The term "el pueblo" is used throughout Latin America, referring alternately to small towns, to community, or to "the people" as a political entity. In this vivid anthropological and historical analysis of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, Paul K. Eiss explores the multiple meanings of el pueblo and the power of the concept to unite the diverse claims made in its name. Eiss focuses on working-class indigenous and mestizo populations, examining how those groups negotiated the meaning of el pueblo among themselves and in their interactions with outsiders, including landowners, activists, and government officials. Combining extensive archival and ethnographic research, he describes how residents of the region have laid claim to el pueblo in varied ways, as exemplified in communal narratives recorded in archival documents, in the performance of plays and religious processions, and in struggles over land, politics, and the built environment. Eiss demonstrates that while el pueblo is used throughout the hemisphere, the term is given meaning and power through the ways it is imagined and constructed in local contexts. Moreover, he reveals el pueblo to be a concept that is as historical as it is political. It is in the name of el pueblo--rather than class, race, or nation--that inhabitants of northwestern Yucatán stake their deepest claims not only to social or political rights, but over history itself. ""In the Name of El Pueblo" is a must-read for Mexicanists. It offers a masterful, detailed bottom-up view of history. It lays to rest once and for all the idea that Maya peasants remained quiescent and passive until revolutionary generals arrived in 1915 to overturn the old order. It clarifies the different visions of villagers and revolutionary leaders, traces the travails of a revolutionary order in decline, and shows the pitfalls and problems attending the agrarian reform process, a process that continues to define rural land tenure in Mexico."--Terry Rugeley, author of "Rebellion Now and Forever: Mayas, Hispanics, and Caste War Violence in Yucatan, 1800-1880"