Industrial heritage is a concept that has been legitimized at the international level from a process that is identified with postmodernity: the transition from the cultural hegemony of industrial civilization to the emergence of the culture of post-industrial society. In such context.
The European Federation of Associations of Industrial and Technical Heritage (E-FAITH), is calling to declare 2006 as the European Year of Industrial and Technical Heritage.1 News that is illustrative of the process that we have mentioned.
The concept of industrial heritage has two meanings: tangible heritage and intangible heritage. The proposal of this communication is located at the level of intangible industrial heritage, that is, the heritage of mentalities, ideas, values, customs and beliefs. In this particular case, I propose to analyze the cultural values that have been built over time, to weave the framework that forms the network of symbolic representations that identify the collective imagination of the twentieth-century Monterrey society, that is, of culture industrial de Monterrey, which is the purpose of this communication.
Since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the symbol that has distinguished Monterrey has been industry, that complex technological, economic, social and cultural process that is the product and producer of modern civilization: industrial civilization. The Monterrey society of the XXI century has many testimonies of the cultural heritage that it has built from the industrial factories: ideas, literature, housing centers, factory buildings, schools, churches, recreational and sports centers; sets of symbols, beliefs, ideas, that have formed a value system throughout history.
The human beings who have founded and developed industrial factories: entrepreneurs, employees and workers –as producers and consumers– have been protagonists in the construction of the city-factory: Monterrey; at the same time, they have contributed to the definition of manufacturing and industrial symbols with which several generations of Monterrey have culturally identified. The historical significance of the factories and the industrialization of Monterrey and surrounding municipalities have inspired prominent intellectuals, who have looked into the Nuevo Leon reality to explain the royal industrial miracle. Alfonso Reyes defined the royal city with the formula of "honest factory of public virtues." Raúl Rangel Frías made theoretical contributions to conceptualize the meaning of industrial manufacturing culture.
Nemesio García Naranjo prepared a literary explanation of the history of the Cuauhtémoc Brewery.
In the writing that follows, we propose to describe the ways in which Monterrey society has built the values of industrial culture and the ways in which social actors observe and evaluate their own history that gives identity to Monterrey's industrial culture.
The concept of culture is assumed here as part of the social system that organizes "… the values, norms and symbols that guide the choices of the actors and that limit the types of interaction that can take place between them…" 2
2 Talcott Parsons and Edgard A. Shils, Towards a general theory of action, Kapeluusz, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1968. Chapter 1, Some fundamental categories of the theory of action: general exposition. pp 19 and following.
The concept of value is understood here as the cultural pattern formed by systems of ideas and beliefs; symbolic expressions that determine the orientations of social action, according to the theoretical scheme proposed by Talcott Parsons.3 In a development of the concept, the value system is conceived as defined by Max Weber, «… normative representations of an ethical nature…» 4; that give coherence and stability to social and cultural systems.
The writing is made up of three sections:
- Regiomontana industrial culture in Alfonso Reyes and Raúl Rangel Frías. Industrial factories and factory literature. Industrial culture and the construction of the values of disciplined work.
1. The Monterrey industrial culture in Alfonso Reyes and Raúl Rangel Frías.
Monterrey's industrial culture has been the reason for the reflection of the most prominent intellectuals, among them Alfonso Reyes, one of the most representative values of Spanish-American literature, who in his vast literary work has dedicated words of praise to the regal entrepreneurial spirit, understood as effort to overcome obstacles and forger of projects based on work. His definition of the people of Monterrey as "heroes in shirt sleeves" is famous.
