Magonismo Hits the Mainstream: The Magon Brothers, Anarchism, & the Mexican Revolution

This book review immediately introduced me to quite a bit that I had to look up. Before we had the FBI as it stood today, we had the National Bureau of Criminal Identification in 1896. It was seemingly formed in response (if not to help track) the rise of anarchism in the United States, specifically after the assassination of President McKinley. I didn't know a president outside of JFK was killed and for it to be specifically an anarchist is huge, given the way America's strength against dissent is heavily curtailed today. All of this seemed to be at the strong urges of President Theodore Roosevelt.^[1]

What freaked me out is how this was effectively instrumental in the formation of the modern day police force. As mentioned in Prisons By Any Other Name, there's a history of Texan rangers attacking Indigenous people (who are the modern day ancestors of Mexicans). I quoted a portion about this on Bookwyrm, but below is what came to mind:

Volunteer police helpers also have a long history in the United States of facilitating Indigenous genocide. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for example, the Texas Rangers chased down and killed Native people rumored to have attacked colonizers, and they lynched Tejanos, or Texans of Mexican descent. But the Texas Rangers were not actual police, military or even militia forces; instead, these volunteer vigilantes were essentially "community members" playing a collaborating role in policing and protecting newly arriving white colonizers.

It's truly horrifying to understand that the symbolism of that badge comes from a history of genocide on "American" soil. This review continues with the journey and assaults that the Magon brothers experienced during their efforts to liberate Mexico. Some motivations that pushed people were things like labor repression in copper mines in 1906 as well as the forced migration of Indigenous people to Yucatan - all around 1906. This ties in with the Brown Belt of Jim Crow like law (Juan Crow, as it's called) being pushed on Mexican Americans. It is disappointing but not surprising to see how a lack of development of sexuality and tolerance also led to the Magon's campaign — you'll have to check this out to understand more on that.

There's so much more that this article goes into. I really want to read this book! If there's one thing I don't know much about, it's definitely the rise and formation of Mexico and its development as a country (as well as those who fight for liberation within it).