CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY WILLIAM EDMUND AUGHINBAUGH M.D., LL.B., LL.M. 1871, October 12, Washington.D.C. • New York, N. Y.,Decemberl7, 1940 President of The Adventurers' Club 1919-1925 "/ Swear by Apollo" F 1234.T47M6"""'™""'"-"'"^ The Mexican mind; a study of national psy 3 1924 020 423 442 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020423442 THE MEXICAN MIND The People of Mexico Trading With Mexico The Mexican Mind ' THE MEXICAN MIND A Study of National Psychology By WALLACE THOMPSON NON-REFERT I VMVAP-Q35 LITTLE, fi&OWNV'ANb, COMPANY ' 1922 Copyright, IQ22, By Wallace Thompson. All rights reserved Published March, 1922 Printed in the United States of America / /c2 'U s^^^h 'M^: _-L. "•:•//-]- ^:^ To My Mother FANNIE GEIGER THOMPSON my fellow-man, Who made the living of life, the loving of polestar and the understanding of both, the of my growing years ' ' /' ''- •'/, V*.' To its observation' of Mexico the world has brought ahnost every element of Ulumination save one,—and that the most essential of all. It has neglected the imiversal touchstone of under- standing, older than Solomon; the dictum that "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Neither in our writings upon Mexico nor in our practical deaUngs with the Mexicans, have we sought out the fountainhead of all their action and of all their failure,—the Mexican mind itself. Here, first and last, has been our basic error of approach, the wreck of all our desires to help or to use the Mexicans. The book which is offered here seeks to remedy, in part, this error of the past and to give a ground which may help to obviate its repetition in the future. Here is a humble beginning of a study to which many minds and many years should be devoted,—the clarifying of the mutual understand- ing of the Latin and the Saxon peoples of the West- ern Hemisphere by a frank comparison of the work- ings of their minds. Of all those who have written of Mexico, or indeed of any part of Latin America, not one has taken up the vital problem of psychology in any ;.,;' PREFACE "';.;;, but the most .incidental way. Thii^'tjiis book is based upon' no source; naateFial.; it lias lio," authori- ties" save the stan^r^ M'ori^ on general psy- — , chology arid tho stories and illusti:atiofis, which have been takeii'wherever they coulcl,|ja found. Only my own'/pyevious book, "The People of Mexico," ^ may.perli9^s;be-s:^q.'rded as the source book of the present voll!i6e.,'.'-liowever, although "The Mexican Mind" 'is in* d, way the third of a trilogy of studies (the first two being comprised in the two sections of "The People of Mexico, Who They Are and How They Live"), it is no more closely related to my previous Mexican book than —it would be to a similar work by some other author, ^if such a book existed. There, as here, I sailed forth on xmcharted seas; and here, as there, I hope only that such hght as I have been able to throw upon the course will serve to guide those whose sailing must ultimately be the hope of Mexico. The generous welcome which the critics and the pubUc accorded "The People of Mexico" brought forth but one serious criticism, and that was of failure to delineate a solution for the difficulties which were described. And yet there has always been but one solution,—the education of the Mexi- can mass. All else is but subterfuge and momen- tary reUef . The details of that educational solution which I have now set forth in this book required, for their understanding, an exposition of Mexican character. Here, then, is that exposition, and with ' "The People of Mexico," Harper & Brothers, New York, 1921. X PREFACE it my suggestions of the fundamental bases upon which Mexican education must be founded. I hope and pray that in some way and some time, ere many years have passed, they, or a development of them, will be apphed. I can see no other hope for a country which I have long loved and to whose service all my Mexican books have been dedicated. I can, as I say, credit no source material for what has been written on these pages. But much aid has come to me, in consultation with many friends who know Mexico well, in the suggestions of unex- plained incidents in many travel books and in such reports as have come to my hands. Of the many others directly and indirectly con- tributing to the book, I want to speak first of my old master. Doctor Daniel Moses Fisk, Professor of Sociology in Washburn College, whose teachings these many years ago laid the foundations for both of these efforts of mine. Truly, if ever man were the grandfather of books, he bears that designation here. A word of tribute must go to all those Mexican friends whose grave and