THE MEXICAN PEOPLE
Ethnic conditions--Spanish, Mestizos, Indians--Colour-line--Foreign
element--The _peones_--Land tenure--The Spanish people--The native
tribes--The Apaches--The Mexican constitution--Class distinctions--
Mexican upper class--Courtesy and hospitality--Quixotism of the
Mexicans--Idealism and eloquence--General characteristics--Ideas of
progress--American anomalies--_Haciendas_--Sport--Military
distinctions--Comparison with Anglo-Saxons--Republicanism--Language--
Life in the cities--Warlike instincts--The women of Mexico--Mexican
youths--Religious observance--Romantic Mexican damsels--The
bull-fights.
The Mexican people are divided for sociological or ethnological
purposes into three divisions--the people of purely white European or
Spanish descent, those of combined European and native races, and the
pure-blooded Indians. The first have been technically termed
_Criollas_, or Creoles, although the designation has, of recent years,
been used in a different sense; the second _Mestizos_, or mixed race;
whilst the third, the _Indios_, are the direct descendants of the
peoples who occupied the country in pre-Hispanic times.
The total population is estimated at fifteen million souls, or possibly
slightly under. Of this, according to the census of 1900, the people of
purely white descent numbered about 19 per cent.; the Mestizos, who may
be looked upon as the typical Mexicans of to-day, 43 per cent.; whilst
the remaining 38 per cent. were assigned as the proportion for the
Indians. The figures and divisions cannot be looked upon, however, as
arbitrary or exact. At the present time it is considered that the
Mestizo class probably embraces more than half of the total, whilst the
real proportion of people of absolutely pure white race is probably
much less than described, possibly not more than 10 per cent., as the
mixture permeates all classes.
The white and mixed races, especially the former, constitute the
property-owning and administrative classes, and naturally the Mexican
upper class is drawn from these. The six million Indians, more or less,
constitute some fifty aboriginal tribes in various stages of
semi-civilisation or savagery, distributed all over the country from
Sonora to Yucatan, and these are described elsewhere. It is not to be
supposed that they are savages as a whole; for, on the contrary, they
are remarkably gifted in some cases, assimilating the civilisation and
intellect of the white man and furnishing excellent material for the
country's citizens. The upper-class Mexicans, like the Peruvians or
other Spanish-Americans when they are of unmixed white descent,
naturally pride themselves upon the fact, and to a certain extent aim
to preserve this condition. This is the "colour-line" of the race, and
the term "Indio" is still a term expressing something of contempt,
notwithstanding the fact that some of the prominent, and even
intellectual, men of Mexico's history have been drawn from the Mestizo
class, and--in the case of Juarez--from pure aboriginal stock. Of
course, the Indian is, as yet, an inferior being.
Included in Mexico's population is a foreign element numbering some
60,000 people, more or less, Spaniards predominating, with more than
16,000, and Americans of the United States with somewhat over 15,000.
This is according to the census of 1900, and it is probable that both
these elements have increased considerably since then. Of British there
are only some 3,000 in the country; of French about 4,000; and of
Germans 2,600, approximately. The vast area of Mexican territory
contains only about twenty persons to the square mile; were it
populated in the same ratio as parts of Europe it might support a
population of 180,000,000, it has been calculated.
As has been shown, but a small percentage of the Mexican people are of
purely white descent. As for the characteristic type of Mexican--those
of mixed white and aboriginal race--they form the principal human
element of the country, and shade off indefinably into the _peon_
class. This class, drawn both from Mestizos and Indians, forms the
great working population, in the fields and the mines, and without them
the national industries would be non-existent. They are a picturesque,
poor and generally ignorant class, although possessed of excellent
natural elements and traits which must develop as time goes on. They
form a strong, virile backbone to the country, but the conditions of
their life are at present but little removed from serfdom, due to their
general poverty as a class and to the monopolisation of the ownership
of land by the upper classes. In this connection it is to be
recollected that the natives of the civilised pre-Hispanic States of
the Americas--as Mexico and Peru--enjoyed an excellent system of
individual land-tenure, or rather, of free land-use, which gave being
to a strong, independent peasantry; and this, in Peru, still obtains to
a certain degree, due principally to the inaccessibility of the Andine
regions. But in Mexico such a class no longer exists, and the _peon_
lives by sufferance upon the soil which was wrested from his forbears
by the white man, who adopted there the singular land customs of
Europe, which arrogate to the enjoyment of a few the soil which
philosophy points to as belonging to the community.[27] Enormous landed
estates are held in Mexico--indeed, in the State of Chihuahua the
largest single estate in the world exists--and a semi-feudal _regime_
of the land and its inhabitants marks the character of this modern
American civilisation. The population on the soil scarcely reaches
twenty persons to the square mile--principally rural or inhabiting
small towns--and there is ample room, therefore, for expansion. It
must, however, be stated that excellent new land laws have been
promulgated of recent years in the Republic. National lands have been
set aside in vast areas, and any inhabitant of the Republic may
"denounce" or acquire a piece of such land, and retain it by annual
tax-payment at prices varying from two _pesos_--a peso is about two
shillings--in the remote regions, to twenty or thirty _pesos_ per
hectare--equal to 2-1/2 acres--in the more settled States. The Mexican
peasantry is not debarred absolutely from the enjoyment of the land if
he has the knowledge and means to perform the simple requirements
necessary to its acquisition--which generally he has not. I have dealt
in detail with the matters of land acquisition elsewhere in this work,
and with the conditions of life of and the character of the _peon_
class familiarly.
[Footnote 27: In certain regions there are, of course, numerous Indian
squatters and landholders.]
To cast, now, a glance at ethnic conditions, it is sufficient to say
that a wide range of peoples have mingled their blood in the race which
now forms the people of Mexico. No other American nation constitutes so
varied a blending of races. The invading Conquistadores and their
followers from Spain--which itself has formed from the beginning of
history a veritable crucible or mixing-ground of the world's peoples,
languages and creeds--brought Iberian, Roman, Celtic, Semite, Vandal,
Goth, and Moorish blood to Mexico, and mingled it with the aboriginal
Aztecs and others. As to the origin of the Mexican aboriginals, this is
unknown or only conjectured, but they embrace an enormous range of
tribes, some 230 names of which appear in the list compiled by Mexican
ethnologists. These, however, are grouped into some twelve or more
linguistic families, among whom may be mentioned in order of their
numerical importance the Nahuatlan, Otomian, Zapotecan, Mayan,
Tarascan, Totonacan, Piman, Zoquean, and others, including the Serian
and the Athapascan, or Apache. These families embody people of very
varying degrees of native culture; from the low type of the abject Seri
Indians, inhabiting part of Sonora; the treacherous and bloodthirsty
Apaches, who formerly roved over the vast deserts of the north, up to
the cultured peoples who formed the prehistoric civilisation of the
country; the Nahuatl- and Maya-speaking races, who, in the peninsula of
Yucatan and the Valley of Mexico, were the foremost peoples in point of
culture of the whole of the New World, and who have left the remarkable
chapters in stone of their history which are scattered about Mexico,
and which have been described in a former chapter.
To-day the vast area and different peoples of Mexico are combined
politically into one community--a Federation of States or Federal
Republic; and the blending of the peoples, carnally, goes on day by
day, as there are not inseparable distinctions of colour or creed to
keep them asunder. Politically Mexico may be considered as the foremost
of the Spanish-American Republics, her population being the greatest,
and her civilisation more broadly developed than any of her
sister-nations. The form of government, as stated, is that known as a
Federal Republic--a definition of which is that the numerous States
composing the whole are free and sovereign as regards their internal
_regime_, but united under their representative, democratic
Constitution as a political entity.
The Constitution is fashioned upon the model of the United States to a
certain extent, and as a Federation differs from most of the other
Spanish-American republics. The supreme authority of the Republic is
held and exercised by three bodies--the Legislative, the Executive, and
the Judiciary. The Legislative embodies the Congress, or Parliament,
consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, the members of
which are elected, the first in the proportion of one for every 60,000
inhabitants, every two years: and the second of two Senators for each
State every four years. The Judiciary consists of the Supreme and other
courts, the judges of the first being elected, and the business of the
body relates to law and justice concerning Federal, political, and
international matters. The Executive in Mexico consists of a single
depositary of authority--the President, who, with the vice-president,
is elected, and who enter upon office on the 1st of December, for terms
of six years. The Constitution which all these officials swear to
uphold is that first brought to being on February 5, 1857, with various
modifications. By the Reform Laws of 1859, and their additions of 1873,
the Church and State are absolutely independent of each other, and the
power and functions of the ecclesiastical authority are rigidly
defined. The Federation consists of thirty-one States and
"territories," which latter are subject to Federal control and
regulation of their internal _regime_, unlike the former. The States
are governed by Governors.
Mexico has, therefore, well established all the machinery of a
republic, wherein equal rights of man and the sovereignty of the people
are well set forth. How do these excellent methods and theories work
out in practice as regards the social system and inhabitants? A
republic in name, Mexico shares with Spanish-American countries
generally, social conditions which are far from being embodied in the
real meaning of that designation. It is not necessary to dwell much
upon this palpable fact, and its reason is not far to seek. The
communities of the New World which Spain conquered were inhabited by
inferior peoples who were easily enslaved, or who were already subject
to autocratic forms of government. Every Spaniard who arrived
there--were he a noble of Castile or a common boor from his native
Iberian province--was full of the arrogance and superiority, sometimes
fancied, generally real, of the civilised European, and this spirit
burst into full bloom amid the environment of such countries as Mexico
and Peru. Thus an autocratic race was established whose class
distinctions are as strong and enduring as those of the most
class-ridden countries of Europe. It would be impossible to expect
other conditions yet, with a great mass of the people being of Indian
race, and coming on almost imperceptibly towards civic knowledge and
intellectual advancement. Scarcely 13 per cent. of the total population
can read and write, whilst as to the labouring classes they are only
just beginning to show any advancement along lines of modern
civilisation. Nevertheless the Government of the country has their
welfare at heart, and in the last quarter of a century has regarded the
working classes and Indians as citizens with rights rather than mere
material for revolutionary struggle, as was formerly the case. The
Mexican people having always been sharply divided into two classes, an
upper and a lower; a middle-class, such as in Europe or the United
States forms the great bulk of intelligent citizens, tends but slowly
to appear, and it is this which must be encouraged to arise and to
absorb the aboriginal element.
