Sobre el autor y la obra
-
José
Vasconcelos
o
México;
vida: 1882-1959
o
Writer, philosopher and politician.
o
One of the most influential and controversial
personalities in the development of modern Mexico.
o
He was defeated in presidential elections of
1929
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Vasconcelos’s philosophy of the "cosmic
race" affected all aspects of Mexican sociocultural, political, and
economic policies.
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Essay promotes ideology of a future "fifth
race" in the Americas; an agglomeration of all the races in the world with
no respect to color or number to erect a new civilization: Universópolis
Political/social context
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Vasconcelos was in his thirties during the early
years of the Mexican Revolution; he was against Porfirio Díaz and pro-Madero
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This essay was written a few years after the
Revolution’s end, after a disappointing lack of huge political change –
expresses disappointment of many intellectuals with results of Revolution
Comps Example Questions
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The development of Spanish American identity and
issues of race, class, and gender in numerous authors (although they occur in
much earlier periods, as well as in the present). Authors: Martí, Rodó, Icaza, Vasconcelos,
Mariátegui, Guillén, Burgos, Neruda, etc. Some suggested readings: Cornejo
Polar, Meyer, Castillo, Stabb.
-
The idea of “Latin America” that emerges out of
the essays by Bolívar, Martí, Rodo, Vasconcelos, J.C. Mariátegui and Fernández
Retamar.
o
Idea of a desire to be distinct from the other “Americas,”
the United States. Both Rodó and Vasconcelos are opposed to U.S., labeling it
as materialistic and utilitarian.
Summary
Vasconcelos notes how many people
believe that the American continents have been home to some of the oldest
civilizations in the world, and he calls on his people to recapture that former
glory. He believes that the native people of Latin America
are the descendents of Atlantis. He believes that there are four racial
branches: red (Atlantis/Native American), white (European), black (African),
and yellow (Asian). Those four will spin together to create a fifth race, the
cosmic race. The New World was divided between
the Anglo-Saxons (English and Dutch) and the Latins (Portuguese and Spanish). It
was with Napoleon’s sale of France’s
territory in the New World that that world
became Anglo instead of Latin. The destiny of the Old World countries was
decided in the New World (prospering of England,
failure of Spain).
The problem with the divided people of Latin America is that they need to
identify themselves not in terms of national feeling (Ecuadorian, Mexican, etc)
but in terms of their deeper racial roots (Spanish, Mayan, Aztec, Quechua,
etc). No one in Latin America thought of this
except for a few exceptions such as Bolívar. In their focus on national unity,
the Anglo-Saxons are much more to be admired than the Latins. However, they
destroyed the native races, and have separated themselves from the African
races. Those things the Latins have not done, and so they are the future of the
human race because they are already putting into practice the fusion of all
races into one. He believes that Latin America is the perfect site for future
humanity because of the qualities of the land. There is a spiritual aspect to
this national, international project as well.
His three social stages are
then described. The material/war-like is characterized by matter and violence.
There is reason and judgment, but they are perverted. Racial mixing is
possible, but only by force and not in a good way. Reason prevails, however, in
the second period (intellectual/political). Racial fusion is possible here. The
third stage, which is approaching and not yet here, will be governed by
imagination and fancy. Love will help guide it. Lower types of people will be
absorbed by the higher types. He also believes that, once humanity is given an
aesthetic focus instead of an individualistic focus, the less-desirable traits
in humanity will disappear as a result of the people’s person choices and
efforts instead of because of the immutable laws of science. The fifth race,
the cosmic race, will come about when we have passed into this third stage
(after necessarily passing through the first two).
