The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-07-07
HISTORY OF MEXICO.
BY Eber Cole Byan1.
PART X.

Mexico by the first Viceroy, Antonio
Mendoza, in 1886, and in 1544 he was
printing books for the natives be-
cause, as he explained, there We're so
many who could read and write"
The books of the period were on seri-
Gus subjects and the reading public
was spared that flood of trashy fiction
with which the modern world has
been inundated. Many of the works
were published in the native Ian
guages so that the natives could en-
joy them by the simple process of
learning the Spanish alphabet. Many
of the publications were on religious
subjects, as was customary at that
time throughout the civilized world,
but scientific works were not lacking,
and, in fact, were just as available in
Mexico as in England, France or Ger
many During the Sixteenth Century
a number of these were issued from
the Mexican presses, and included
works on surgery and medicine, one
of the latter being written by an
Augustinian monk and ran through
four editions. The names of over
three hundred writer's have been pre-
served in Mexico who were especial
ly famous during the Colonial period
for works on geography, travel, dis
covery, mathematics, astronomy,
physics, natural history, and other
scientific matter. Many Mexican
writers sent their manuscripts to ia
nous publishers in Spain, and num-
bers of educated MeXicans went to
Europe to fill important chairs in the
universities. All of these men re-
ceived their knowledge from the
teaching clergy.
AS the clergy were the principal
agents in education it readily may be
seen that any considerable reduction
in their numbers would mean the
shutting down of schools and col
leges. Furthermore, these institu-
tions depended for their continued eX-
istence upon the liberal contributions
of the wealthy Spaniards living in
Mexico. The revolution of 1910 let
loose a flood of anarchy which caused
a steady reduction in the numbers of
the clergy, and the vicious spite of
the revolutionists expelled the Spani-
ards in 1928, thus definitely shutting
off the principal source of educational
revenue From that period Mexico
began to degenerate both morally and
intellectually, until the revival under
Diaz permitted a partial recovery,
only to become again submerged un-
der a flood of socialism.
The real purpose of the revolution
is evidenced by the fact that the de-
struction of the Church schools and
the throttling of the Church itself are
the only promises fulfilled out of the
many made by the Mexican revolu
tionaries.
The Mexican revolutionaries have
ever deceitfully cried out that educa-
tion has been denied them and yet
they themselves have been the very
ones to destroy what means of edu-
cation there may have been. Educa-
tiolial institutions in Mexico, as in the
United States, have depended to a
large extent on donations and en-
dowments of wealthy people, and the
public schools in the United States
have absorbed vast sums of money.
Education in Mexico during Colo
NAL days, differed little from con-
temporaneous Europe. The same
ideas prevailed, the same systems
were followed and the same curric-
ulum studied.
1t is worthy of note that the first
missionaries who came to Mexico in
1924 procured a decree compelling
the Indians to attend school,; yet the
first compulsory educational law was
not passed in England until 1876
three hundred and fifty years later.
Had it not been for the blighting
effects of the war for independence,
and the later wanton destruction OF
such educational system as existed
it is certain that Mexico would have
work and in favorable comparison
with the United States, where the
illiteracy among the negroes is still
309o and among the Indians 1870.
A hundred years of Liberty" and
Democracy" have left the Mexican
IIluldHS U6pTlV0u VI IuclI hAOWICuSo
of how to read and write, because of
a lack of teachers. But the piety and
the department taught them by the
early fathers have been so deeply
planted in their natures that even a
century of Liberal" revolution has
failed to shake the masses in their
faith in God, or in their politeness to
their fellows. The poorest Indian in
Mexico is usually very Chesterfield
of courtesy.
The Indians in Mexico have ever
presented a problem on which ten
generations of Spanish governors and
churchmen labored hopefully to solve.
The revenues were always pitifully
inadequate and the burden of educat-
ing the Indians was thrown upon the
clergy, whose numbers were ever too
few for the work demanded of them.
Some of the parishes included widely
scattered villages in exceedingly
broken country where the priest had
to travel as much as fifty miles over
almost impossible trails to reach
them. One of these priests had to
ford ono river forty times in a dis