[Illustration: THE MEXICAN PEONES: STREET SCENE AT CORDOVA.]
The upper class Mexican is often a well-educated and well-informed man
of the world, and in appearance and habit differs little from the
European. His wealth has permitted him to be educated in the best
establishments his country affords, or often abroad, in France,
England, and in a less degree the United States, and to spend years in
Europe and live a life of ease, preferably in Paris--that true Mecca of
the Spanish-American people. The Mexican gentleman is generally
courteous and punctilious, and gives much attention to dress and
matters of ceremony, after the general manner of the Spanish-American,
and the frock-coat and silk hat form his indispensable exterior
whenever possible. His courtesy pervades his business relations
generally, as well as social affairs. And, indeed, this pleasing
quality permeates the whole social _regime_ from the highest official
or wealthy citizen down to the poorest _peon_ or to the Indian
labourer. The matter of courtesy, in addition to being native both with
the Spanish progenitor and the native race, is, it might be said, part
of the political Constitution. The republics of Spanish-America at
least regard all men as equal in this sense, a condition which is far
from existing in the Anglo-Saxon Republic of the United States, where
brusque assertion of even the meanest authority is evident, in the
present development of that country. Nor is it to be supposed that
Mexican politeness is a mere veneer, or mask, to be put on and off as
occasion dictates, for it arises from native kindliness--a species of
Quixotism of a laudable nature.
The Mexican largely shares the spirit of hospitality of the
Spanish-American race, and this, besides being a native characteristic,
was strongly implanted in colonial days by the very exigencies and
circumstances of the times. In some parts of the country, until recent
years, hotels or inns were unknown; and it was sufficient for the
traveller to knock at almost any door to ask and receive food and
shelter for himself and his retainers and beasts, even though the
people of the place might be ignorant of his name or business: and the
best that was forthcoming was put at his service. Something of
practical patriarchal simplicity governed life in regions more remote
from main routes of travel, which held, and indeed still hold, much of
charm for the traveller from lands whose hospitality--as Britain or the
United States--is the result often of ostentation or social necessity
rather than that of native kindliness. This amiable trait of more or
less pastoral communities, as Mexico and South America, tends naturally
to disappear before the influence of the commercial element which is
invading the country, and it is not to be expected that it will survive
always.
The Spanish-American possesses an ineradicable element of
_Quijotismo_--he will tell us so himself--and this element seems to
have become stronger in the New World than in Spain, which gave it
origin. The Mexican has it to the full, like the Peruvian; doubtless it
arises largely from the conditions of caste brought about by the
existence of the Mestizo and the Indian. Trembling on the verge of two
races, his eyes looking towards the land of his progenitors, the
enshrined Spain of his dreams, with something of _race-nostalgia_--if
we may be permitted to coin the term--yearning for the distinction of
the white skin and traditions of European civilisation, yet bound to
the life of and race of his own _patria_ by reason of the native blood
within his veins, the Hispanic Mexican has cultivated a sensitive
social spirit which tinges his character and action in every-day life.
From this largely arise his courtesy and spirit of
hospitality--although these are undeniably innate--and principally his
love of pomp and externals, the keeping up of appearances, and his
profound eloquence. The Mexican is intensely eloquent. His speakings
and writings are profuse in their use of the fulness of the Spanish
language, and teem with rich words and phrases to express abstract
ideas. Indeed, judged by Anglo-Saxon habit, they would be termed
grandiloquent and verbose. He indulges in similes and expressions as
rich and varied as the vegetation of his own tropical lands. The most
profound analogies are called up to prove the simplest fact, not only
in the realm of poetry, or description, but in scientific or business
matters at times, and whether he is writing upon some deep social
problem or reporting upon the condition of the parish pump he will
preface his account with an essay! This, whilst it betrays often an
attractive idealism, is prone at times to lead to the sacrificing of
exact information to elegance of style or diction. The Mexican is never
at a loss for words; his eloquence is native, and whether it be the
impassioned oratory of a political speaker or the society small-talk of
a young man in the presence of ladies, he is never shy, and his flow of
language and gesture is as natural to him as reserve and brevity to the
Englishman. Indeed, the Anglo-Saxon, especially the Briton, seems
repellant in comparison with the Spanish-American, and to cultivate
selfishness rather than ceremony in his own social dealings.
