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Jenkins of Mexico: How a Southern Farm Boy Became a Mexican Magnate
In the city of Puebla there lived an American who made himself into the richest man in Mexico. Driven by a steely desire to prove himself-first to his wife's family, then to Mexican elites-William O. Jenkins rose from humble origins in Tennessee to build a business empire in a country energized by industrialization and revolutionary change. In Jenkins of Mexico, Andrew Paxman presents the first biography of this larger-than-life personality.
When the decade-long Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, Jenkins preyed on patrician property owners and bought up substantial real estate. He suffered a scare with a firing squad and then a kidnapping by rebels, an episode that almost triggered a US invasion. After the war he owned textile mills, developed Mexico's most productive sugar plantation, and helped finance the rise of a major political family, the Avila Camachos. During the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s-50s, he lorded over the film industry with his movie theater monopoly and key role in production. By means of Mexico's first major hostile takeover, he bought the country's second-largest bank. Reputed as an exploiter of workers, a puppet-master of politicians, and Mexico's wealthiest industrialist, Jenkins was the gringo that Mexicans loved to loathe. After his wife's death, he embraced philanthropy and willed his entire fortune to a foundation named for her, which co-founded two prestigious universities and funded projects to improve the lives of the poor in his adopted country.
Using interviews with Jenkins' descendants, family papers, and archives in Puebla, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Washington, Jenkins of Mexico tells a contradictory tale of entrepreneurship and monopoly, fearless individualism and cozy deals with power-brokers, embrace of US-style capitalism and political anti-Americanism, and Mexico's transformation from semi-feudal society to emerging economic power.
When the decade-long Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, Jenkins preyed on patrician property owners and bought up substantial real estate. He suffered a scare with a firing squad and then a kidnapping by rebels, an episode that almost triggered a US invasion. After the war he owned textile mills, developed Mexico's most productive sugar plantation, and helped finance the rise of a major political family, the Avila Camachos. During the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s-50s, he lorded over the film industry with his movie theater monopoly and key role in production. By means of Mexico's first major hostile takeover, he bought the country's second-largest bank. Reputed as an exploiter of workers, a puppet-master of politicians, and Mexico's wealthiest industrialist, Jenkins was the gringo that Mexicans loved to loathe. After his wife's death, he embraced philanthropy and willed his entire fortune to a foundation named for her, which co-founded two prestigious universities and funded projects to improve the lives of the poor in his adopted country.
Using interviews with Jenkins' descendants, family papers, and archives in Puebla, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Washington, Jenkins of Mexico tells a contradictory tale of entrepreneurship and monopoly, fearless individualism and cozy deals with power-brokers, embrace of US-style capitalism and political anti-Americanism, and Mexico's transformation from semi-feudal society to emerging economic power.
542 pages, Hardcover
Published May 1, 2017
18 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Paxman
6 books21 followersBorn in London, I spent the 1990s working as a journalist in Mexico, where with Claudia Fernandez I co-authored El Tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. This biography of media mogul Emilio Azcárraga Milmo examines the social and political role of Mexico's mass media since 1930. Issued in 2000, it was Mexico's best-selling work of non-fiction that year. Revised and updated editions appeared in 2001, 2013 and 2021.
Following an MA at Berkeley and a PhD at UT Austin, I taught History & Latin American Studies at Millsaps College in Jackson. As of 2014, I teach history and journalism at the CIDE in Mexico.
My second book is a biography of William O. Jenkins (1878-1963), once the most criticised industrialist in Mexico. Jenkins' life affords cases studies of Mexican capitalism, relations between business & politcal elites, and "gringophobia." It also offers a morality tale about a patriarch who put business before family but left all of his money to charity.
The book is out in Spanish as En busca del señor Jenkins. Dinero, poder y gringofobia en México (Debate/CIDE, 2016) and in English as Jenkins of Mexico: How a Southern Farm Boy Became a Mexican Magnate (Oxford University Press, 2017).
My third book is an edited volume, profiling some of Mexico’s most autocratic and corrupt state governors (along with a few good ones): Los gobernadores: Caciques del pasado y del presente (Grijalbo, June 2018).
My most recent book, Mexican Watchdogs: The Rise of a Critical Press since the 1980s, was published by UNC Press in Oct. 2025. An expanded edition in Spanish will appear with Grano de Sal in 2026.
I am currently finishing an episodic biography of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for Penguin México.
Following an MA at Berkeley and a PhD at UT Austin, I taught History & Latin American Studies at Millsaps College in Jackson. As of 2014, I teach history and journalism at the CIDE in Mexico.
My second book is a biography of William O. Jenkins (1878-1963), once the most criticised industrialist in Mexico. Jenkins' life affords cases studies of Mexican capitalism, relations between business & politcal elites, and "gringophobia." It also offers a morality tale about a patriarch who put business before family but left all of his money to charity.
The book is out in Spanish as En busca del señor Jenkins. Dinero, poder y gringofobia en México (Debate/CIDE, 2016) and in English as Jenkins of Mexico: How a Southern Farm Boy Became a Mexican Magnate (Oxford University Press, 2017).
My third book is an edited volume, profiling some of Mexico’s most autocratic and corrupt state governors (along with a few good ones): Los gobernadores: Caciques del pasado y del presente (Grijalbo, June 2018).
My most recent book, Mexican Watchdogs: The Rise of a Critical Press since the 1980s, was published by UNC Press in Oct. 2025. An expanded edition in Spanish will appear with Grano de Sal in 2026.
