When I teach the history of Mexican people at the University of Arizona, going back to the era of Spanish colonialism in the Americas, I teach two concepts that seem to be applicable to the United States of America today. One of them is called “primary process” and the other “principio.”
The first concept comes from Victor Turner’s 1974 book, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors. He actually borrowed the concept from Sigmund Freud and applied it within a political context. Primary process is repressed energy that can no longer be contained and then explodes violently in a wild fury.
Amid this chaos, then what? That is where principio enters the picture.
Within the Mexican context, the leaders of this revolt, most of whom were not indigenous, called for a return to the way things were, prior to the arrival of Europeans to this continent. In this particular instance, they call for the restoration of “the Aztec empire.”
And whom they look to for inspiration is Cuauhtemoc, the last defender (speaker) who led the resistance against the Spanish invading forces. Enrique Florescano, in National Narratives in Mexico, describes this process as principio, a purported return to the roots or to a return to authenticity.
Both issues are much more complex, but it is the general idea of revolting and then returning to one’s original roots. Florescano also says that the same process occurred during the very violent Mexican Revolution, from 1910 to 1920.
