Mexico Case Study Vocab (Textbook) Flashcards by Lily Varley

Bracero Program

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

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caciques

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

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Calderón, Felipe

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

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camarillas

Vast informal networks of personal loyality that operate as powerful political cliques

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Cárdenas, Lázaro

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

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Carranza, Venustiano

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

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caudillos

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

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Chamber of Deputies

The lower house of Mexico’s legislature

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Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM)

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

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Constitution of 1917

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

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Cortés, Hernán

Spanish conqueror of Mexico

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criollos

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

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Cuauhtémoc

Aztec military leader defeated by the Spanish conquerors

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Díaz, Porfirio

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

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Federal Electoral Institute

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

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Fox, Vicente

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

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Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)

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

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import subsitution 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

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informal sector

A segment of the economy that is not regulated, protected, or taxed by the state

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Juárez, Benito

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

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Labastida, Francisco

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

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latifundistas

Owners of latifundia (huge tracts of land)

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López Obrador, Andrés Manuel

Mexico’s president from 2018 to 2024; a leftist populist who claimed that he was the rightful winner of the election of 2006 and 2012

López Portillo, José

Mexican president from 1976 to 1982; he increased the role of the state in the economy and nationalized Mexico’s banking system in an attempt to avert a national economic crisis

Madero, Francisco

An initial leader of the Mexican Revolution and a landowner who sought moderate economic reform

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 1980

Mexican Revolution

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

Mexican War of Independence

The 11-year conflict that resulted in Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821

MORENA (National Regeneration Movement)

New leftist political party formed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a two-time presidential candidate for the PRD and president from 2018 to 2024.

municipios

County-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 agreeement (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 (until 2018, when MORENA won a huge victory; it has since lost national party status)

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

Peña Nieto, Enrique

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

A 1996 agreement that promised to end the Zapatista rebel uprising but was never implemented by the PRI government

Santa Anna, General Antonio López de

Mexico's first great caudillo, who dominated its politics for three decades in the mid-nineteenth century

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 the treasury

Mexico's most powerful economic cabinet minister

Senate

The upper house of Mexico's legislature

Televisa

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

United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)

A free-trade agreement that replaced NAFTA in 2020

Villa, Francisco (Pancho)

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

Zapata, Emiliano

Southern Mexican peasant leaders 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

Zedillo, Ernesto

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