Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

by Kelly Lytle Hernández, Joana Garcia (Narrator)

Few Americans today know the significance of Ricardo Flores Magón (1874–1922) and the magonistas, a group of agitators who challenged Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz in the early twentieth century. But distinguished historian Kelly Lytle Hernández argues their cross-border insurgency, launched from U.S. soil, was a landmark revolt against the U.S. empire and the suffocating power Anglo-Americans held over Mexican lives.


Through protest and armed rebellion, the magonistas ignited the 1910 Mexican Revolution, which upended North America. Their story reads like a thriller, with the rebels evading an international manhunt amid a swirl of love affairs, betrayals, and dramatic battlefield raids. Pursued by the nascent FBI, the rebels wrote in secret code and organized thousands of workers to their cause. Lytle Hernandez documents how the magonista uprising, and the failed Anglo-American campaign to stop them, proved foundational to the history of race, immigration, and violence in the United States.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Race, American History, Latinx, Historical

384 pages, Audiobook

First published May 10, 2022

About the author

Kelly Lytle Hernández holds the Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History and directs the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. A 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient, she is the author of the award-winning books Migra! and City of Inmates. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Reviews

[Plagued by Visions · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuck the United States of America.

[Zala · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved how, even though this is primarily about Ricardo Flores Magón, it highlighted just how many people were involved in the revolutionary movement.


Benito Juárez, Camilo Arriaga.
Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza, Sara Estela Ramírez, Lázaro Gutiérrez de Lara.
Ricardo Flores Magón, Enrique Flores Magón, Jesús Flores Magón, Librado Rivera, Antonio Villarreal, Juan Sarabia, Práxedis Guerrero.
Thomas Furlong. Francisco Madero, Pascual Orozco, Emiliano Zapata.

[Ashley Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating historical book that still impacts politics today. It was so SO good. Cannot wait to incorporate it somehow in my classroom.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

[Nico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive and awesome!

This is a long, complex history, but the author took the time to weave it into a highly-readable adventure. Even though I'm kinda familiar with the subject matter, Hernández had loads of details that were new to me. She expertly describes changes in nations and social movements over time. When specific historical details have been lost + can't be verified, Hernández identifies those gaps!

So cool to learn about the historical figures and events leading up to and following the Mexican Revolution. Also fascinating to consider the friction, uncertainty + opportunity that comes with any revolution. Absolutely loved it.

--

Warning: The audiobook narrator butchered the Spanish pronunciation. I found it distracting, and I was groaning and cringing a lot. Avoid the audiobook unless you want 13.5 hours of ear torture.

