an influential education reformer and the author of
La Raza Cosmica (TheCosmic Race;
1925
)
published in the very same year and under fascistinfluences as
Mein Kampf
, by Adolf Hitler. In it, Vasconcelos foresaw hisfifth race arising from superior Mexican racial elements—after havingmitigated African and dysgenicMexican traits. While apologistshave attempted to spin the bookinto a paean of tolerance throughracial diversity, in fact, it’s theopposite. Vasconcelos was afascist, but he had to find a way toplay the hand he’d been dealt—which was a very mestizo people.Vasconcelos turns tolerance andracial diversity on its head, bydefining which racial elementshould dominate a master race of “cosmic” Mexicans. He choseSpaniards. Vasconcelos’ “La Raza,”theory is the Mexican equivalent of the Nazi “Aryan” theory. Vasconceloselevates other Latin Americans if they are predominately Spaniard—in thesame way that Nazis included various non-Germans as “Aryan” if predominately Germanic. Despite its inherent racism, his tract hasescaped real criticism in the United States because of an environment of identity politics which permits “protected groups” like “Hispanics” toshield
La Raza Cosmica
from public scrutiny, even though it is seminal tothe racist nature of Mexican-American organizations like La MEChA, agroup which uses the slogan “For the Race, everything, outside the Race,nothing,” rabidly anti-Semitic websites like
Voz de Atzlan
(Atzlan is thename for a race-based “Bronze Nation” comprising Mexico and much orall the rest of the Americas), and of course, La Raza, the largest Hispanicethnic lobby in the United States. The following screen capture comesfrom La Raza’s website, which attempts to whitewash and invert theendemic racist content of
La Raza Cosmica
and says nothing aboutVasconcelo’s Nazi sympathies: