Chapter One of "Chronicles of the Revolution in Colima." Edition of the Ministry of Culture of the State Government. Collaborative work of the ten official chronicler of the Municipalities of the State of Colima. Is in press and will be presented in the second half of November 2010. Miguel Chavez Michel
One of the meanings that the dictionary of the Royal Academy of English Language gives the word "string" is: "all prisoners tied together." Since ancient times, was a humiliating practice for the transport of slaves or prisoners. Little did then, the statements of human rights, and further, the current human rights. Were times in which the procedures for submission to the established order - or rather to power, had to do with violence, toughness, energy and, of course, to torture in its various applications.
It is no stranger to using "strings" were carried to the prison's most dangerous prisoners or those who, for political reasons signified the imminence of political displacement. The danger of a detainee had to do only with physical violence, considered the most common characteristic of the worst criminals. The recklessness of a prisoner could also be measured because of their popularity and their followers. So the Inquisition sought in ancient times more cruel torture as an instrument of confession infallible. And the inquisitors - almost always wearing clerical garb, "ordered the submission of the accused no less than in long" strings "to put before him and judge the severity of those who fear the growth of" weeds "social. But "rope" was a means to an end. And now we have to refer to it in that vein.
Indeed, during the colonial period, arguing for control, to the extent possible banditry and what they considered a pest of highway robbers in 1719, created the "Agreed Court," which worked until 1813, where, "In addition to beatings, forced labor, imprisonment and death, the most dangerous were sentenced to death by hanging or by ropes, the prisoners were sent to Cuba, Florida and the Philippines."
In independent Mexico, by Act of April 2, 1835, to prevent the escape of prisoners, is regulated the conduct of "string of inmates to prison for." In addition, during the rule of General Porfirio Díaz Mori, June 10, 1898 amended Article 5 of the 1857 Constitution, which "were added restrictions on the freedom of labor, establishing the possibility of compulsory and penalties imposed by the court. So popular were the strings of prisoners to the Yucatan henequen zone or through gangs, forced labor on roads and highways "
in painful" strings "commanded the dictator Porfirio Díaz Mori moved from Sonora and Sinaloa to Yaqui Indians sought to free themselves from exploitative rebel estates roughly. Diaz's response was immediate. Deported in "strings" inhumane and bloody, were taken to the Yucatan to work in the henequen fields where they were decimated mercilessly and as an "example" for future rebels. Therefore: "The deportation of men, women and children without exception Yaqui was the central and southern Mexico, was adopted as policy in 1902-1903. Between 1903 and 1907, Governor Rafael Izabal reported that he had personally reported about two thousand Yaquis. " Then, it is not surprising, that among the most warlike and bloodthirsty troops the revolutionary ranks, were the Yaqui Indians, who joined the armed movement with a desire to take revenge on their tormentors.
In this same side, became famous book Barbarous Mexico ", by American journalist John Kenneth Turner, a reporter for" The American Magazine, which released the horrors of exploitation - slavery, he called it-of thousands of Mayan Indians and Yaquis, as well as Koreans, who captured the "strings" and subjected to inhumane working, were cruelly used in producing haciendas that owned the powerful few southern planters. Turner revealed the world in his book the real Mexico Don Porfirio. Most of these Indians worked on account of "debts" unaffordable and many of them had been brought to the henequen fields as punishment for petty crimes but magnified by the chiefs of the region. Among those powerful Yucatan Mexican slave was counted no less than Don Olegario Molina, who was even governor at the time of Don Porfirio. The vast majority of these poor men had as a form of "recruitment" vile "rope" when prisoners arrived.
Against this national context, we must mention the exception of Colima, where the "strings" at the local level were not very widely used. But remember the obvious fact that being as it is our territory, thanks to the railways, necessary step toward the center of the country or outside it, was the scene of events necessarily so embarrassing and humiliating as the "strings of prisoners" in times of Revolution and even in periods closest.
The train was serving in our state since 1889 with a narrow road that was traveled by the convoy between Manzanillo and Colima. And its class railway was expanded with the opening in December 1908, the wide road that linked to Colima to Guadalajara. By 1908, the railway from the capital the country, ending in the town of Tuxpan, Jalisco. Don Porfirio Díaz send build the remaining part and definitely communicate with the progress Colima inaugurating the new route with a solemn visit involving holidays.
So the train was long, the best means of communication available to us. And that made him also the focus of agriculture, commerce, society and local politics. Suffice it to say that the train had brought news or to or from the center of the country. And it was the natural means of transport they used the "top" and "lower", if we paraphrase the novelist Mariano Azuela.