In the writing entitled: «Nuevo León», contained in volume XXII of the complete works, 5 emphasizes that Nuevo León has not been a place favored by nature to be a prosperous place. For which man has had to create everything. This reasoning has been repeated by Reyes in other works, which is based on the idea of underlining the industrial culture by comparing it with other regions of the country in which the goods lavished by nature abound. In the "Regiomontanos" 6, Reyes says: "In other areas, nature was more generous. There (in Nuevo León) everything had to be uprooted, and this happy struggle, this creation over nothing, is one of the most obvious demonstrations of culture and the possibilities of the spirit. Because the spirit is, above all, rectification and improvement,modeling that transfigures the raw data of external realities. In our history, Alfonso Reyes continues, Nuevo León stands out with a unique relief… there (Nuevo León) there was no trunk for grafting; The founders did not find a stable foundation of civilization on which to plant their new edifice; They did not count on the arms of the Indian to raise their architecture as happened in the central plateau. Everything was pugnacity and frown, the duel of man against the environment. An almost dry river, more than a river on the way to rocks, suddenly swells and produces unexpected overflows.. »They did not count on the arms of the Indian to raise their architecture as happened in the central plateau. Everything was pugnacity and frown, the duel of man against the environment. An almost dry river, more than a river on the way to rocks, suddenly swells and produces unexpected overflows.. »They did not count on the arms of the Indian to raise their architecture as happened in the central plateau. Everything was pugnacity and frown, the duel of man against the environment. An almost dry river, more than a river on the way to rocks, suddenly swells and produces unexpected overflows.. »
Although it is true that from the beginning of the settlement of the territory there was a lively war between the Huachichil Indians and Hispanics, on the other hand the colonization of the Extremadura Valley was possible thanks to the help of the pacified Indians that the Spanish brought from other parts of the country (Tlaxcalans and Otomis), on the other hand, the industry in Nuevo León was made thanks to the existence of sources of raw materials, such as minerals and the abundance of water, among others. However, the reflection aims to highlight the transforming action of factory work. The purpose of the Alfonsino discourse is to highlight the virtues of the people of Monterrey in the field of industrial production, which gives it a national dimension. As is evident in the following fragment:
«Today the capital of Nuevo León is the industrial capital of the Republic. Their products spill across the country, fostering local wealth and helping the nation's gradual economic emancipation, and they also manage to cross borders and compete seamlessly in foreign lands. "
In "Los regiomontanos," 7Alfonso Reyes makes explicit reference "to the factory creations," which make the State of Nuevo León famous. Compare the material production that distinguishes Monterrey, which obscured literary production, not because it was lacking, but because "the miracle of economic creation has been… so portentous that, suddenly, it obscures and relegates the solitary work to gloom and patient of the writers..
»Alfonso Reyes renamed the capital of the State of Nuevo León with the title:« Honest factory of public virtues ».8 He draws the profile of the people of Monterrey:« The people of Monterrey, when he is not a man of knowledge, is a man of wisdom. Without a trace of mockery it could be said that he is a hero in shirt sleeves, a champion in a worker's blouse, a philosopher without knowing it.
Two factories caught the attention of Reyes, who forged the industrial cultural identity of Monterrey: the Fundidora and the Cervecería »: Finesse and resistance as in the famous steel of our foundries! Lightness and freshness like the effervescent drink of our famous breweries! "
Alfonso Reyes initiates his reflections on the manufacturing and industrial culture of the people of Monterrey, with his poem "Romance de Monterrey", in which factory and industry occupy a prominent place, in the ideas of "factory on the border", "for the whistles of your forges and your industry in the whistles ».
Another intellectual who has contributed to the conceptual construction of industrial and manufacturing culture is Raúl Rangel Frías. His reflections place him as a direct continuation of the thought of Alfonso Reyes, on the identity of culture based on the experiences of the Monterrey industry and factories. His analysis is directed more to the field of cultural and philosophical anthropology.
In "Nuevo León's Theorem" 9, Rangel Frías makes a theoretical development on the industrial and manufacturing culture of Nuevo León. Starting from the characteristics of the regional settlement, from the colonial stage. Another of the fertile hypotheses signed by the teacher Rangel Frías is the importance of the migratory factor for the factory implantation in the region, he says: »it was the people who were in charge of businesses in Monterrey at the end of the 19th century, Spanish and French families, German and Italian that have been merging in affiliations that are today entirely Mexican.
The European migrants of the nineteenth century added to those who populated the Nuevo Reyno de León: Spaniards, Creoles and mestizos as well as the pacified natives brought from Tlaxcala, together produced a mental, spiritual formula that made possible-from the human point of view -the industrialization of the Regio Monte.
An important contribution made by the teacher Rangel Frías is the conceptualization of industrial culture:
«The industry that is a means of profit and application of economic resources is also a cultural form. It emphasizes the rational scheme of life among all the forms that are linked to culture. It makes the projection of man and his social organization, based on technique and the production of economic goods. "
The historical factors that explain the first outbreaks of the manufacturing industry are associated with the consequences of the war in the United States and Mexico, as well as the American Civil War. In a philosophical reflection, the teacher Rangel, synthesizes the aforementioned factors, to conclude that «the combination of these forces shows how factors are joined, to which without attributing purposes or preconceived ends, they eventually give a historical result, as if they were they would have linked each other. '
In another work entitled: "Monterrey Theory" 10, Rangel Frías specifies the effects of the North American Civil War on the industrial development of Monterrey: "The location of the North American manufacturing centers - he says - closer to the Atlantic coast and in connection with the world trade through this ocean, found its sliding plane towards Mexico by a railroad track ».
