Missionaries of Light and Progress in Mexico: Engineers and Technological Pilgrims Craft Necaxa Falls, 1890s–1914

Beginning in 1905, American and European reporters, writers, and artists made pilgrimages to the hydroelectric Necaxa complex in southern Mexico. For the fossil-hungry Mexican nation, advances in hydraulic engineering had made the vision of an electrical-powered industrial future not just desirable but also feasible. North Atlantic water technicians set out to redesign rivers that would power an electrified Mexico. Necaxa was no small, remote project. Its numerous innovations commanded the world’s attention, which foreign writers used to recast European and North American ambitions. Through their accounts, these “technological pilgrims” turned Necaxa into a global hydropower imaginary. With foreign engineers in the leading roles, their romanticized narratives rhetorically naturalized the redesign of rivers and the enabling power relations. This article applies a sociotechnical imaginary lens and Necaxa as the case study to show the centrality of rhetorical frames paving the way for new energy technologies.