presentation, concerts, theater, childrens' workshops, and much more-- and, among other archives, holds that of Francisco I. Madero-- continues with:

Tuesday, November 25
@ 5 PM
CARLOS FRANCISCO MARTINEZ MORENO will talk about "Masonry, Spiritism and Hinduism: Interconnected Strands in Madero's Trio of Mystic Pillars"

Tuesday, December 2
@ 5 PM
Yours Truly, C.M. MAYO, will talk about my book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual [Odisea metafísica hacia la Revolución Mexicana: Francisco I. Madero y su libro secreto, Manual espírita], and IGNACIO SOLARES, an expert on Spiritism, will speak about his acclaimed novel, Madero, el otro [Madero, the Other].


PREVIOUS LECTURES
Previous lectures were by Dr YOLIA TORTOLERO CERVANTES, author of the deeply researched and pathbreaking El espíritismo seduce a Francisco I. Madero, whom I had the very great honor of introducing; 

LUCRECIA INFANTE on "Spirits, women and equality: Laureana Wright and Kardecian Spiritism in Mexico"; 

and most recently, last Tuesday, ALEJANDRO ROSAS ROBLES talked about "The Revolution of the Spirits" and MANUEL GUERRA, the lost Spiritist writings of Madero.

Manuel Guerra de Luna is the author of Los Madero: La Saga liberal, and of the screenplay for the excellent documentary film directed by Alejandro Fernández Solsona, 1910: La Revolución espírita. Alejandro Rosas Robles, a prolific and very popular historian in Mexico, is the author of many books and editor of the 10-volume series of the collected works, Obras completas de Francisco Ignacio Madero (Clío, 2000).

Guerra de Luna's talk was especially fascinating for me, as he talked about Madero's Spiritist notebooks. Madero was a writing medium, and so his method of receiving communication was to go into a trance and allow the spirits to use his hand and pencil. We know from the notebooks that as Madero sat down to work on his political grenade, La sucesión presidencial en 1910, he would first channel the spirits' advice. These notebooks were rescued from a fire into which a relative wanted to consign them. They are held in the Francisco I. Madero archive in the Ministry of Finance (SHCP) and transcribed in Rosas' Obras completas de Francisco Ignacio Madero, volume VI, Cuadernos espíritas. [Spiritist Notebooks.]

(Mexican history aficionados will note that Rosas Robles has confirmed that on his birth certificate Francisco Madero's middle initial stands for "Ignacio," not "Indalecio.") 

Madero's channeled writings end abruptly in 1908. Based on a comment in one of Madero's letters, Guerra de Luna believes that at that time, Madero stopped "automatic writing," adopting the method of channeling he considered more advanced: direct telepathic communication. 


1910: LA REVOLUCION ESPIRITA
Both Guerra de Luna and Rosas Robles appear in the must-watch documentary film, 1910: La Revolución espírita. > WATCH IT HERE.<

NEXT TUESDAY: 
CARLOS FRANCISCO MARTINEZ MORENO
One of the points I make in my book is that Madero's Spiritism was based on was very different from that of mid-19th century Spiritists, for by the late 19th century, thanks to various occult philosophers, Theosophists and others, Hindu philosophy and in particular, the Bhagavad-Gita, had become an important influence. In addition, Madero was a Mason and Rosicrucian. Next Tuesdays' talk by Carlos Francisco Martínez Moreno, an expert on Masonry, will be sure to be especially illuminating.


EMAIL UPDATES ON MEXICO NEWS
As for the recent political tumult here in Mexico, I steer clear of discussing current politics on this blog, but I will go so far as to suggest that a good source of reporting and opinion in a variety of media in English is via the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. The email signup is on their webpage.

Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

Una ventana al mundo invisible

(Window to the Invisible World):

Master Amajur and the Smoking Signatures

Why Translate?

