The 1930 Agrarian Census in Mexico: Agronomists, Middle Politics, and the Negotiation of Data Collection

Abstract

On May 15, 1930, nearly a decade after the end of the armed phase of the Mexican Revolution, Mexico’s Department of National Statistics carried out the country’s first agrarian census. While the revolutionary regime had undertaken a population census in 1921, the country’s agricultural realities remained mysteries to Mexico City policymakers long after the inception of an agrarian reform program that lay at the heart of reconstruction in Mexico.2 This article analyzes the 1930 agrarian census to illuminate the role of data collection and data collectors in the Mexican Revolution.Numbers are not neutral, nor are they without political significance. The Soviet economist Nikolai Kondratiev discovered this fact when his statistical study of the Communist economy, detailing the devastation of the 1932 – 33 famine, resulted in his execution.3 In an analysis of state-society relations in mid-twentieth-century Transkei, South Africa, Sean Redding examined colonial government practices such as tax collection. In order to collect taxes, a census was carried out, and it provided colonialists with great symbolic power: “Knowing how many wives or cattle a person had was essential to doing him harm, and knowing a man’s name made him easier to kill through magic.”4 The “magic” associated with data collection has been analyzed the world over, in multiple historical and cultural settings.5Such studies have focused primarily upon the role of statistics and censuses in extending modern states’ domination over their populations. Dipesh Chakrabarty argues that “the systematic collection of statistics in detail and in specific categories for the purpose of ruling seems to be intimately tied to modern ideas of government.”6 Edward Higgs adds that data collection has allowed the “modern state to intervene at a minute level in the daily lives of citizens.”7 This intervention has served the purposes of domination. Numerous scholars have traced the importance of statistics in the process of nation building, of creating “unitary national identities” through the elaboration of census categories.8 Statistics help advance capitalist relations of production in general, as well as Western rule and forms of governance over colonized states.9 Talal Asad, among others, argues that it is through the use and acceptance of statistical measures that the Western world has had its greatest impact on non-Western cultures.10Not all research on data collection focuses on states’ successful extension of dominance and exploitation over the governed. Michel Foucault views statistics as essential tools in the state’s capacity to serve as the “good shepherd” and to promote citizens’ well-being.11 Edward Higgs notes how data collection stems from states’ “duty to introduce change that will create a better society.”12 Thus, statistics have been linked historically to the emergence, particularly in nineteenth-century Europe, of social-reform policies that improve the lives of citizens. In England, data collection “became the principal means of investigating and discussing the social question,” such as the poverty that seemed to accompany industrialization, and led to a flurry of reform in the 1830s and 1840s.13 In Napoleonic France, public health policies took shape following the publication of incontrovertible statistical studies of sickness.14 In the period of Bismarckian unification and industrialization in Germany, the rise of centralized statistics offices under the leadership of Ernst Engel led to worker-protection legislation, including disability and retirement benefits.15 And since the nineteenth century, census operations have provided a framework for citizens to pressure public officials to improve living standards, especially in the United States. By debating the categories used and the policies to be pursued in censuses’ aftermath, citizens around the world have used statistics to “exercise and uphold their rights.”16The 1930 agrarian census in Mexico took place at a time of revolutionary crossroads with respect to land-distribution policies. Five million hectares of land had already been distributed to half a million recipients in the form of ejidos (redistributed communal plots). Nevertheless, former president Plutarco Elías Calles (who continued to exercise power behind the scenes during the administrations of his handpicked successors) publicly attacked agrarianism and its results.17 Arguing that ejido productivity was paltry in comparison to that of private property, Calles instructed president Pascual Ortiz Rubio to halt redistribution in 1930. Would the agrarian program be reversed, as Calles wished? Or would land distribution continue or even expand in the years ahead? The answers to these questions emerged during the 1934 – 40 presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas. By 1940, one-half of Mexico’s cultivated lands had been distributed to poor campesinos.18In order to explain the Cárdenas-led return to redistribution, and Mexico’s revolutionary process more generally, scholars have focused on the relations between political and and the and associated with they that revolutionary in Mexico as a between the of state and the cultural have to of and change a more analysis of Mexico’s revolutionary process continue to political such as agrarian reform as between the state and to in that return to resulted from political to expand land or political to land reform to create a of in are to that the policies in the and resulted from the relations between political and the of the and the of and lay a level of a the revolutionary the the the and the to their to be and following the political the of these have been argues that and level of from the revolutionary and in upon public a upon state it is an upon the the carried out scholars that at all on political in reconstruction Mexico this of revolutionary as more state scholars have to the role of the in the Mexican and have the study of as on the of the state’s cultural of national the of and social to the of revolutionary state and have examined the world of and in revolutionary have and policymakers such as public health and among While such studies to ideas and as of a more state the served as the or have to more an of the Mexican article analyzes the of the agricultural and agrarian and agricultural in the and the National of as the of the to the of the the create a of including the the National the for National and and national agrarian the National of agricultural ejido and the Department of National the with out the 1930 agrarian census. these the to the of