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Indigenism and Racism in Mexican Thought: 1857-1911

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Martin S. Stabb
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Extract

That indigenismo — in the sense of a sympathetic awareness of the Indian by social scientist, essayist, and creative writer – came into full flower in the two decades following the Mexican Revolution is amply confirmed by the most cursory survey of Mexican intellectual and artistic activity of this period. Interest in the Indian and in his halfbrother, the mestizo, is well-attested by the activities of José Vasconcelos as Minister of Education during the early twenties; by the appearance of Vasconcelos’ popular essays, La raza cósmica (1925) and Indoiogía (1927); by the anthropological and ethnological investigations of Manuel Gamio and Alfonso Caso, by the strikingly nativist orientation of the graphic arts; and finally, by the creation of the Indianist novel in the thirties.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , October 1959 , pp. 405 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1959

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References

1 See particularly Villoro, Luis, Los grandes momentos del indigenismo en México (México: El Colegio de México, 1950)Google Scholar; the article by the same author, “Raíz del indigenismo en México”, Cuadernos Americanos, XII (ene/feb. 1952) pp. 36-49; Comas, Juan, Ensayos sobre indigenismo (México: Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, 1953)Google Scholar; and Beltrán, Gonzalo Aguirre, “Indigenismo y mestizaje, una polaridad biocultural”, Cuadernos Americanos, XVI (jul./ag. 1956) pp. 35–51 Google Scholar.

2 Apogeo y decadencia del positivismo en México (México: El Colegio de México, 1944), p. 97.

3 Race: A Study in Modern Superstition (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1937) p. 69.

4 Obras completas del maestro Justo Sierra, revisada y ordenada por Augustín Yañez (México: Universidad Autónoma de México, 1948) V., p. 213. All subsequent citations of Sierra's writings will refer to this edition of his works.

5 IX, 131.

6 IX, 128-9.

7 Luis Villoro, on page 207 of Los grandes momentos … makes an important observation with regard to the difference between the typical nineteenth-century concept of miscegenation and the actual trend of this process in Mexico:

A partir de la independencia la raza mestiza ha sido habitualmente considerada como la llamada a constituir en un porvenir más o menos lejano, la población única de México y, por cierto, una población cada vez más blanca. En realidad, el derrotero de nuestro mestizaje — salvo algún hecho superviviente que contradiga el desarrollo del fenómeno—ha sido y es desde la independencia en el sentido de una creciente indigenización.

8 Memoria sobre las causas que han originado la situación actual de la raza indígena de México y medios de remediarla (México: Imp. de Andrade y Escalante, 1864) pp. 236-7.

9 Los grandes problemas nacionales (México: Imp. de A. Carranza e hijos, 1909) p. 37.

10 p. 271.

11 ibid., p. 42.

12 Ibid., pp. 262-3.

13 See especially Manzoni, Aída Cometta, El indio en la poesía de América española (Buenos Aires: Joaquín Torres, 1939)Google Scholar; and Meléndez, Concha, La novela indianista en Hispanoamérica (Madrid: impr. de la Libr. y Casa Edit. Hernando, 1934)Google Scholar.

14 Viajes de orden suprema (México: Imprenta de Vicente García Torres, 1857) pp. 199-200.

15 Ibid., p. 201. The analysis of Indian and mestizo personality on the basis of “resentment” bears a remarkable similarity to the approach of the contemporary Argentine essayist, Ezéquiel Martínez Estrada, who constantly emphasizes the view that the Argentine gaucho — and by extension, the mestizo of Spanish America — is psychologically an “hijo humillado”. See Estrada's, Martínez Radiografía de la Pampa (Buenos Aires: Babel, 1933) pp. 24–30.Google Scholar

16 See especially “La semana santa en mi pueblo” in Aires de México (México: Ediciones de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma, 1940).

17 These articles, in vol. VI (1883) of La Libertad, appeared on February 28th, March 1st, and March 3rd. They support Justo Sierra's position regarding the educability of the Indian and attack Francisco Cosmes’ conservative view that the Indian could not be incorporated into a system of uniform obligatory education. A discussion of the Cosmes-Sierra polemic follows.

18 Discursos de Ignacio M. Altamirano (México: Ediciones Beneflciencia Pública, 1934) p. 184.

19 For brief critical discussions of some of these highly-popular and highlypopularized “sciences” related to anthropology — linguistic paleontology, Social Evolutionism, and anthroposociology — see Snyder, Louis L., Race: A History of Modern Ethnic Theories (New York: Longmans, Green, 1939)Google Scholar; and Barzun, Jacques, Race: A Study in Modern Superstition (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1937)Google Scholar.

20 Memoria … sobre las causas de la situación de la raza india, p. 9.

21 Ibid., p. 74.

22 Ibid., p. 108.

23 Ibid., p. 143.

24 Ibid., p. 210.

25 Ibid., p. 212.

26 Ibid., p. 240.

27 Loc. cit.

28 See Villoro on this point, footnote 7.

29 An interesting discussion of this incident, as well as of Ramirez’ activities at I the Instituto Literario, appears in Ignacio M. Altamirano's prefatory “Biografía de B Ignacio Ramírez” in Obras de Ignacio Ramírez (México: Oficino Tip. de la B la Secretaría de Fomento, 1889) I, XXXVII-XXXVIII. Subsequent citations from Ra- K mírez refer to this edition of his work.

