Divine Caste

The divine caste, known as "la casta divina" in Spanish, refers to a group of wealthy and influential families in the Yucatán Peninsula during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

[9][10] In the colonial era, the term "caste" in the context of Spanish America referred to the social hierarchy and racial classification system that emerged as a result of intermixing between Indigenous peoples, Europeans (Spaniards), and Africans.

Each caste had its own social and legal privileges or restrictions, and the system was primarily designed to maintain the dominance of peninsulares and criollos and ensure a strict racial hierarchy.

The Boston Brahmins were a group of wealthy and influential families who held significant social, cultural, and political power in the region during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Similarly, the term "divine caste" was coined to emphasize the perceived superiority of the Yucatecan elite over the rest of society, reinforcing a hierarchical system that favored a small, privileged group.

[12] While the origin of the term "divine caste" has been attributed to Salvador Alvarado, the leader of the constitutionalist army in the southeastern region of Mexico and governor of Yucatán from 1915 to 1917, during the Mexican Revolution,[13] other sources note that the term was coined since the late 19th century to describe the Yucatecan elite, who established their dominance following the Caste War and took advantage of their economic power derived from the complete control of the henequen agro-industry.

[14] During the colonial period, the criollos, people of Spanish descent born in the Americas, assumed a privileged position and formed a regional elite, concentrating ownership over large estates, known as latifundios.

These included the Peón and Cámara families, known for their extensive landholdings and employing a strict marital policy as one of their primary strategies to strengthen their social position, allowing them to forge their regional influence and solidify their status within the Mexican nobility.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Eusebio Escalante Castillo developed the henequen industry in Yucatán with financing from Thebaud Brothers, a New York City-based investment bank.

The demand for henequen fiber from the United States and industrialized nations in Europe, brought substantial profits to Yucatecan landowners and businessmen, contributing to the social and economic development of the region.

While the Caste War disrupted many aspects of life in the region, including the social and economic structures, the henequen plantations managed to maintain their productivity and profitability.

But a group of 20 or 30 families, which concentrated ownership of the land, was capable of extracting 50% of henequen, of controlling nearly 90% of its exportation, of directing, of course, the regional political destinies; in other words, they formed an oligarchy.

[17] "The gente decente who had timidly gone to Havana in the 1850’s could now elbow their way confidently past bowing waiters to the roulette tables of San Remo with the silver Peruvians, the cattle-Argentines, and the steel Americans.

French lessons became the rage in the best circles of local society and, once a year, a team of Parisian milliners and modistes visited Mérida to take orders from the grandest dames.

At least once a year, Yucatecos made sure to polish their newly acquired linguistic skills and exhibit their sartorial splendor abroad, and local social columnists faithfully reported their European triumphs.

Taking advantage of the economic situation that Yucatan went through, a group of conservative industrialists, which included members of the regional Porfirian oligarchy such as Eusebio Escalante Bates, Raymundo Cámara Luján and Agustín Vales Castillo, the clique close to the newly elected governor, General Francisco Cantón, founded La Lonja Meridiana.

"[20]In 1902, following the conclusion of the Caste War, President Porfirio Díaz seized the opportunity to exert his political power by rejecting the candidacy of Francisco Cantón, a conservative, for the governorship of Yucatán.

These measures, ordered by Díaz, also elicited opposition and concerns from various segments of the Yucatecan population.Francisco Cantón, compelled to retreat from public life, decided to sell off all his businesses to Eusebio Escalante.

Despite his humble origins in poverty, Molina skillfully amassed a significant fortune under the patronage of President Díaz and his influential advisors, known as "los Científicos."

This group of capitalists included "the traditional landowners, encomendero, and cattle-owning families whose prestige dated back to the colonial period, and who had shown a remarkable ability to adapt to the changing economic order.

Molina wielded substantial economic and political power [...] These circumstances caused a rift to develop between the various associations of henequen landowners and the local and federal government authorities.

Following the 1910 revolution led by Francisco I. Madero and the ascent of José María Pino Suárez to the governorship of Yucatán in 1911, the relationship between these landowners and the government underwent a significant transformation.

Notably, María Cámara Vales, the wife of Pino Suárez, belonged to a prominent landowning family that maintained a close relationship with the old regime.

Shortly after taking office, Carranza dispatched General Salvador Alvarado to Mérida with the aim of promoting the socialist ideals of the Mexican Revolution in the Yucatán peninsula.

However, during one memorable evening in March 1916, the resplendent halls of La Lonja Meridana resounded not only with the familiar strains of Quadrilles, Waltzes, Mazurkas, and danzones, but also with the rhythmic footsteps of the mestizos on the marble floors.

General Alvarado must have surely relished this metaphorical triumph of the mestizo people over the prevailing oligarchy, while members of La Lonja Meridiana must have witnessed it with profound horror, realizing it as an unequivocal sign of the changing times under the Revolution.

[30] Following the Mexican Revolution, the descendants of the divine caste largely withdrew from frontline politics but continued to discreetly participate in other spheres of public life, such as business and diplomacy.

Similar to the wealthy industrialists in Monterrey, it is believed that the descendants of the Yucatecan oligarchy played a role in the establishment and growth of the center-right National Action Party (PAN).

[31][32] In 2001, after almost 90 years of Revolutionary governments, Patricio Patrón Laviada, a PAN politician and descendant of two prominent families associated with the divine caste, assumed the Governorship of Yucatán.

'"[12]The Divine Caste is a 1977 Mexican historical drama film directed by Julián Pastor and starring Ignacio López Tarso, Ana Luisa Peluffo and Pedro Armendáriz Jr.