"This ethnography describes the transformation of the Mexican aristocracy from the onset of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, when the aristocracy was unquestionably Mexico's highest-ranking social class, until the end of the twentieth century, when it had almost ceased to function as a superordinate social group. Drawing on extensive interviews with group members, Nutini maps out the expressive aspects of aristocratic culture in such areas as perceptions of class and race, city and country living, education and professional occupations, political participation, religion, kinship, marriage and divorce, and social ranking. His findings explain why social elites persist even when they have lost their status as ruling and political classes and also illuminate the relationship between the aristocracy and Mexico's new political and economic plutocracy. Together with its predecessor, The Wages of Conquest: The Mexican Aristocracy in the Context of Western Aristocracy, this book continues Nutini's comprehensive structural and expressive treatment of the Mexican aristocracy, its evolution through nearly five centuries, and its place in the stratification system of Mexico."--BOOK JACKET.