Mexican Revolution in the Library of Congress.

• Author: Tenenbaum, Barbara
• Position: Essay

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In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC will inaugurate an online exhibition featuring the materials available for research at that Library in 2010. It is natural, perhaps, to think that the US Library of Congress would have a superlative collection of materials about the Mexican Revolution, one of the most significant events in the history of the Western Hemisphere and certainly a watershed in the twentieth century. However, the Library of Congress is also the Library of the Congress of the United States and, as such, many suppose it to be pre-disposed to collect only those records that pertain to the history of that country. The fact that more items at the Library are in foreign languages than in English should give people a clue that the holdings of the Library are unusual, to say the least. Most national libraries are unparalleled in their collections for their specific country, but give only token attention to other nations and civilizations. At the Library of Congress, the emphasis is precisely the reverse.

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It is another paradox that the Mexican Revolution, that most national of events, should have produced so much interplay between Mexico and the United States, for good and for bad, depending on your perspective. Many of the most significant events involving the Revolution had a connection in some way with the United States. That has led to interesting collections in the Library of Congress. For example, the Library of Congress holds the Presidential Papers of most of the US Presidents from George Washington to Herbert Hoover. In the papers of President William Howard Taft (1909-1913), we find several important references to President Porfirio Díaz of Mexico (1877-1880/ 1884-1911). In those unguarded days, President Taft wrote to his wife after meeting the leader of Mexico in 1909 in El Paso, Texas that "President Díaz was a great man and that (he) hoped he would outlive him." He was also impressed by his large collection of medals. President Taft, whose contributions to the building of the Panama Canal and the institution of "Dollar Diplomacy" invasions, saw in President Díaz a bulwark against instability on the southern border of the United States. This impression of the great man would have important ramifications for the Mexican Revolution.

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