The broad gauge railway, irrefutable piece of Don Porfirio Diaz, was a lever of regional development. For the construction of the new road, perhaps influenced the mood of the old dictator, Colima he met in 1872, when he was undercover in our state to promote the Plan de la Noria. In those early days, the old leader was still young and had to negotiate the arduous journey from the port of Manzanillo and the state capital in a painful and tiring trip. Again until December 1908 but now become the chief magistrate of the nation and aboard the presidential train modern luxury.
Our state is well connected in the time of the Revolution and as a small territorial entity, we should not easily dismiss the facts that arose, without reaching the extremes of other regions, generate unrest and discontent among the less affluent. Therefore, in this situation, sure, above, that the "strings of prisoners" were not as common as in other regions, possibly because of the deep local regionalism and incontrovertible fact that in Colima was the idea that proverbial All "we are one big family."
However we can not forget the hard claims in this context merited master Colima wrote: Don Manuel Velázquez Andrade, who he describes precisely the "strings" in the following categories:
"... the despotism and arbitrary law was silent, fear and adulation of employees and friends were given 'right and power" to the highest authorities, which made up the governor, the political prefect and the commander of the police.
individual guarantees were a dead letter. The authorities of federal, as the district judge before to protect a complainant, the case consulted with the governor, and if they did not lose their support and friendship, if the governor agreed came the arrest, otherwise denial to the defense, there were no permanent military forces. Periodically, contingent of 20 and 24 battalions, with their parent in Guadalajara, Colima came to protecting any conduct (remittance) or weapons that the Federal Government sent to the states of Sinaloa, Sonora and Baja California, through the port of Manzanillo. Upon returning the troops of carrying out its commitment to its headquarters in Guadalajara, led unexpectedly to a cam or the sending of 'strings' made up of agricultural laborers or farmers accused by local chiefs to be unsavory social elements, undesirable in locality. The "rope" the men were tied to the elbows in the back way and a string of garlic. It was conducted between two rows soldiers who had the same source .... " I can understand
the angry tone of those who, like Velazquez's teacher, lived and suffered the sad spectacle of the "levies" and "strings." And the record, that he, you had to witness these social ills in the middle of the nineteenth century, when such mechanisms were commonplace.
on this topic, Don Ricardo B. Nunez tells us:
".... The cams were in the market place and in the streets - receiving prisoners from the prison itself, or was surprised people in the street after leaving a public spectacle, as they were theatrical performances or the arena of roosters. The policy of the cams and the "strings" era la política ´moralizadora´ y de ´regeneración social´ de un régimen de gobierno sin freno ni responsabilidad ante la ley…”.
A mayor abundamiento, El mismísimo General Ángel Martínez, quien a partir de 1870 se convirtió en el dueño, amo y señor de la “Hacienda de Paso del Río”, cuando iniciaba su carrera militar de triunfos y de gloria, en más de una ocasión, para reponer las bajas habidas en combate, arengaba a sus soldados a “recoger leva”, según su decir,
“…para luchar por la patria. Debe advertirse que eso de ´recoger leva´, era uno de los procedimientos de la época para form the army, which does not mean that all the soldiers were forced, but it is resorted to in dire circumstances like the present ... "And
common thing was, moreover, that all travelers to and from Manzanillo he was bound to step on the lands of the ranch then Armory, located on the banks of the river of the same name and is now the youngest head of the municipalities, but, at that time part of the jurisdiction of Manzanillo.
In the early twentieth century, Armory, with a little more than four people was a rural town that lacked the most basic services, In:
"... 120 homes classified as huts or shacks in the 1900 Census, there were, of a room, where they ate, slept and lived dependent on farm workers and were located, most, about large house, whose back was a large corral and barn, and where they are also warehouses and processing of production from the property. A nearby road joined with Cuyutlán Armory, Tecomán and Manzanillo, like the railroad since 1908 worked on a regular basis between Manzanillo, Colima and Guadalajara ... "
As currently includes the City Armory, since the last third of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, reached its peak production the Haciendas of Armory, Cuyutlán and Paso del Rio. During the Revolution, were owners of the first, and Juana Doña Isaura Vidriales; of the second, Francisco Ramirez Santa Cruz and the third Dr. Albert J. Ochsner, wealthy financier that lived in Chicago and whose assets managed Gherzi Don Stephano.