Temas/ideas importantes
-
Estilo de escritura
o
Pseudo-factual / pseudo-scientific style
o
Tone of exaltation of a race with strong
feelings of inferiority (Latin Americans)
o
Divided into three sections: about
history/background,
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Development of Latin American identity
o
Recognizes the mestizo’s frequent sense of
inferiority in comparison with more “pure” races
o
Criticizes division of Latin American republics
and their division from Spain
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Race
o
Belief that all races will gradually
combine/mix/intermingle to create one completely mixed/unified race
o
Recognizes the mestizo’s frequent sense of
inferiority in comparison with more “pure” races
o
Questions how the racial mix should occur;
suggestion that best if mixing races that are already somewhat similar
o
Conflict between Latins and Anglo-Saxons
o
Pro-racial mixing, anti-racial discrimination
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Social criticism
o
Calls for nationalist unity of distinct Latin
American republics, since their current division supports Anglo-Saxon
superiority (supports Bolívar since he also called for this in his Carta de Jamaica)
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Thoughts on United States
o
Anglo-Saxons are currently somewhat superior to
Latins because they are unified
o
Criticizes the fact that the Anglos have not
mixed with other races and have been annihilating the native race rather than
mixing with it
o
Indicates racism of United States
o
Idea of United States as another England, a
continuation of Europe
o
Idea that whites have fallen into materialism
and social injustice
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Subtle pro-Christian message
o
“It seems as if God Himself guided the steps of
the Anglo-Saxon cause, while we kill each other on account of dogma or declare
ourselves atheists”
o
“Christianity frees and engenders life, because
it contains universal, not national, revelation”
o
“Christianity preached love as the basis of
human relations, and now it begins to be clear that only love is capable of producing
a lofty humanity”
Notes from essay’s introduction (by Didier T. Jaén)
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Thought of future was a particular preoccupation
of Latin American writers of early 20th century; two prime examples
include this essay and Rodó’s Ariel
of 1900
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In this essay, Vasconcelos predicts the
emergence of a new age in the development of humanity, the Spiritual or
Aesthetic Era
o
In this new age, things will be ruled by
creative imagination and fantasy
o
Everything based on search for joy and beauty
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Previous age: Materialistic or Warring Era
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Present age (at time essay was written):
Intellectual or Political Era
o
Reason prevails
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A new, fully mixed race will emerge – “the
Cosmic Race”
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Latin America can lead in the transition to the
Spiritual/Aesthetic Era – Vasconcelos’s essay is an “appeal to the Latin
American people to take conscious hold of this destiny which history and
culture have put in their hands”
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This new age is coming no matter what, so Latin
America has to act fast to lead it, or some other culture will
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Idea that mixing of races is fundamental for the
emergence of the new age
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Vasconcelos received a lot of criticism for his thoughts
about race and his pseudo-scientific writing style
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This essay is part of a general reaction against
Darwin’s and Spencer’s purely biological and materialistic concepts of
evolution
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His somewhat pessimistic and bitter tone,
especially in later years – feeling that the Revolution of 1910 had been
betrayed
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Tone in his essay of exaltation of a race with
strong feelings of inferiority; like a pep talk!
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Vasconcelos was rather anti-United States, which
he labeled as materialistic and utilitarian (just like Rodó in Ariel…)
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Three basic levels that form the cosmological
system, according to Vasconcelos:
o
Atomic level of mechanical movements (the field
of science and logic)
o
The level of living matter, characterized by
directed, purposeful movement originating from within itself (field of ethics)
o
Level of human psyche or soul, characterized by
creativity (field of aesthetics and mysticism)
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“Vasconcelos’ essay on the Cosmic race, then, is
not simply a racist theory, but a theory of the future development of human
consciousness”
General notes from essay
Prologue to the 1948
Edition
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Central thesis: “the various races of the earth
tend to intermix at a gradually increasing pace, and eventually will give rise
to a new human type, composed of selections from each of the races already in
existence”
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Previous evolutionary theories (Darwin, Spencer)
are problematic – have led to racial discrimination and are focused on
incorrect areas
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“present world conditions favor the development
of interracial sexual unions”
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“the question the mestizo has often asked
himself: Is my contribution to culture comparable to that of the relatively
pure races that have made history up to our days?”
o
New example: the Egyptians were mestizos, and
they got some awesome stuff done.
