The Jockey Club: presentation of Porfirian goal culture through curated leisure

Abstract

In the contradictory pursuit of authenticity and authority, the Porfirian regime—defined as the period between 1876 to 1911 with Porfirio Díaz’s rule of Mexico—sought to transform class, culture, and race in pursuit of a positivist modernity. The regime subordinated heritage to habit, courting European fashions and sports and creating a visible distinction between wealthy and working tipos. Through leisure institutions like the Jockey Club, the regime projected its desired shape of the state and its people. Yet the contradiction in their pursuits alienated the public; the decaying audiences for those foreign sports suggested a popular rejection of the official, presented culture. Leisure embodied these messy aspects of the Porfiriato’s modernization project—their war between present and presented culture. This thesis examines how the Jockey Club served in the culture war between official and lived agendas. First, the Club’s birth coincided with the centralizing shift of the regime. Beyond the club itself, leisure invited those with a shared sense of identity to participate. When identity failed, a deep-rooted gambling culture encouraged participation. Yet the financial crisis of 1883 and later reluctance of the Jockey Club to participate in its end of the bargain in 1905 broke interest in the Club. Instead, sanguinary sports like cockfighting and bullfighting monopolized popular support through shared, communal traditions—demonstrating resistance towards and resilience against official culture. Lastly, leisure played a part in programs of positivist education which worked to reimagine Mestizaje as a European habit rather than mixed heritage. The Jockey Club came at the apex of a moment when the Porfiriato accelerated consolidating authoritarian power. It embodied policies of the regime, projecting a presented culture to foreigners more than its own people. As tensions erupted in Revolution in 1910, the language of culture and authenticity influenced the demands of men like Emiliano Zapata and Francisco Madero.