This series features Alexander Aviña, associate professor of history at Arizona State University, and is centered around his book Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside.
Episode 1
The group discusses the background of the Mexican state of Guerrero, the Mexican Revolution and historical memory, how rural teachers formed the revolutionary vanguard of the 1960s, and the major players in the fight against the ruling PRI.
Episode 2
Picks up in the 1970s and discusses President Luis Echeverría, the advent of neoliberalism in Mexico, the 1982 default, the transformation of the drug trade in the 1980s, changes in the PRI during the same era, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, and more through the 1995 Aguas Blancas massacre.
Episode 3
Discusses the myriad crises facing Mexico in the mid-1990s, Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), the indigenous presence in the revolutionary movement, the end of PRI dominance in the 2000 election, Vincente Fox, the cartel “arms race”, and more.