From the steps towards modernity brought forth by President Porfirio Diaz to the Mexican Revolution that ultimately led to his ousting, these selections of photographs and text illustrate the vast changes Mexican citizens endured on their path towards progress, rights, and freedom in the early 1900s. Diaz had a 35-year old stranglehold on power, known as the Porfiriato, in which he attempted to modernize Mexico until those that he had impoverished through corruption and diminished rights rose up in rebellion. In these sources we see Diaz speaking at a Mexican Independence celebration during what turns out to be his final year in power, Francisco “Pancho” Villa meeting with his rebel soldiers during the Mexican Revolution, and a letter from a wealthy landowner making preparations to keep his family’s fortune, not knowing which direction the tides of revolution would turn. The digitization of these original documents show Mexico at a revolutionary and industrial turning point, from Mexico City first building parks to the introduction of the automobile, with Mexican citizen’s celebration of passion and bravery in the forefront.

These photographs, taken between 1900 and 1925 by a mining engineer by the name of Chase Littlejohn, depict the Mexican Revolution from a civilian point of view and vividly illustrate the rebel soldiers and the reverence extended to them. One of the more gruesome moments of the revolution that led to Madero’s assassination, the Decéna Tragíca, can be witnessed through this American engineer’s photography. However, these specific photos show a more hopeful and courageous perspective during an extremely violent and vicious time period. These photographs, perhaps inadvertently, also reveal how people in Mexico had incorporated modern technologies into their everyday lives through not only photography but also the newly invented automobile.

In 1914 David Russek, son of wealthy Mexican merchant Marcos Russek, travelled to El Paso to collect money owed to his father from Lázaro de la Garza. De la Garza, who fled over to the United States during the Mexican Revolution, served as “Pancho” Villa’s financial head of the División del Norte. Wealthier people from Mexico's northern states, like De la Garza, may have fled the violence and instability of the Revolution, yet their financial interests remained tied to the Revolution and its outcome. Many of them either fled or they remained alongside the Revolucionarios to support the movement. Despite having moved over to the United States, De la Garza still managed the financial affairs of Villa and the División del Norte.