and On the they to expand land distribution and to the of On the they to agricultural production and political to a nation in the of a The to redistribution with production through with political and to as the this article analyzes the of data collection and the 1930 agrarian census in By the statistics collection in Mexico remained in its had statistics on a and it was not the Mexican that the government to the collection of data for purposes Statistics collection and the 1930 agrarian census with The not political to to data collection in the used the 1930 agrarian census to pressure for land with statistics and their collection to to state officials with data that be used to expand agricultural of the of the 1930 agrarian census of the role of data collection and data collectors in the Mexican the with that statistics be used to states’ domination over of the Mexican state’s revolutionary the to use census data and its collection to expand agricultural to was In the of production was many the state’s for the to through a that their and as Mexican citizens. modern have used the process and not the statistics it to help national and an analysis of the with political over the 1930 census that statistics and their collection be used to improve citizens’ In the the census to an of redistribution through agrarian Thus, it is to the Cárdenas-led 1934 – 40 of redistribution as the of between political and and with of their served as essential of revolutionary In this the place agrarianism on the of political to the presidency of Lázaro data collection not with the all of Mexico’s to the have Statistics of to colonial especially that of the the In the collection of statistics to of the including collection an even for nineteenth-century national in the of In the National of and a of to promote the collection of statistics for national the Mexican of and Statistics this “the of statistics in nineteenth-century Mexican statistics collection served a of particularly that of nation In the of Mexican and political the of national and and to data of their of the statistics for the and governance of the nineteenth-century statistics collection focused on the to a Mexico’s to role around “the of the national Statistics the and of the of a government of statistics not to to help the Mexican to statistics essential for nineteenth-century Mexican the capacity to and the capacity to and and in statistics to help policymakers create the for national In the was on the that statistics essential for “the of the the of of Statistics in and the first with statistics for purposes to the power of statistics for the of national statistics agricultural In an agrarian data on the and of agricultural Mexican Revolution, upon the role of statistics and their collection in In the of the National of the state’s as a principal to reconstruction and the of statistics out a long of the data to agricultural and to name a his that successful reconstruction upon the systematic collection of data in and his of to all the made the for data his in that the state not continue the or of for the of statistics offices that would extension and their data to a The to the Department of National Statistics the first to statistics for the Mexican of the was to more Mexico and and have that modern has served the role of to the for the first In such was after the in how the it to be a is are that to their or to In that to Mexico in an between state and especially between and at the the the Mexico to the agrarian reform process among the revolutionary they to as an the they among the of as or years in the National as a in a On his to the of of and that to of the with the of the the of The agricultural to of the state’s to collect of of statistics has been and of the have to continue the public the of to and among the data was to to data of government and discovered his statistics The the of “the that statistics collection to out person in order to his would have to be to their among in the over the of in public to of the for extension and remained for and the many ideas in a and in his a with of had to be and to of statistics and their to a that the for statistics the of it the the process of In his on argues that a principal of modern is their to and realities more and to this of such as land and population censuses to realities in that are to the In Mexico in the the remained the place of and Thus, of the first of data collection was the of place that they be of the 1930 it a that resulted in a of the first of its to state and state with its was in and to and and made of an of nearly In that the had the of over the 1930 the had over more to the was of Mexico for in agricultural to state when more as 1921, the to the in a agricultural By had of the of an extension study the and that was at the of the to the of of this of is to out the of in the is political the of the of the that to their and have a of a study the and in with the of Mexico and to political data collectors not to realities to as Talal that modern statistics an essential and for cultural the of statistics in their to statistics are for specific and and as it in for more a census is a in their an serve as a for Mexico it will be the the of for all to improve the of the and its that statistics to with national to expand agricultural The census of that censuses social and that serve as a to and the and of national the of the census in the and the to form a program of national and and especially to and The to production national reconstruction an extension in the in that the of a program for the primarily at the of production in to the national how study was the of production in the and the of the national production In the of extension Mexico to and with data the and social including and to to their to of officials the remained the of the the means to the level and of the of his the to the of and to to data and expand the of had to the nation as citizens upon their during of political The the of this the state the of to land as a of their made during the The to not without not for carried with it the to and expand agricultural as well as to the regime in of In this the and land reform to a of for such was to was the of all to the and of their lives to state used statistics and their collection to help of national upon data collectors to and that would state to “the of the that they be not to study the and of that and for a that was and data through the that first to and the to it to be the of national argues that be a for a for on the of that such a for in would a of in and By means or with the to their data to the they the to the that a the statistics of between between of the and of citizens in