[Heribert Feilitzsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history of the Mexican Revolution cannot be told without understanding the role of Ricardo Flores Magón, his brother Enrique and the core revolutionaries of La Junta that laid the intellectual foundation for ousting the Dictator Porfirio Diaz. Flores Magón’s weekly La Regeneración calling out the Diaz regime’s crimes, corruption, and illegitimacy so rankled the regime that La Junta became an internationally hunted group of “bad Mexicans.”
Lytle Hernandez beautifully lays the groundwork for a thorough understanding of the role of Flores Magón and his followers. From the beginnings of radicalization in Mexico City to their exile in the United States and Canada, the story of the Magonistas is a roller coaster of radical, underground agitation. Emiliano Zapata, Francisco Madero, Alvaro Obregon, and Pascual Orozco are but a few of the future revolutionaries of the Mexican Revolution (1910 to 1920) that read Regeneración and subscribed to many of Flores Magón’s convictions. The looming question of Lytle Hernandez’s thorough history of the movement is why Flores Magón and his followers did not succeed in providing the spark that set off the first social revolution of the 20th century. The author skillfully paints the picture of Flores Magón not only threatening the Diaz regime but in the process posing a palpable danger for American investments in Mexico totaling more than five hundred million by the first decade of the 20th century. As a result, the entire weight of the US government came down on the movement. The federal government undertook the hunt of the Magonistas with the US Marshalls Service, the Secret Service, and, after 1908, the newly constituted Bureau of Investigation. In a shocking abdication of US sovereignty, the Diaz Administration, with tacit approval of the US government, employed its consuls and private agents, most notably the Furlong Detective Agency, to not only provide intelligence but also capture and illegally deport fugitives to Mexico. By the time the Mexico exploded in revolution, Flores Magón and his followers, as well as scores of sympathizers were either imprisoned or killed.
The source material of the book is mostly secondary but covers a large swath of the existing historiography, albeit with a palpable slant to the left ideological spectrum which leads the author to wade into dangerous territory. For example, the Plan de San Diego raids in South Texas in 1915 and 1916 were not “a legacy of the P.L.M. [Partido Liberal Mexicana]” (p. 301) but rather a cynical political tool of the Mexican strongman Venustiano Carranza to force the US government to recognize him as president. It is also beyond dispute that Francisco Madero pursued land reform as part of his platform, albeit through legal reforms and not by force.
The ultimate failure of Ricardo Flores Magón and his movement was that it did not play a role in the Revolution that started in earnest in 1911. He had radicalized over the years in prison and on the run, and his health likely affected his judgement. As a declared anarchist, shunned by the people who finally ousted the dictator, and abandoned by his moderate supporters, Flores Magón died in a US prison from lack of medical care. Lytle Hernandez, in her justified admiration of the activism and persistence of the Magonistas, describes the movement as such: “The men and women who built the PLM were ordinary people: migrants, exiles, and citizens, farm workers, sharecroppers, miners, and intellectuals.” (p. 308) However, the leaders were not. They were intellectuals and brilliant, dedicated journalists who failed in their multiple attempts of armed revolt because they lacked organizational discipline (Juan Sarabia was arrested with the entire subscriber list of Regeneración on him), and military acumen. Most notably, they failed to connect with common Mexicans and, as a consequence, lacked broad popular support, precisely because they were not ordinary people.
Lytle Hernandez new history of Ricardo Flores Magón and his followers is a riveting account of an idealistic, radical movement that rattled not only the Mexican government but also the United States. Bad Mexicans is well researched and written in a way that is hard to put down. Lytle Hernandez did a masterful job to shine a light on a period in Mexican-American relations that has remained largely in the dark.
I received a free copy from the Publisher for this review.

[spoko · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is an exciting, interesting story here—a group of passionate idealists fomenting a revolution, darting back and forth across political borders, narrowly escaping capture, inspiring the kind of change that often doesn’t come even once in a lifetime. The facts and details of that story are here. Sadly, they are absolutely drowning in all manner of minutiae and nonessential detail. This is the dry, tedious narrative of what should be a really captivating story. I wanted to like it, wanted to at least find it interesting. But in the end I was just happy to be done with it.

Also, for what it’s worth, the audiobook narrator was terrible. One of those that has you wishing for an abridged version. She matched the tone perfectly, I’ll say that: Breathless Monotony.

[Michael Esquivel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a well-researched book. We all know about the Mexican revolutionists Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, but this book introduces the players who set the revolution in motion long before it started and also paints a picture demonstrating what was happening in Mexico leading up to the uprising.

America had a huge hand in trying to prevent Mexican President Porfirio Diaz from losing power. Despite Diaz’ deplorable human rights offenses, corruptness, and other dictatorial qualities, President Roosevelt saw him as an ally. Furthermore, at risk of losing their investments in Mexico, American businessmen (Rockefeller, Guggenheim, Hearst) also tried to prevent any attempted coup d'état.

In Mexico, indigenous people were not only kicked off of their land, but were forced into slavery to work on American owned plantations, just to name one shocking example of the times. Mexicans abroad in both the U.S. and Canada who tried to plan Diaz’ demise were constantly being chased by Bounty Hunters and US Marshals, all the while their mail was illegally seized and read making any plans extremely difficult to carry out.