The Case of the President of Mexico's Secret Book

(Transcript of my talk for a panel at 

the American Literary Translators Association 

conference, Milkwaukee, November 2014)

Dr Yolia Tortolero Cervantes and Her Pathbreaking work, 

El espíritismo seduce a Francisco I. Madero

Resources for Researchers 

(Madero, Spiritism, esoteric philosophies, history)

Arnoldo Krumm-Heller and Francisco I. Madero:

Some Notes on Sources

Cool Tool for Creating Timewealth:

Why I am A Mega Fan of the Filofax Personal Organizer

(A guest-blog on Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools blog)

A US-Mexico Border Memoir: 

Lisa G. Sharp's A Slow Trot Home

(book review)

Over Burro Mesa

(My essay and a podcast about an adventure in a remote area in 

Big Bend National Park, near the US-Mexico border)

CLICK HERE.

Madero Conference in Mexico City's National Palace: From Spiritism to the Bhagavad-Gita and Other Esoteric Influences

Francisco I. Madero

It's in Spanish, of course, but it's worth noting here because 

(1) I know that many of you, dear readers, also read in Spanish;

(2) I'm speaking in the conference, December 2, together with Ignacio Solares, one of Mexico's most respected novelists, and; 

(3) this a major public reexamination of Francisco I. Madero, one of the most outstanding figures in Mexican history, for he was not only the leader of the 1910 Revolution, but President of Mexico from 1911- 1913.

All the lectures are free and open to the public and will take place in the Recinto Juárez of Mexico's National Palace.

FRANCISCO I. MADERO:
DEL ESPIRITISMO AL BHAGAVAD-GITA, Y OTRAS INFLUENCIAS ESOTERICAS

November 6, 2014
Yolia Tortolero
Nueve lecturas sobre Francisco I. madero y su creencia en el espiritismo

November 11
Lucrecia Infante
De espíritus, mujeres e igualdad. Laureana Wright y el Espiritismo Kardeciano en México

November 18
Alejandro Rosas
La Revolución de los espíritus
Manuel Guerra
Los escritos espiritistas perdidos de Francisco I. Madero

November 25
Carlos Francisco Martínez Moreno
Masonería, espiritismo e hindismo: senderos comunicantes en los tres pilares místicos de Francisco I. Madero

December 2
C.M. Mayo
Odisea metafísica hacia la revolución Mexicana: 
Francisco I. Madero y su libro secreto Manual espírita
Ignacio Solares
Madero, el otro


COMMENTS always welcome.

Podcasts about Francisco I. Madero

Selected films and videos

Rare Book Adventures in Mexico City: 

Una ventana al mundo invisible

Dr. Arnoldo Krumm-Heller and Francisco I. Madero: 

Some Notes on Sources

An interview with Yours Truly 

about my book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution, 

for the University of Chicago Social Science Division newsletter.

I'm presenting the English edition of the book at the 

Texas Book Festival this Sunday at 11 am. 

Read more about the Spanish edition, 

Odisea metafisica hacia la Revolución Mexicana, 

which has been beautifully translated by 

Mexican poet and novelist Agustín Cadena.

Guiseppe Garibaldi's "A Toast to Rebellion" and the Mexican Revolution of 1910

Guiseppe Garibaldi posing in Russian Uniform

One of the little-known but movie-worthy aspects of Mexico's 1910 Revolution is the role of mercenaries-- American machine-gunners, Germans of various stripes, a Scandinavian (yes, really) and even an Italian of some fame: the self-styled "freedom fighter" Guiseppe Garibaldi II, whose hard-to-find memoir, A Toast to Rebellion, 1935, is now available for free at archive.org. (Note: if you have trouble accessing it you might need to set up a free acount with openlibrary. My understanding is that the book is now in the public domain. Tip: you may be able to find a copy at www.abebooks.com)

A few notes: The chapter "Viva Madero!" begins on page 219.

"But I never got to China...All unwittingly I arrived in Mexico on the eve of momentous events." 

Indeed.

Garibaldi describes the leader of the Revolution, Francisco I. Madero as:

"A small and unassuming man, with a twitch in his neck which caused his head to jerk nervously toward his frail left shoulder, he has been called an idealist and a dreamer, as if these were terms of reproach. Events have proved that he was too trusting, but he possessed an undaunted faith and a superb courage. His tragic end will forever remain a blot on Mexico's history."

p. 225

"Following the guide Orosco [sic] had sent into El Paso to escort us, we secretly crossed the Rio Grande and were led to the rebel camp hidden in the hills... Orosco awaited us standing up, his lean tall figure outlined against a low fire. He received us courteously enough, offered coffee all around, but I felt a latent hostility in his manner."

