The leftist press in Mexico in the 1970s: ¿Qué hacer?, and the creation of El Martillo

Abstract

The present work deals with the creation of the left-wing newspaper: El Martillo, in the city of Chihuahua in 1972. In Mexico, during the 1970s, political organizations of the left proliferated, and with them, the publication of newspapers that they created to act as the voice of their ideological expression. This specific part of the historical press has been little studied, and the research that does exist generally analyzes the ideology contained within their pages. This article focusses its attention on the ideas of the founders, from the context of the leftist tradition regarding the printed media. To accomplish this goal, the author resorts to interviews regarding oral history with some of the founders of the newspaper. The central argument is that these men then felt they were part of a leftist tradition, and that Lenin's book: What to Do?, was central to that tradition. At the same time, the analysis leads to an understanding of the selective and fluid nature of the leftist tradition, whilst considering the Leninist idea of the newspaper as part of an inherited experience that acquires a mythical character. Precisely because it has that character of myth, the inherited memory impelled these individuals to the deliberate action of consciously making history.