As Monterrey was linked with Tampico, Matamoros, Torreón and the capital of the Republic through the railroad, it was in a strategic position between the United States and Mexico.
However, the geographical position is worth nothing if there are not men whose energy and vision turn into events that generate wealth and well-being for the people, is what Rangel Frías interprets of the process of combining men, geographical environment and investment of resources in the production of goods.
What factors were decisive for the urban configuration of the city?
Industrial facilities, banking establishments, public and private buildings, city sanitation and provision of drinking water.
As a direct effect of the industrial development, the city undergoes radical transformations: »the family home -the teacher Rangel tells us- deals with the old orchard, which it imprisons between patio and backyard. Towards the north and behind a tight strip of Mediterranean-made houses… industrial facilities can be seen, among a dense and sinuous network of workers' houses; railroads along whose banks are accommodated the factories, as if they were another river; and that wide shore that is Avenida Francisco I. Madero, where the working population puts with their blue yompas the happy and optimistic note of the new time.
Raúl Rangel Frías not only made theoretical reflections on the royal factory and industrial culture, he also wrote accounts of daily life linked to the activity of the factory, in particular with the Monterrey Fundidora.
In "El Reyno" 11 two stories can be read that refer to peonage and situations identified with factory life: "José and his friends" and "The strike."
In the best style of Emilio Zolá in "Germinal", Raúl Rangel Frías in "José y sus amigos", realistically portrays the life of a working family from the Fundidora. The central character: José, Rafaela's son, with an unknown father, who seeks and finally finds a place in the Fundidora, as a temporary worker. He narrates with singular mastery the vicissitudes of working life within the factory, the union ladder system. Associate racial origin with the positions of chiefs, foremen and laborers. Referring to José, he narrates the first tasks of a worker who had just started work:
«He spent many days at the factory gates, only this time it was different: they called him by his name and gave him a pass at the side grille of the entrance, picked up a password and with others they were taken through the courtyard and went declared in the files of the day's personnel, day laborer and crew laborer in the loading yards with ordinary pay. Wheelbarrow and a shovel to move the ore to the carts where it was pushed into the furnace mouth: other times it carries solid slag to the fat bank in a dump overlooking the river. »
After the medical examination, José is admitted to the peonada, and the experiential description of the class differences within the plant begins:
«Many with huarache and palm hat that only mechanical masters and engineers wear boots and leather jackets. They act as ants walking around the honor, the volcano-like monster that spews iron from its entrails. "
Racial and national differences are combined with positions and hierarchies: “People are like the mix that gave birth to the industry. Far below the Indian; and the mestizo foremen, close in color and grudges. The officers and masters of workshops or machines are foreigners as well as the heads of production, Prussians, Poles and Americans; the employees of the administration, Creoles; and the mere bosses, Spanish, Italian or French.
»Why was the Foundry called« la Maestranza? ». Master Rangel Frías has the answer:
«When the foundry began, they called it« la maestranza »because the one that existed before was to make cannons and bullets; this is the best known image of her fellow man. And people thought that it would only be useful for 'quello'.
In "La Huelga", Rangel Frías presents the agitated moments of the beginning of a strike at the Fundidora, the clandestine meeting between the activists: Germán, Mundo, Andrés and José. Student participation in the "movement." The surprise arrival of the police and the imprisonment of the activists. The reason that started the strike: the suspension of some unionized workers. The union assemblies and then the repression against the strikers.
2. Industrial factories and factory literature.
Inside the factories, a vast editorial work has been produced and continues to be produced, on the most diverse subjects: magazines, bulletins, manuals, texts. Likewise, factories have been a source of literary inspiration among the human beings who work in them, or those who have had contact from the outside.
One of them is the text by Homero Galarza Elizondo12: «An unforgettable party», tells the daily life of the residents of the Acero de la Fundidora neighborhood. It contains short stories, from the effect of the fire in the factory furnaces on the children's fantasy - "A night of fright" - to the comparison made between the Foundry and Cellulose on the degree of pollution and stench of both plants. Galarza's account in «Fundidora vs. Cellulose»:
«Every morning the sun slid down the Cerro de la Silla and fell on the pots of the Fundidora to later melt into a bundle of ingots. Immediately a concert of noises of machines, cranes, sirens in different movements and for different instruments began, under the direction of an incessant Stravinsky during the three shifts.
As we lived in the bowels of the Fundidora, fetid and rarefied emanations arrived every day that broke with the monotony and gravity of the moment. While we breathed those lashes, they made fun of each other, although many closed doors and windows, strong smells penetrated.
The combustion of gases in the elaboration and production of iron and steel was a detailed matter that could only be explained by Poncho, Federico or Gerardo, the scientists of the Colony.
In the iron foundry, 57 elements could be present - said Poncho - and he enumerated and described to our amazement.
17 elements are enough to produce simple carbon steel- said Federico and limited: manganese, phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, oxygen, copper, nickel, arsenic, tin, cobalt, chromium, molybdenum, aluminum, antimony… And you want to produce a steel superior ?, - Gerardo interrupted him-. Then, "said Poncho:" Let me list these elements: chromium, cobalt, columbium, copper, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, silicon, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium and zirconium.
Now, Gerardo used to say, how many cubic feet of air are needed for each ton of ingots?
-I'll answer you, Federico said: 440 thousand cubic feet, exactly. Isn't that right Poncho?
"Right," said Poncho, "or, what is the same, 4 tons of air."
- Let's go, said Chato, my head already hurt and the Foundry begins to relieve itself.
"What barbarians, how they know so much!" Chuy said.
"They just learn 'Foresight and Safety' by heart, and they machete her every day," Mace said. "
Another example is the following, taken from El Porvenir, when the Fundidora turned 50:
«The temples of Monterrey are its factories, in its metal towers and foundries it has its noblest monuments. There are cities and regions that are famous for the traces of their arches, catacombs, mausoleums, statues, castles and temples that their past civilizations left behind. Monterrey, on the contrary, has almost no historical monuments to be proud of: it lacks archaeological ruins, medieval castles, Renaissance temples, and little remains of the Mexican baroque of the 18th century. On the other hand, Monterrey rightly boasts of having some of the most beautiful monuments - yes, artistic - of our time: the great factories that tear the clouds with their smoky chimneys; the steel towers of the blast furnaces; the monumental pyramids of its power plants; and the wonder of its machinery, so perfect,so friend of man.
The temple to Quetzalcoatl. The traveler of the twentieth century who wants to know the great monumental area of Monterrey should start his tour by "the Iron and Steel Fundidora." its presence is imposed, from afar, by the geometry of its chimneys, its beams, boilers, tanks, pipes, aerial rails, towers, cranes, roofs and stairs, which outline its expressive silhouette…
The blast furnace: a great temple of production, it occupies the symbolic and hierarchical position that the Aztecs conferred, in their sacred metropolises, on the benefactor Quetzalcoatl, lord of light and life. After the Fundidora, which could also be called the steel palace, the visitor to the city will necessarily go to what could be called the crystal palace: La Vidriera. And passing as in the galleries of a museum in the temples of the archaeological city, from wonder to wonder, the visitor moves to the factory that bears the great name of the only hero - Cuauhtémoc - which, in the poet's saying, is at the height of art. »13
A tradition of communication has been formed in the factories through magazines and newspapers. They include motivational messages from the company, reviews of workers 'and employees' birthdays, literary and scientific information; political information and even poems.
In the 1950s, El Telar was published at the El Porvenir factory in El Cercado, NL, a small newspaper that subsequently ceased to circulate. Since the eighties a small weekly bulletin has been published under the title "Textimundo", which circulates inside the plant. Disseminates brief informative notes on the life of the work community of El Porvenir. Likewise, the workers, on their own account, have published publications with union content.
From 1958 to 1960, La Leona published a monthly magazine with the title La Rueca, with the same characteristics as the others, with social notes: workers 'and employees' birthdays, sports notes, and safety and hygiene messages. It was directed by Baudelio Garza.
A prominent person in the La Leona factory was Octavio Herrera. He was born in San Pedro de las Colonias, Coahuila, on January 5, 1905. He worked as a butler in the cotton fields of Don Jesús J. Llaguno. In 1938, at the age of 32, he entered the La Leona Yarn and Fabric Factory.
He was in charge of the personnel department. With a romantic spirit, he wrote verses that were published in "La Rueca". After 21 years of service, he died on 28, 1959.
