Law vs. Practice: Unpacking the Dual Legacy of Cortés in Colonial Mexico

A viral image of Hernán Cortés’s 1524 “Ordinances of Good Government” (Ordenanzas de Buen Gobierno) has sparked a fresh debate over the conquistador’s legacy. While the document provides a veneer of humanitarian concern, historians argue it represents only one side of a much more complex and exploitative reality. The document, held in the Archive of […]

MADERO: EMPTY PROMISES?

When Francisco I. Madero initiated the Revolution against Porfirio Díaz, he promised that he would return land to the peasants who supported him. The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez established the resignation of Porfirio Díaz, the call for presidential elections, and that the revolutionaries would surrender their weapons because the armed struggle had ended. Since the […]

MADERO: THE TWO FACES OF HIS FAMILY

Francisco I. Madero González was a member of a family from Coahuila that had taken advantage of the peace and economic progress of the Porfiriato to accumulate enormous wealth. His grandfather, Evaristo Madero, had been Governor of Coahuila and was the owner or shareholder of large agricultural and livestock estates, wineries, textile factories, oil and […]

Can a ruler change a state in just one month?

Pancho Villa did it. His term as governor of Chihuahua lasted barely thirty days, but it was enough to leave an indelible mark. He wasn’t a career politician. He was a man of action. And in those four weeks, he unleashed a storm of measures that transformed the lives of the people of Chihuahua. Among […]

Slaves in the Sierra Tarahumara: Surviving the Narco’s Forced Labor Camps

This investigative report, produced by Quinto Elemento Lab and A dónde van los desaparecidos, exposes a modern-day forced labor network operated by drug cartels deep within the Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua, Mexico. Below is the translated and structured English version of the document, compiled by journalists Marcela Turati, Thelma Gómez Durán, and Eliezer Budasoff, with […]