Don Tomás Guevara Contreras, who bought the coconut oil in the Treasury of the Armory and then resold to manufacturers of coconut oil and soap in the state capital, review, during the Revolution, in this area never recorded a single fight between competing groups. More however, landowners in comment, in more than one occasion, they were forced to provide financial support, primarily to governments related to the usurper Victoriano Huerta.
More than revolutionary quarrels, among the few documented military incursions in the soil, these were raids overwhelmed by passions or revenge, as that committed by Augustine Saucedo at Hacienda Paso del Rio (Periquillo) in the month of June 1914:
"... motivated by the murder of his uncle Don Justo Saucedo, made, together with some of his friends there, go to the ranch Periquillo, place where administrator Gilberto Morales, saying that Saucedo was the individual who had paid a guy named Apollonius Tepames Centeno, that for a certain amount killed his uncle. Among his companions were Francisco Arce, Aurelio Garcia, Ascension Escudero, Ramon Torres, Gumersindo Preciado, Nicolas Martell and Evaristo Rivera. The entire group accompanied Saucedo totaling more than 50 people and they besieged the town on the plantation; penetrated the wooden staircase leading to rooms on the second floor and then to ask Enrique Solórzano Béjar, an employee of the farm , by the person who sought and was told que no se encontraba allí, tras de lo cual procedió a buscar en todas las dependencias de la finca a Gilberto Morales, el cual al darse cuenta que era el buscado salió de la habitación en que dormía, casi desnudo, brincó por una ventana y cayó detrás de un pequeño arbusto en donde fue encontrado y conducido a Tecomán. Allí se le vistió con ropa que no era la de él, se le paseó montado en un burro y se le ató al cuello un cartel escrito con frases malsonantes; llevado a la puerta del panteón fue fusilado y quién dirigió la ejecución fue Agustín Saucedo, de acuerdo a las ordenes de fusilamiento que el mismo Alamillo dictó…”
Con diferente enfoque, for constitutionalism, the same Treasury: "... was the scene of action of the bandit Pancho Villa and Huerta, who made cattle rustling, robberies, production of coconut palm and intimidation of residents. Gherzi always complained of incursions by the bandits on the property, both constitutional authorities and with representatives of U.S. government protection of property of nationals of the neighboring country. Given the frequency of attacks in 1915 Gherzi said the damage amounted to more than 40 000, mainly for theft of livestock, and therefore requested permission to have 20 armed guards and military protection, and demanded the early stabilization of the region to Juan Jose Rios, governor and military commander of the state. Ochsner, from Chicago, also pressured the Mexican authorities, state and federal, to protect the domain, "because of high productivity and benefit the economy of Colima."
In turn, the Treasury Armory: "... The military Agreed, whose members were Francisco Cosio, Andrew Villa, Martín Hernández, Mariano Cervantes, Pedro Rodriguez, Eutimio Hernandez, Silverio Ramirez, Toribio Wonderland, Fermin Torres, Lino Cervantes and Ignacio Bazán, employees Vidriales confidence was April 1920 attacked by a gang of bandits than 20 members, who murdered three members and wounding two others. The uncertainty caused by this confrontation led to the stoppage of the estate in that year, so the owners lost a lot of profits, it could not sell the production of coco and palm oil. Despite the problems, Isaura Vidriales now Núñez widow, managed to extend the activities of Armory from 1923, when he decided to exploit timber, the completion of processing coconut oil and the expansion of the maize crop. To this end, they took out new investments to build establish facilities where machinery for wood processing and the production of coconut oil ... "
Thus, in times of the Revolution, the Armory was our context, especially in the railway station, facts which were marked in the minds of its inhabitants. Now it may sound pretentious, maybe cold, but in those years it was common for residents, including women and children were terrified when they observed the crossing of troops from one side or another revolution.
In this confusing stage of our micro-history, the most common, was observed during transport by Armory, the sad spectacle which caused the passage of "strings of prisoners", and out of Manzanillo to the San Juan de Ulua and the center of the country to the Islas Marias prison. At that time, the "Armory station" was a necessary stop for supplies of water steam locomotives required at the time. His short stay favored anguish and consternation among the stunned villagers who by custom, and satisfied in mass arrivals of trains.
