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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UT Digital Repository Copyright by Daniela MacGregor Sevilla 2018 The Dissertation Committee for Daniela MacGregor Sevilla certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: TEACHING MEXICO: THE PEDAGOGY AND PROSE OF EL MAESTRO RURAL (1932-1940) Committee: Héctor Domínguez-Ruvalcaba, Supervisor Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez Jason Borge Gwen Kirkpatrick Sonia Roncador TEACHING MEXICO: THE PEDAGOGY AND PROSE OF EL MAESTRO RURAL (1932-1940) by Daniela MacGregor Sevilla Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2018 Dedication El cariño que siento por todo los que me ayudaron a completar esta disertación solo se puede expresar en mi lengua materna. Primero, a mi supervisor, Héctor Domínguez Ruvalcaba, con quien he pasado horas felices de plática y aprendizaje en las calles de Austin y del D.F. La entrega de esta disertación se hace gracias al ánimo e inspiración que me aportaste durante estos años. A todos los profesores de mi comité por su apoyo, interés y paciencia. Por supuesto a mi familia, en especial a mis padres que aseguraron que mi hermano y yo siempre tuviéramos apego a su tierra natal y nunca fallaron en mostrarnos el Popo y la Izta al aterrizar. A mi esposo y a nuestros hijos, Patrick y Tristán Agustín. Ellos no se acordarán de las horas largas de escritura, o de sus reclamos vociferes cuando salía para la biblioteca, pero yo nunca olvidaré quien los mantuvo felices para que yo pudiera completar este trabajo. Y por fin, a mi dulce perro Cartucho, el compañero leal de mis años de estudiante graduada. Abstract TEACHING MEXICO: THE PEDAGOGY AND PROSE OF EL MAESTRO RURAL (1932-1940) Daniela MacGregor Sevilla, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisor: Héctor Domínguez-Ruvalcaba This dissertation analyzes themes of colonization, nationalism, language and culture in the pedagogical magazine El Maestro Rural, published by Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) from 1932 to 1940. This bimonthly magazine was distributed by the federal government to the rural schools throughout Mexico for the use in the school and community. El Maestro Rural was a vehicle for disseminating the national pedagogical practices, theories and philosophies that evolved during the postrevolutionary reconstruction of Mexican society. To that end it served as a tool for the national government to attempt the internal colonization of the rural indigenous communities. To provide context for the education program after 1932 I look at José Vasconcelos’s tenure leading the SEP and the precursor to El Maestro Rural, El Maestro. I explore the way dance and theater were used by El Maestro Rural to create sanctioned uses of indigenous culture by creating spaces for performative citizenship. By looking at legends and short stories from El Maestro Rural, I analyze the ways in which the voice of the local community infiltrated the national dialogue producing a cultural bilingualism which contested the national narrative of progress. v Table of Contents Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Vasconcelos’s Pedagogical Odyssey: The Fears of a Ulises Criollo and the Construction of National Cultural Identity ............................................................21 I. Vasconcelos’s Legacy: A Dream Constructed with Murals and Statues ..............28 II. A Hero for His Mexico: Anxieties and Aspirations of a Ulises Criollo ..............41 III. El desastre: The Failures of the Ulises Criollo ...................................................48 IV. Castellanización: Solving the Problem of a Too Indigenous Population ...........67 V. El Maestro: a Teacher for All ..............................................................................85 VI. The Battle Between Mariachis and Mozart ........................................................95 Chapter 2: Theater and Dance in El Maestro Rural: The Campesino as Performed by Post-Revolutionary Mexico .......................................................................................108 I. Transforming the Legacy of the Revolution .......................................................110 II. National Education and National Textbooks: Unification and the First Voices of El Maestro Rural ..........................................................................................127 III. Post-Revolutionary Nationalism on Display ....................................................132 IV. Stepping in Time: A Nation Dancing Together................................................141 V. Setting the Scene for a National Dance .............................................................157 VI. The Revolution on a Stage................................................................................164 Chapter 3: Storytelling in El Maestro Rural: Language, Knowledge and Dialogue .......186 I. Defining the Ideal: El Maestro Rural as a Guide ................................................191 II. Language in Indigenous Communities: Dangerous Knowledge for “Gente de Razón” ..............................................................................................................197 III. Legends and Lessons: Rereading Collected Voices .........................................210 vi IV. Of Monsters and Maestros: Changes and Threats to Indigenous Communities .....................................................................................................214 V. Tell Me the Story of How I Taught You: Creating National Citizens Through the Written Word ..............................................................................................220 Conclusion: El Maestro Rural Tells a Story ....................................................................242 Works Cited .....................................................................................................................250 EL MAESTRO RURAL, 1932 – 1940 ...................................................................274 vii Introduction A simple black and white woodcut print in a style reminiscent of Diego Rivera1 shows the words “El Maestro Rural” in the lower left corner. Above these, to serve as an example of this description, is a man with a dark complexion seated on a bench reading from a magazine, surrounded by young children whose faces resemble his own. Some are looking over his shoulder, others seem to contemplate his words with closed eyes, while a few are looking deeply into his face. All of them are rapt with attention. This is the way, in March of 1932, El Maestro Rural2 began its eight-year run as a pedagogical magazine distributed to teachers working, oftentimes in isolation, throughout the growing network of federal-run rural schools. When I first touched the pages of El Maestro Rural it was with a slight feeling of awe. I felt at once very close and very distant from the teachers who had held the same pages in their hands over eighty years ago. I had found a source of information that provided insight into the national plan for postrevolutionary rural education and what felt like an intimate recounting of the life and work of the teachers who taught in remote rural communities of Mexico. I began by looking at how these two narratives were interconnected and found that the reality of work in the rural communities led the teachers to transform the way they created material for their students and communities to read. 1 Unfortunately, the woodcut is unsigned 2 For the sake of continuity, I use the style of capitalization (each first letter) which the magazine itself uses most often on its cover and title page. 1 From 1932 to 1940 the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) published El Maestro Rural, this bimonthly magazine was distributed by the federal government to the rural schools throughout the Mexican states. From its inception and through the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas, El Maestro Rural was a vehicle for disseminating the national pedagogical practices, theories and philosophies that evolved during the postrevolutionary reconstruction of Mexican society. The magazine was first published by the SEP under the direction of Narcisso Bassols, whose tenure marked a turn towards an increasingly secular and socialist style of pedagogy meant to integrate all citizens into the modern industrial and agricultural economy Mexico was in the process of fortifying. El Maestro Rural had three main contributors: the intellectuals and pedagogues writing from the capital, the directors and supervisors of the rural schools and the teachers working in rural areas. Occasionally, the students themselves would be invited to contribute through writing contests. The magazine was developed as a tool to enforce the ideologies with which the teachers were meant to inculcate their pedagogies. Foremost, the SEP hoped to unify the nation by assimilating the indigenous population into national culture. What I see at work in El Maestro Rural is a colonialist effort of the Mexican government to use education as a tool for consolidating a hegemony throughout rural Mexico, especially in indigenous communities. After the Revolution, the government needed to find a way to guarantee the allegiance of disparate communities to one central nation-state. Because