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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Among the numerous failures of the Porfirio Díaz government was the lack of education in rural Mexico. Statistics reveal only a fraction of the problem. In 1910 there were 11,750,996 illiterates in the population of 15,103,542, or a total of 3,352,546 who could read or write. Illiteracy may have been even more rampant than these figures indicate. Most of Mexico was rural, and most of the effective educational efforts were in urban areas.
The question arises as to whether the leading influential groups in Mexico gave serious attention to the problem. The purpose of this article is to examine the views of five important groups or persons during that period just preceding the revolution, to determine the extent of importance assigned rural education in Mexico. The viewpoints are those of the Díaz administration, the Labor group under Ricardo Flores Magón, the Catholic Church, Francisco I. Madero, and General Bernardo Reyes.
1 Machorro, Paulino y Narváez, , La enseñanza en México (México, 1916), p. 25.Google Scholar These figures are from a chart, compiled from the census of 1910, presented to the Congreso Científico Mexicano in 1913. Callcott, Wilfred Hardy, Liberalism in Mexico, 1857–1929 (Stanford, 1931), p. 145,Google Scholar states that in 1900 only 2,180,000 of nearly 13,600,000 were literate. Citing a Fomento census, a figure of 10,913,766 illiterates is given for 1905 in Rodríguez, José Miguel y Cos, , Iniciativas presentadas ante la comisión nacional de Centenario de la Independencia, á fin de consolidar, por medio de la educación pública, el espíritu de la nacionalidad mexicana, é incorporar á ésta á la raza indígena, y celebrar dignamente el 80° aniversario del nacimiento del C. General Porfirio Díaz, Presidente de la República Mexicana (México, 1907), p. 91.Google Scholar
2 Callcott, , Liberalism, p. 186.Google Scholar The figures are for 1910. Cf. Call, Tomme Clark, The Mexican Venture: From Political to Industrial Revolution in Mexico (New York, 1953), p. 143,Google Scholar and A Study of Educational Conditions in Mexico and an Appeal for an Independent College [The Committee for the Study of Educational Conditions in Mexico] (Cincinnati, 1916), p. 70.
3 Callcott, , Liberalism, p. 145,Google Scholar uses the higher figure; Machorro, y Narváez, , La enseñanza, p. 26,Google Scholar cites 77.8 per cent of all ages as illiterate.
4 Wilson, Irma, Mexico: A Century of Educational Thought (New York, 1941), p. 309.Google Scholar
5 Sierra, Justo, La educación nacional, Vol. Vili of Obras completas (México, 1948), p. 254.Google Scholar
6 Kneller, George F., The Education of the Mexican Nation (New York, 1951), p. 42.Google Scholar Cf. Callcott, , Liberalism, pp. 184 ff.Google Scholar
7 A Study of Educational Conditions in Mexico, p. 66.
8 Machorro, y Narváez, , La enseñanza, p. 25.Google Scholar Some idea of the Federal District’s schools is given by Hernández, Julio S., Artículos Pedagógicos (Mexico, 1903), pp. 427–521.Google Scholar Hernández was inspector of the national primary schools in the district. For a comparison of schools in the states and the Federal District in 1910 see Johnston, Marjorie C., Education in Mexico [U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare Bulletin No. 1] (Washington, 1956), p. 24.Google Scholar
9 Quoted in Beals, Carleton, Porfirio Díaz, Dictator of Mexico (Philadelphia and London, 1932), p. 391.Google Scholar
10 Wilson, , Mexico, p. 289.Google Scholar
11 A discurso on rural schools is given in Correño, Alberto María, Problemas indígenas (México, 1935), pp. 369–392.Google Scholar
12 Sierra, , La educación, p. 410.Google Scholar
13 Voelker, Paul John, “Justo Sierra, The Architect of National Education” (Unpublished thesis: Mexico City College, 1952), p. 106.Google Scholar
14 Ibid., p. 124.
15 Regeneración (México, 1900), Tomo I, No. 2, pp. 8–9.
16 Ibid., No. 3, p. 1.
17 “Programa y manifiesto del partido liberal mexicano,” from Ricardo, y Magón, Jesús Flores, Batalla a la dictadura (México, 1948), pp. 127–128.Google Scholar
18 Ibid., p. 149.
19 Ibid., p. 150.
20 Ugarte, José Bravo, Historia de México, Vol. 3, pt. 1 (Mexico, 1944), pp. 411–423.Google Scholar
21 Crónica del Frimer Congreso Católico Mexicano (Puebla, 1903), p. 75.
22 Ibid., p. 77.
23 Ibid., p. 107.
24 Ibid., pp. 258–263.
25 Ibid., 270–271.
26 Ibid., pp. 273–274.
27 Callcott, , Liberalism, p. 180.Google Scholar
28 Ibid. p. 183.
29 “El problema social agrario de la república mexicana como problema nacional,” in Boletín de la Secretaría de Fomento, folleto xiv–1, julio a die, 1906, p. 6.
30 Ibid., p. 7.
31 Ibid., p. 8.
32 Ibid., p. 9.
33 Cumberland, Charles Curtis, Mexican Revolution: Genesis Under Madero (Austin, 1952), pp. 32–33.Google Scholar Cf. Taracena, Alfonso, Madero, el heroe cívico (Mexico, 1946), p. 40.Google Scholar
34 Madero, Francisco I., La sucesión presidencial en 1910 (Mexico, 1911), 3d ed., pp. 221–223.Google Scholar
35 Ibid., p. 221.
36 México Nuevo, 12 Sept. 1909, p. 1.
37 Ibid., 14 Sept. 1909, p. 1.
38 Ibid., 21 Sept. 1909, p. 5.