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“the powerful North American nation has been
nothing but a melting pot of European races”
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“the mixture of similar races is productive,
while the mixture of very distant types, as in the case of Spaniards and
American Indians, has questionable results”
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With God all things are possible… “A religion
such as Christianity made the American Indians advance, in a few centuries,
from cannibalism to a relative degree of civilization”
Mestizaje
Part I – Thoughts about History
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Theories about the age and history of the American
continent; thoughts about Atlantis
o
Idea that America is “geologically ancient”
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Claims to be exploring these ideas based on “the
facts of history and science”
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Four racial trunks: Black, Indian, Mongol, and
White
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“the White, after organizing itself in Europe, has
become the invader of the world, and has considered itself destined to rule, as
did each of the previous races during their time of power”
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“the union of all men into a fifth universal race, the fruit of all
the previous ones and amelioration of everything past” (cosmic race, perfected race)
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The power of the Spanish/Latins (Spain, Portugal)
and English/Anglo-Saxons (England, Holland) in propelling the development of a
fifth universal race
o
They conquered and populated the new hemisphere
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“Latin predominance was unquestionable at the
beginning”
o
Spain got the best colonies
o
But later, Anglo-Saxons started winning out
against Latins – because Latin republics split up / divided (as they gained
independence from Spain)
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Age was and is “a conflict of Latinism and
Anglo-Saxonism; a conflict of institutions, aims, and ideals”
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A call for nationalist unity of Latin republics,
rather than current division (which just supports the Anglo-Saxon superiority)
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“We shall not be great as long as the Spaniard
from America does not feel as much a Spaniard as the sons of Spain”
o
Rather than denying Spanish fatherland, should
try to live according to highest interests of the [Latin] race
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Criticism of Napoleon for focusing purely on Europe
and not seeking to understand power of New World / Americas… “Napoleon, in his
foolishness, was not able to surmise that the destiny of the European races was
going to be decided in the New World”
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Latin/Spanish race fell because it started to
deny traditions and heritage upon splitting from Spain/motherland and then
divided among itself (in various republics)
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Huge error: “history is written in order to
please the despots”
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“No race returns. Each one states its mission,
accomplishes it, and passes away.”
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“The days of the pure whites, the victors of
today, are as numbered as were the days of their predecessors. Having fulfilled
their destiny of mechanizing the world, they themselves have set, without
knowing it, the basis for a new period: The period of the fusion and mixing of
all peoples.”
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“It seems as if God Himself guided the steps of
the Anglo-Saxon cause, while we kill each other on account of dogma or declare
ourselves atheists” (religion)
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“Spanish colonization created mixed races” – in contrast,
English stayed white… therefore Spanish/Latins are innately superior… they will
be the ones to initiate the mission of creating a fifth, unified race
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Purpose of America: “The purpose of the new and
ancient continent is much more important. Its predestination obeys the design
of constituting the cradle of a fifth race into which all nations will fuse
with each other to replace the four races that have been forging History apart
from each other.”
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Fan of Bolívar, since he also called for unity
of Latin American republics (in his Carta
de Jamaica)
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“mission of fusing all peoples ethnically and spiritually”
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Great opposition between Anglo-Saxons, who want
exclusive dominion by Whites, and Latins, who are shaping a new race
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“a synthetic race that aspires to engulf and to
express everything human in forms of constant improvement”
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“the Yankees will end up building the last great
empire of a single race, the final empire of White supremacy”
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In Spanish America: “What is going to emerge out
there is the definitive race, the synthetical race, the integral race, made up
of the genius and the blood of all peoples and, for that reason, more capable of
true brotherhood and of a truly universal vision” (the cosmic race)
Part II – Theory of the formation of the future Cosmic race
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The Latin American continent is ideal for the
development of the cosmic race – particularly the Tropics… Amazon area will
become the “promised land”
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Whites have always been forced to fight against
the environment, which has led them to create new things: “The basis of white
civilization is fuel”
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“History does not bend her ways”
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“The world of the future will belong to whoever
conquers the Amazon region. Universopolis
will rise by the great river, and from there the preaching, the squadrons, and
the airplanes propagandizing the good news will set forth.”
o
Super important that the fifth race conquers this
region, NOT the whites!
