During the Mexican Revolution, the capital city was occupied by a number of different governments and military authorities. In 1910, the elderly dictator Porfirio Díaz presided over lavish celebrations of the national centennial, secure in the belief that his decades of rule had resulted in a stable, prosperous, progress-oriented country. By 1911 Díaz was gone, replaced by Francisco Madero, an idealistic aristocrat who denounced the corruption and authoritarianism that existed under the previous regime. In early 1913 Madero was assassinated at the orders of Victoriano Huerta, who had been a strong supporter of Díaz and was allied with the dictator's nephew Félix. Huerta's coup sparked a series of further uprisings, as revolutionaries with separate constituencies and agendas worked together to unseat him. While Huerta maintained power for a time, ironically strengthened by foreign attacks meant to dislodge him, he fled the country in 1914, to die in a U.S. jail two years later. Huerta's departure exposed the faultlines in the revolutionary coalition, which realigned into the opposing factions of Conventionalists and Constitutionalists. The Conventionalists were led by Pancho Villa in the north and Emiliano Zapata in the south, while the civilian former governor Venustiano Carranza directed the Constitutionalists. During this portion of the struggle, Mexico City was occupied by both Constitutionalist and Conventionalist forces before Carranza finally established himself securely in the capital during the spring of 1916. Carranza would more or less maintain national power until he overreached and was killed on the orders of Álvaro Obregón, his most capable general, in 1920. (Obregón himself would later be murdered by an ardent Catholic infuriated by restrictions on Church activities. Similarly, both Zapata and Villa died from assassins' bullets. It’s one of the great ironies of the Revolution that the only one of its major figures granted a peaceful death was Díaz, the man whose policies had triggered the entire affair.)
All of which is to say that anyone who sought work from the Constitutionalist government in 1916, even employment of the most innocuous type, was treading a political minefield. One applicant who desired a post in the offices of the national museum had to provide satisfactory answers to the following questions:
Have you been an employee of the Government?
Have you served in an army? Under whose orders did you serve, during which time, and which rank did you achieve?
During the dictatorship of Díaz…what positions did you fill?
When the government of Sr. Francisco I. Madero was established, did you continue in the same position, or did you obtain another one?
After the assassination of Sr. President Madero, did you serve the usurper Huerta, keeping the same position as previously, or did you obtain another one?
During the occupation of this capital by the Constitutionalist Army, in August of 1914, did you apply for and obtain a position, or keep that which you had?
Did you follow the Constitutionalist Government when it moved to Veracruz? If not, explain the reasons why.
During the so-called Government of the Convention, did you continue in the position granted you by Sr. Carranza, or did you obtain another position?
Additionally, the truth of these statements had to be verified by witnesses “of recognized adherence to the Constitutionalist cause.” Despite providing recommendations from two Constitutionalist army officers, our poor applicant was still denied the job he sought. Although the government was generally reluctant to hire outside applicants for positions, our applicant's fortunes could not have been helped by his lack of service in the victorious army - keeping your head down, it seems, can only take you so far.