This tendency towards idealism becomes exaggeration often, though not
intended for such, and the prefixing of superlatives is very noticeable
in ordinary language. Thus glory is generally "immortal glory";
knowledge "profound knowledge"; every person partaking in public
affairs, if a friend of the speaker, is ever "enlightened and
patriotic," and his intelligence becomes "vast intelligence." "Our
distinguished and universally beloved Governor" would be the customary
reference to such a functionary; and "an era of glorious progress"
would be the only way of characterising his administration. Indeed, a
glance over a Mexican book or article or speech seems to show that the
writer has made use of every elegant and abstruse word in the
dictionary. In a dissertation upon any subject he seems called upon to
begin from the very beginning of things, _desde la creacion del
mundo_--"from the beginning of the world," as the Spanish-American
himself sarcastically says at times. Perhaps this is a habit acquired
from the early Spanish chroniclers, who often began their literary
works with an account of the Creation! The love of linking together the
material and the poetic is, of course, at the basis of this striving
after effect, and no philosophical observer would pretend to hold it up
to ridicule. Anglo-Saxon civilisation grows material and commercial;
the Spanish-American preserves and cultivates some poetic and cultured
imagery; and perhaps Nature intends the one to affect the other in the
future amalgamation of the world's races.
Less lovable a characteristic of the Spanish-American is the tendency
to fulsome adulation of public or powerful personages in the hope of
winning patronage. The tendency to pander to each other's vanity,
however, shows up in marked contrast to the harshness and abuse of
authority often employed in political matters. The Spanish character,
amiable and courteous in friendship or equality, tends to become
arbitrary when vested with some brief authority, and this has been at
the bottom of much of the political disturbance and bloodshed of the
past. It is characteristic of this race to show a certain "Oriental"
trait--that which gives rise to an acquiescence in successful guile,
rather than an admiration and self-sacrifice for abstract truth. This
is, of course, a characteristic both of individuals and nations before
they reach a certain standard of civilisation. The readiness to follow
the successful cause among the upper class, and the easy regard of the
unpunished criminal, are the outcome of these qualities. In business
matters the Spanish-American, the Mexican, Peruvian, Chilean,
Brazilian, or other has a much less sense of rigid observance of
agreements, and a far greater latitude of expediency and mental
juggling than the Anglo-Saxon. And this insinuation embodies one of the
main defects of the race. Ideas of "mine" and "thine" are much less
strong than with the Briton or American. It has been said of the
Spaniard that he makes excellent laws, but ever considers that he
personally has a right to break them. This sentiment becomes very
evident in America: yet not only with the Spanish-American, for it is a
marked characteristic of the United States, and of all American
republics, where licence is often indulged in under the name of
liberty.
The Mexican character must be summed up as that of a people in the
making. The fact is stamped upon their physiognomies even. Let us turn
over the pages of any book issued in Mexico and observe the portraits
of public men and of their biographies, for it will generally be full
of these, often pandering to their vanity. The features are strongly
pronounced, and at times verge upon the grotesque--we mean it in no
offensive spirit. A high intelligence runs riot, and an idealism
untempered by sobriety and practice, with strong passions, and love of
show. But they mark a people, not decadent, but evolving. The Mexicans
are at the beginning, not the end, of their civilisation; the rise, not
the fall, of their life. Here is the material of a vigorous and
prolific race which may be destined to bulk largely--like the whole of
Spanish-America--in the future _regime_ of the civilisation of the
white man.
[Illustration: TYPES OF MEXICANS OF THE UPPER CLASS. A FAMOUS MINISTER
OF FINANCE: SENOR LIMANTOUR. A FAMOUS GENERAL AND MINISTER OF PUBLIC
WORKS. AN ARCHBISHOP. A STATE GOVERNOR.]
The "era of glorious progress"--to use the Mexican term--which the long
dictatorship of the present famous President of Mexico inaugurated is a
theme which occupies the Mexican mind and pen very largely. The
European writer ungrudgingly records it, and the much-used adjective
has much of truth for its constant use. General Porfirio Diaz has been
wise and fortunate, and has been able to surround his administration
with the talented men of his time--_una pleiade incontable de hombres
conspicuos_, to quote from a Mexican description of his colleagues--"an
innumerable pleiades of conspicuous men!" in their own grandiloquent
phrases. As for the President, it might be supposed that the tendency
to deify him by his contemporaries, and the constant pouring out of
adulation and flattery upon him for the last twenty years, has made him
proof against the workings of vanity. He well deserves this praise,
both from his countrymen and from foreigners; but so long and varied a
course of it must prove unpalatable, notwithstanding that the
Spanish-American, as a rule, is capable of absorbing an infinite amount
of praise. Porfirio Diaz has brought his country up from chaos, and for
this fortunate work he has to thank his own staunch character and the
fact that a time had arrived in the natural evolution of America when
even the most turbulent States are called upon to perform their
function and carry out their destiny. The man and the hour arrived
together, and Diaz deserves to rank among the historic statesmen of the
world.
