Ilustrados and Barbaros: Diversity, Intolerance and Educational Values in Northern Mexico (1831–1854)

Abstract

Along with the first federal republic in Mexico (1824), the first legislatures of each state included the promotion of public instruction among their functions. Through educators and books and other means of teaching, children and the young were expected to learn to live in a modern, civilized society. At the time, there was a death battle between two cultures: on one side, the emerging local Spanish culture (‘ilustrados’), that fought to reproduce and expand the occidental culture; and on other, the culture of the so‐called barbarian (‘barbaros’), which struggled for survival, harassed by the push of modernity. What was the roll of education in this cultural collision? What contradictions were manifested between discourse and educative practices? How were the new generations taught that homogeneity, uniformity and intolerance were requirements to attain economic progress, political peace and social well‐being? This article will try to respond to these questions.

Notes

¹ Alonso, Ana Maria. Thread of Blood: Colonialism, Revolution and Gender on Mexico’s Northern Frontier. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995: 15.

² Bolton, Herbert E. “La Misión como Institución de la Frontera en el Septentrión de Nueva España.” In El México Perdido, edited by David J. Weber. México: SEP, 1976: 38–42.

³ Polzer, W. S. J. Charles. “Llevando a Cristo al Nuevo Mundo. Reflexiones sobre Colón y la Evangelización en América.” In El Contacto entre los Españoles e Indígenas en el Norte de la Nueva España, edited by Ysla Campbell. Ciudad Juárez: Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, 1992: 102–09.

⁴ Merrill, William M. “El Catolicismo y la Creación de la Religión Moderna de los Rarámuris.” In ibid., 134–70.

⁵ Porras Muñoz, Guillermo. “Los Apaches a Fines del Siglo XVIII.” Boletín de la Sociedad Chihuahuense de Estudios Históricos 5, no. 3 (1943): 220–21, and no. 4 (1943): 264–69; Almada, Francisco. Diccionario de Historia, Geografía y Biografía Chihuahuenses. Chihuahua: Ediciones Universidad de Chihuahua. 1968: 104, 177; Almada, Francisco, Geografía del Estado de Chihuahua. Chihuahua: Impresora Ruiz Sandoval, S. A., 1945: 137. See also Barri, León. “Documentos sobre la Fundación del Colegio de los Jesuitas en Chihuahua.” Boletín de la Sociedad Chihuahuense de Estudios Históricos II, nos 2, 3 and 4 (1939): 48–51, 82–86, 125–29, respectively.

⁶ Sarrailh, Jean. La España Ilustrada de la Segunda Mitad del Siglo XVIII. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1974: 192. Staples, Anne. “Alfabeto y Catecismo, Salvación del Nuevo País.” Historia Mexicana XXIX, no. 1 (July–September 1979): 35–58.

⁷ Almada, Francisco. Resumen de Historia de Chihuahua. México: Ediciones Mexicanas, 1955: 115–20.

⁸ Gerhard, Peter. Geografía Histórica de la Nueva España, 1519–1812. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1968: 24. García Conde, Pedro. Ensayo Estadístico sobre el Estado de Chihuahua. Chihuahua: Imprenta del gobierno (Cayetano Ramos), 1842: 75.

⁹ L. Jones Oakah, Jr. points out that ‘conditions on the frontier tended to erase differences between whites and mixed bloods. Although separate counts were taken in statistical data, it became common to classify people according to two generic categories: “Indios” and “no indios” (Indians and non‐Indians)’. Los paisanos: Spanish Settlers on the Northern Frontier of New Spain. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996: 95.

¹⁰ Memoria que en Cumplimiento del Artículo 120 de la Constitución Federal de los Estados Unidos leyó el Secretario de Estado. y del Despach o Universal de Justicia y Negocios Eclesiásticos en la Cámara de Diputados el día 8 y en la de Senadores el día 11 de enero de 1831, sobre los Ramos del Ministerio a su Cargo. Mexico: Imprenta del Aguila (Jose Ximeno), 1831.

¹¹ n the 1827 Memoir, Chihuahua’s Secretary of State asserted that education was ‘the safest way to create excellent citizens. If people with a formal education do not ignore that freedom is a natural good for mankind, they will also know that, for their own benefit, it is necessary that this freedom be subjected to a legitimate authority. Unable to be slaves, they are faithful subjects.’ “Memoria del 2 de julio de 1827.” In Vol. 2 of Documentos para la Historia de la Educación en Chihuahua, edited by Francisco Almada. Chihuahua: unpublished, n.d.: 60–61 (translated by the author).

¹² See Arredondo, Adelina. “El Catecismo de Ripalda como Texto Escolar en la Historia de México.” In Diccionario de Historia de la Educación en México (multimedia versión), edited by Luz Elena Galván. México: CONACYT/CIESAS/DGSCA‐UNAM. 2002. Also: Arredondo, Adelina. “Desplazando al Rey en la Escuela de la Nueva Nación Mexicana: el Catecismo de República.” Revista Historia Caribe no. 6 (2002): 15–24.