Of his poems, the following one that he dedicated to the factory stands out, in which he emphasizes the memory, the whistles. It is a story in which the author combines effort, yearnings for justice. The love of work founded on the trade of the textile industry: the weft, the warp, the weaving of fantasy and destiny.
Within the pioneering textile industry, La Fama de Nuevo León, it is important to mention Don Jesús Cortés García, a factory worker and union leader, who wrote a text entitled “Semblanzas. Pictures and notes of a town: La Fama, Nuevo León. ”In which he narrates his experiences as a worker and as a community resident in relation to the factory. He says: «How many longings brings us the memory of the diaphanous and pure sound of« The whistles »or whistles of the textile factories of La Fama and La Leona, evoking them here is not an illusion or fantasy, it happened that in those times this little valley surrounded of mountains, everything was stillness and silence ». He makes an analysis of the origin of textile workers: «Still in the 1930s and 1940s, the textile worker at La Fama, NL was half worker and half peasant.The inheritance of his pastoral origin could not be erased from his mind or his heart. 14
The Monterrey Fundidora.
The editorial production of the Fundidora can be divided into two aspects: the editions promoted by the factory management itself and those published by the union and the cooperative.
Throughout the life of the factory and the union, various publications were produced, some long-lasting and others short-lived.
Community
Organ of the Recreational Society «Acero». Edited by the employees and workers of the Cía. Fundidora y Afinadora Monterrey. Director Professor Simón Salazar Mora. In his directory it was said that he published "regional poetry and prose." It was published from October 30, 1926 to October 1931.
CyPSA
Consumption and Social Welfare «Acero», SCL Servicio, Protección y Cultura. Worker-cooperative weekly. Director: Professor Simón Salazar Mora (1931-1933)
Group of collaborators: Professor José G. García Estrada, Juan B. Estrada, Federico B. Criarte, Professor Raquel Cantú Leal, Emma Strozzi, Fernando Urquijo, Jacinto Moreno Aguirre, Guillermo Cavazos, Jesús M. Tamez, Ramón Cárdenas C. Antonio Cerda, Eusebio Garza. Topics: sports, savings tips, book reviews. International, national and local news.
Forecast and Security
Fundidora Monterrey Yearbook. It was published over 32 years, from 1937 to 1969. The publication was born under the direction of Manuel L. Barragán. It began with a print run of 20,000 copies, with the subtitle "Annual Almanac for the Mexican Workshop and Home." Writings on practical advice for security commissions were included in the first issue.
Work accidents and their causes.
Throughout its 32 years the yearbook devoted its attention to topics related to mythology and religion, dogmas and cults. Customs, ethics and morals of individuals and communities, laws and governments. Language, its origins, its evolution. Monuments and architectural works. Universal and Mexican literature; music and science.
Passionflower
Monthly union magazine. Official body of Section 67 of the Industrial Union of Mining and Metallurgical Workers of the Republic of Mexico.
It was published in the 1930s. The title refers to the nickname of Dolores Ibarruri, a Spanish communist leader. It was directed by Antonio García Moreno. The published articles made reference to the defense of the Spanish Republic and the condemnation of the Spanish Francoism, Italian fascism and German Nazism.
Alfonso Reyes had the opportunity to dedicate beautiful thoughts to the Fundidora. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Maestranza, she read a speech entitled: "Before the blast furnaces", in which, among other things, she says: "The Iron and Steel Smelting Company of Monterrey has raised the name of the country in the world girl and the great country, and has profusely poured out work and well-being, blessing of the peoples. »15
There is also a poetic production, both by workers and employees, dedicated to the iron and steel factory. In some poems the regional pride that the Monterrey Fundidora symbolizes is mixed with the factory as a source of work, forger of values: discipline, love of work, desire for progress and self-improvement. Below are two poems dedicated to the Fundidora, the first on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary and the second published after the factory was closed.
In the lyrics of the workers of Fundidora Monterrey, SA, values such as pride, effort, perseverance, optimism, industriousness, the spirit of conquest stand out; legitimacy, firmness, honor; The overcoming. Duty, honor, nobility. The dignity. Faith. The grandeur. The strength and merits for the achievement of uprooting pieces of mountain from nature. All the values associated with the activities of the company, which produces iron structures of buildings or majestic bridges. Or machines, or plows, or railroad steel roads.
