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Nationalizing Children Through Schools and Hygiene: Porfirian and Revolutionary Mexico City*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Patience A. Schell
Patience A. Schell*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
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Extract

On a spring morning in 1919, worshipers leaving Mexico City’s cathedral were horrified to discover the body of a little girl who had fallen to her death from the Hotel del Seminario. Yet as far as the Excélsior newspaper was concerned, the tragedy that had ended that morning had actually begun with her conception. Her mother was a prostitute who lived in the hotel and busybody guests reported that the mother neglected her child. On the day of Domitila’s death, her mother was not at the hotel, as she had been admitted to the Morelos Hospital, which specialized in syphilitic prostitutes. The hotel’s guests did their best to care for Domitila, giving her food, affection, and chiding when she played on balconies: one moment of inattention allowed the tragedy. The article concluded that perhaps it was for Domitila’s own good that she had died falling off a balcony. Readers did not need to be told why Domitila was better off dead, because the case encapsulated common anxieties about childhood and parenting in Porfirian and revolutionary Mexico.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 60 , Issue 4 , April 2004 , pp. 559 - 587
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2004 

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Footnotes

*

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Latin American Studies Association Congress (2000), the Conference on Latin American History (2001), and the University of Manchester Hispanic Research Seminar (2001). I am grateful to Birkbeck College Faculty of Arts and the British Academy for funding to attend LASA and CLAH. Particular thanks to Ann Blum and Katherine Bliss, discussants on the LASA and CLAH panels respectively, and three anonymous readers for their criticism and direction. I owe a great debt to Nancy M. Robinson and David T. Scott for their guidance on questions of IQ tests and child psychology. My last thanks to Arturo Castillo Castillo for his thorough comments.

References

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15 Vaughan, State, Education, and Social Class, p. 178; Bliss, Compromised Positions, p. 11.

16 For instance, constitutional Article 3 prohibited religious primary education, overriding parents’ rights to determine their children’s education.

17 For similar confusion in Russia, see Kirschenbaum, Small Comrades, p. 28.

18 Bulletin of the Pan American Union (hereafter cited as BPAU) 53 (Aug. 1921), p. 213.

19 Vaughan, The State, Education and Social Class, p. 211.

20 Cunningham, “Histories of Childhood,” p. 1206.

21 Boletín de la Secretaría de Educación Pública (hereafter cited as BSEP) 5:5 (May 1926), pp. 74–76.

22 Cunningham, “Histories of Childhood,” pp. 1199–1202.

23 Anda, Manuel Aveleyra Arroyo de, La higiene escolar en México: Publicación conmemorativa de setenta y cinco años de actividades de higiene escolar en México 1882–1957 (México: Talleres de Editora de Periódico, S.C.L. y la Prensa, 1958), pp. 69–70 Google Scholar; SEP, El esfuerzo educativo en México. La obra del gobierno federal en el ramo de educación pública durante la administración del presidente Plutarco Elias Calles. (1924-1928) Memoria analítico-crítica de la organización actual de la Secretaria de Educación Pública, sus éxitos, sus fracasos, los derroteros que la experiencia señala. Presentada al H. Congreso de la Unión por el Dr. J. M. Puig Casauranc, secretario del ramo en obediencia al Artículo 93 constitucional vol. 1 (México: n.p., 1928), p. 7; Bazant, Historia de la educación, pp. 21–22. See also Navarro, Moisés González, El Porfiriato, la vida social vol. 4 of Historia moderna de México Daniel Cosío Villegas, ed. (México, D.F. and Buenos Aires: Editorial Hermes, 1957), p. 535 Google Scholar on the congress. At education congresses in 1889 and early. 1891, delegates continued to discuss concerns related to health and hygiene in public schools.

24 Tenorio-Trillo, Mexico at the World’s Fairs, pp. 150–51. Quote on page 151.

25 Vaughan, The State, Education and Social Class, p. 59; SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, pp. 7–8; González Navarro, Historia moderna de México, vol. 4, pp. 104, 533, 535, 565.

26 Aveleyra, La higiene escolar en México, pp. 70–85.

27 Del Castillo Troncoso, “Entre la criminalidad y el órden cívico,” p. 287.

28 SEP, Memoria que indica el estado que guarda el ramo de educación pública el 31 del agosto de 1929. Presentada por el Lic. Ezequiel Padilla, secretario del ramo, para conocimiento del H. Congreso de la Unión, en obediencia al Artículo 93 Constitucional (México, D.F.: Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, 1929), p. 379 Google Scholar; Del Castillo Troncoso, “Entre la criminalidad y el órden cívico,” p. 287, n. 28.

