Criticism In Jose Vasconcelos's La Raza Cosmica

Jose Vasconcelos’ “La Raza Cosmica” is definitely not what I expected, it required multiple reads to understand José Vasconcelos point of view. The essays turns out to be pretty racist, as his theories are buried under explanations and reasoning’s that are hard to comprehend. In my opinion Jose Vasconcelo gets too caught up in metaphors that detract from his true meanings and theories. “La Raza Cosmica” reads more like a science fiction than a call to unity or nationalism. If Jose Vasconcelo had published this book as a work of fiction with the same title, I believe he would have accomplished both his goals of writing the book and explaining his theories to the general public as George Orwell had done with his novella “Animal Farm”. Jose

He accomplished this task in his book “The Cosmic Race”, a diary that documented his travels in Latin America. In his 1925 essay, “La Raza Cosmica”, José Vasconcelos alleged that one day, a new superior race would emerge out of Latin America because of the Mestizos; a mix of European, African and Asian lineage, he actually believed they would rise above all other races. He believed that we should continue to mix races together in order to create a master race, arguing the best traits, would survive and all of the undesirable traits would be weeded out into nonexistence. Vasconcelos’ theory relied heavily on intolerant racial labels about Blacks, Mongols (Asians), Indians and Whites (Europeans/North Americans) for validation. I believe, Jose Vasconcelos’ intended that Latin Americans would not be defined by race or color, but as a unity of land with a national identity. Astonishingly his concept has come to fruition and accepted in North America as people from Latin America are defined as “Hispanics” or “Latinos” and not by color or their individual

The mixed civilization that would ultimately present itself to the forefront would be known as the fifth universal race, which is an Aztec belief of a “fifth race” or the “Fifth Sun” bringing a renewal of civilization to earth. According to Vasconcelos, white Europeans invaded the new world after becoming industrialized, organized, and considering themselves rulers, but no different than previous civilization that would ultimately would wither away. He further explains that the temporary rule of the white Europeans would serve only as a bridge or as a catalyst where all human ethnicities and cultures in Latin America would be fused together. Because of the bloody history, this fusion or bridge made it difficult for the Latin American Indians to accept their lineage as they refused to accept the reality that they were created by the Spaniards but ultimately would have to accept their past and look to the future or perish. Vasconcelos believed the Europeans and Northern Americans would also have to accept the same faith as the Indians because sooner or later they would have to mix with other races to progress and protect themselves from other sub races as their numbers would