Administración del agua y los recursos de la nación: la Junta Federal de Mejoras Materiales, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, 1931-1936

The government constituted the Federal Board of Material Improvements in order to manage and control the economic resources and the construction of public works at México’s borders and ports. The general purpose of this research was to analyze how this agency was established and operated in Ciudad Juarez, in the context of the centralization/federalization of the country’s water resources, from 1931 to 1936, and, to this end, the historical archives were reviewed. One of the study’s limitations was the lack of background information about the management of the water resources in this town. Its contribution broadens the scarce existing knowledge about the boards’ functioning at the borders. Among the findings made, it can be mentioned that in the municipality of Juarez the loss of autonomy concerning water management was accompanied by a material and economic dispossession, in which several government institutions and agencies participated.