MSS 328 - Armando Gomez de Velasco Collection: Inventory

Armando Gómez de Velasco collection

(Mss 328)

Inventory

Earl K. Long Library

University of New Orleans

August 2006

Summary

 

Size:                          9 volumes (0.5 linear foot)

 

Geographic

locations:                 Mexico

Inclusive dates:      1909-1951

Bulk dates:              1909-1915

Summary:                Collection of miscellaneous material compiled by Armando Gómez de Velasco, who served in the Mexican Revolution as an officer in the armies of Francisco Madero and Francisco “Pancho” Villa, and who was involved with a magazine of political satire during that time.  Includes manuscripts, typescripts, telegrams, photographs, newspapers, and extensive ephemera pertaining to the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).  Volumes are bound by hand and are titled and dated on the covers; actual dates of contents vary slightly.  The collection once contained additional volumes which are not present.

Source:                     Gift, 2004

Access:                     No restrictions

Copyright:                Physical rights are retained by the Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans.

Citation:                    Armando Gómez de Velasco Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans

 

 

Historical Note

 

            The Mexican Revolution, one of the most well-known and wide-ranging of Latin American revolutions, began in 1910 when Mexicans of all classes rebelled against the dictatorship of President Porfirio Diáz (1830-1915; president, 1876-1880, 1884-1911).  During the early years of the twentieth century, Diáz governed with increasing rigidity.  Meanwhile, Mexico suffered an economic recession, increasing labor unrest, and a succession crisis.  Businessman and politician Francisco Madero capitalized on the growing opposition to Diáz, mounting his own campaign for the presidency in the 1910 election.  When the aged president realized the threat Madero posed to his power, he jailed his challenger.  Madero escaped and initiated an insurrection.  Diáz found himself without support, especially after his weak military forces succumbed, and on May 25, 1911, he resigned and fled the country.  In November Madero was elected the first president of the newly free, democratic Mexico.

 

 

            Although Madero enacted successful reforms, he was slow to move toward the economic and land reforms desired by Mexico’s peasantry.  Insurrections continued, culminating in Madero’s assassination on February 21, 1913, following a coup by Victoriano Huerta, an old-line general from the period of Porfirio Diáz.  Because of his complicity in the assassination of Madero and the oppressive nature of his regime, many of Madero’s most prominent supporters refused to recognize Huerta’s presidency.  On March 28, 1914, Venustiano Cassanza issued his Plan de Guadalupe opposing Huerta’s rule and called for armed rebellion.  By July of 1914, Carranza had forced Huerta to vacate the presidency and flee to Spain.

 

            After Huerta’s ouster, the various revolutionary factions could not agree on what direction in which to move the country.  In October 1914, a convention was held in Aguascalientes to decide on a constitution.  The convention brought a split between the Conventionalists Francisco “Pancho” Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who argued for wide-ranging land reform, and Venustiano Carranza’s Constitutionalists, who were satisfied with the political reforms enacted by Madero.  The split widened into a dull-scale civil war, and Villa and Zapata captured Mexico City in the fall of 1914.  Their upper hand was short-lived, however; by the end of 1915 Carranza was in the ascendancy and had been recognized as president by the United States and other nations.

 

            After his victory, Carranza organized a convention which resulted in the creation of the Constitution of 1917.  Still in effect today, that constitution stressed land reform, which resulted in the ejido, or farm cooperative program, that redistributed much of the country’s land from the wealthy landholders to the peasants.  The ejidos are still in place today and comprise nearly half of all the farmland in Mexico.  The new constitution also created a minimum wage and the right to organize labor unions, limited the power of the Catholic Church, and place the restrictions on the rights of foreign companies operating in Mexico.  Carranza was followed by others who would fight for political control and who would eventually continue with the reforms, both in education and in land distribution.  The ideological heirs of the Mexican Revolution, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), remained in control of Mexico until 2000.

 

For additional information, see biographical sketches of the revolutionary laders in Biography Resource Center (http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC?finalAuth=true) and “The Mexican Revolution of 1910” (http://www.mexonline.com/revolution.htm).

 

 

Biographical Note

 

            In 1909, before the outbreak of the Revolution, Armando Gómez de Velasco was a journalist and revolutionary writer in the states of Zacatecas and Tamaulipas, allied with Francisco I. Madero.  On the eve of the Revolution in 1910, he went to Mexico City as a secret member of Madero’s revolutionary organization during the centennial celebrations of Mexico’s independence.  After the Revolution broke out, Velasco served in Madero’s army, beginning as a Sub-Tentiente and rising to the rank of Mayor Jefe del Estado.  He was assigned to the army of General Agustin del Pozo, who commanded Madero’s Liberating Army in the northern half of the state of Pueblo.

 

 

            After the assassination of Madero in 1913, Gómez de Velasco became involved with the publication of Caras y caretas (Faces and Masks), a weekly journal of political satire in Mexico City.

