Spanish conquest and colonial structures

This is a free preview of the episode "Mexcio Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction w/ Cecilia Guerrero." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast

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In Part 1 of this new series, we're joined by Cecilia Guerrero for a socialist introduction to Mexico. Cecilia Guerrero is chair and founding member of A Luta Sigue, an organization based in Nashville, Tennessee which incubates and trains young people and workers within advanced sectors of the working class to build and lead their own class struggle organizations.

We begin the conversation with a peak into the deeper history looking at the various civilizations present in Mesoamerica prior to Spanish colonization. We then explore the colonial period, the War of Independence, the War of Reform, and the Mexican Revolution from with a historical materialist analysis. We talk about the US's imperialist ambitions in Mexico starting with the Mexican-American War, the imposition of NAFTA, and the drug cartels. We explore the Mexican left—both anarchist and socialist—and the recent rise in center-left politics with the The National Regeneration Movement, or Morena and the presidencies of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum. We end looking at the United States' recent aggression towards Mexico and threats of invasion by the Trump regime.

Further resources:

• A Luta Sigue
• Poder Popular
• Tennessee Drivers Union
• Southern Youth Solidarity Network
• The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Works of Marx & Engels 1852
• Seven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality, José Carlos Mariátegui
• The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, by Seth Harp
• The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, by Alfred W. McCoy
• Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, by Gary Webb

Related episodes:

• From the Frontlines: Class Struggle and Class War in the US Southeast w/ Cecilia Guerrero
• Immigration, ICE, and Working Class Rebellion w/ Cecilia Guerrero
• Listen to our ongoing series on Venezuela
• China Pt. 8: Mao Zedong and Maoism with Yueran Zhang

Cover art: "The History of Mexico" by Diego Rivera

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