The Mexicans, in their oratory and writings, are still congratulating
themselves upon their overthrow of the power of the Church, and of the
other ancient tyrannies which were a bar to their progress as a modern
nation. But the tendency--though growing less as time goes on--is to
overrate this. They pride themselves on being "modern," and
congratulate themselves on every occasion upon having destroyed past
traditions. But it is easy, in wiping away the evils of the past with
too vigorous a hand, to destroy at the same time much that is of good
report. Mexico possesses traditions, religious influences, historical
and literary associations which are of great value, and possessed by no
other American community upon that continent. These can never be
replaced by the plumed hat of the General and all that it conveys, nor
by the freethinker, nor by the factory whistle and overalled mechanic,
nor, indeed, by the elements of a strenuous commercialism generally. As
time goes on and civil life broadens and develops this attitude will be
moderated--it is but a phase of the country's history, and indeed a
healthy one, to cry for progress and the modern spirit.
Much of this cry for modern things, as well as some other of the
characteristics of the Spanish-American, comes from the desire to be
considered _highly civilised_. This feeling, whether in Mexico or South
America, gives birth at times to a certain feverish spirit of
construction, and is responsible for the existence of railways, but no
roads; electric light in streets without sewers, and
pretentious-looking stucco buildings where solid stone should have been
employed. Buenos Ayres, Lima, Santiago, Mexico--all bear witness to
this tendency, in more or less degree. And under the garish electric
arc at night, or silhouetted against the new white stucco wall of some
costly hygienic institution, or art gallery, or Governor's palace,
glaring in the bright sun, stands the incongruous figure of the
half-naked and sandalled Indian, ignorant and poverty-stricken! These,
indeed, are elements of Spanish-American civilisation which the
philosopher sees and ponders upon. In fact, the character of the Latin
races seems sometimes to tend to run off into ultra-scientific methods
and institutions before the every-day welfare of its citizens is
secured. Elaborate meteorological observations, great schools of
medicine with costly apparatus, and great penitentiaries are to be
found as prominent features in all Spanish-American capitals, where
they have been inaugurated with much fanfare of oratory regarding
civilisation. In Mexico, Lima, Buenos Ayres, and other great centres of
Spanish-American life, the _Penetenciaria_ is always a showplace, or
notable institution to which visitors' attention is drawn. This,
however, seems to be rather a development of modern American
civilisation all through, and whether in New York--and indeed
Canada--or whether in Mexico, Peru, Chile, or Argentina, greater care
seems to be expended upon the welfare of the criminal than on the
ordinary poor citizen!
[Illustration: MEXICAN LIFE: THE CATHEDRAL AND THE PENITENTIARY, CITY
OF PUEBLA.]
As previously observed, Mexican society falls into lines of marked
class distinction. The rich and the educated stand in sharp
juxtaposition to the great bulk of poor and uneducated, and the high
silk hat and frock-coat form a striking contrast to the half-naked and
sandalled _peon_ in the _plazas_ and streets of the cities. Similarly
does the _caballero_, the horseman on caparisoned steed, spurn the dust
on country roads through which the humble cotton-clad Indian labourer
slinks to his toil. The horse, in Mexico, is always an outward sign of
social superiority, and no self-respecting Mexican would ever be seen
on foot beyond the paved streets of his cities. The noble animal is an
integral part of Mexican life, social or industrial, and the Mexicans
are in some respects the most expert horsemen in the world, as
elsewhere shown.
The upper-class Mexican is generally a large landowner. The great
estates which form his _hacienda_ lie in one or the other part of the
country, whether upon the great tableland or in the tropical regions
which surround it. He spends a certain period of the year upon his
_hacienda_, returning to the capital or journeying to Europe as desire
or necessity may dictate. Great plantations of cotton, or immense areas
of sugar-cane, or _maguey_, or other products yield him the
considerable income which he enjoys; and, as a rule, the fertile lands
of the Republic are in the hands of this class, to the exclusion of the
great bulk of the inhabitants. But the _haciendas_ are important
centres of industry, supporting the rural population in their vicinity.
The Mexican shares the characteristics of the Latin race in his love
for politics, military and other titles and distinctions, and his
predilection for holding some Government office. The law, the army,
medicine are professions which appeal to him as affording distinction
or degree, as well as giving outlet to the love of scientific pursuits,
generally, however, theoretical rather than practical. On all sides one
hears men addressed as "Doctor," whether it be of science, laws,
medicine, or divinity. This condition is observed by the traveller in
all Spanish-American republics, and it seems to the foreign observer
that the practical and plodding class of workers and trade-makers is
insufficiently represented, bearing in mind the large amount of
scientific and theoretical leadership. This is in accordance with the
dictates of caste, inherited from Spain. The upper class have always
had Indians to wait upon them, and a Quixotic tendency to the despising
of manual labour has naturally resulted, as among the leisured class of
any other country. Any occupation that cannot be performed in the
habiliments of the frock-coat and silk hat seems derogatory to the
Spanish-American, and, filtering down through all the strata of society
above the _peones_ this sentiment has the effect of keeping the young
men in the cities and robbing the country of a race of intelligent
peasants of white descent. The Spanish-American youth of the poorer
class prefers to pass the days behind a counter selling cashmeres and
silks to bargaining _senoritas_ rather than to take up work on the
land, which urgently requires more distributed and intelligent
cultivation.
The young Mexican of the upper class cares little for sport as
understood by the Anglo-Saxon, and the strenuous games of the young
Briton or American, or the hard work of British sport, are alien to his
ease-loving nature. It is true that tennis and football and even polo
are played to a limited extent by enthusiastic young men in the
capital, who have followed the example of British or American
residents, but it is not to be expected that these alien games could be
grafted upon a different stock. Horsemanship is, of course, a natural
pastime; but this has nothing in common with the pastime of the English
hunting-fields, notwithstanding that a certain class of Mexicans are
exceedingly famous as horsemen and have no superiors in the world in
this art, in some respects.
As regards political distinction and career, the system obtaining in
Spanish-American countries--like that of the United States--causes a
change every few years of almost the whole official body, from
President and Cabinet Ministers downwards. This has advantages and
disadvantages. It certainly creates a large and generally capable
governing class or clique. It is rare in the society of the capitals of
these countries to find prominent men who, at one time or other, have
not been Cabinet Ministers or held other important State office. This
gives--to the foreigner at least--a somewhat farcical impression of the
life of the community, but, at any rate, it may be conceded that the
Republican method gives nearly all good citizens "a show," to use an
Americanism, in the State or municipal life.
Whilst, up to recent years, almost all the administrative positions
were filled by men with military titles, there is now a tendency to use
the talent of men of civil professions in those departments of State
corresponding thereto. Thus it is refreshing to observe that the
Department of _Fomento_--Development or Promotion--one of the most
important, has at its head and secondary positions men who are
Engineers, not Generals. This Department is concerned with the
railways, roads, mines, irrigation, and all matters of a similar
nature, and its administration naturally calls for technical knowledge
which the ubiquitous General does not often possess. The Minister of
Foreign Affairs has been a lawyer (_licenciado_) as well as his
seconds; others of the Cabinet Ministers are of the same professions,
and the principal representatives of the country abroad, their
ambassadors, are men whose simple titles of "Senor Don," and
"Honourable" show their civil origin. So the picturesque and vigorous
military element, invaluable in its place, is kept within its natural
bounds, and as the pages of the book of Mexico are turned over the
portraits of distinguished men with plumed hats and sword and uniform
tend to become less and the civilian dress and the thoughtful brow of
the educated civil statesman take their place. Among the ancient
Mexicans, in pre-Hispanic days, commerce was a most honourable calling,
as indeed were the handicrafts. But until recent years the titles of
soldier and priest in Christian Mexico--as, indeed, it was in mediaeval
Europe--seemed to be those which alone called for respect.
The Mexicans are very careful to preserve the forms of their Republican
system of government in the conduct of affairs of State, whether in
principle or nomenclature. A decree is prefaced with "The Citizen
President so decrees," is addressed to a "Citizen Secretary, Citizen
Governor," or other, and terminates with the words "Independence and
Liberty." Statues and streets, and institutions on every hand convey
the recollections of liberty and reform. The _Calle de la
Independencia_, that of the _Cinco de Mayo_ (Fifth of May), the _Paseo
de la Reforma_, and other kindred names are much in evidence, and the
Anglo-Saxon observer is startled from his own prosaic world to one
where the matters of civic machinery and romantic pretension people its
everyday life. It is safe to say that the average Mexican knows more
about the chief men of his _patria_, and its history and institutions,
than does the average Briton or American of his country. The educated
Mexican speaks correct and expressive Spanish, which language--the
_Castellano_--is, of course, the language of the country. In addition,
he invariably speaks French, for in his generation this has ever been
considered the mark of a polite education. English he may speak in
addition, but not so universally. When we ask the Mexican gentleman of
the old school if he speaks English there will the slightest shrug of
the shoulders or lifting of the eyebrows. "No, senor," he will reply,
perhaps with a polite expression of regret; "but, on the other hand, I
speak French." Nevertheless, he very often does speak English, and with
fluency, acquired in England or the United States--preferably the
former, he will add.
The Spanish of Mexico is very similar to that of Peru, and this says
much for a language separated by such vast distances. The same good
accent and facility of expression and gesture, the same native
eloquence, grandiloquent similies, philosophical allusions and vivid
descriptions, not only concerning things great and important, but
things commonplace and everyday. The Mexican, however, partakes less of
this character than the Peruvian. The pronunciation of the words, and
especially of their termination, marks a great difference between the
Mexican and Peruvian on the one hand and the Chilian on the other. The
latter has developed a chopped and incomplete pronunciation, although
it betrays the energetic and virile character of the Chileno in
contrast to the more effeminate Peruvian.