When the Fundidora Monterrey, SA, was closed in 1986, there was a feeling of very deep loss among the workers and employees of the factory.
Plutarco Guzmán composed a long poem in six acts, in which he narrates the importance of the Fundidora for the city of Monterrey, as parallel destinations. The interesting thing about the reflection is that it concludes with the way in which the factory facilities were used, after the closure, and conceptualizes it as a renaissance.16 The parts that make up the writing speak of the trajectory of the industrial plant, the merger between the factory, the human being and the steel. The author highlights the values that were instilled in each worker:
«… Well, this place was a temple
in which the effort of man,
sang
a hymn to freedom every day,
and that creed allowed
each worker to have:
Triumphs… Honor… Dignity!
With which he was able to bring
the daily salary,
which made it possible for his family to
have… Peace… Joy… and Love!
It is without a doubt… Good land! »
The Cuauhtémoc Brewery.
From inside the factory it is important to mention the magazine Trabajo y Ahorro edited by the Sociedad Cuauhtémoc y Famosa cooperative. In 1996, the 75th anniversary of the magazine was published, which has served the purpose of communicating to the Cuauhtémoc manufacturing community. The first issue was published on June 4, 1921. According to the Publications Qualifying Commission of the Ministry of the Interior, the magazine Trabajo y Ahorro is the oldest internal publication in Mexico, after Revista de Revistas, currently edited by Excelsior.17 Its first director was Rafael R. Villarreal, who was also the first undersecretary of the Cuauhtémoc y Famosa Society. Much has been written about the Cuauhtémoc Brewery. From Nemesio García Naranjo, mentioned in the introduction, to Salvador Novo, who in his Crónica Regiomontana,makes a historical parallel between Monterrey and the Brewery, as well as the argument that beer is an antidote to alcoholism, says »: Extensive statistical studies have shown that in countries where beer predominates, the alcoholism index is lower than of those in which wines and spirits are drunk; and that the crime incidence is also markedly lower in beer countries than in wine countries. And he recommends: "In the fight against alcoholism that governments justifiably wage, beer has turned out to be a most effective weapon when facilities for its propagation are granted."the alcoholism index is lower than that of those who drink wines and spirits; and that the crime incidence is also markedly lower in beer countries than in wine countries. And he recommends: "In the fight against alcoholism that governments justifiably wage, beer has proved to be a most effective weapon when the facilities for its propagation are granted."the alcoholism index is lower than that of those who drink wines and spirits; and that the crime incidence is also markedly lower in beer countries than in wine countries. And he recommends: "In the fight against alcoholism that governments justifiably wage, beer has proved to be a most effective weapon when the facilities for its propagation are granted."
Cementos Hidalgo.
The cement-producing plant was founded in 1906. During the Cardenista administration it was converted into a workers' cooperative. There is a text on the history of the factory in which an acrostic was included that illustrates the thinking of a cooperative worker about the factory:
Acrostic dedicated to the Cementos Hidalgo factory, when it was a cooperative.
By Ventura Martínez Serna.
W hen I don't see your ovens turn, it
fills my heart with immense sadness because it
reminds me of those gray days of 1932 when Cementos closed its doors
and we migrate to other lands full of nostalgia and pain
I don't want to remember those dark days full of misery that
T Odos had no bread without salt to eat that desolation us
pray and ask God always for our cooperative
S iga, go ahead prosper for the good of all.
We make this cement industry an
inexhaustible source of work and prosperity for our people and region We give an
example of tenacity, fruitful and creative work
To our fellow founding partners who have already left and who consecrated their lives to it We
admire you and We equally value those who are, our great respect
Let us all enjoy and enjoy all united as one of the benefits that
O torga us all partners and workers, may it be so forever, may the smoke of life never be extinguished.
We continue to preserve the wise recommendations of our great general benefactor Lázaro
Cárdenas.
With unity, we always achieve triumph and triumph is always progress
. Years pass and they go and their traces leave, history is written so that we all
understand it
3. Industrial culture and the construction of the values of disciplined work.
One of the defining characteristics of the industrial factory is the meeting in an establishment of a considerable number of people dedicated to the performance of specific tasks and whose central factor within the factory is labor discipline. Without discipline there is neither productivity, nor quality, nor production, which converts and makes discipline a value superior to all those that can be appreciated in the workplace.
