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The Mexican Aristocracy: An Expressive Ethnography, 1910-2000. Hugo G. Nutini, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004. 398 pp.
Hugo Nutini presents The Mexican Aristocracy as a sequel to his Wages of Conquest (1995). In that ambitious and generally well reviewed book, Nutini traced the evolution of the Mexican aristocracy. The key to his interpretation was the idea of periods of renewal in the late-10th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, when the aristocracy was challenged by rising plutocracies. In the first three periods, the challengers were absorbed, enriching the aristocracy and validating the social position of the new rich. But in the fourth, the aristocracy was gradually overwhelmed by the challengers and shoved aside. This new book focuses on the aristocracy in this "terminal period."
Many will be surprised to learn that Mexico has an aristocracy. Who exactly is Nutini writing about? Not people whose claim to aristocratic status is based on titles of nobility or is generally recognized by other Mexicans. The titles that the Spanish crown essentially sold to wealthy colonists are of little value today. Most Mexicans have no idea that the aristocracy exists. According to Nutini, the aristocracy consists of "about 750 households," descended from the conquistadores and early settlers of New Spain; from wealthy landowning, mining, and trading families of the 17th and 18th centuries; and from families whose fortunes date from the years 1850 to 1910 (primarily, it can be assumed, from the Porfiriato, though Nutini does not say so). The adults in these households, largely...