 

            In 1914, fighting broke out between the Constitutionalist Army of Venustiano Carranza and the Conventionalist Army of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata/  Gómez de Velasco commanded the ‘Brigada Melchor Ocampo’ with the rank of Teniente Coronel de Estado Mayor in the army of General Manuel Chao, fighting on the side of the Conventionalists.

 

            By the 1940s, Gómez de Velasco had become a physician.

 

Container List

 

328-1              “1909 a 1949, Algunas Fotografias Del Archivo Revolucionario.” 

                                    Photographs of Armando Gómez de Velasco and otherMexican revolutionaries, pasted on the verso of unrelated correspondence, 1943-1951.  Includes photographs of Velasco with Francisco Madero, as well as biographical information on Velasco.

 

328-2              “Legajo de la Revolucion, 1910 Abril 5 – Mayo 30.  Cabecilla.”

                                    Bound volume.  Contains a declaration of support for Francisco Madero by a revolutionary group, signed by its members, and several lists of revolutionaries indicating personal information, available armaments, and payroll records.  Also includes two letters ans an accompanying card indicating support for Madero.

 

328-3              “Legajo de la Revolucion, 1911 Junio – Agosto.  Licenciamiento Ejercito Libertador Iformacion 16^vo Cuerpo Rural y Piquete en Disponibilidad.”

                                    Bound volume.  Primarily consists of lists of members of a military unit commanded by Gómez de Velasco in the Zona Norte of the State of Puebla.  Also includes correspondence and reports from Gómez de Velasco to his superiors, Generals Agustin del Pozo and Luis A. Guajardo.

 

328-4              “Legajo de la Revolucion, 1911.  Columna Expedicionaria de Caballeria, Columna de Artilleria Expedicionaria 24 Sepitembre a 30 Octubre, Mayor Amando Gómez y Velasco, Mayor Federal de Artillerio Eduardo Ocaranza.”

                                    Bound volume.  Contains records of an artillery and cavalry unit commanded by Velasco.  Includes maps, lists of troops and officers, correspondence, commissary receipts, and reports from Gómez de Velasco to his superiors as well as reports to Velasco from his lieutenants.

 

328-5              “Legajo de la Revolucion, 1911 Marzo – Septiembre.  Subteniente, Teniente, Capitan segundo, capitan primero, Mayor.  Del Estado Mayor del Sr Don Francisco I. Madero.”

                                    Bound volume.  Includes list of passengers on Madero’s presidential train, recruitment poster for Madero’s army, printed decree from Madero, correspondence with Velasco’s family, menus from banquets and programs for events in honor of Madero, and printed manifestos, as well as other correspondence and printed ephemera.

 

328-6              “Legajo de la Revolucion, 1911 Octubre 30 a Diciembre 31.  Jefe de Estado Mayor de Gral. A. del Pozo.”

                                    Bound volume.  Contains commissary records and receipts for food and foraging, a speech made by Velasco, fundraising records, lists of available horses and troops, and newspaper clippings and written accounts of Velasco’s defense of a prisoner sentenced to death, as well as other correspondence and printed ephemera.

 

328-7              “Legajo de la Revolucion, 1911 Noviembre a Diciembre.  Piquete en Disponibilidades.”

                                    Bound volume.  Contains documents transferring horses to Velasco, lists of horses, other correspondence.

 

328-8              “Legajo de la Revolucion, 1914.  Originales ‘Caras y Caretas.’”

                                    Bound volume.  Contains a variety of material relating to Caras y Caretas (Faces and Masks), a weekly “journal of political caricatures of terrible combat, without fear of landing in prison.”  Primarily original copies of articles, poems, and songs contained in then magazine.  Also includes a copy of the September 27, 1912 edition of the news­paper El Chango.

 

328-9              “Legajo de la Revolucion, 1915 Enero – Septiembre.”

                                    Bound volume.  Contains a printed general order of Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata’s Conventionalist Army including Velasco’s brigade, a copy of the January 4, 1915 edition of the newspapers La Opinion and El Monitor announcing Velasco’s command.  Also contains orders and reports relating to Velasco’s command of this brigade; a copy of the March 11, 1915 edition of El Heraldo discussing the arrival of Emiliano Zapata’s army on the outskirts of Mexico City; a copy of the March 12, 1915 edition of the newspaper El Mundo discussing Zapata’s arrival and the capture of Tampico by the Conventionalist Army; printed manifestos from Pablo Gonzalez, Venustiano Carranza’s Partido Nacionalista Democratico, and the Partido Nacional Socialista.

 

 

 

Index Terms

 

Carranza, Venustiano

Madero, Francisco I.

Mexico—History—Revolution, 1910-1920

Newspapers and periodicals—Mexico

Velasco, Armando Gómez de

Zapata, Emiliano