He is referring to Pascual Orozco, one of the leaders of the Revolution, who would later turn against Madero and ally himself with General Victoriano Huerta.

p. 231 Garibaldi meets Madero:

"You are Garibaldi," he said, stepping forward to seize my hand.

"Yes, Señor Presidente," I replied, for it was Madero.

... The President was thirty-seven, I was thirty-one, and most of the others were still younger. None but myself had any previous military experience. But that meeting marked the first decisive step in the victorious revolution which overthrew Díaz. Faith more than made up for youth and inexperience....

There is also a very interesting bit about the Titantic on p. 311 

In sum: rollicking good reading for anyone interested in an eyewitness account of the 1910 Revolution, and globe-trotting adventure. 

Strange that there were mercenaries in Mexico's Revolution? Not at all. A war is like a magnet-- everyone and anyone who wants action feels the pull. 

> For more about the Mexican Revolution of 1910, my book, Metaphysical Odyssey Into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual is now (Feb 2014) in Kindle and paperback. 

> The Spanish edition, Odisea metafísica hacia la revolución Mexicana, translated by Agustín Cadena, is forthcoming, I hope as soon as March. is also available.

> Your comments are always welcome. Write to me here.

Kindle Edition is Live: Francisco I. Madero's Secret Book of 1911, The Spiritist Manual, Translated by Yours Truly

The Kindle edition of the Spiritist Manual, my translation of Francisco I. Madero's Manual espírita, is available-- as of today (though the official pub date is this Friday)-- at www.amazon.com
I will be giving a lecture about this most unusual book on Thursday November 10 as part of the "Author's Sala" reading series in San Miguel de Allende. Click here for more about that.

Apart from its extraordinary content, and the fact that Madero's Spiritist Manual is one of the earliest Spanish language manifestos of this new religion, what stands out about this work is that it was prepared precisely during the brief period when Madero's political career was rocketing to its apex: he was campaigning throughout the country for the Mexican Presidency, then fighting the Mexican Revolution both in Mexico and, variously, from exile in Texas and New Orleans; and then, running again for the presidency— which, later in 1911, he was to win.

As Mexican historians Enrique Krauze, Yolia Tortolero, Alejandro Rosas and Manuel Guerra, among others, have emphasized, Madero's Spiritism undergirded his political philosophy and actions as candidate for the presidency, as leader of the Revolution, and as President, many of which were incomprehensible to and/or misinterpreted by both his supporters and his adversaries. For this reason, the Spiritist Manual is a fundamentally important work for anyone who would study Madero and the Mexican Revolution.

It is also a vital work in the history of both Spiritism itself and modern gnostic Christianity. Whatever one's personal beliefs may be, it would be intellectually naïve to dismiss Madero's Spiritism as mere superstition, as most people who first hear of it and indeed, most of his biographers, do. Spiritism emerged in a context of the mid- to late 19th century's far-reaching scientific experientation; moreover, it has its place alongside other religions that emerged in the same century, among them, Christian Science, Mormonism, Spiritualism, and Theosophy.

>> Q & A here.

+ + + + + + + + +

After publishing so many books the old-fashioned way, it has been such a strange experience to publish a book first as an e-book. This afternoon, I caught a typo after it was uploaded onto Kindle, which I fixed immediately, and Kindle registered the change within the hour. Anyone who has published (print) books knows that stomach-churning, wide-awake-at-3-am anguish about typos. (No matter how many times and how many people check it, there is always a typo, or thirty-nine.) What a luxury it is to be able to make corrections!

And another ginormous change: I couldn't-- and I shouldn't-- give a squished fig about manoevering this book into brick-and-mortar bookstores. Not that it doesn't have readers, but because it's so unusual, and very specifically Mexican, I don't think it would get far into ye olde agent-house-distributor-store-shelf labyrinth-o-rama. So what I want for this book are the right "tags" for google searches and the like. I spent two hours this evening going over the book's entry on amazon.com and this newfangled shelfari.com thing. What a world we've plopped into! In publishing, as in so many other areas of the economy, wierdly, it's becoming drastically constricted even while opportunities are dramatically expanding.

But yes, there will be a print edition, as well as an iBook and Nook edition of the Spiritist Manual. Stay tuned.