320 UNIT 3 MODERN MESOAMERICA
acquired local power, becoming “caciques” who promoted their own personal in-
terests.
The successes and, more significantly, the many failures of the indigenist devel-
opmental program in Mexico can be illustrated by the the case of the native Otomís
of the Mezquital Valley in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico.The Mezquital Otomí Indigenist Project. Mezquital is located close to Mexico
City, and beginning in the 1930s, the area became a testing ground for the
theories of the postrevolutionary government on how both to modernize and to
“revindicate” Mexico’s native peoples.
The large Mezquital Valley occupies over 3,000 square miles of territory, and it
is located at an altitude that varies between 5,000 and 10,000 feet. Most of the valley
is arid and relatively unproductive, except for a small zone along the Tula River where
irrigation is possible. The Otomí Indians are scattered across the valley floor, as well
as in small villages in the upland zones. The focus of the project was on four com-
munities inhabited by some 36,000 Otomís, most of them monolingual speakers of
the Otomí language. They engaged in subsistence farming, relying heavily on the
maguey plant, which supplies pulque,the daily beverage, as well as fibers for weaving
coarse cloths (ayates) and leaves for roof thatching (Figure 8.9). The indigenist offi-Figure 8.9 A maguey plant of the type found in the Mezquital area. Photograph provided by the
authors.