30 I, 206.

31 I, 208.

32 Loc. cit.

33 I, 209. Ramírez’ actual classification includes the following “races”: Chinese, Assyrian, Egyptian, European, American, Central African, Oceanic, Circumpolar, and “Mute”, i.e., the anthropoids.

34 I, 206-7.

35 I, 190.

36 II, 177.

37 II, 185.

38 II, 184.

39 Loc. cit.

40 “Carta a Mariano Riva Palacio” in Opúsculos, discusiones y discursos (México: Imp. del Comercio, 1877) p. 65.

41 VIII, 108.

42 VIII, 110.

43 Regarding the philosophical revolt against Positivism and Materialism, see Zea, Leopoldo, La filosofía en México (México: Edit. Libro-Mex, 1955) I, 53–60 Google Scholar; and Davis, Harold Eugene, “Trends in Social Thought in Twentieth Century Latin America”, Journal of Inter-American Studies, I, (Jan. 1959) pp. 57–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 VIII, 111-12.

45 For an excellent discussion of the Congreso see Wilson, Irma, México: A Century of Educational Thought (New York: Hispanic Institute in the United States, 1941) pp. 297–305 Google Scholar.

46 “Dictamen formulado por la mayoría de la comisión de enseñanza elemental obligatoria”, La escuela moderna, I, (suplemento), 1890, p. 71.

47 “Voto particular de Francisco G. Cosmes”, Ibid., p. 90.

48 VIII, 256.

49 IX, 127.

50 La rendición de una raza: estudio sociológico (Veracruz: Tip. de R. de Zayas, 1887) pp. 134-6.

51 Ibid., pp. 158-9.

52 El porvenir de las naciones latino-americanas (México: Pensamiento vivo de América, N.D.). Subsequent citations from this work refer to this edition; the first edition of El porvenir was published in 1899.

53 “Impresiones de El porvenir de las naciones latinoamericanas”, Revista Positiva, II (marzo 1902) p. 97.

54 La obra civilizadora de México (México, Tip. de Vda. de Díaz de León, sues., 1911) p. 31.

55 Ibid., p. 16.

56 I, 319.

57 IX, 135.

58 IX, 136.

59 “Los agitadores de los indios”, La Libertad, Nov. 20, 1878, p. 2.

60 Loc. cit.

61 Loc. Cit

62 “La guerra social”, La Libertad, mar. 1, 1879, p. 2.

63 El porvenir, p. 10.

64 Ibid., p. 11.

65 Ibid., p. 27.

66 Loc. cit.

67 Ibid., p. 42.

68 Ibid., p. 35.

69 Ibid., p. 316.

70 lbid., p. 48.

71 Loc. cit.

72 Loc. cit.

73 Ibid., p. 49.

74 Ibid., p. 354.

75 Loc. cit.

76 For a discussion of the general question of race and racism in Spanish American thought see Alberto Zum Felde, índice Crítico de la literatura hispanoamericana: Los ensayistas (México: Editorial Guaronia, 1954), libro 3°, chaps. III-V. See also Martin S. Stabb, “Martí and the Racists”, Hispania, XL (Dec. 1957) pp. 434-39.

77 México: Imp. Mariano Viamonte, 1904.

78 This work was published in serial form in several issues of die Revista Positiva during the year 1910. Of direct relevance to the present investigation is the chapter, “La raza como factor histórico”, Revista Positiva, X (enero 1910) pp. 67-84.

79 México; Imp. del Comercio de Dublán y Chávez, 1877.

80 Manuel Ramos, “Estudio de las relaciones …”, Anales … , p 277.

81 “Discursos de clausura del concurso científico nacional”, Revista Positiva I (feb. 1901) pp. 66-7.

82 Justo Sierra in several instances defines race in completely cultural terms (V, 279; V, 91); at one point in his Juarez y su tiempo he even stated, albeit parenthetically, “No hay razas en realidad”. (XIII, 232). López Portillo y Rojas, in his Raza indígena, states quite unequivocally that “la división verdadera que existe entre los hombres no estriba en las razas, sino en la cultura. Puede decirse, en cierto modo, que el indio civilizado deja de ser indio, así como los negros y los amarillos civilizados, dejan de ser negros y amarillos” (p. 55). Telésforo García, a collaborator on the Revista Positiva, observes that “nada importa la comunidad de la sangre, la igualdad étnica … es la identidad de propensiones, de ideales … lo que determina, distingue y caracteriza el tipo vívente”. (“La raza, patria, humanidad e iberoamericanismo”, Revista positiva, I (diciembre 1901) p. 492.)

83 Francisco Belmar to President Porfirio Díaz, March 28, 1910, as quoted by Juan Comas in Ensayos sobre indigenismo, p. 70.