'Somos petroleros'*: Mexican Petroleum Workers' Challenge to the El Aguila Oil Company, 1900--1938

Foreign oil companies arrived in Mexico at the beginning of the 20 th century. During the period from 1900--1910, hundreds of oil interests, mostly from the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands descended on Mexico. These petroleum firms wielded almost unlimited power over the nation's oil and workers and four decades later, the Mexican employees that they had judged inferior and unworthy of the most basic protections, benefits, and fair treatment played an instrumental role in expelling them from Mexico.;The workers of La Compania Mexicana de Petroleo El Aguila played a critical role in the story. With patronage from Mexican president, Porfirio Diaz, in the first decade of the 20 th century, their company, El Aguila, grew to be the largest oil firm in Mexico, employing more national workers than any other petroleum business. In 1913, its Mexican employees organized the first oil workers' union. Eleven years later, in 1924, their Sindicato de Obreros de la Compania Mexicana de Petroleo El Aguila was the first union in Mexico to be recognized by an oil company and won the first collective bargaining contract in the history of the industry. In addition, El Aguila workers led the major strike which pushed President Lazaro Cardenas to nationalize the industry in 1938.;This dissertation provides new insights into the role of militant petroleum unions in Mexico in pushing the nation toward expropriation of its foreign companies. In so doing, it adds to our knowledge of the importance of oil workers in shaping aspects of the Mexican Revolution.;* The Spanish phrase "Somos petroleros" translates to "We are oil workers" in English.