The Magonista rebellion of 1911 was an early uprising of the Mexican Revolution organized by the Liberal Party of Mexico (, PLM), which was only successful in northern Baja California. It is named after Ricardo Flores Magón, one of the leaders of the PLM. The Magonistas controlled Tijuana and Mexicali for about six months, beginning with the liberation of Mexicali on January 29, 1911. The rebellion was launched against the rule of Porfirio Díaz but was put down by forces loyal to Francisco I. Madero. Acting on a tip from Madero's agents, leaders of the Magonista movement were arrested in the United States.
The rebellion was planned and coordinated by the Organizing Board of the Mexican Liberal Party from Los Angeles, California, to create a liberated and libertarian territory in Mexico, as the basis for extending a social revolution to the rest of the country. They implemented the 1906 Mexican Liberal Party Program in Baja California, and to a lesser extent, in other states such as Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Morelos and Durango. The control of the Baja California peninsula was part of a contingency plan in case of suffering defeats in the northern states, so as to gain time for reorganizing the Liberal Army to later move towards the south of the peninsula and go to Sonora and Sinaloa.
In the uprising of November 20, 1910, Magonist and Maderist groups combined their forces to occupy important places in the northern states. However, the ideological differences between the two groups caused confrontations between them to arise soon after. The Magonistas were losing presence in Chihuahua; furthermore, some of their guerrilla leaders were arrested by Madero when they refused to recognize him as provisional president. When some Liberals managed to regroup in Baja California, a new campaign began with the capture of Mexicali.
Overview The uprising took place within a general uprising against the dictatorship of the Porfiriato but it soon distanced itself from the bourgeois democratic revolution of Madero, seeking rather to abolish property and create an anarchist worker's commune. However, though several cities were held for around half a year, the attempted revolution of magonista rebels turned out quite unsuccessfully, "with the insurgents crippled by dissensions between Americans, Mexicans and Indians, and with opportunism and lack of political principle rife among some of its leading actors." Compared to the agrarian revolution in Morelos, the Baja California revolt did not achieve much, but the PLM's influence on the outburst of revolution and its position as a revolutionary vanguard cannot be overlooked. Thus, while the material realization of the PLM program did not attain any lasting results, the ideas for which the revolt in Baja California were fought for remained a powerful element in the social transformation of the Revolution. Opponents of the PLM tried to paint their movement as being controlled by American interests, which was probably not the case, but the accusation was effective at reducing their support.
Background The tensions that led to the rebellion was due in part to preexisting tensions between conservative and radical parties in Southern California and Northern Mexico. The PLM supported the Mexican Revolution, the overthrow of Porfirio Díaz's dictatorship, the liberation of Baja California, and the welfare of indigenous peoples.Laslett, John H. M. Sunshine Was Never Enough Los Angeles Workers, 1880–2010, 62–78. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. They were also against American investment in Baja California, something they viewed as another form of imperialism. The PLM received a wide range of support from radical groups based in Southern California.
Preceding the revolution, the Magón brothers, Ricardo and Enrique Magón, were exiled from Mexico due to their criticisms of Díaz as well as their calls for social reforms. However, this did not stop their attempts to stir up a revolution against Díaz. The Magón brothers moved PLM's headquarters to Los Angeles, where many were "seething with social discontent", said Emma Goldman, fellow anarchist and social reformist.Larralde, Carlos. Mexican Americans: Movements and Leaders. Los Alamitos: Hwong Publishing Co., 1976 Here, the PLM found allies in many other left-wing groups, such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Socialists, Chicanos, and trade unionists. Through their many speeches and their general activism within the labor community, their philosophy of anarchism was widely spread. Due to their pro-union and pro-workers stance, the radicals received popular support from the majority of the labor force and from sympathetic members of their community.Tutino, John. Mexico and Mexicans in the Making of the United States, University of Texas Press, 2012. The PLM especially appealed to migrant workers who have experienced the harsh working conditions in Northern Mexico.
The PLM's main ally was the IWW of Los Angeles, particularly, those who worked in the docks or were migrant workers. Those who worked on the docks were sympathetic to the cause as they approved of the militant organizing in PLM, and have consistently fought for control of the docks. According to John H. M. Laslett, they were "linked by a common interest in anarcho-syndicalist doctrine, grassroots militancy, and working-class internationalism." The IWW, as well as the Socialist Party, helped start the revolution by funding the PLM.