In this environment, Ms. Venturita Ruelas, in life, commented that:
"... it was depressing looking cage wagons, crowded stacked, tied like animals, who, taking their hands begging food or water. I once saw the face of one of the revolutionaries who were taken in a 'sane'. The bloodshot eyes of the beatings, his clothes torn and dirty, his face lacerated. The curious we approached the train, we were away, no courtesy whatsoever, by militias escorting ... "
One of the" strings of prisoners "most studied and most impact on the region was undoubtedly the leader Strike of Cananea, Sonora:
"... its leaders Esteban Baca Calderón, Manuel M. Diéguez, Carlos Guerra, Crisanto L. Diéguez, Paco Ignacio, Jose Lopez, Francisco Ibarra And ... Telésforo Martínez were sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment in the dungeons of San Juan de Ulua, Veracruz. Then, on instructions from the Governor of Sonora, Rafael Izabal, actors in a 'sane' was sent to Guaymas Sonora ... from there by boat ... on land Manzanillo Colima, were driven on foot from the port of Manzanillo to the capital of State ... went through Armory. In fact they take orders well, tied up, barefoot between the sand and sometimes among the pebbles of the difficult path of the coastal region ... After a stop in Colima were taken to the station Tuxpan, Jalisco ... It was January 1907 and in those years did not exist in the State of Colima broad gauge train, which was built ... De Tuxpan were spent in Guadalajara ... Then they would lead to Veracruz Mexico ... and finally ... "
relation to this event, Don Ricardo B. Nunez, in his book "Revolution in Colima," he writes:
"... Mr. Henry 0. De la Madrid, which at the time ruled this state ... I used to go into the reel to realize personally kept the city state ... In that year, 1907, in his morning walk in the vehicle that was pulled by horses, he saw entered the state capital, along the road leading to Manzanillo, a number of Federation soldiers guarding a number of individuals with their hands tied. The president asked the head of the group about why this, identifying himself as the chief magistrate of the state, and then so did you know that those guys were some of the leaders who had led the strike at Cananea, which, by operation the governor of Sonora were sent to San Juan de Ulua prison at that time was used to house the disaffected regime. Had been landed at the port of Colima and had to make the trek on foot to Tuxpan, a place that was rail terminal.
"I think these men will be tired - Enrique told the commander of the troops," I will order them provide beasts so they can get it to where the train. "And it was done. Some years later, when General Manuel M. Diéguez was Provisional Governor of Jalisco, was informed that among the prisoners in the Colorado headquarters of Guadalajara was the Governor of Colima, Enrique 0. De la Madrid, immediately ordered that he be brought before him, telling them to similar words: 'When you were Governor of Colima', ordered that strike my colleagues and I were facilitated horses not to walk on foot to Tuxpan, today, in return I put in absolute freedom. " Great was the surprise he received the former governor with that action, remaining sealed the friendship between the two since that date ... "
in 1924 passed the train station Armory another famous" rope "of prisoners from the city of Guadalajara to the port of Manzanillo. In this convoy moved, nothing less than the proven General Lazaro Cardenas del Rio. On this subject, contextualize:
presidential elections were held in 1923. The candidate Alvaro Obregon was General Plutarco Elias Calles. Other groups supported Don Adolfo de la Huerta. In December of that year, the second faction, took up arms, saying they disagreed with Obregon dedazo for Calles.
Concerning these events, his memoirs, General Lazaro Cardenas we participate:
"... During the rebellion Huerta was appointed by General Obregon, head of a column of cavalry of a thousand men to march to operate Jalisco Michoacan in the rear of the rebel General Enrique Estrada, who was concentrating his forces in Ocotlan, on the banks of the River Lerma - Santiago. In sustained combat Huejotitlán port, Jal. Against the forces General Estrada fell wounded and a prisoner ... "
American writer William Cameron Townsend in his book" Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexican Democrat "he writes.
In 1924: "... General Lazaro Cardenas was captured by his enemies he was transferred as part of a" rope "of prisoners of war - but not bound - in the car-box LN 13050 on 19 February of that year , after losing out in the battle of Teocuitatlán de Corona, Jalisco. Some of his friends, like Ladislao Moreno Barreto, tried him in the Armory station, but failed to do so until the Manzanillo ... "
The opinions in consideration, are examples of the many "strings" that only in time of the Revolution, passed through Armory. At a later date, this practice increased during the Cristero movement, but this will be the subject of further studies. In this direction, I summarize: in the collective memory of our ancestors, still remain numerous and poignant anecdotes about these unfortunate events. Pitiful spectacle witnessed for many years as part of their daily life, the little ones, male and female onlookers, shouting "here comes the train" is concentrated in the railroad station. To everyone's surprise, more than one occasion it was a new "cam" or "strings of prisoners."
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