The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983 Page: 574

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

sion." The Mexican and United States governments worked in con-
cert to suppress rebel activity in the U.S. From Mexican use of private
detectives to the manipulation of neutrality laws and arms sales by
successive United States administrations, Raat argues that there existed
a consistent policy line that gained impetus from an irrational fear of
anarchism and the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies or
IWW). After the fall of Porfirio Diaz in 1911, the erratic nature of the
Mexican political scene led to further suppression of dissident Mexi-
cans by the United States.
Raat devotes fully two-thirds of his work to the period from i 903 to
the fall of Francisco I. Madero in 1913. Heaviest emphasis is given to
the Flores Mag6n brothers, their activity in the United States, the role
of the copper workers' strike in Cananea, Sonora, and the outbreak of
the Partido Liberal Mexicano revolution, with its base first in St.
Louis, Missouri, and then Los Angeles, California. The next decade
receives scant treatment. A lack of balance detracts from the high qual-
ity of research that is evident in the work.
During the period 1913-1923, Mexican dissidents in the United
States, who represented every political stripe in Mexico, attempted to
mount political action north of the border for execution south of the
Rio Grande. The reader does not get a very complete picture of revol-
toso activity during this period. Raat fails to analyze the methods by
which rebel groups in Mexico worked in concert with their counter-
parts in the United States. There is little analysis of the role of Spanish-
language newspapers along the United States-Mexican border and the
part these organs played in steaming up revoltoso enthusiasm. Addi-
tionally, Raat's work does not live up to its purpose of demonstrating
the activities of both the right and the left. No mention is made of the
activities of Felipe Angeles after 1915, nor of the subsequent dissidents
after 192o. With the exception of a brief mention of the Adolfo de la
Huerta rebellion in late 1923, the early 192os receive no attention.
While Raat mentions the Plan of San Diego in 1915, it appears that
he rejects some of the latest research on the issue. Louis R. Sadler and
Charles H. Harris (Hispanic American Historical Review, August,
1978) clearly demonstrate the ways in which Venustiano Carranza uti-
lized Mexicans in South Texas for the achievement of political ends in
Mexico. While Raat implicitly notes some of this, he does not do so
with much enthusiasm.
Hall's work on Obreg6n ably demonstrates the triumph of pragma-
tism over ideology in the Mexican Revolution. While much of the
ground over which Hall leads the reader is familiar territory, she

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