Resistance at Atencingo

While Jenkins was developing Mexico’s most productive sugar plantation, he repeatedly faced attempts by radical agraristas to dispossess him of land, efforts he countered not only by force but also by such soft-power tactics as building schools for peasant children. Local disciples of Zapata trod divergent paths after the Revolution: some remained selfless leaders of their people, others became petty autocrats, still others sold their muscle to Jenkins. His most venerable foe proved to be the rancher Doña Lola, who aided country folk in seeking land grants carved from Atencingo. In meeting this resistance, Jenkins relied on his fearsome Spanish manager Manuel Pérez, who had troublemakers bumped off, and on paying hospital fees, funding sports teams, and building schools. He also forged an unlikely alliance with the radical Puebla governor Leonides Andreu Almazán. A serial tax evader, Jenkins was briefly jailed for contrabanding alcohol. Mary, suffering from TB, finally abandoned Mexico.