Victorianism Without Victoria: On Mexican Steampunk

By Guest Contributor Hodson, cross-posted from Beyond Victoriana

Note: This article is also available to read in Spanish on El Investigador’s website / Este artículo está disponible para leer en español. Thanks go out to El Investigador’s Editor-in-Chief Araceli Rodríguez, and magazine writers Hodson and Miguel for their time and effort in getting this piece together for Beyond Victoriana.

There are many reasons why the Victorian era is considered the Golden Age of the British Empire. Not only the economic and social stability came at a time where social inequalities were as big as scientific advances, but the huge explosion of advances in production, communications, and transportation allowed the existence of a global colonial government facilitated by the ability to improve the response time of all regional governments.

At a time when the great modern empires grew and spread across five continents populated by man, Victorianism quickly became the spirit of the time. The idea of progress and mastery of time through greater efficiency in transport and production was a constant among all the nations of the world, and those who had the power to launch big technology and conquest ventures had secured a bright future in the international area.

The Victorian era was undoubtedly the light bulb that shines light upon this century. It was the time when big government combined a vision of the future and the present into an immediate moment that inspired prosperity and development.

For those living in First World countries, it is easy to imagine a glorious past that never ceased to be, and it is done through an alternate technologically advanced reality. Whether it’s a world of steam or of world war, to imagine that moment of past glory is not a particularly difficult endeavor.

But I dare to say that for those who live this kind of retro-futurism from the Third World, must be a little more difficult to imagine a glorious past drawn from the very distant past of their own 19th century. Just remember that the Victorian era was the era of colonialism. The steampunk retro-futurism of the Victorian era in England is diametrically different from Latin American’s Victorian era, for example, at least conceptually.

This is often reflected in the very limited amount of retro-futuristic works that are created in Latin American countries using their own past in comparison with the big paraphernalia based on countries such as England, France, Germany, Spain, United States, Russia, China, Japan, or Italy, which were at the forefront of history when talking about colonization.

To think about a glorious Victorian era effected countries like Mexico, which faced a period of transitional changes, is a little harder for people. The 19th century was when Mexico was born as an independent country in a continent that began to break away from the domination of Europe and when the borders of the new Latino nations began to take their shape.

By 1821, Mexico had just achieved independence, and the country first attempted to establish an imperial government under the figure of Agustín de Iturbide–the first and only recognized Emperor by Mexican government, but who was later exiled by his own independence movement because of political and social disagreements–and this established the first Republic of Mexico.

The independence of Mexico triggered the independence of eight different countries. After the fall of the first Mexican Empire, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the republics of Yucatan and Chiapas, which later were re-annexed to the Republic of Mexico, declared independence. The Republic also still retained the territories of Texas, New Mexico, and southern California.

Therefore, while nations such as England, France, Germany, and the United States experienced an economic, technological, and military boom, Mexico just began to forge an identity, and its first attempts as a nation were led by military forces rather than by democratic statesmen. One such an attempt at political rule was embodied by the eleven non-consecutive times General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ruled the country in Mexico’s first 40 years as a country. His administration gave adjustments to the domestic and foreign policy of the country: some of them were ridiculous, such as the tax collection based on the doors and windows in each house.

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