¹³ I address in more depth the issues concerning the curricula within both levels of study in “Contenidos y métodos educativos en las primeras décadas del gobierno independiente de Chihuahua.” In Indios, peones, hacendados y maestros: viejos actores para un México nuevo 1821–1943, edited by Lucía Martínez. México: UPN, 1994: 5–56. See also my Doctoral Dissertation “La educación en Chihuahua: 1767–1867.” El Colegio de Michoacán, 1998.

¹⁴ See Arredondo, Adelina. “Escuelas rurales en el México independiente: Chuvíscar, Babonoyaba y Santa Isabel.” In La investigación educativa en México, edited by Sonia Comboni et al. México: UPN, 2000: 111–22.

¹⁵ According to Víctor Orozco: ‘For more than half a century and since 1831, Chihuahua underwent the longest and most devastating armed conflict of its history. It was also the conflict that left most profound marks. In fact, there was no aspect of society where its effects could not be felt. The relations among classes, their organization, the economy, the links with the central regime, foreign invasion, culture and collective forms of conscience, were all penetrated and influenced by the long conflict with the rebel ethnic groups which characterized the historical development that the country had gone through in the previous century. In short, the native Indian wars constituted the most important local historical process of the 19th century’ (translated by the author). In Las Guerras Indias en la Historia de Chihuahua. Primeras fases. México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1992: 12. Luis Aboites Aguilar sees the situation differently: ‘the emphasis on the threat posed by the native Indians should not lead one to take it as the key element of the social processes in Chihuahua and, more generally, in the north during that time … the neighbours found the time for becoming richer, for fighting over the control of the weak political apparatus, for getting into conflicts with each other, for suppressing the Tarahumaras’ protests, and even for defending themselves from the Texans and the Americans.’ In “Poder Político y Bárbaros en Chihuahua hacia 1845.” Secuencia no. 19 (January–April 1991), 31.

¹⁶ “Declaración de Guerra a los Bárbaros.” In Orozco, ed. Las Guerras Indias en la Historia de Chihuahua. Primeras fases. See Colección de los decretos y resoluciones del 3er. Congreso Constitucional de Chihuahua en su reunión extraordinaria, verificada el 1o. de febrero de 1832. Chihuahua: Imprenta del Supremo Gobierno de Estado en Palacio (J. S. Cano, publisher), 1832.

¹⁸ Alonso, Thread of Blood: Colonialism, 21.

¹⁷ To illustrate this situation see the following documents, a small number of the many: Decree of 1 March 1832, ordering that citizens should be armed; Decree of 16 June 1832, a law concerning standard armament and the defence of towns; Decree of 29 August 1832, exempting war zones from paying the ten percent tax (diezmos); Decree of 1 September 1832, concerning public security forces; Order of 23 December 1833, concerning the drafting of individuals between the ages of 15 and 50; Decree of 29 March 1834, obligating the possession of fire arms; Manifesto of 28 August 1834, concerning the obligation of state citizen to contribute to the war effort against the Apaches; Memo of 7 July 1836, ordering the inhabitants of all ranches, plantations and towns to mobilize for war against the native Indians; Manifesto signed by ‘a taxpayer’ urging people to defend themselves from the Apaches (1836); the Governor’s proclamation of 18 May 1838, calling for an organized war against the Apaches; and the list goes on and on with decrees issued by the state congress, with governmental memos, and with manifestos from other individuals.

¹⁹ ‘On the frontier a settler who appropriated the property of another “civilized” man was dishonored and punished as a “thief”, whereas one who took women, horses, and other booty from the “barbarians” was honoured and rewarded as the epitome of heroic masculinity and ethnic superiority. By according or denying honour to its subjects, the state was able to regulate the uses of force.’ Ibid., 50.

²⁰ Almada, Francisco. Legislación constitucional del estado de Chihuahua. Chihuahua: Ediciones del Gobierno del Estado, 1984.

²¹ Diálogos de Juan Luis Vives, traducidos en Lengua castellana por el Dr. Cristóbal Coret y Peris. México: Imprenta de Galván (Mariana Arévalo), 1827: 15.

²² Ibid., 419.

²³ The percentage is based on the state of the public finances published by the State Government in La Luna I, nos 15 and 17 (2 February and 10 February 1841). For a more detailed treatment of public finances and education, see Arredondo, Adelina. “El financiamiento de la instrucción pública durante las primeras décadas de la independencia en Chihuahua.” Relaciones XIX, no. 76 (1998): 195–218.

²⁴ State Government of Chihuahua, Law Number 5, 14 August 1834, quoted in: “Manifiesto que justifica la obligación de los habitantes del estado de contribuir a los gastos de Guerra contra los apaches.” In Orozco, ed. Las Guerras Indias en la Historia de Chihuahua. Primeras fases, 240.

²⁵ See El Faro IV, no. 40 (May 1850). The quotation in the original Spanish: ‘conversión, civilización, instrucción, moralidad y mejora de los indios apaches … principalmente por la educación de sus hijos’. See also Archivo General de la Nación, ramo Justicia y Negocios Eclesiásticos, Vol. 108, fasc. 246–62.

²⁶ These data are taken from Boletín Oficial no. 1 (10 January 1852), and no. 42 (21 December 1852).