Visiting professor Justin Castro will be giving a public lecture on "Revolutionary Frustrations: Modesto Rolland and the Engineering of the Mexican Revolution." The lecture will be taking place on September 24, 2019 in the Nebraska Union Ballroom from 4 to 6 pm.
A number of young and upcoming engineers, including the brilliant but unlikeable Modesto Rolland, supported the electoral movements that helped spark the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Order prone, Rolland was not a fan of war and destruction, but he idealistically believed that the revolution would allow him, and others like him, to create a more just and modern Mexico—a country that others would want to emulate. He was not alone. He was one of a number of idealistic revolutionary technocrats. The revolution pushed engineers like him into directions more radical than many of their counterparts in other parts of the Americas; they nonetheless called for relatively moderate, “scientific,” progressive policies and development schemes, putting them at odds with the volatile populist politics that the revolution produced. Politicians relied on these engineers to enact land redistribution, infrastructural development, and modernization schemes, and, in turn, engineers needed sustained political and monetary support to carry out their plans. But engineers’ “apolitical” and “scientific” approach often failed to account for political realities. As a result, revolutionary engineers’ bold ideas were often frustrated from above and below, limiting their ability to bring their visions for revolutionary Mexico to fruition.
Justin Castro joined the Arkansas State History Department in 2013. He is the author of a number of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and two books--Radio in Revolution: Wireless Technology and State Power in Mexico, 1897-1938 (2016) and Apostle of Progress: Modesto C. Rolland, Global Progressivism, and the Engineering of Revolutionary Mexico (2019). He is currently working on a broad survey work on technology and society in Latin America and an edited volume tentatively titled Technocratic Visions: Engineers, Technology, and Built Environments in Modern Mexico.
Castro teaches courses on Latin American history, world history, the history of technology, and revolutions.
For more information, please contact James Garza at jgarza2@unl.edu.