California operated under the open shop policy, much to the dismay of workers and union groups. This created tension between the labor force and business owners and helped developed an atmosphere where social radicalism was encouraged amongst workers. Due to their high capital investments in Southern California and Baja California, the radicals' agenda and public support alarmed many conservatives. They feared they would lose their land and property if the Magón brothers succeeded in inciting their revolution. This prompted many conservatives to publicly decry their disapproval and fear of the insurgent population, which intensified the divide between the two parties.
Media helped fuel this divide as well. The Los Angeles Times, one of the conservative papers during that time period, called supporters of Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón, "greasers" and "wild-eyed-anarchists with smoking bombs in hand." The Regeneración, a revolutionary newspaper, published left-wing philosophy, and asked the public for support during the Mexican Revolution.
Since 1903 Colonel Celso Vega had been appointed governor of the northern district by Porfirio Díaz. Like the dictator, Colonel Vega did not enjoy respect among the population of Baja California. Samaniego López, Marco Antonio, "The impact of trekking in Baja California, 1911". Studies of Modern and Contemporary History of Mexico, Vol. 18, 1999. p. 93.
Revolution in Baja California By 1906, the PLM had many operations in Mexico, the U.S. Southwest, as well as Southern California. Their second organized uprising, which was to take place in Mexico in June 1908, failed due to the Los Angeles Police Department's preemptive arrests. The Magón brothers were arrested under charges of treason and murder, but were released after a trial showed that the charges were unsubstantial. The arrest however, stirred up local support in Los Angeles, and hundreds of protesters, including the leaders of many labor groups, rallied around the two brothers. This wide support created backlash from American conservatives as well as right-winged newspapers, who shamed the public for their support.
After their release, the Magón brothers and the PLM organized another rebellion. They planned to liberate Baja California from Díaz and California land owners, and return that land to the indigenous people who previously lived there. However, despite the popular support the PLM received from either side of the border, the movement failed to recruit actual volunteers to fight in the revolution. In addition to this, the rebels were armed with little ammunition and had little funding to buy ammunition with.
In 1910, the Organizing Board of the PLM sent Fernando Palomares and Pedro Ramírez Caule, who had participated in Cananea Strike, to get in touch with the indigenous Maldonado Alvarado, Benjamin. The Indian and the Indian in the magonist movement, Ed. Antorcha, Mexico, 2003. Camilo Jiménez is referred to as tarahumara and Ponce Aguilar, Antonio. From Cave Painted to Modernity: History of Baja California, p . 428. the indigenous is referred to as cucapá. Camilo Jiménez and Antonio Cholay, with the objective of preparing maps of the land and organizing indigenous groups for armed struggle, gaining the support of the Cocopah, Paipai, Kumeyaay, and Kiliwa peoples. Since then the PLM's Organizing Board – which resided in Los Angeles – coordinated the propaganda, the provision of funds, the recruitment of volunteers and the general planning to attack Baja California. Ponce Aguilar, Antonio. Op. cit. p. 403. In 1911 the number of inhabitants in the towns of northern Baja California was: 1027 in Ensenada, 300 in Mexicali, 100 in Tijuana, less than 100 in Los Algodones and less than 100 in Tecate. Ponce Aguilar. Op. cit. p. 428.
The Liberal Army had a few private soldiers who received a salary of 1 peso a day and the officers received a somewhat higher payment than their equivalent in the federal army. Given the low population in Baja California, the recruitment of foreigners resident in the United States was extensive. Some historians estimate that recruits were offered 100 to 600 US dollars in gold and farms of 160 acres each, although most likely the people who made these offers were the recruitment managers and not the PLM Board; Lawrence Douglas Taylor Hansen. Jack Mosby in the 1911 revolt in Baja California, Region and Society Magazine, No. 20, Colegio de Sonora, 2000. also during the Organizing Board's trial in Los Angeles for violating US laws of neutrality during the Baja California rebellion, a smuggler stated that the US government had offered him and his companions exhoneration, in exchange for helping prosecute Flores Magón, Librado Rivera and Anselmo L. Figueroa, and mentioned that they then fabricated what they had been asked to by the Board in Los Angeles, and received 5 dollars and the promise of 160 acres of land. For the freedom of the martyrs of McNeil Island, unmasked the crime, Regeneration Volume IV, No. 133, Los Angeles, California. March 8, 1913. p. 1.
Taking Mexicali