Men in a Developing Society: Geographic and Social Mobility in Monterrey, Mexico

Abstract

Monterrey, Mexico, the locus of the study reviewed here, doesn't fit the stereotype of romantic and colorful Latin American cities depicted in the tour brochures of travel a.gencies. In fact, it isn't likely to be included in tourist itineraries at all except possibly as a rest stop between the Texas border 150 miles to the north and more alluring sites farther south. Its tourist appeal is roughly on a par with that of, say Cleveland, Ohio, or Birmingham, Alaba.ma, and for largely the same reason: it is primarily anindustria.l city. A large (over one million population) and rapidly growing city, Monterrey produces most of the steel products of Mexicot and emits, a-long with its 20thCentury factory fumes, a dynamic 19thCentury spirit of capitalism, conceived without benefit of Protestantism. and largely home-grown. The combination of ambition, hard work, and frugality, which contribute to what Balan, Browning, and Jelin call the industrial mystique of Monterrey, is relatively ra.re in Latin America, but not unique. It is to be found in at least a few other cities, such as Medellin, Colombia, and Sao Pa.ulo, Brazil, for reasons which remain to be fully explained by some contemporary or future Max Weber. Monterrey is clearly not typical of current metropolitan development in Latin America, or even Mexico, and it is questionable whether it provides a prototype for future developmental trends. What it does offer, though, is a fertile field for studying the relationship between urban migration and social mobility, a central focus of Men in a Developing Society. The and population growth of Monterrey is of relatively recent origin. Although the city had achieved some importance as a. commercial center in the l9th Century (stimulated in part by the U. S. Civil War and the blockade of Confederate ports), the chief impetus for its development came through its selection at the turn of the century as the site of the first steel mill in Mexico. Despite temporary setbacks by the Mexican revolution of 1910 and the world depression of the 1930's, 'Monterrey's and population growth during the present century has been phenomenal. As an indication of the extent of its transformation, one has only to note that, a.s recently as 1921, Monterrey's population was only 88,000. By 1965 (when the Monterrey Mobility Study was undertaken), the population was more than ten times as great, having a.lmost doubled in the 1950-1960 decade alone. Needless to say, migration contributed a large share of the recent growth-a.bout half of that occurring during the 1940-1965 period, according to the authors of the study report. Un-