Indigenous citizens

This analysis challenges the commonly held assumption that early nineteenth-century Mexican state-building was a failure of liberalism. By comparing the experiences of two Mexican states, Oaxaca and Yucatán, it shows how the institutions and ideas associated with liberalism became deeply entrenched in Mexico's regions, but only on locally acceptable terms. Faced with the common challenge of incorporating new institutions into political life, Mexicans - be they indigenous villagers, government officials, or local elites - negotiated ways to make those institutions compatible with a range of local interests.