José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos Calderón (born February 27, 1882 in Oaxaca , † June 30, 1959 in Mexico City ) was a Mexican politician , writer and philosopher . Together with Alfonso Reyes and Antonio Caso , he is considered one of the most important intellectuals in modern Mexico. In his writings he developed the idea of ​​a Latin American nationalism and an independent Mexican national identity based on the mestizaje , the mixture of European and indigenous elements. He achieved worldwide fame primarily through his theory of the Cosmic Race (Raza Cósmica). He is one of the initiators of muralism .

Life

José Vasconcelos was born on February 27, 1882 in Oaxaca to a wealthy family. He went to school in the United States and northern Mexico and studied law in Mexico City.

In 1907 he took up his practice as a lawyer. Against the background of increasing political unrest in Mexico, he supported the revolutionary candidate Francisco Madero and his campaign against the re-election of the dictator Porfirio Díaz and found himself on the side of the revolutionaries after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. After the temporary victory of General Victoriano Huerta in 1913, he fled into exile in the USA. In 1919 he returned to Mexico and briefly took over the management of the university in the state of Sonora, which is controlled by the rebel army Pancho Villas . After the defeat of the Pancho Villas army by Álvaro Obregón in 1919, he joined this. In the new government under President Adolfo de la Huerta , he was first rector of the Universidad Nacional de México and in 1920 Minister of Education .

With generous funding from the de la Huertas government, Vasconcelos launched an educational and cultural offensive that was unprecedented in Mexican history. He reformed the school system, had schools and libraries built, especially in rural areas, and initiated programs to literate the population, 72 percent of whom were illiterate in 1920. Under Vasconcelos there was an intellectual re-establishment and political independence of the national university; The university coat of arms with the map of Latin America and the university motto "Por mi raza hablará el espíritu" (The spirit will speak for my race) go back to him. Vasconcelos also founded the National Library. In addition, he promoted the fine arts and commissioned monumental wall paintings with national themes. With this support the school of Mexican muralists around Diego Rivera , David Alfaro Siqueiros , José Clemente Orozco and Carlos Mérida was able to form.

After Obregón's assassination in 1928, Vasconcelos ran as a presidential candidate. In the elections of 1930 he was considered the most promising candidate, but lost after massive electoral fraud. After the election defeat he fled into exile in the USA and began working on his autobiography. This multi-volume work is considered the best representation of the revolution and a stylistic masterpiece of the Spanish language.

Upon his return to Mexico in 1940, José Vasconcelos took on various offices at the national university. Like other Mexican intellectuals of his time, he harbored sympathy for German fascism and colonialism .

José Vasconcelos died in Mexico City in 1959.

plant

La Raza Cósmica

One of Vasconcelo's most important writings is La raza cósmica (1925). Here he postulates the emergence of a single world race by mixing the existing races. He differentiates between four original human races: people with white, black, yellow and red skin. These races gradually mingle and form a single ethnic group: the cosmic race.

The commonalities of the cosmic race extend not only to biological, but above all to cultural characteristics. Vasconcelos sees Latin American mestizos and especially Mexicans as representatives of this world race. He assumes that the new ethnic group, the mestizo, is mainly held together by the Christian orientation.

Publications

Philosophical and historical works

• La intelectualidad mexicana (1916)
• El monismo estético (1919)
• La raza cósmica (1925)
• Indología (1926)
• Pesimismo alegre (1931)
• Estética (1936)
• Etica (1939)
• Historia del pensamiento filosófico (1937)
• Lógica orgánica (1945)

Autobiography

• Ulises Criollo (1935)
• La tormenta (1936)
• El disastre (1938)
• El proconsulado (1939)
• El ocaso de mi vida (1957)

Honors

The Biblioteca Vasconcelos in Mexico City , which opened in 2006, bears his name.

swell

• Anna, Timothy, et al. a .: Historia de Mexico . Cambridge University Press, Barcelona 2001.
• Brom, Juan: Esbozo de la Historia de México . Grijalbo, Mexico City 1980.

Web links

Commons : José Vasconcelos  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Excerpts from La Raza Cósmica ( Memento from November 1, 2000 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish, English)
• Literature by and about José Vasconcelos in the catalog of the Ibero-American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin