David Tamayo

David Tamayo is a historian of modern Latin America. His scholarship integrates the histories of right-wing politics, the middle classes, and Latin America's interconnectedness with the world. He is currently writing a book, tentatively titled Laboratories of Conservatism: Service Clubs, the Mexican Middle Classes, and the Making of the PRI's Golden Age. The book examines Mexico’s conservative middle classes and elites from the era of revolutionary radicalism to the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) conservative turn (1920–1950s). It explains how the interests of the middle and upper classes gradually aligned with those of the state to create the conservative status quo that defined the PRI’s “Golden Age” of economic growth and modernization after the 1940s. Excluded from state power, members of the middle and upper classes began to organize independently, joining international philanthropic associations for businessmen known as service clubs: the Rotary Club, Lions Club, and Sembradores de Amistad. Arriving in Mexico after 1920, these clubs offered a social refuge for disaffected elites and aspirational professionals. Although service club organizations claimed to be secular and non-partisan, their weekly meetings created a community rooted in shared cultural values and a deep ideological opposition to the emerging state. Under the guise of non-partisan philanthropy, elites and middle-class Mexicans used service clubs to promote and develop a grassroots conservatism. Over time, this conservative movement helped shape—and ultimately converged with—the conservative status quo of the PRI’s Golden Age.

As an immigrant from Tijuana, Mexico, and a community college student, Dr. Tamayo is committed to supporting students of color and those from non-traditional backgrounds, including first-generation, low-income, and non-native English speakers. In the past, he has taught ESL to adults and has participated in mentoring programs for underserved high school students in Southern California. At the University of Michigan, he looks to build on these past experiences and contribute to the institution's mission of promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion.

Fields of Study

• Latin America, especially Mexico, 19th-20th centuries
• The histories of the Latin American Right and the middle classes
• Transnational history
• Borderlands history

Courses

• HIST 202: Doing History
• HIST 328: In the Shadow of the Revolution: Mexico Since 1910
• HIST 363: History of Modern Mexico
• HIST 898: Job Skills Colloquium

Current Project

• Laboratories of Conservatism: Service Clubs, the Mexican Middle Classes, and the Making of the PRI's Golden Age (in-progress book manuscript).

Publications

• "From Rotary Club to Sowers of Friendship: The Conservative Rebellion through Service Clubs in Monterrey, 1920s–1960s," Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 36:1-2 (Summer 2020).

• "The Perilous Borderlands: The Role of Anti-Japanese Hysteria in American Efforts to Annex Baja California, 1900-1942," California History (Summer 2020). *Winner of the Richard J. Orsi Prize for the best article published in the journal.*

• "'Clubismo' in Post-Revolutionary Mexico: An Overview of the Emergence of Service and Social Clubs in Puebla and Tijuana, 1920-1960," in Mexico in Focus: Political, Environmental and Social Issues, ed. José Galindo Rodríguez, (Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publisher’s, Inc, 2015), 217–36. Spanish edition: "'Clubismo' en el México posrevolucionario: un análisis sobre la emergencia de los clubes sociales y de servicio en Puebla y en Tijuana, 1920-1960," in México contemporáneo: Aspectos económicos, políticos y sociales, (Xalapa: Universidad Veracruzana, 2018).