So, you might wonder how firearms were procured in Mexico before the ATF was around to hand them out. Would you believe indigenous development?
Mexico had a couple notable firearms designers working hard in the decades prior to World War II, most significantly Manuel Mondragon and Rafael Mendoza. It’s one of Mendoza’s works that we’re looking at today, the B-1933 light machine gun. Developed during his spare time as an employee of the National Arms Factory, the Mendoza is a technically very good LMG. It was reliable and effective, and served the Mexican armed forces well. In many ways, it’s the gun that the BAR should have been.
You can read a fairly detailed history of the piece on the Mendoza LMG page of the Vault, where we also have some photographs and a copy of a 1948 original Mexican manual on the gun (which also covers several models of hand grenade). Check it out – and start looking more closely when you see Madsen magazines for sale. 
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is it me, or is there no vault page of the mendoza?
Hi, I was hoping for more detailed information on this weapon, but it appears you are absent a vault page. I am a retired Marine, and while my professional expertise was in electronics, I have been a machinist and tool maker for more than forty of my fifty three years, and I have a fairly well stocked library on weapons, having spent much time studying them professionally, and with great personal interest. If you are in need of more data, or would allow a guest writer on occasion, I’d be happy to assist. I am medically retired due to the onset of multiple sclerosis, after the Gulf war, however I have a part time machine shop and most of my work is on guns, ranging from the 19th century to the present. There are several conversations I’d like to have with anyone connected with you who enjoys in particular, Soviet block weapons, and also the history of the development of machine guns.
Sincerely,
John McClain
GySgt, USMC, ret.
Vanceboro, NC
Link to Mendoza page does not work…
Sorry, guys – I fixed the issue with the Vault page.