Life in Mexican cities does not lack colour and interest, and the
peoples to be encountered in the streets show very varying traits and
occupations. Here is the carriage of a wealthy citizen, drawn by a
splendid pair of imported English horses; here is a sweet-faced
senorita, bending her steps towards her favourite temple, accompanied
by some vigilant chaperon or domestic; here two Mexican gentlemen pass
each other on the narrow curb, each insisting upon giving the other the
inside--the place of honour--and ceremoniously raising their silk hats
to each other in salutation. Along comes a bull-fighter now, with his
distinctive hat, slouch, and shaven face, the redoubtable _torero_,
accompanied by admiring _amigos_, ready to pay for all the _copas_
their hero might, with lordly dignity, desire to partake of. In the
middle of the stone-paved street the _peones_, or perhaps some Indians
from the country, porters, _cargadores_, or other humble occupation,
slink along--the footpath is not for them--with their pantaloons of
cotton _manta_ rolled up to their knees and their feet unshod or
sandalled. The Mexican woman of the Indian class prefers to carry her
shoes in her hand when she enters or leaves the city streets, putting
them on only as a concession to civilisation and removing them when
away. Some years ago it was necessary to pass a regulation to the
effect that the Indians must wear trousers or other covering when in
the city, as they continually asserted their aboriginal love of bodily
freedom by appearing without them! The life and colour of Mexican towns
is characteristic, and the Mexican journeying to Britain's cities finds
life flat and colourless, without gleam of interest for him, its more
solid basis of existence not easily falling into his comprehension.
[Illustration: THE FAMOUS MEXICAN "RURALES," OR RURAL MOUNTED POLICE.]
It is the spectacular which more readily appeals to the Mexican. The
bull-fight, with its accompaniments of showy dress, tense excitement,
and elements of danger and bloodshed, is his favourite amusement.
Military parades and political functions enter largely into the
distractions of polite life, as indeed is the case throughout
Spanish-America generally. Military titles are exceedingly numerous.
Formerly it was rare that a President, a Cabinet Minister, the Governor
of a State, or the official head of a department did not carry the
distinction of general or colonel. The dormant military spirit,
indeed--and in view of Mexico's history it could hardly be
otherwise--permeates the whole body politic, and its influence and
effects give place very slowly to civil ideas. The tramp of armed men
and accoutred horses, the roll of drum and call of trumpet, appeal ever
to this race of warlike instinct. The gleam of arms and sabre possesses
for them an attraction which the ploughshare or the miner's drill can
never impart. Their ancestors, on the one side, were the warlike Aztecs
and other aboriginal races, and on the other the Conquistadores and
martial men of Spain. A note of their stirring national anthem, with
its warlike words and martial strain, and the soldier--and
warrior--instinct arises:--
"Mexicanos al grito de guerra
El fierro apretad i el bridon!
Y retumba sus entranas la tierra
Al sonoro rugir del canon!"
Which might almost be translated in the fiery words of the--
"Pibroch of Donnel Dhu; pibroch of Donnel,
Wake thy wild voice anew; summon clan Connel.
Come away! come away! hark to the summons,
Come in your war array, gentles and commons!"
* * * * *
From such stern matters let us turn to a gentler theme--the woman of
Mexico. The cultured upper-class are extremely exclusive as regards
their women. Any sense of liberty or independence such as characterises
the English or American girl is impossible with the Mexican. Between
the sexes social intercourse before marriage is much restricted; the
rigid etiquette and seclusion of years gone by--almost Moorish in its
character--scarcely giving way to the more tolerant ideas which pervade
society in general elsewhere. Nevertheless, there has been some
improvement in this condition, partly due to the influence of the
numerous foreigners who reside in the capital, and, no doubt, time will
effect a change. But far be it from the philosophical observer to
suggest that such conditions should be hastily swept away. The Mexican,
and Spanish-American woman generally, retains qualities and attributes,
due partly to her up-bringing, which in some respects gain rather than
lose in comparison with the Anglo-Saxon woman.
The Mexican lady is generally of refined and distinguished manner and
of a characteristically handsome type, with expressive eyes and a
wealth of fine hair. As a girl she is of voluptuous form, remarkably
attractive, and of romantic disposition. Her outlook on life is
naturally somewhat restricted; its main culminating point is in love
and marriage; and indeed the amorous passions in the Mexican race of
both sexes are exceedingly strongly developed, and very largely
determine their friendships or quarrels. There is a slumberous Southern
fire in the Mexican girls' eyes and love. Her passion is consuming, and
has not the sense of expediency of the cold Northern races.
This attractiveness of outward demeanour is accompanied often by
sterling qualities which make for happy motherhood. But most women of
Spanish-American countries sacrifice themselves to their children, nor
endeavour to preserve their youth much beyond its allotted span. Also,
lack of hygienic measures--as that of active exercise--and the too
excessive use of paint and powder in the toilette seem to bring on an
early middle age. But apart from this it is a natural condition of the
race that it matures early--the Mexican girl is ripe for marriage long
before her Anglo-Saxon sisters--and then pays the penalty of an earlier
fading. When there is an admixture of the aboriginal strain--and in few
families this is absent--a tendency to extreme stoutness exists as
middle age approaches, especially among women of the leisure class,
whose life calls for no active labour as among their poorer sisters.