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“Our aim is not war against the Whites, but
against any kind of violent domination”
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Idea that racial mixing is easier/better if it’s
not on extreme terms… “the Indian is a good bridge for racial mixing”
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“the mixture of bloods will become gradually
more spontaneous, to the point that interbreeding will no longer be the result
of simple necessity but of personal taste or, at least, of curiosity”
Part III – Consideration of the Three Social Stages and the Spiritual
Factor
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Proposal of law of personal taste as the basis of
all human relationships
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Three social stages: material or warlike (past),
intellectual or political (present), and spiritual or aesthetic (future)
o
Matter/violence prevails in first, material
period
o
Reason prevails in second, intellectual period
o
Taste prevails in third, spiritual period
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In second, intellectual system, “racial mixing
partially obeys the fancy of free instinct, exercised beneath the rigors of the
social norm, but more strongly it obeys the ethical and political conveniences
of the moment”
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“The main characteristic of this second period
is faith in the formula”
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In the third period, “norms will be given by
fantasy;” “instead of rules, constant inspiration”
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Passion of beauty
in third period (obsession with beauty
seems somewhat modernist)
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Reproduction with goal/aim of improvement
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“No contemporary race can present itself alone
as the finished model that all the others should imitate”
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Reason why Darwinism is superior theory
currently
o
“The official science itself is, in each period,
a reflection of the pride of the dominant race”
o
“Every imperialistic policy needs a philosophy
to justify itself”
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“Christianity frees and engenders life, because
it contains universal, not national, revelation” (religion)
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“The doctrine of sociological and biological formation
we propose in these pages is not a simple ideological effort to raise the
spirits of a depressed race by offering it a thesis that contradicts the
doctrine with which its rivals wanted to condemn it”
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“Christianity preached love as the basis of
human relations, and now it begins to be clear that only love is capable of producing
a lofty humanity” (religion)
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Support of Mendel’s law/theory – if you
reproduce according to taste, the qualities we wish to make predominant will
gradually multiply while the recessive, less-likeable qualities will tend to
disappear
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“We have, then, in the continent all the
elements for the new Humanity: a law that will gradually select elements for
the creation of predominant types (Mendel’s law); a law that will not operate
according to a national criterion, as would be the case with a single
conquering race, but according to a criterion of universality and beauty; and we also have the land and
the natural resources.”
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“we in America shall arrive, before any other
part of the world, at the creation of a new race fashioned out of the treasures
of all the previous ones: The final race, the cosmic race”
Some Random Extras:
Wikipedia:
-Mexican philosopher, secy.
of education, 1929 pres. candidate
-Future “5th
race” in the Amercias-agglomeration of all of the races of the world in
Universópolis
- movement
by Mexican intellectuals during the 1920s who pointed out that so-called
“Latin”Americans have the blood of all the world's so-called “races”: European,
Asian-descended native Americans and Africans, thereby transcending the peoples
of the "old world"
-people of Iberian regions
of the Americas have the “territorial, racial, and spiritual factors necessary
to initiate the ‘universal era of humanity’ “
Future race= Mongoloids
(conquered/enslaved indios), Caucasians (colonizing Europeans), Negroids
(conquered/enslaved Africans)
Vasconcelos views his
words as being an ideological effort to improve the cultural morale of a
"depressed race" by offering his optimistic theory of the future
development of a cosmic race.
La raza: now
referrs to all mixed race people of the Ameritas
From:
http://www.cialc.unam.mx/pensamientoycultura/biblioteca%20virtual/diccionario/raza_cosmica.htm
Mientras las otras razas han pretendido ejercer y mantener una supremacía cada
una en diferentes épocas de la humanidad explotando a las demás por diferentes
medios, la cósmica mediante la educación y la cristiandad promoverá el amor y
la armonía, generando así una fuerza vital que le dará una superioridad no
lograda por ninguna otra estirpe hasta la fecha.
