A Mexican Elite Family, 1820-1980: Kinship, Class Culture / Edition 1

by Larissa Adler Lomnitz, Marisol Pérez-Lizaur

Overview

This book presents the history of the Gomez, an elite family of Mexico that today includes several hundred individuals, plus their spouses and the families of their spouses, all living in Mexico City. Tracing the family from its origins in mid-nineteenth-century Mexico through its rise under the Porfirio Diaz regime and focusing especially on the last three generations, the work shows how the Gomez have evolved a distinctive subculture and an ability to advance their economic interests under changing political and economic conditions. One of the authors' major findings is the importance of the kinship system, particularly the three-generation "grandfamily" as a basic unit binding together people of different generations and different classes.


The authors show that the top entrepreneurs in the family, the direct descendants of its founder, remain the acknowledged leaders of the kin, each one ruling his business as a patron-owner through a network of clienty2Drelatives. Other family members, though belonging to the middle class, identify ideologically with the family leadership and the bourgeoisie, and family values tend to overrule considerations of strictly business interest even among entrepreneurs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691022840
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/21/1988
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

	List of Figures and Tables	ix
	Preface	xi
	Chronology	xiii
	List of Abbreviations	xv
	Introduction	3
1.	The Gomez and the Social Formation of Mexico	15
2.	The Gomez in Contemporary Mexico	41
3.	Family and Enterprise	104
4.	Kinship	125
5.	Rituals as a Way of Life	157
6.	Ideology	192
7.	Conclusions	231
Appendix.	Five Generations of the Gomez Family	241
	Reference List	257
	Index	285

What People are Saying About This

Adams

This is a rare glimpse into the family in the Mexican elite, and it provides us with an unusual depth of understanding. In a sense, the authors do for the upper sector what Oscar Lewis did for the lower sector.
— Richard N. Adams, University of Texas

From the Publisher

"This is a rare glimpse into the family in the Mexican elite, and it provides us with an unusual depth of understanding. In a sense, the authors do for the upper sector what Oscar Lewis did for the lower sector."—Richard N. Adams, University of Texas

Editorial Reviews

"This is a rare glimpse into the family in the Mexican elite, and it provides us with an unusual depth of understanding. In a sense, the authors do for the upper sector what Oscar Lewis did for the lower sector."—Richard N. Adams, University of Texas

From the Publisher