An Unexplored Realm in the Heartland of the Southern Gulf ... - Famsi

as listed in these records, include Román, Molina, Romero, Domínguez, and Joachín.
Today, families living in El Marquesillo share these same surnames.
Independence, the Porfiriato and Mexican Revolution (AD 1822-1920)
Although Mexico achieved independence from Spain in the early 1820s, the
country was not a united entity, and continued political factionalism disrupted the nation
(Bueno 2004). This internal conflict allowed colonial economic processes to continue and
expand relatively unchanged.
It was not until the Porfiriato, which began in the middle of the 19 th century that
significant changes began to affect the Sotavento (Garner 2001). The environment along
the southern Gulf Coast was further exploited to help finance Mexico’s growing
economic debt (see Paz-Sánchez 2000). Commercial-scale mono-cropping was instituted,
cotton and tobacco production escalated, and the cultivation of traditional crops including
corn and beans was intensified.
The hacienda system continued to facilitate economic expansion and the
subjugation of the people. Any land that had not been subject to clearing for grazing and
agriculture was decimated through intentional deforestation. Ports along the coast were
expanded to handle the increase in exports of the land’s natural resources. In 1873 alone,
15,810 tons of mahogany, cedar, and other hardwoods were shipped out of the Port of
Coatzacoalcos, most going to England and a lesser amount to the United States (Blázquez
1986). Sugar cane production in the region expanded as the forests were cleared.
Economically oriented international intervention throughout the 1800s, primarily
by the United States and France (Coe and Diehl 1980b), led to a series of proposals to
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