delightful minds have added so much of inspiration (and a word of regret when I re-read what I have had of necessity to say of their people) ; and of these friends, especially to one. Doctor Toribio Esquivel Obregon, a gentleman of the most courtly school, and a student of inviting learning. Of personal appreciation there is one word: to my wife, Marian Gilhooly Thompson, who to all my books on Mexico has brought not only the PREFACE wealth of her own observations of the Mexicans and of the other peoples of Latin America, but also the intuition and understanding which has smoothed the rough places and clarified my own ideas. Wallace Thompson, New York, December 1, 1921. — CONTENTS Preface xi I. The Streams of Race 1 White and Indian Heritages—Irresponsible Indian Communism—The Indian's Crisis Carried Down to Our Own Time—Adoption of Foreign Codes—"Mexi- canization" of the Indian—The Menace of the YeUow Tide II. The Mexican Temperament 21 Indian and Spanish Contributions—Creole and Mestizo—Physical Environment—^Warring Cultures Imitation—The lie—Emotionalism—Standards of Our Judgment III. Signposts of Custom 46 Tradition Emphasized by Foreign Codes—Absence of Colorful Legends—Domination of "La Costumbre" —^Archaic Business Customs—Politeness—Social Eti- quette—Mexican Bomance IV. Playtime in Mexico 75 Absence of True Spirit of Play—^Ancient Indian Festivals — List of HoUdays — Celebrations — Bull Fights—Social Fvmctions—The Theater—Sports V. Mexican Cumture 101 Eacial Cleavage—Discouragement of Indian Arts Spanish Contribution—Architecture—Pottery-making —Weaving—Music—Dancing and Folklore—Painting —Literature VI. The Mexican Mind 133 Domination of Intellect—Lack of Imagination Absence of Analysis—Empirical Thinking—The Con- crete and the Personal—The Sensation-impulse Chief Stimulant to Thought—Self-realization —— CONTENTS CHAP. PAQH VII. The "Emotional" Mexican 150 Emotional Expression and Mental Direction—Pau- city of Instincts—Sex—Fear, Cruelty, Suspicion Honesty—Oratory and Poetry—Humor—Habit VIII. What Is Worth While 176 Decision the Result of Intellectual Valuations Apathy and Other Inhibitions—Types of Normal De- cision—Abnormalities of Mexican Will—Scales of Psy- chological Values—Sex, Pride, Honor, Dignity Property Instinct—Desire for a Leader IX. The Mexican Crowd 205 Mexican Crowd Exists on Second of Four Planes of Human Social Development—Individual and Group Responsibility—Will Organizations Only—Communis- tic Groups—Mexican Sociahsm—Class Groupings Leadership—Like-mindedness of Mexicans X. The Cauldron op Politics 235 Domination of Personalities—The "Iron Hand" Borrowed Systems of Government—Constitution of 1917—Revolution Instead of Election—The "Opposi- tion"—Mexican Federal States and Democracy—The Church in Politics—Mexican Justice—Graft—Obre- gon's "Peace" XI. Mexico and the World Without 257 Fear of American Intervention—Diaz and Interven- tion—The Monroe Doctrine—Sense of Inferiority to Foreigners—Foreign Capital—Liking for Indivdual Foreigners—Business and the Outside World Radicalism and Anti-foreignism XII. Things Dreamed Op 276 Mexican Patriotism a Love of the Soil—^Lack of Respect for History and Ideals—Land—"Nationaliza- tion"—Inconsistencies Between Professions and Ac- tions—Diaz's Failure in Education—The Problem of "Socialization"—^An Ideal of Education for Mexican Regeneration Index 295 THE MEXICAN MIND THE MEXICAN MIND CHAPTER I THE STREAMS OP RACE TWO great streams have come down from immemorial time to the making of the Mexican mind, as they have come to the making of the Mexican nation. These are the streams of two races, white and red, races which in mind and in hving were as far apart as the globe which separated them. The red stream, moving along through ages be- fore the white appeared, had become, ere the meet- ing, an ocean which covered two continents. It was into that ocean that the blood of the white stream pom-ed in the two great rivers which swept westward from North and South Europe in the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries. In the north our Anglo-Saxon river pushed back the red, build- ing a wall, a dike, which we advanced by slow years ever westward, inclosing those pools of red we left behind us, but never mingling. But in the South, Spain poured her blood and' culture and civilization into the red sea, softening its menacing color and 1 THE MEXICAN MIND crying jojiully in triumph when, here or there, a pool paled to European purity. Through three centuries this mingUng went on, and in Mexico the blood of three himdred thousand white men was poured into the sea of six million red men to the making of what they called a new race, the mestizo, or mixed breed.