Between Lenin and Zapata: The Double Soul of the Mexican Left
Jaime Ortega Reyna
Abstract
This article traces the historical, political, and cultural encounters between Leninism and Mexican revolutionary traditions, arguing that the Mexican Left has always been shaped by a “double soul” — the coexistence of Lenin and Zapata as symbolic and theoretical poles of revolution. Through a historical-materialist lens, Ortega Reyna reconstructs how Lenin’s ideas were received, adapted, and reinterpreted within Mexico’s unique revolutionary context — from early anarchist and agrarian sympathies for the Russian Revolution to the formation and evolution of the Mexican Communist Party (PCM). The paper examines the multiple ways Lenin’s image and thought were embedded in popular culture, Marxist theory, and national identity, including their expression in corridos, murals, and academic philosophy. Ortega Reyna argues that the Mexican Left’s enduring tension between the universalism of Leninist socialism and the national-popular ethos of Zapatismo produced a distinctive form of political consciousness rooted both in internationalist Marxism and local peasant radicalism. The study’s significance lies in its synthesis of intellectual, political, and artistic history, demonstrating how Lenin became not merely a foreign figure but an enduring mediator between global and national revolutionary imaginaries. In doing so, the article contributes to the broader scholarship on Latin American Marxism by revealing how Mexico negotiated and localized the legacies of both Lenin and Zapata within its struggle for socialism and democracy.
Keywords
Leninism, Zapatismo, Mexico, Mexican culture, Latin America, socialist history
