La conexión mexicana: Cárdenas, Roosevelt y la Guerra Civil Española

For obvious reasons, the study of relations between Mexico and the United States in the 1930s has focused on the impact of the agricultural and oil expropriations carried out by the government of Lazaro Cardenas. Through an investigation of diplomatic correspondence and contemporary periodical coverage that reflects the foreign policy debates of the inter-war period, this article explores the Spanish Civil War’s place in the bilateral relations between the government of Cardenas and the administration of Roosevelt. The fear that a rebellion, such as that of Saturnino Cedillo, would replicate the Spanish Civil War in Latin America influenced the response of Washington to the Mexican oil expropriation in a critical manner. For its part, the Mexican government also used the Spanish example to try to convince Washington of the need to consider the oil controversy in light of broader geopolitical issues.