{"id":31183,"date":"2013-05-20T00:57:34","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T00:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=31183"},"modified":"2013-05-20T00:57:34","modified_gmt":"2013-05-20T00:57:34","slug":"the-forging-of-the-cosmic-race-a-reinterpretation-of-colonial-mexico-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=31183","title":{"rendered":"The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico. [Book Review]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandiegohistory.org\/journal\/81summer\/br-cosmic.htm\" target=\"_blank\">The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico. [Book Review]<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandiegohistory.org\/journal\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">The Journal of San Diego History<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandiegohistory.org\/journal\/81summer\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Volume 27, Number 3<\/a> (Summer 1981)<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/W._Michael_Mathes\" target=\"_blank\">W. Michael Mathes<\/a><\/strong> (1936-2012), Professor of History<br \/>\n<em>University of San Francisco<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=31178\" target=\"_blank\">The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico<\/a><\/em>. By Colin M. MacLachlan and Jaime E. Rodr\u00edguez O. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Maps. 362 pages.<\/p>\n<p>In general, Mexico&#8217;s colonial past has been interpreted as a negative experience by modern scholars. Within Mexico this interpretation is based primarily upon political concepts which idealize pre-Cortesian culture and condemn Spain as a cruel, autocratic nation which forcefully imposed itself upon Aztec civilization through bloody conquest. Foreign scholars either adhere to this &#8220;Black Legend&#8221; concept or, in a more revisionary sense, simply condemn colonialism as an institution. This new study presents a positive approach to the three centuries of Spanish domination in Mexico as an integral part of national evolution, not as a better-to-be forgotten period of darkness.<\/p>\n<p>The basis for the development of Colonial Mexico, New Spain, is seen as <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=14551\" target=\"_blank\">mestizaje<\/a><\/em>, the fusion of Indian and European culture which began with the conquest in 1519. In that Aztec and Spanish society shared more similarities than differences, <em>mestizaje<\/em> produced a dynamic new race, referred to by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jos%C3%A9_Vasconcelos\" target=\"_blank\">Jos\u00e9 Vasconcelos<\/a> as &#8220;Cosmic,&#8221; the &#8220;Mexican.&#8221; As an integral part of society within New Spain, the mestizo is seen as the prime mover of economic growth and cultural homogeneity&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire review <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandiegohistory.org\/journal\/81summer\/br-cosmic.htm\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico. [Book Review] The Journal of San Diego History Volume 27, Number 3 (Summer 1981) W. Michael Mathes (1936-2012), Professor of History University of San Francisco The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico. By Colin M. MacLachlan and Jaime E. Rodr\u00edguez [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,21,459,8,103],"tags":[14723,14724,14730,14731,14728,7600,14729],"class_list":["post-31183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-book-reviews","category-latincarib","category-history","category-media-archive","category-mexico","tag-colin-m-maclachlan","tag-colin-maclachlan","tag-jaime-e-rodriguez","tag-jaime-rodriguez","tag-journal-of-san-diego-history","tag-the-journal-of-san-diego-history","tag-w-michael-mathes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}