Sweet, soft, and melancholy, yet often vivacious and always
_simpatica_--such is the impression of the Mexican girl which remains
upon the mind of the foreigner who has known her. It is always evident
to the foreign observer that a too exaggerated habit of seclusion and
reserve between the sexes, such as prevails in Spanish-American
countries, defeats its own ends to some extent. The men of these
countries, whilst outwardly courteous and _correcto_ towards their
women, to an almost excessive degree, have not the real respect towards
them which the less polite Anglo-Saxon entertains towards his feminine
world. Nor does this too artificial barrier conduce to any rigid
condition of morality. It rather tends to encourage clandestine
courtship and amours.
But the Mexican girl's nature calls for admiration and notice. Behold
the main street of the city during the fashionable shopping hours,
lined with admiring young men, who make audible remarks as to the
beauty of eyes, hair, or figure of the passing _senoritas_--remarks
which would give grave offence in cold-blooded England, but which are
heard with inward gratification by their recipients. These young men of
fashion make it an event of the day to line up in this way, attired in
fashionable garb, with an exaggerated height of collar and length of
cuff! _Largartijos_--lizards--they are dubbed in the language of the
country.
In the social life of Mexican cities religion plays an important part.
Indeed, religion is the basis of politics--that is to say, the two
political parties of the country are divided upon questions of
religious control. Mexico, although the State divorced itself long ago
from the Church, is, nevertheless, one of the firmest strongholds of
Roman Catholicism in the New World. The handsome cathedral and numerous
fine churches in the capital City of Mexico, as in the capitals of the
various States, attest the fervour of the people's religion. The
numerous Church feast-days and varying functions form the most
important events of society. On the more special occasions, as during
the _Semana Santa_, or Passion Week, almost frenzied multitudes--men as
well as women--attend the churches, entrance to which, unless one has
gone early, it is impossible to gain on account of the multitude. Among
a large section of the Mexican people, however, religious observance
has very greatly fallen into disuse, a result of matters which have
been previously dealt with, and which include the influence of former
French thought; for Mexicans have always made an intense study and
example of French philosophers and methods. But in the main it is the
natural reaction against centuries of clerical domination, which the
evolving modern spirit will have none of. The Roman Catholic Church in
Mexico brought about its own downfall. The following translation from a
recently published Mexican book shows the spirit pervading the modern
Mexico in this connection: "The prevailing religion is Roman
Catholicism, but it may be said that its cult is confined to the weaker
sex, as the majority of the men, although Catholic, do not practise any
religion. Thus the State of Vera Cruz (for example) enjoys the fame of
being Liberal. Marriage statistics show that in one year 2,500 civil
marriages were consummated against 1,218 ecclesiastical." This is the
State of Vera Cruz, of the "True Cross," where the Conquistadores
tumbled down the Aztec idols from their _teocallis_ and set up the
image of the Virgin and Child!
[Illustration: SPANISH COLONIAL CHURCH ARCHITECTURE: A TYPICAL MEXICAN
TEMPLE.]
But the Church and her religion is the Spanish-American woman's special
kingdom. The attendance at Mass upon the Sabbath is the most important
of her engagements. Whether in the cool of the early morning, before
the dewdrops have fallen from the flowers in the _plaza_, or whether at
a later fashionable hour, she is to be seen, in charge of her chaperon,
her fair face shaded by the romantic _mantilla_ whose use time has
failed to banish, devoutly directing her steps towards her favourite
temple. Perhaps--confess it!--you have followed her, and one bright
glance has rewarded you before she disappeared within the portal--
"Para que te mire, mujer divina;
Para que contemple tu faz hermosa?
Y tu labio encendido, cual rosa
Es mi delirio ..."
* * * * *
Otherwise, the distractions of the Mexican women are few. Yet our sweet
damsel of the dark eyes and demure lips who daily enters her temple,
applauds with her little gloved hands--with the approval and
accompaniment of her mamma--the onslaught of the fierce bull at the
bull-fight, and sees the torturing of the unfortunate horses as, their
life-blood rushing forth, they expire in the arena before her. And the
populace--ha! the populace of holiday _peones_--how frenziedly they
shout! And the band plays a soft air, and the blue Mexican sky shimmers
overhead. Love, blood, wine, dust--_O tempora! O mores!_ This is
Mexico; carrying into the twentieth century the romance of the Middle
Ages, tinging her new civilisation still with the strong passions of
the old, and refusing--whether unwisely, whether wisely, time shall
show--to assimilate the doctrines of sheer commercialism whose votaries
are hammering at her gates. But it is time now to review the cities and
homes of this picturesque and developing people.