Kinship Structure and the Role of Women in the Urban Upper Class of Mexico

Author(s): Larissa Lomnitz, Marisol Perez-Lizaur and Cinna Lomnitz

Source: Signs, Vol. 5, No. 1, Women in Latin America (Autumn, 1979), pp. 164-168
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173543
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REVISIONS/REPORTS

Kinship Structure and the Role of

Women in the Urban Upper Class of

Mexico

Larissa Lomnitz and Marisol Perez-Lizaur

Translated by Cinna Lomnitz

In 1970 we began a study of kinship structure in an upper-class fam

Mexico City that ranged over five generations of men and wo

including 118 nuclear families.1 These were the descendants of

Gomez (1825-76), a small-town merchant of the state of Puebla, who

three children by his first, criollo wife, and six by his second, Indian w

From this nuclear family emerged a number of branches, within

socioeconomic stratification developed. One of the "mestizo" sons,
1. The study is mainly based on intensive participant observation. The authors

participated over the last eight years in countless family rituals and informal

gatherings, and have met and spoken to most of the living members of the stock.
have had the assistance of a "key informant," a young woman whose family belong
wealthier branches of the stock, who has introduced us to many members of her
branch. To a lesser extent we have done formal, though unstructured, interview

individuals felt to possess knowledge on particular aspects, mainly older "centr

women and young entrepreneurs. Finally, we have tried to complete and ratif

historical material with archival sources, written historical literature, and the press. F

theoretical analysis of our data, we are consulting, among others: Robert T. A

"Capital Mobilization and the Patterns of Business Ownership and Control in

America: The Case of Mexico," in a forthcoming volume ed. by Greenfield, Stricko

Aubey (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, in press); Feo R. Caldero

ferrocarriles," in Historia moderna de Mixico. El porfiriato. Vida econ6mica, ed. Cosio V

(Mexico City: Hermes, 1965); CEPALINAFINSA, La politica industrial en el des

economico de Mexico (Mexico City: NAFINSA, 1971); Abner Cohen, Two-dimensiona

(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974).

[Signs: Journal oj Women in Culture and Society 1979, %ol. 5, no. 1]

) 1979 by Tle Uniersity of Chicago. 0097-9740/80/0501-0009$00.75

164

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Signs

Autumn 1979 165

migrated to Mexico City in the 1880s, became one of the ea

Mexican industrialists and big businessmen. Capital form
this wealthy branch began during the latter years of the P
administration, particularly during the period 1890-1910. D
of this entrepreneurial branch remained in the upper class,

descendants of employees became members of the midd

mechanisms that maintained the notable internal cohesion a

among members of this kinship group, over and beyond the
in socioeconomic status and genealogical distance, are the su
brief research report.
The various branches and extended families of this kinsh

are scattered today throughout Mexico City. Some bran

become "lost" through emigration or through deliberate

the personal ties with the family. Among the remaining mem

is a strong sense of membership in a prominent family

membership defined both through kinship and a system of

and interactions. Interaction among family members t

forms: exchange of information (family gossip), symmetric

of goods and services (exchange of presents on specific

partnership deals between economic equals, economicall

information), and asymmetric exchanges ( patron-client rel

The relative intensity of the flow of exchange determines th
of the kinship relation, the actual (as opposed to formal or
closeness between kin. For example, an individual may have
first cousins, but the actual social ties he or she maintains with each
depend on the amount of social contact, exchange of information, joint
business ventures, and informal assistance that transpire between them.
Economic linkages with the family enterprises appear to be a key
factor in the persistence of family cohesion. Since the early stages of
Mexican industrialization, the family enterprise has been dominant, a

model which relies heavily on the loyalty and social or political

connections of family members. At the head of the enterprise stands the

father-entrepreneur surrounded by his sons and trusted relatives, many
of them from the less wealthy branches of the family. This entrepreneur
often owns one or two major industrial concerns in addition to many
more smaller businesses and real estate investments. A pool of trusted
relatives may be called upon to take charge of each business interest in
his behalf. Family allegiance is relied upon to insure that these caretakers

from the poorer branches of the family will serve the entrepreneur
loyally and will never leak information to outsiders. Among the less

wealthy relatives, membership in the family thus does not only involve
the pride and prestige of being associated with a powerful kindred, but
also a livelihood which, however dependent, is permanently assured so
long as loyalty is maintained. Even in the wealthy branches, most young

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166 Lomnitz and Perez-Lizaur

