The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-29
MEXICO CITY.

MEXICO CITY.
TNuE red man is a more serious prop
lem in Mexico than the black man
i is in the United States. This eoun-
4rv has over 1900 900 people, and of these
less than 100000 are whites. There are
about 100000 pure Indians and 6'oOo'uoo
more who are red men, more or less
crossed with the whites
The pure Indians are practically unedu-
Gated. and this is largely so of the mixed
breeds. The greater part of them were
for years in little more than debt slavery
and today some millions of mem are
mere hewers of wood and drawers OF
water on the estates of the rich hacien-
dadoes. Some work in the towns and
Others live in villages. maintaining many
of the customs of centuries ago.
Within the past few years Mr. Freder-
ick starr has been making studies OF tn
Mexican Indians. lie has travelled from
here across the country down to Guate-
naIa City, visiting the various tribes and
taking measurements of their heads,
busts and of other parts of their figures
He has photographed thousands of them
and has made plaster casts OF many. A
part of his travels was through the
mountains of southern Mexico, where he
found many Indian villages each viii
lage being a little republic. He found
many new tribes and also many descend
ants of the ancient peoples who inhabited
Mexico during the days of Montezuma.
1t is through his researches and those Oh
other ethnologists that the authorities
here are studying the great political prob
lens which confront them.
Fifty-One Different Languages
They now know that there are scores of
different Indian tribes in Mexico, and that
each has it's pecularities. In 1854 one OF
the chief scientists of the republic, Don
Manuel Orozco y Barra, foIld that there
were 81 different Indian languages, and,
in addition, about 60 dialects. He dl-
vided these languages into IL different
families, and it was later shown that
nearly all of these Indians had used ideo-
graphs and employed them in commune
eating thought
One of the best known of the indian
races is the Aztecs It was the ruling
race at the time Cortez came and there
are millions of it on the plateau today.
The Aztec civilization has been so PIC
1ured by Prescott that many think that
it is about the only race of Indians III
Mexico The truth is that the Aztecs goE
the most of their civilization from the
came here from the north. They got
their religion from them, and also their
calendar and architecture. The Toltecs
buili the pyramids of Mexico, and either
they or a branch of this race, known as
The Mayans constructed the wonderful
cities of Yucatan and those of Guate-
1nala as we'll | have already written or
the ruins of Qurigua In the Motagua
valley, not far from the Caribbean sea in
Guatemala, which our psychologists are
now excavating They are the remains
of temples built by the Mayans, who are
supposed to have gone there from Mexico
centuries ago
The Aztecs called themselves Mexlcans
and it is from them that we get the name
Mexico. Their descendants are numerous
today, but are largely poems who work
for the whites. 1t is from them that the
rank and file of the soldiers are recruited.
The Miztecas and Zapotecas
Among the other Indians who have TO
be reckoned with, in the Mexico to come.
are the Zapotecas and the Miztecas.
Both of these races are noted for their
intelligence, and they have already given
Mexico some of it's ablest men. Benito
Juarez, for years the president OF the
republic, was a full-blooded Zapotecas,
and President Porfiro Diaz had Mizteca
blood in his veins. These tribes are now
found on the southern slopes of the CEN
tral plateaus. You may see them in
Pueblo, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Morelos. 1t
is said that their ancestors date back
to the time when Militia, Xochicalco and
Zaachila were built. The Zapotecas were
never subdued by the Aztecs and they
are now growing in independence right
along. There are a great many of them