Agrarian warlord : Saturnino Cedillo and the Mexican revolution in San Luis Potosí / Dudley Ankerson

The Mexican Revolution was spearheaded by an upper- and middle-class revolt against the increasingly stultifying dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, and fueled by popular discontent in the countryside over the disruption caused by the rapid expansion of large-scale commercial agriculture, Saturnino Cedillo was one of the leading figures of the Mexican Revolution. The son of a small holder from San Luis Potosí, He entered the Revolution in 1912 under the banner of agrarian reform. As a guerrilla chief, he settled his followers in military colonies and acted as a political broker between the local peasantry and the authorities in Mexico City, Promoting further land redistribution in exchange for military service as required. By 1930 he was one of the most powerful warlords in the country. After playing a crucial role in securing and preserving the presidency for Lázaro Cárdenas, He gradually became estranged from the president, and in May 1938 Cárdenas forced Cedillo into a revolt that ended in the latter's death early the following year. Widely mourned by the local peasantry - who still revere his memory - Cedillo was Mexico's last traditional rural caudillo.

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