Upper-Class Women in Mexico

men begin their business careers as employees in some family bus

and work their way up or eventually break away to set up the
firms. Although most exchanges between a rich entrepreneur and
less wealthy kin-employees are of the patron-client type, there is
wide range of reciprocal dealings and partnerships between the

businessmen across the economic spectrum of the family. The

entrepreneurs of the family have had as many as thirty-nine depe

working for them, plus countless other relatives who were bu

associates of one kind or another. Today the intrusion of mo

foreign corporations forces these businessmen to adopt

competitive management methods, often to the exclusion of relat

Yet family solidarity is as high as ever, less so in the old patron-c
pattern and more so in the form of partnerships on equal footing
Information, the most elementary and basic type of exchange w
the clan, involves a wide spectrum of facts, ranging from family go
knowledge about relatives and ultimately to clan ideology. Women
always played a large role in the transmission of such information,

is one of the main mechanisms of clan solidarity. Prominent f

figures, who devoted their lives to creating and transmitting

ideology, established information networks over certain branches o

family kindred, often across generational and socioecono

boundaries. The personal prestige of these "centralizing women

based on their authoritative knowledge of the family history, inc

the personal backgrounds and relationships among individual mem
within an ideological framework of family values and family solid
Formerly the actual exchange of information was carried out in
course of social visiting and family reunions; nowadays much o
transmitted over the telephone. Ritual family reunions are of cour
very frequent-christenings, first communions, birthdays, saints'

graduations, send-offs and welcoming receptions, marriages, b

visits to the sick, and funerals, not to mention the major occ

connected with the life cycle or with the Catholic calendar. Some

occasions (i.e., funerals and visits to the ill) are open to all f

members, others are by invitation to most (e.g., weddings), and som

restricted to certain branches or to an extended family only, which
to define relative status within the family ranking order. Participa
such public or quasi-public reunions is ritualistic since it symboliz
individual's belonging to the family group. Women are prominent
organization and promotion of all such reunions, as well as of inf

social gatherings between close relatives: visits in the home, d

parties, games, theater parties, and so on. The kind of gossip exch
during such events is not restricted to personal affairs; on the con
business gossip is prominent-who is moving into a new home,
doing well or not so well in business, and so on. Women are conve

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Signs

Autumn 1979 167

with a wealth of details concerning the business affair

members, past and present, which constitutes vital
information of those deals initiated or formalized dur
reunions. These "centralizing women" often also act as
needy relatives, or relatives looking for jobs.

In recent years, women's role in the family business

more important, especially as a contributor of capital. Fem

may maintain ownership of their share of the family busin
marriage, while those who marry into the family are gener

to contribute their personal capital to the family en

Nevertheless, women are still expected to remain passive pa

housewives even when they are noted for their busine

Women, socialized toward a housewife role from early chil

listen, learn, and eventually express their opinions, but th
allowed to participate indirectly through their husbands, b
sons in decision making in business affairs. Motherhood, of
still considered the female's main concern. Until recentl

ideology promoted having a large number of childr

acceptable for a woman to have fewer children so long as t

looked after." Although the dirty work involved in child c
done by servants under the mother's supervision, the family
good motherhood includes breast-feeding, sitting up at
cries, changing the diapers, helping children with their ho
teaching them the principles of religion.
Girls are brought up to become good wives, and in the

ethos this means acknowledging the intellectual and

superiority of the husband; fitting her own interests and ta

of her husband, even in such areas as fashion; and enforcin

ideology at all times. The girl is taught family values, i

importance of actively furthering close social relations with

family group, affine as well as consanguineal. She is to v

after the sick, promote parties and reunions, congratulate
their birthdays or saint's days, buy presents suitable for ev

and bring assistance to relatives in need. Indeed, the

asserting and reasserting one's status and position in the fam

a full-time occupation for a woman. Eventually, she will be

welcome to her home all the business associates and influ

who must be entertained in the interest of her husband's or her relatives'

business affairs, or to attend parties for business reasons. At all of these

occasions, she is expected not to sit idly but to further the family interests

by befriending the right people and making useful contacts.

Kinship relations in the upper class of urban Mexico are

conditioned by the structure of a social network based on the flow of

information, goods, and services among socially recognized relatives.

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168 Lomnitz and Perez-Lizaur Upper-Class Women in Mexico

Mutual recognition as relatives is based on this flow of exchange and

reasserted continually in the arena of family rituals, where wom

played and still play a prominent part. Such findings help us understa
kinship in complex societies, particularly the interaction between kins
and class, the nature of the kindred, and the specific role of women
business and in the social system of the urban upper and middle class
Institute for Applied Mathematics and System Analysis

National University of Mexico (Lomnitz)

Department of Anthropology

Universidad Ibero-Americana (Perez)

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