Forging a Racial Contract

This chapter documents the far-reaching consequences of the rise of antichinistas within the revolutionary state as officials and politicians fought for the hegemony of mestizo nationalism. Antichinismo became an influential ideology that shaped policy, programs, and the country’s longest running political party. The chapter illustrates that antichinismo became popular not because it rejected the Chinese, but because rejecting the Chinese created an image of benevolent intervention and citizenship practices that did not challenge the revolutionary state. The chapter turns to the 1929 presidential election, the raise of Mexican eugenics, the formation of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario, the racial politics of Rafael Melgar’s Depression era Campaña Nacionalista, and several instrumental reforms in land, labor, census, and immigration policy. The ascendence of antichinismo to the highest echelons of Mexican society was reflected back in new rounds of violence against the Chinese and state-wide expulsions in Sonora and Sinaloa in 1931-32.