This book outlines the, often deadly, sacrifices many people made to make a change for themselves and future generations. In this post-modern age, I think that it is even more amazing that such a feat could be carried out without the use of many of the things that are so basic today, such as the internet and fast travel in cars/airplanes. This was a very educational and entertaining book!

[VitalT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands
★★★★☆

This is a gripping history of the Magonistas, the radical journalists and activists who launched their campaign against Porfirio Díaz from exile in the U.S. Led by Ricardo Flores Magón, they used the newspaper Regeneración and networks of laborers, printers, and exiles to spread revolutionary ideas across the border. Their defiance drew in figures like Práxedis G. Guerrero, whose outlaw legend blended trial drama and corridos, and whose story alone feels cinematic. The book also shows how U.S. policing and immigration enforcement developed in tandem with efforts to suppress these radicals, sometimes at the direct request of Díaz himself.

Kelly Lytle Hernández makes the case that this overlooked history is as much about the United States as Mexico. The battles over birthright citizenship, political deportation, and the criminalization of dissent resonate directly with today’s immigration debates. A vivid and well-argued book that reframes the Mexican Revolution as a borderlands story.

[LAPL Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The term “bad Mexicans” (malos Mexicanos) was not coined by Anglos from the United States, instead it originated with President Porfirio Díaz, the authoritarian President of Mexico who ruled for almost three decades beginning in 1876. It was a derogatory name for any person or group who opposed him. At the expense of his own citizens and to the advantage of American investors, he encouraged and facilitated the investments to take place, which resulted in those American investors having control over major Mexican industries. Because of this situation, there developed a revolutionary movement, the magonistas, led by Ricardo Flores Magón, who established a political party, the Partido Liberal Mexicano, that challenged those corrupt practices and abuse of native Mexicans and their resources. Ricardo Flores Magón inspired and led groups of poor men and women, farmworkers, mine workers and other manual laborers, who had been forced to cross the border to the United States, seeking work because of being displaced from Mexico by the actions by President Díaz. The Partido Liberal Mexicano was a direct confrontation to the regime of Porfirio Díaz.

There was another person who was opposed to the President's regime, and that was Franciso Madero, a very wealthy Mexican, who had challenged Díaz in a presidential election. This did not bode well for Díaz, who had Madero arrested on false charges and kept in prison until Díaz secured his seventh term. Released from prison, Madero fled across the border to Texas and “ … committed his personal fortune to stockpiling guns and recruiting an insurgent army to force Díaz from power." Despite the fact that Díaz tried to paint a picture of Madero as some type of radical who was agitating for trouble, there were Americans and Mexicans who did not see him that way. Madero and his supporters were known as maderistas, who wanted reform, and were in sharp contrast to Ricardo Flores Magón and his magonistas who wanted Díaz and the American investors out. The magonistas wanted a political and economic revolution, which was very threatening to Americans and Mexicans who could see the value of foreign investments that were monitored, regulated and did not rob Mexicans of their land and/or their ability to find work at home. There were more reasons why there were Americans who were supportive of Madero's objectives, and historian Kelly Lytle Hernández meticulously documents the complexities that were part of this very troubling situation.

The history of the magonistas has, until now, not been fully documented and, in part, that is what this important work of history does. Kelly Lytle Hernández analyzes the importance of how and why this history was hidden away; what effects this had on future relations between Mexico and the United States; how the long-term residual effects have changed the lives of Mexicans, Mexican-Americans and others; how it has affected the economies of the United States, Mexico and other countries. She presents us with a fascinating and distressing history that requires and demands our full attention.

Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction

[Natú · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable history of a period I personally knew little about, namely, the lead-up to the Mexican Revolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lytle Hernández does an excellent job of analyzing the dynamics of American capital in Porfiriato Mexico, which exacerbated the pre-existing contradictions between the landed criollos and comprador bourgeoisie on the one hand, and the indigenous communities and mestizo peasants and proletariat who made up the vast majority of Mexico's population on the other.

Likewise, Lytle Hernández paints a vivid picture of not only the turn-of-the-century Brown Belt/borderlands in the US southwest, rife with inter-ethic and -class tensions, but spins a thrilling narrative of espionage surrounding the underground agitation of Ricardo Flores Magón and his allies in the Junta of the Regeneración journal and their out growth, the Partido Liberal Mexicano.

The question that I am left with though, is to what extent the PLM, through their intellectual contributions, can be accurately called leaders of the revolutionary upsurge that effectively forced Díaz from the presidency. That is to say, individuals on the ground in both Mexican and US southwest uprisings were clearly reading Regeneración, and even saw themselves, in some cases, as serving the PLM cause; but given the ineptitude of the PLM to lead an insurrectionary movement at the height of anti-Díaz sentiment, as well as the ideological variety behind the anti-Díaz movement writ large, is it not perhaps the case that the contradictions themselves were the principal driving force behind the movements for land redistribution, workers' rights, and indigenous land holdings? After all, the author makes a point to specify the liberal, socialist, and anarchist trends within the broader movement, as well as Flores Magón's (rather sneaky) touting of anarchism under the liberal flag. The picture I got was that Magón and the PLM were more along for the ride than guiding a coherent movement, more a convenient narrative backbone than a true vanguard party.

Lytle Hernández does a great service by contributing phenomenal research and lucid writing to make an under-studied topic available to a popular audience.

As a side-note, whenever I can, I read things as audiobooks rented through my library, which I did here. I am not in the habit of criticizing narrators for mispronouncing names or words from a language they likely don't speak, but the Spanish pronunciation in this audiobook (and oddly enough, the English phrasing as well) is poor to the point of distracting. Highly recommend the text over the audiobook for that reason.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty fascinating history of the creator of the Mexican Revolution, Ricardo Flores Magon. I’d never heard of him. He was an anarchist who lit the fire but didn’t walk the talk. Did the words but not the deeds. A hypocritical cheerleader who alienated most of the other liberals in Mexico. But he truly sacrificed his health and spirit to free Mexico of a corrupt President.

It’s also a history of Mexican American relations and how the Mexican Revolution effected the United States. Rendition, kidnapping, and tampering with the mail were all done to the Magonistas in the United States. At times local American officials were loyal lackeys to the Mexican government.

I learned of El Plan de San Diego which targeted white Americans in Texas. Of course Texans aggressively countered against Mexicans and Mexican Americans which resulted in la matanza or the massacre. 5,000 Mexicans killed in Texas and SW. Also Mexican Americans coined the term Juan Crow for all the laws and harassment towards them in the border states.

It’s not written in a dry, academic style either but in a page turning journalistic style. Informative and enlightening for sure.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grew up in South Texas and am Mexican so I was familiar with the Mexican Revolution in some respects. Of course my information mostly comes from a Texas History class in school and so minimized the exploitation of the Mexican people by the American industrialists. It is both disturbing and fascinating to read about the machinations of the the Captains of Industry and the way they move the government to protect their interests over the public’s interests and to know nothing has changed in a century. I enjoyed this book but it is very detail driven and so was a bit of a slog. It’s well researched and informative but I wish it was a bit more narrative driven so it would be read by more folks.

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow…. The Mexican revolution is a inspiration! With a pen and paper they started a movement that turned into a revolution. The history of Mexico and the US is wild. I had no clue and I wished I had learned about it in school. I’m disappointed I learning it now at 25! Can’t wait to reread!

[William Adam Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mexican Revolution is such a tricky subject to pull off well. It's a complex event, with a lot of important people to include and it's a lengthy story. So, Lytle Hernandez does not attempt to tell the complete story of the Revolution. Instead, she focuses on the beginning of the Revolution, and how Ricardo Flores Magon, and his followers, the magonistas, used the United States as a training base to launch the raids into Mexico that started the Revolution. Hernandez is going to attempt to tell you that Magon and his Revolutionary Party, the PLM, deserve much more credit than they have historically gotten for instigating the Revolution that toppled the dictator, Porfirio Diaz.

Hernandez is from the school of New Western historians who would rather emphasize region and borderlands history than national history. So, in order to understand United States history, you have to understand what was happening in Mexico, because the regional history explains the United States history so much. The U.S. government was a key player in supporting Diaz for a while, until Diaz thought he should stop giving so many concessions to wealthy American landowners in Mexico who were controlling a large amount of the wealth in the country. The U.S. government helps to aid in the tracking and capture of Magon and his magonistas as they try to incite the people of Mexico to rebellion.

Hernandez writes history well. She does an admirable job of balancing the big picture with interesting micro history that keeps the reader invested in the story. Not all of her conclusions are convincing. Towards the end of the book, she brings up El Plan de San Diego and claims it to be one of the most important but least well known race based incidents of violence in American history. Yet, she only gives a cursory overview without going into the details of the event. She has spent so much time on Magon and his significance, that she can only hint at what his cause has lead to. Still, any book on that helps the reader to understand the Mexican Revolution and the time period better is worthwhile. I feel this event has been overlooked by historians and it is nice to see it get some more attention. The borderlands emphasis of her writing is fully appropriate to better grasp the complexities of the history. This is the second book by Hernandez that I have read. This one has more readability than City of Inmates, but City of Inmates has a tighter, narrative structure.

[shemauky · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We have all paid a price for overlooking Latino history . . . In the process of confronting the Diaz regime in Mexico, [rebel revolutionaries] rattled the workshop of U.S. empire, challenged the global color line, threatened to unravel the industrialization of the American West, and fueled the rise of policing in the United States. —- they altered the course of history, defining the world in which we live by defying the world in which they lived.”

Page turning and informative. Heavy, but encouraging. An added lens to discussions of counterinsurgency, propaganda, and rebellion.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire & Revolution in the Borderlands, Kelly Lytle Hernández writes about the period just prior to the Mexican Revolution of 1910 focusing, though not exclusively, on Ricardo Flores Magón, one of the uprisings leading agitators. She also highlights the United States’ role in propping up the Díaz dictatorship, the expansion of police power, the increasing militarization of the border, and the largest race rebellion and massacre in U.S. history (never mentioned in any history class I had growing up). Ricardo Flores Magón was a key figure in the creation of the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM), and long remained an influential and guiding spirit in the movement despite his growing estrangement from his colleagues. Tragically, his radicalism and intransigent fanaticism marginalized him and precluded a role in the post-Díaz era.

Hernández organizes the book into four parts. Part one, “El Porfiriato,” is a primer on the rise of Porfirio Díaz amidst the political and economic chaos of 19th century Mexico. The future dictator cozied up to U.S. business interests (and by extension the U.S. government) and imposed a strict, authoritarian rule that grew more corrupt and oppressive over the decades (a familiar pattern in any dictatorship). “We Will Be Revolutionaries,” part two, charts Flores Magón’s entry into Mexican politics and his rapid rise in the circles opposed to Díaz. Flores Magón was not alone, of course. Hernández also introduces the reader to the men and women who agitated, organized, went to jail, and sometimes died for the cause. “Running Down the Revolutionists” follows the fortunes of Flores Magón and his fellow revolutionaries when they were forced into exile in the U.S. (originally holing up in St. Louis, my hometown). Their presence prompted a strong (one might say hysterical) response from Washington, who used every legal, and some not so legal, means to shut them down (in the course of which a nascent FBI [then the Bureau of Investigation] got its first “big case”). “¡Tierra y Libertad!” summarizes the revolution and post-revolution era and the final days of Flores Magón and his most committed followers who ended up in a commune in East Los Angeles (he only returned to Mexico posthumously when a railroad union paid to have his body returned). Porfirio Díaz was gone by 1912 but conservatives maintained a significant political and economic influence, and the United States contrived to dictate just how far leftward Mexico could go before being brought to heel.

Of course, I’ve only scratched the surface. Hernández manages to cover an enormous amount of history in a too-brief 300 or so pages in a well-written and fascinating account of a period in American history more Americans should know about.

Strongly recommended.

[Jason Schmick · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want to read a shrill book lecturing people from the past on how immoral they are and how moral we are, mixed with cultural Marxism and a dash of modern-day feminism, this is the book for you.

[Juan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelly Lytle Hernandez's book reads like a motion picture. She writes about Magonista's historical evolution and the ideas of the Flores Magón brothers, who inspired the overthrow of the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz and performed an economic and political revolution. This is a fantastic book to provide historical context for the ideological movements and framing of the Mexican Revolution for those of us who are seeking to study history, particularly Mexican history, the history of the Southwest, American history, and the precursor to the Mexican Revolution. The Mexican Revolution transformed Mexico's government and society, is seen as the turning point in the country's modern history, and influenced the United States in numerous ways. This is vital for those of us seeking to make a difference in the Southwest to understand about the strategies and shortcomings as we work toward our own revolutionary aspirations.

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

It should be mandatory for United States citizens to read this book and see how much they have meddled in the Mexican government, at the expense of the Mexican people. It’s maddening.

[Marco Leecock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I largely agree with the politics of the author, and at least certain sects of the magonistas, but I think reading about their plight has made me feel like I wouldn’t want to be associated with the more radical left.

La Junta completely and utterly failed at accomplishing every single goal they set out to do other than stir the pot, which is certainly important, but it is such a small part of their aims. All of their military operations were embarrassing failures, romantically retold through heroic poems. Constant mismanagement of funds meant they were never as strong as they should be. Ceaseless bickering and pettiness meant that so many members were acting from a place of extreme ego. They never unified the working class of Mexico under a unified flag or ideology, in fact the working class immediately jump ship the second another leader who shows up promising modest reform, and competency. By the end of this book I kept thinking “what good is utopian politics if no one wants to participate in them”

I genuinely felt so much second hand embarrassment reading this. I don’t think that is always the authors fault, this book felt extraordinarily researched, and read pretty well when discussing individual stories, but the content really made me scratch my head. I’m also not even really sure La Junta were good journalists. It never seemed like they uncovered any deep dark truth about the Diaz regime, but mostly just appealed to emotion and produced a never ending flow of propaganda. Again, an important part of laying the ground work for a revolution, but hardly the most noble or interesting part. If this book was more upfront about the noble goals of these revolutionary but was brutally honest about how conceded, incompetent, and disagreeable they were I think I would feel much warmer about this book, but I’m given the impression that the author holds these people in very high regard, and I don’t think I’m sold that these people were the amazing superheroes they are being presented as.

I also felt a little uncomfortable with how certain events were being presented, and how much was being omitted that presumably would make our protagonists look bad.

The conditions the PLM were faced with was not enviable, and the fact that so many people stuck to the cause was very admirable, but I’m afraid grit and good ideas is not enough to make me confident and convinced that these were the people that Mexico needed to throw off the shackles of U.S. imperialism. I am still interested in reading “city of inmates” and perhaps my main issue with this was the content being written about rather than the author or the research.

[Ernesto · Rating 2 out of 5]

No estuvo malo pero no me encantó. El libro narra la historia de Ricardo Flores Magón y su influencia en la Revolución Mexicana. No sabía nada acerca de él y su contribución a la lucha. Tampoco acerca de cómo Estados Unidos fue crucial para albergar revolucionarios escapando de las garras de Porfirio. Finalmente también aprendí del apoyo que tenía Díaz del gobierno estadounidense, el cual lo ayudó a perseguir a sus enemigos en territorio propio, fuera de la jurisdicción mexicana. Cuando perdió este apoyo, a Díaz se le vino todo abajo.

A pesar de haber aprendido, no disfruté el libro mucho. Escrito de manera muy light y superficial, me habría gustado que incluyera más detalles. Admito que tampoco me encantó leer un libro sobre historia mexicana en inglés aunque reconozco que la cultura mexicoamericana tuvo un papel mucho más importante en el desarrollo del país del que yo conocía.

[Treesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good historical background on the Mexican Revolution, and she does a cool job of showing how what we think of as modern trends (deportation, policing, imperialism, etc.) must be understood in the context of the Revolution; she says, “You cannot understand the US without understanding Mexico.” Also really goes to show how US foreign policy actually has nothing to do w spreading democracy and is only concerned w protecting US economic interests abroad.

[Francisco Sandoval · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m just glad I learned this part of history that I would’ve never known about.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can not understanding American history without understanding Mexican history. Particularly regarding territorial expansion, national identity, and race relations. Major events like the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) resulted in the U.S. acquiring vast territories—including California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico—and transformed the lives of tens of thousands of Mexicans who suddenly became U.S. residents, often facing dispossession and discrimination.

The construction of the U.S.-Mexico border, the influx of Mexican refugees during the Mexican Revolution, and ongoing migration have all deeply shaped American society, politics, and economics. American identity itself was often defined in contrast to “what was not Mexican,” reinforcing stereotypes and influencing policies and attitudes.
Ignoring Mexican history means missing the roots of key issues like immigration, land rights, and cultural diversity, and overlooking how intertwined the two nations’ stories truly are.

“Bad Mexicans” is a masterfully crafted historical account that brings to life the dramatic story of the magonistas, a group of revolutionary Mexican dissidents who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from United States soil.

The book centers on Ricardo Flores Magón and his followers, who challenged the corrupt regime of Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz. Hernández weaves a compelling narrative that reads like a thrilling adventure. The magonistas—journalists, miners, migrant workers, and intellectuals—organized thousands of Mexican workers and American dissidents to their revolutionary cause while constantly evading U.S. authorities determined to protect the Díaz regime.

The book details how Díaz’s dictatorship enabled American industrialists like the Guggenheims and Rockefellers to plunder Mexico’s wealth, with Americans owning more than 130 million acres of Mexican land by 1910.
The narrative is filled with incredible details that seem almost fictional—the magonistas writing in secret code, cross-dressing to avoid capture, and smuggling messages out of jail in dirty laundry. These revolutionaries lived in hiding while publishing their outlaw newspaper “Regeneración” and organizing armed raids into Mexico until they ignited the first social revolution of the twentieth century.

For a region often portrayed through grim historical narratives, “Bad Mexicans” stands out for its joyful portrayal of resilience and tenacity. The author also highlights the contributions of revolutionary women like Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza, Teresa Urrea, and Jovita Idar, who funded, wrote about, and smuggled guns across borders for the revolution.

“Bad Mexicans” is not just a history lesson but a thrilling account of idealism, resistance, and the ordinary people who changed the course of two nations. It illuminates a crucial period in Mexican-American relations that has remained largely in the shadows, making it essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the complex historical forces that continue to shape our present.

[Geneva M Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading is Learning. For me this book, has taught unknown pieces of history. "Tierra y Libertad" now I know the deeper meaning. The Flores Magon brothers, PLM, Juan Crow (the stories I've heard, never knew there was a name), Antonio Rodriguez, El plan de San Diego and La Matanza, all written as a readable flow of history. Maybe one day a Musical???? Thank you Kelly Lytle Hernandez for this incredible read.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

"...Revolution in the Borderlands." What revolution?? The revolution didn't even start until chapter 24- THE LAST CHAPTER. Seriously, it was titled "The Revolution Begins." Here's what I remember:

> guy starts newspaper, publishes inflammatory stuff
> gov't gets mad, shuts paper down
> guy flees across the border
> guy gets arrested over trumped up charges
> legal battle over extradition
> guy gets free
> guys restarts newspaper under a different name
> gov't gets mad...
> guy flees...
> guy gets arrested...
> legal battle...
etc. with different combinations of guys that I couldn't keep track of because the author was absolutely no help with keeping them straight

I hope this review was boring because this book was boring.

[Elan Garfias]

Fascinating just how much of the Mexican revolution was planned just across the border. Texas in particular, but also conspicuously St Louis and Los Angeles, played outsized roles as safe havens for Mexican dissidents. In a surprising twist for a notoriously disorganized revolution, the Mexican Liberal Party formed cells all across the United States and even into Canada, from where they published the illegal newspaper Regeneracion. It was in places like Houston and Laredo where much of the intellectual foundation for the coming revolution was laid, most notably by the perennial rebel Ricardo Flores-Magon. I found the author's treatment of the collusion between Mexican and American authorities particularly noteworthy, as the American police system went to some questionable lengths to do Porfirio Diaz's work for him, imprisoning his opponents on flimsy charges and assisting in manhunts. On the flipside, the collaboration between American labor radicals (notably the IWW) and their compatriots from south of the border offer a more encouraging tale, though it ends somewhat farcically with American adventurers occupying Mexicali. Yet Flores-Magon's arc ends in tragedy, and he's fascinating as a character for literally devoting his life to revolution and then holding his nose when it actually happens (reminds me a lot of the fate of Russian Narodnik intellectuals). In a tragicomic anecdote, his compatriots who were fighting their way through the first phase of the uprising asked him to send weapons and he literally sent a bunch of Kropotkin books lmao. A lot of names to remember and maybe too many threads to keep track of, but this book does a great job of addressing just how much of the prep work for the Mexican Revolution took place outside of Mexico.

[Vince · Rating 5 out of 5]

This profound work of history scholarship is a must read for anyone wishing to understand the role of Mexican and Mexican-American intellectuals/revolutionists in the 1910 overthrow of the Profirio Diaz dictatorship which put the brakes on American imperialism south of the border. The Mexican Revolution earns barely a mention in American schools even today yet it was one of the most significant underpinnings of modern Mexican migration and the present day socioeconomic and political relationships between these two border nations. Bad Mexicans focuses primarily on the pre-revolution work of Ricardo Flores Magon and his fellow magonistas to call out the corruption and abuses of Diaz and the American robber barons supporting his regime. Their commitment to overthrow Diaz against overwhelming odds was nothing short of heroic. It is exceptionally well written and easy to digest; a rare page turning history tome. Easily the best history work that I've read in years.

[Ginni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mexico was a Spanish colony and then they revolted. Then it was a "democracy" in name only as dictator Porfirio Diaz and his cronies ruled everything with an iron fist and catered to foreign interests instead of taking care of their own working class citizens. And eventually he was forcibly replaced with an actual democracy. The story of how Mexico got from A to Z is full of twists, driven by a motley crew of rogues and rebels, surprisingly intertwined with the history of the US, and far too important to have lingered in relative obscurity as long as it did. Bad Mexicans is sharp, well researched, urgent, and timely--a must for history junkies.

(I received this book for free through a Goodreads giveaway.)

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Historians of the Mexican American experience have been chronicling the extraordinary PLM saga for decades, but so long as Latino voices and stories have been shunted to the sidelines in US history, only a few students lucky enough to take specialized courses or those determined enough to engage in individual study have had the opportunity to learn what the PLM, and histories like theirs, can teach us. We have all paid the price for overlooking Latino history. Stripped from the narrative, Latinos in the United States are often cast as immigrants, outsiders, or newcomers to the American story, when, in fact, Mexico, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans, as well as other Latino communities, have long been major players in US history”