29 SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, pp. 7–9; Aveleyra, La higiene escolar en México, pp. 70–81.

30 Ibid., p. 8; BSEP 1:1 (Mar. 1922), p. 545, from El Heraldo de México, 9 Jan. 1922; Knight, Alan, The Mexican Revolution, II, Counter-Revolution and Reconstruction (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1986), pp. 420–22Google Scholar; Archivo Histórico de la Ciudad de México Instrucción Pública 2538/3/1917 inspector to headmaster Escuela Elemental 30, 15 Nov. 1917. Medical professionals blamed parasites such as lice, fleas, and bedbugs for spreading contagious diseases, and these parasites remained a highhealth priority in the postrevolutionary years; see Pani, La higiene en México, p. 59.

31 Aveleyra, La higiene escolar en México, pp. 82–85; SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, p. 8.

32 Stern, Alexandra, “Unraveling the History of Eugenics in Mexico,” (1 Aug. 1998), Archives: Institute for the Study of Academic Racism Google Scholar, http://www.ferris.edu/isar/archives/sources/mexico.htm (last accessed 1 Dec. 2003). Stern’s article offers an excellent orientation on the location and type of primary source material in Mexico for research on eugenics.

33 BPAU 50:4 (Apr. 1920), p. 473; 55:6 (Dec. 1922), pp. 563–565.

34 SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, p. 9; quotation from Stern, “Unraveling the History of Eugenics in Mexico.”

35 See “Los trabajos presentados en el 20 Cong, del Niño, ayer,” Excélsior, 6 Jan. 1923; “Transcendentales problemas de educación del niño,” Excélsior, 5 Jan. 1923.

36 Stern, , “Unraveling the History of Eugenics in Mexico” SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, pp. 9–11.Google Scholar

37 “Solemnemente inaugurose el segundo congreso del niño,” Excélsior, 2 Jan. 1923 (Calling the child “nuestro yo” suggests reference to Freud’s description of ego.); SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, p. 11.

38 Their eugenics qualifications shown by membership in the Mexican Society for the Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis of Venereal Disease (begun in 1908), the Mexican Society of Puericulture (founded in 1929), and the Mexican Eugenics Society (founded in 1931). Stern, “Unravelling the History of Eugenics in Mexico.”

39 BPAU 59:1 (Jan. 1925), pp. 38–44; Stern, “Unravelling the History of Eugenics in Mexico.”

40 Stern, Alexandra Minna, “Responsible Mothers and Normal Children: Eugenics, Nationalism, and Welfare in Post-Revolutionary Mexico, 1920–1940,” Journal of Historical Sociology 12:4 (Dec. 1999), pp. 373, 377, 381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

41 See for example Archivo Histórico de la Secretaría de Salud Pública, Fondo Higiene Escolar 3/13 J. Lisci, “La higiene de la alimentación,” n.d. 1922, on nutrition and kitchen hygiene.

42 Ibid. 3/13 Dr. O. Vázquez Legorreta, “Aseo corporal,” n.d. 1922.

43 Ibid. 3/13 Dr. Vera Becerra, “Ejercicios físicos,” n.d. 1922.

44 Ibid. 3/13 Dr. F. Altamira, “Prevención de accidentes en los niños (Traumatismos y envenanamientos),” n.d. 1922. “En los casos en los que por cualquiera necesidad no pueda hacerse acompañar a los niños por personas mayores y tengan estos que salir a la calle, deben hacérceles [sic] todas estas indicaciones en la forma sencilla que sus cortas inteligencias requieran.” On changes to street usage see Piccato, Pablo, City of Suspects: Crime in Mexico City, 1900–1931 (Durham NC and London: Duke University Press, 2001), pp. 24–5Google Scholar; on the 1919 hit and run see “Niño atropellado por un automóvil,” Excélsior, 26 May 1919.

45 BSEP 5:5 (May 1926), p. 63; 4 (Dec. 1925), pp. 210–12; Rodríquez Hernández, Niños trabajadores mexicanos, pp. 12, 26. On threats to children see Schell, Church and State Education, pp. 86–88. On Gilberto’s disappearance, see “El niño Gilberto Rivera,” Universal, 27 Oct. 1916.

46 Bliss, Compromised Positions, p. 88; Mensajero del Sagrado, El Corazón de Jesús de México, “Tres Cartas Importantes” (Aug. 1924), pp. 509–13Google Scholar; “Muy interesantes estudios presentados al 20. Congreso Mexicano del Niño,” Excélsior, 3 Jan. 1923.

47 Archivo Histórico de la Secretaría de Educación Pública (hereafter AHSEP) Departamento Escolar 53/3/12 Sección de Enseñanza to José Vasconcelos, 9 March 1923.

48 SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, p. 12.

49 Ibid., p. 180.

50 Stern, , “Unraveling the History of Eugenics in Mexico” Aveleyra, La higiene escolar, p. 113 Google Scholar; SEP; Esfuerzo educativo ii, pp. 12–15.