- es
necesario que no se copie al sajón, debe asimilarse y retornar adecuadamente
los caracteres benéficos de todas las razas existentes, sin excluir ninguna,
crear una nueva cultura basada en la armonía, el amor y la fraternidad, superar
los antagonismos y afán de dominación, para llegar a la etapa del “mundo Uno”,
el cual se ubicará en el trópico, lugar en donde se iniciaron las grandes
civilizaciones y al que es necesario conquistar por medio de los recursos
científicos.
1. En el estado material los pueblos combaten o se juntan sin más
ley que la violencia y el poderío relativo, el hombre se subordina a la
necesidad, no hay elección, el fuerte toma o rechaza caprichosamente
2. La
característica de este segundo período es la fe en la fórmula, por eso en todos
sentidos no hace otra cosa que dar norma a la inteligencia, limite a la acción,
fronteras a la patria y frenos al sentimiento. Regla, norma y tiranía, tal es
la ley del segundo periodo en que estamos presos, y del cual es menester salir”
3. “Las
normas las dará la facultad suprema, la fantasía; es decir se vivirá sin norma,
en un estado en que todo cuanto nace del sentimiento es un acierto. En vez de
reglas, inspiración constante (...)” (Vasconcelos 1948: 39). En esta última
etapa se vivirá el júbilo fundado en el amor.
Tan pronto como la educación y el
bienestar se difundan, la unión de las parejas se hará en función de la
simpatía, refinada por el sentido de la belleza, no de la necesidad ni de la
racionalidad; serán uniones sinceras y apasionadas, fácilmente deshechas en
caso de error, que producirán vástagos despejados y hermosos.
Puede
decirse que su preocupación por la unidad latinoamericana y el peligro de la
dominación anglosajona, representada en nuestro continente por los EUA, fue una
constante permanente en su pensamiento
Other notes
from the text
(http://www.lapetus.uchile.cl/lapetus/archivos/13063775392309232-La-raza-cosmica-Jose-Vasconcelos%281%29.pdf)
Prologue:
-published
during a time when Darwin was en vogue, survival of the fittest
-need to
recognize legitimacy of los mestizajes
-Answering
the question: Can the work of mixed race people make history like the work of
“pure” race people?
E.G. Egypt: successful and
homogenous. Then, decadencia. Then, mixed races and flourishing segundo
imperio.
U.S.: mix of racesà strong nation
“Resulta entonces fácil
afirmar que es fecunda la mezcla de los linajes similares y que es dudosa la
mezcla de tipos muy distantes, según ocurrió en el trato de españoles y de
indígenas americanos.”
Mixed races turn out great
as long as there is some uniting spiritual factor. E.G. Christianity took the
barbarous indios and civilized them in just a few centuries, from cannibals to
“relatively civilized” (GAG.)
I. El Mestizaje
-L.Am. is an old continent.
à so, how can we accept the fiction invented by our European fathers that
this is the new world?
-Atlántida was a great civ.
there centuries ago.
-mentions “datos más
modernos de la geología”
-mentions races, colors (as
if they were defining factors in the character of people)
-4 chapters/trunks: While, Black,
Indio, Mongol
-la cultura del blanco es
emigradora
- La misión
trascendental correspondió a las dos más audaces ramas de la familia europea; a
los dos tipos humanos más fuertes y más disímiles: el español y el inglés.
- Los llamados latinos,
poseedores de genio y de arrojo, se apoderaron de las mejores regiones, de las
que creyeron más ricas, y los ingleses, entonces, tuvieron que conformarse con
lo que les dejaban gentes más aptas que ellos.
- La derrota nos ha
traído la confusión de los valores y los conceptos; la diplomacia de los
vencedores nos engaña después de vencernos; el comercio nos conquista con sus
pequeñas ventajas.
-We’ve been defeated in
combat and ideologically
-A lack of creative
thinking + an excess of criticism leads to sterile discussions
-While Yankees feel as
English as the English, L.Am. don’t feel as Spanish as the Spanish.