revolutionary of such from a of in the a of revolutionary the was and remained had been By May their this the extension upon the his the following the made to the to explain his the collection of population and production In the an of long as the to help their and a to the to the world they would him with the of his help and with the of their of more their to the the for data collection Mexican from as By the to the revolutionary nation the of the “the of Statistics is the the of a is the and the of the of The to for the of the of Statistics in of of great for In to to a of – statistics that to the statistics to and it easier to the was of statistics be and at and his of to for statistics collection in the would have to collect their data in And in a of to a and census in and May 1930, of census Mexico to the of its the of its and the productivity of its not of the from the of the national and leadership the was of for the of that out its statistical was and of the the as they such as and many had their studies at National of census was of and and was a of census in in a census of all and for and the census in May 1930. The census in state of a The the was made of the state a state a and By had to in The the all with with specific the the the principal of data collection and state and with of the the of all with state In 1930, census that all and to data collection. to with a the of national “the to more to the of as a and as a to to the “the national importance of the in order the of and in their and the that Mexico will as a of the that will not or the nation as a a upon to and even of the for the to the to for to “the of the to when political an of and of and would all of officials the first In the the agricultural had a to data collection. in his with that they the and of their a the had to these officials carried out their census to the of the as as and to the that The they the and that they the population more to as or The out the importance and the for national as well as “the of the of all the especially to with all and to the greatest and “the and of this the the of the principal between census officials and The to of “good their to be that they had “the to in their with the of the that are for in the The or in or be with and are many after it over for an the that they not to the first The to after and the for including a to years in the census the of the at this the was The a public to the that would to The to as over and the article of to in over The even its for the census and 1930 for the and million of the of and the public and and from to the to the million census and the in the country’s and nearly with the distributed to the of the distribution of and census officials the through a of and of the cultural over of in In of of and with the of the and the of with around the in a the in Mexico of agrarian reform led that as and as from the of the In the of Mexico and a of how to the census to The that the the name of the census had to be many not the of the a more used with the “the of the of the will officials census the to use had such during the the had to to agricultural production in officials the The was a nearly of that for in Mexico the to the upon the of the census to In the census nor the May 1930 census officials the all to census of the to their and the to at the the order to the data to the they or with the of to to their data to census to to and in the census and By the principal to of the for the census was the the of of the means to a without The of data or census is the of as to and is not the or the that the is This on to that the census was for all and all for as well as the and for the with the data for the are more to the in to the of the census was the census would great for the nation and is for they “the agricultural census in for the from land as the land with the data it In to the and national to be from the upon to to the of the of the of and to help better their The was to help first had to help the In the in the the of and production of and many that the would be used particularly for tax census officials to that their would be the to of their that the would not be made nor would be to the data the they are more a as to be In the purpose was not to on to use data for the nation as a person be out for The not at of of the for publication of the that for of to years in for not to of these to the to the data on they that the will be that is to will use to statistics that will not will be to the of land the to the are for the of the data in the a from to all ejido these are to the without to or even for that 1930 all of the in with a the in an to explain to the that the census would have national made the for to a to the country’s all of the that to the and of the they to census will a great to the and to it will it to the on help it The that are this to place all will in the that is a data for the census are to the at the of the the of it that the will on the of to be as as to the to the to for of and of the principal used to to the a of census is a is and it the and years following the 1930 agrarian of continued to the data and the and analyzed the that in the of and a of Mexico’s their The of for census officials to to the on in as the of the census resulted in their production from to to the an of to the May 1930 was a the of questions led to as or and made their answers to from the of and a of “good to these officials to the and not the census their with and out census census to out the with particularly to to ejidos are that in the out, to the of ejido his at all census out the forms it and as is a of the of of the population is and in they not even of are of their a great In over for officials that the of be the in study of census and in the officials be with even the be of the from the that to offices to their This would be in the ejido that had to a better at the census is from tax to their data or to it from their that census data would be used to is to be and national is that the will not him to be to with the to his in order to and to not a of of the the of the between agricultural and This is a not census in many Mexico armed with a in their over In the such of led to how to or of The for that to the and even of the that was on Thus, when the agricultural to their they the or of the of a the between and from a not they to to offices and they that census would be used to their taxes, they not the agricultural of production and The not that to census from the they through data collection. they their would have to be to better the for a census. Or they The in the to the of to the of And the of of the and of

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