51 See Schell, Church and State Education, pp. 7–8, 21–35.

52 SEP, Dirección General de Higiene Escolar y Servicios Médicos legislacion y reglamentación, 1921–1958 (México: Talleres de Editora de Periódicos, S.L.C., La Prensa, 1958), p. 21.Google Scholar

53 AHSEP DE 41/15/87 director Hygiene Section, 12 July 1923; SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, pp. 204, 209. In 1926, the SEP Psychopedagogy Department opened the “Policlínica Escolar” in the city center, Calle Hidalgo 73. The number of children who visited the Hidalgo clinic on a weekly basis reached 1,500.

54 SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, p. 196.

55 Ibid., I, pp. 194–196, 197–198; SEP, Memoria, pp. 379, 381.

56 Ibid., II, pp. 210–211.

57 SEP, Memoria, p. 351.

58 SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, pp. 19–21; see charts pp. 22–59. Also SEP, Memoria, p. 370. Quotation on p. 353.

59 SEP, Memoria, pp. 352–3, 370. Quotation on p. 370.

60 Stern, , “Unraveling the History of Eugenics in Mexico”: SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, pp. 62–64 Google Scholar; SEP, Memoria, p. 371. Background information on IQ tests from “Biography of Alfred Binet,” http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eintell/binet.shtml; Jan Strydom and Susan Du Plessis, “The IQ Test: Where Does it Come From and What Does It Measure?,” http://www.audiblox2000.com/dyslexia_dyslexic/dyslexia014.htm; “Dictionnaire Historique de la Suisse,” entry on Alice Descoeudres; http://www.lexhist.ch/externe/protect/textes/f/F9016.html; “Dictionary of Philosopy of Mind,” entry on Hermann Ebbinghaus http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/ebbinghaus.html. All last accessed 1 Dec. 2003.

61 SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, “Anexo número cuarenta,” pp. 76–83; “Anexo número setenta y seis,” pp. 138–143.

62 Ibid., “Dictamen de la comisión sobre la investigación de la lectura en silencio,” pp. 164–169.

63 SEP, La casa del estudiante indígena: 16 meses de labor en un experimento psicológico colectivo con indios, feb. de 1926—junio de 1927 (México: Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, 1927), pp. 32–36, 51–52Google Scholar. Photographs pp. 132–33, SEP; Esfuerzo educativo ii, p. 66.

64 SEP, La casa del estudiante indígena, pp. 17–19. Quotes p. 17. See Timmons, Patrick, ‘“The Only Good Indian is an Educated Indian’ Cultural Politics and Indigenismo in 1920s Mexico” (MA Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1998)Google Scholar for a more detailed discussion of the Casa.

65 Lopez, Rick A., “The Indian Bonita Contest of 1921 and the Ethnicization of Mexican National Culture,” Hispanic American Historical Review 82:2 (May 2002), pp. 291–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

66 SEP, La casa del estudiante indígena, pp. 162–64. Quotation p. 164.

67 SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, p. 66.

68 Thanks to David T. Scott for pointing out how unusual these test results are.

69 SEP, La casa del estudiante indígena, p. 122.

70 SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, pp. 65–66.

71 SEP, La casa del estudiante indígena, p. 163.

72 Ramos, Samuel, “Psycho-Analysis of the Mexican,” in Martinez, José Luis, ed., The Modern Mexican Essay trans. Hilborn, H. W. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965), pp. 5–6 Google Scholar and Paz, Octavio, El laberinto de la soledad, Postdata, Vuelta a El laberinto de la soledad (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1992), p. 12.Google Scholar

73 SEP, La casa del estudiante indígena, p. 20.

74 Ibid., p. 72.

75 SEP, Esfuerzo educativo, II, pp. 66–67. See Dawson, Alexander S., “‘Wild Indians,’ ‘Mexican Gentlemen,’ and the Lessons Learned in the Casa del Estudiante Indígena, 1926–1932,” The Americas 57:3 (Jan. 2001), pp. 351–353 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed on return rates and pp. 353–358 on students’ resistance and agency.

76 SEP, La casa del estudiante indígena, p. 63.

77 On modernizing patriarchy see Vaughan, Mary Kay, “Modernizing Patriarchy: State Policies, Rural Households, and Women in Mexico, 1930–1940,” in Dore, Elizabeth and Molyneux, Maxine, eds., Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America (Durham NC and London: Duke University Press, 2000), p. 199.Google Scholar

78 Plutarco Elías Calles, 29 July 1934, quoted in Septién, Valentina Torres, La educación privada en México (1903-1976), p. 126, fn 69.Google Scholar

79 Casa Alianza, “10th Anniversary United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,” http://www.casa-alianza.org/EN/reports/crc/uncrc.phtml. For the text of the convention, see Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights http://193.194.138.190/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm (both last accessed 1 Dec. 2003).