Max Weber18 has devoted particular attention to the subject of "workshop discipline", which acquires particular importance in the industrial system insofar as it involves obedience and authority. The obedience that prevails in the industrial workshop is voluntary, unlike obedience and military discipline that are required.
The industrial factory created the manufacturing system based on the control and supervision of labor discipline. Neither the agricultural work, nor the artisan workshop, nor the domestic work of the home-based industry required such disciplined conduct as the factory system. In the manufacturing system based on work carried out in homes, supervision was very lax and sporadic by the person who ordered the products, who only visited the workers when they delivered the raw material or when they collected the finished product. The artisan workshop distinguished itself because the masters and apprentices had the possibility of resigning and becoming independent, since they had the means to work.
For this reason, factory culture has one of its fundamental expressions in the so-called work culture, specifically referring to the factory system, a value that has been highlighted as a distinctive form of Monterrey. Which acquires specificity in labor discipline and the values that are generated from it, centrally disciplined work and the positive characteristics that reinforce it: duty, assiduity, compliance, obligation.
The discipline of work as a value has a long historical trajectory.During the time of Louis XIV, Minister Colbert devoted himself to promoting textile, textile and hosiery manufacturing. At the Gobelino and Savonnerie factories, run by the state, the minister appointed a group of mayors to watch over and supervise labor discipline. In them values such as austerity, which consisted of saving materials, were disseminated, morality was the object of meticulous prescriptions. During the work it was forbidden to utter inappropriate words; on Sundays and holidays, wholesome diversions were promoted. Piety was considered as the observation of religious customs that guaranteed morality and obedience. For the purpose of instilling discipline the king and his minister visited the workshops to exhort the workers to do their duty well.Great lords as well as bishops and even ladies of rank attended the factories for the same purpose. 19
Sir Richard Arkwrigt himself, an innovator and promoter of the power loom, gained fame as an organizer of manufacturing discipline.
There was a time when manufacturing discipline was in charge of the same employer, who was physically present at the plant supervising and monitoring the fulfillment of tasks.
The growth and development of the industry made the labor discipline insufficient from the previous experience. More elaborate and scientific methods were required. It was Taylor who was in charge of developing and systematizing a theory on labor discipline and its corresponding regulations. Of Quaker religious background, raised in strict traditions of work, discipline, and thrift, Taylor formulated his scientific administration of labor and endowed the industry with a consistent conceptual foundation, centered on the mechanical and repetitive division of labor; as well as in the measurement of times and movements.
This tradition constitutes a very prominent aspect of Monterrey's manufacturing culture, which has developed inside the factories and is transmitted to the rest of society. The one that is maintained and reinforced as the most precious value.
Inside the factories and the company you can find many specific expressions of the appreciation of disciplined work, as an aspect of factory culture. The informative magazine of the Cuauhtémoc y Famosa Society, of the Cuauhtémoc Brewery, in its issue of the 90th anniversary of the factory, announces the Cuauhtémoc ideology. In point number VI he declares the importance of punctuality:
"He who cannot keep his appointments will very soon become a hindrance."
Ideology XII underlines the need to be sure to enjoy work or otherwise change companies, it says:
«It is very legitimate to have favorite hobbies, and interest in other things; but if it is considered a sacrifice to come on Saturdays, or to stay in the office after hours if necessary, then what is needed is a break or another company to work for.
Point XIV calls for thinking primarily in the interests of the business rather than one's own, which could be defined as the principle of loyalty: "Loyalty to the company promotes one's own benefit."
Disciplined work as a fundamental principle of factory culture assumes poetic forms, such as the El Porvenir textile factory in El Cercado Nuevo León.20 The following thought was formulated by engineer Rafael Rico Samaniego, director of the plant:
"Love to the work
How beautiful that moment would be when all the personnel of this factory, without exception, felt intimately proud of what they had produced that day, and satisfied that they had conscientiously made the part of the effort that each one would have been responsible for.
….It would be a moment of indescribable beauty,
….it would be a moment of collective triumph,
….it would be a moment of social peace, it would be a moment of true patriotism,
that happy moment will not depend on anyone, only and exclusively on yourself!
That moment is called: Love to work ".
Another practice that has become a tradition in the industrial world is the award for seniority, the value of recognition, which highlights the loyalty of the worker with the company and with the factory.
With the above, it has been verified that industrial culture has created values and that of discipline or disciplined work is one of the main
Communication presented at the:
1st Regional Meeting for the Study of Cultural Heritage.
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. October 28, 29 and 30, 2004.
