On Pens Without Scruples: Adolfo Carrillo and Other Mercenary Journalists During the Porfiriato

Abstract

This paper aims to present the production of some libels that acquire literary forms in the Porfirian period, as well as their authors that have been little valued in literature. The paper focuses mainly on the figure of Adolfo Carrillo (1855-1926) and his false memories, or memoirs-libel, which he circulated to attack political actors of the period and, indirectly, the Díaz regime: Memorias del Marqués de San Basilisco (1897) and especially the then popular Memorias de Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada (1890). It also presents a network of complicity and alliances between him and other mercenary and complicit journalists of the period such as José Negrete (1855-1883) and Salvador Quevedo y Zubieta (1859-1935). Following closely the theorizations that historian Robert Darnton has made about libel, its impact and circulation are contextualized in the political conjuncture of the end of the 19th century in Mexico. Libel is seen as a flexible textual model that follows the rhythm and immediacy of the press and makes use of it and its strategies to circulate and build an audience eager for morbid and scandal in the field of the public sphere, often taking the form of prestigious literary genres with a public. The notion of the opposition press of the period studied is dismantled and questioned thanks to literary works whose intention dilutes the pacts of veracity and opposition to the regime.