Cosmic Race / La raza cosmica

Jose Vasconcelos was born in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1882, to parents of European ancestry. Active in Mexican politics, he was exiled during the eras of Porfirio Diaz and Carranza, served as rector of the National University and as Minister of Education, and later ran unsuccessfully for president. He died in 1959.

The Aesthetic Age posited by Vasconcelos, in which a mixture of all races is embraced, hasn't arrived yet, but we have seen previews of it in the 'Flower Power' movement of the sixties, the 'new age' craze of the eighties, and the current multicultural realities of North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean. With the millennium fast approaching Vasconcelos' vision of a new era in human existence is perhaps just around the corner. -- Eugene Holley Hispanic This bilingual edition of The Cosmic Race by Jose Vasconcelos gives the reader a clear and concise introduction to contents that have caused much critical controversy. Didier T. Jaen places this essay in perspective, discussing theories relevant to Vasconcelos's thought... [and] also provides an historical context for Vasconcelos's evolving ideas. Hispania