‘For the government to become good’: the political vision and national significance of Felipe Carrillo Puerto

Socialist governor of the Mexican state of Yucatán Felipe Carrillo Puerto (1922–4) is legendary for his numerous, groundbreaking accomplishments. Even among revolutionaries of the era, he was radical in his commitment to the rights of Indigenous people, women and working people in general. During his leadership of the Socialist Party of the Southeast between 1918 and 1924, he created a critically important model for the implementation of an ambitious programme of reform, via a postrevolutionary political system that forged meaningful working relationships between political leaders and grassroots constituencies, one that was highly influential for other state and regional political parties across Mexico, and at the national level, to the institutional design of the party that would eventually become the Institutional Revolutionary Party. This article argues that Carrillo Puerto’s legend overshadows some of his less celebrated, but important, plans and accomplishments. Carrillo Puerto was able to achieve much of what he did during his short time in power as Governor of Yucatán because he worked to build the national political alliances that made it all possible. He also constructed a political party that was able to put his programmes into practice, well beyond what he could accomplish as an individual. Lastly, this article considers Carrillo Puerto’s ambitions during his lifetime for this model to liberate Indigenous people and urban and rural workers well beyond Yucatán, in the larger southeast and in Mexico as a whole, as part of his political project.