I am currently finishing an episodic biography of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for Penguin México.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 31, 2017
I just finished this most interesting book. This biography is so well researched and so well written that I continued through it over the last week. Counting footnotes it's 550 + pages. Anyone who knows Mexico or who wants to know more about Mexico can get a full course on Mexican politics in this book. I will be re-reading because of all the facts.
December 28, 2016
Es una excelente biografía sobre uno de los empresarios más importantes de México durante la primera mitad del siglo XX. El texto aborda y documenta las relaciones de William Jenkins con los miembros de la clase política poblana y posteriormente la nacional, enfatizando como esa relación transitó de una de interdependencia a una de conveniencia. El libro analiza toda la trayectoria de vida de Jenkins, poniendo especial énfasis a su trayectoria empresarial en el sector azucarero, el cinematográfico y la labor de la fundación que lleva su nombre. Un aporte valioso es que el libro contrasta entre si las diferentes fuentes secundarias existentes sobre Jenkins con lo que dicen las fuentes primarias, ayudando con ello a despejar varias de las leyendas que existen sobre la figura de Jenkins.
De igual forma, el libro señala que muchas de las practicas seguidas por Jenkins no le eran exclusivas sino que eran el común denominador entre el empresariado mexicano y asentado en México. En ese sentido, el libro enfatiza el papel que ha tenido la gringofobia como herramienta discursiva de algunos sectores políticos en la construcción de la leyenda negra sobre Jenkins.
De igual forma, el libro señala que muchas de las practicas seguidas por Jenkins no le eran exclusivas sino que eran el común denominador entre el empresariado mexicano y asentado en México. En ese sentido, el libro enfatiza el papel que ha tenido la gringofobia como herramienta discursiva de algunos sectores políticos en la construcción de la leyenda negra sobre Jenkins.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2022
An impressively researched and thorough life story of a notoriously private man. Paxman adopts a sympathetic defense of a much vilified man, offering us a unique perspective.
April 10, 2025
William Jenkins is one of those figures who needs to be better known. Over a lifetime of working in Mexico he had several remarkable accomplishments. He was born in Tennessee and went to Vanderbilt but then moved to Mexico as a young man for the next six decades he amassed a great fortune with a lot of hard work but also because he was a superb rent seeker when Mexican politics ran on that skill. He invested in sugar, textiles, movie theaters and a host of other areas always working to avoid the uncertainties of shifting political trends in Mexico. The PRI ruled Mexico for 7 decades and he was able to navigate various administrations so that when many American businesses were being nationalized his were protected. And like the Robber Barons of 19th Century in the US, he moved effortlessly in building and protecting his businesses.
Late in life, after the death of his wife, he founded a Foundation in her memory, which at one time was the largest foundation in Mexico - they funded programs in the state of Puebla but also through projects in the entire country. My greatest interest was his projects in funding hospitals and universities. The end of the book has a long section on the internal strife in the foundation and some of the details that the foundation provided for Universidad de Las Americas Puebla (which was the first university that I spoke at in Mexico 30 years ago) and the Anáhuac where I taught as an adjunct for several years.
Paxman does a wonderful job of telling the story of a powerful figure with some disputed details.
Late in life, after the death of his wife, he founded a Foundation in her memory, which at one time was the largest foundation in Mexico - they funded programs in the state of Puebla but also through projects in the entire country. My greatest interest was his projects in funding hospitals and universities. The end of the book has a long section on the internal strife in the foundation and some of the details that the foundation provided for Universidad de Las Americas Puebla (which was the first university that I spoke at in Mexico 30 years ago) and the Anáhuac where I taught as an adjunct for several years.
Paxman does a wonderful job of telling the story of a powerful figure with some disputed details.
January 18, 2023
Aunque en ocasiones se vuelve un poco tedioso, creo que es un libro que todo comunicólogo debe leer para comprender como se forjó el panorama económico del cine en México, su relación con la economía y la política. El libro ofrece una excelente investigación histórica que también permite, en un sentido amplio, entender la evolución del sistema capitalista en el México moderno, el fomento de ideas gringófobas y la mentalidad empresarial.
April 30, 2018
A painstakingly and thoroughly researched biography of William O Jenkins (1878-1963) who built a business empire in Mexico and was witness to a turbulent period in Mexican history, deeply embroiled as he was in the business and politics of revolutionary and post-revolutionary times. Textiles, land speculation, sugar, banking and film – involved in all these areas he was part and parcel of the economic growth of the country. This detailed book is not just about Jenkins himself but about all the notable figures of Mexican industrialisation and politics. I can’t fault the book for being what it is, but on a personal level I found it very tedious and dense at times, and found myself bored by the business and political shenanigans which were all explored in meticulous detail. The book would be of more interest to someone more interested in the history of Mexico rather than the general reader who, like me, just wants to learn more about this pivotal figure without having to wade through all his business deals.
July 15, 2022
Increíble la importancia de este personaje en la historía moderna de México y que cuando yo estudié primaria, secundaria y prepa definitivamente lo omiten, por lo que para mí fue un libro revelador y emcionante, toda lección de vida, lo que me transmite es que este señor realmente amo a México mucho más que otros mexicanos.
April 23, 2017
Un libro en verdad interesante. Como poblana una lectura imprescindible para entender gran parte del desarrollo económico del estado y de los usos y costumbres empresariales de la primera mitad del siglo XX en México, que no son muy diferentes de los actuales.
May 13, 2017
Libro obligado para los poblanos, y aquellos que se interesan por la historia económica y negocios en México. El contenido de la información se me hace repetitiva (al estilo EUA) luego parece que estoy leyendo a Krauz. Así que tenga paciencia.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews