Status Updates From Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire,...

Ricardo Magon has been radicalised through part personal greivances towards Diaz because his family has been destroyed by Diaz's actions, and part exposure to the group of radicals reading Marxist and Anarchist texts. Magon is most influenced by Russian anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin - total abolishment of private property, church and state. Magon's fellow agitators against Diaz want reform not revolution.

The book starts in 1910 with the spark (lynching of a Mexican in Texas) that will result in the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917). Then in the first two chapters the narrative reverses in time to provide the historical context of that event. Diaz is in power in Mexico and has ruled with an iron fist for 27 years - Mexico has achieved some measure of stability and prosperity but at the cost of US imperialism.