Ordinary working people, convinced their life could be better than it was, demanded not only a fair share in Mexico's progress but also to be respected for their contribution to that progress. Anderson integrates the story of these workers into the broader social experience of the Mexican Republic as it underwent the transition from a rural-agrarian society to an urban-industrial complex. This study demonstrates how the workers resisted the radical ideology of foreign revolutionary dogmas and based their demands on indigenous sociopolitical traditions.