-Para no tener que renegar
alguna vez de la patria misma es menester que vivamos conforme al alto interés
de la raza, aun cuando éste no sea todavía el más alto interés de la Humanidad.
- La tontería
napoleónica no pudo sospechar que era en el Nuevo Mundo donde iba a decidirse
el destino de las razas de Europa, (Says that Napoleon was critical in the
forming of the modern day US)
-Raza influences everything
about who you are (including your ability to fight in wars, etc)
-La raza que había soñado
con el imperio del mundo, los supuestos descendientes de la gloria romana,
cayeron en la pueril satisfacción de crear nacioncitas y soberanías de
principado, alentadas por almas que en cada cordillera veían un muro y no una
cúspide
-“Aberrations” occurred
because the Spanish blood hadn’t fully mixed with Indian blood
- En la Historia no hay
retornos, porque toda ella es transformación y novedad.
Parece que Dios mismo conduce
los pasos del sajonismo, en tanto que nosotros nos matamos por el dogma o nos
proclamamos ateos. Yet, the failure of the Saxons was to destroy razas, so when
ours combine to a mega race, we will rule the world (or something like that J)
- el hombre, a medida que
progresa, se multiplica menos y siente el horror del numero, por lo mismo que
ha llegado a estimar la calidad
- Acabaran de formar
los yanquis el último gran imperio de una sola raza, but L.Am will become an
EVEN stronger stock in time.
II)
“primera raza síntesis del
globo”
-lots of good land/natural
resources to exploit
-foundation of white
society es el combustible/”dominio de lo material”
-now, we won’t need to
protect ourselves from the cold, which can liberate us… la nueva estética
tratará de amoldarse a la curva sin fin de la espiral, que representa el anhelo
libre; el triunfo del ser en la conquista del infinito
-starts to get
futuristic/fiction-y: Referring to the Amazon- Con los recursos de semejante zona, la más
rica del globo en tesoros de todo género, la raza síntesis podrá consolidar su
cultura in a place that will be called Universópolis.
-In U-polis, armies will
educate so that all will be wise. La vida fundada en el amor llegará a
expresarse en formas de belleza.
-no one will be excluded
from the quinta raza
-My favorite sentence so
far: El indio es buen puente de mestizaje. Además, el clima cálido es propicio
al trato y reunión de todas las gentes.
- a medida que las
condiciones sociales mejoren, el cruce de sangre será cada vez más espontáneo,
a tal punto que no estará ya sujeto a la necesidad, sino al gusto; en último
caso; a la curiosidad.
III)
la ley de los tres estados
socials: el material o guerrero, el intelectual o político y el espiritual o
estético.
1. En el primer período no
es posible trabajar por la fusión cordial de las razas, tanto porque la misma
ley de la violencia a que está sometido excluye las posibilidades de cohesión
espontánea
2. Hacer nuestro antojo,
no nuestro deber; seguir el sendero del gusto, no el del apetito ni el del
silogismo; vivir el júbilo fundado en amor, ésa es la tercera etapa.
Moving towards utopia: La
pobreza, la educación defectuosa, la escasez de tipos bellos, la miseria que
vuelve a la gente fea, todas estas calamidades desaparecerán del estado social
futuro. Desirous, beautiful traits will increase and unsavory traits will
decrease.
Highly problematic:
Las razas inferiores, al educarse, se harían menos prolíficas, y los mejores
especímenes irán ascendiendo en una escala de mejoramiento étnico, cuyo tipo
máximo no es precisamente el blanco, sino esa nueva raza,
Partially accurate: todo
imperialismo necesita de una filosofía que lo justifique; el Imperio romano predicaba el orden, es decir, la jerarquía; primero
el romano, después sus aliados, y el bárbaro en la esclavitud. Los británicos
predican la selección natural, con la consecuencia tácita de que el reino del
mundo corresponde por derecho natural y divino al dolicocéfalo de las Islas y
sus descendientes.
