This collective biography offers insight into the more famous and infamous women in Mexico's history and weaves the tale of how their ways and deeds have shaped both a culture and a nation. The book starts with the conquest and ends with the twentieth century, outlining the lives of Mexican women and their causes. The women described in the book…

Son Jarocho (specifically from Veracruz) is a song-and-dance form originating in Spain and implanted in Mexico during 17th- and 18th-century colonization. The jarocho style of music today is one of Latin America's most unique forms, using one to four instruments and characterized by its distinctive rhythm. (LC)

Contrary to common wisdom, the authorities of Colonial Mexico (1521-1600) were vitally concerned with the teaching of reading to the indigenous people. Alphabetic literacy was introduced in Mexico with the coming of the Franciscan friars, who brought with them many innovations and heartily set about the task of education. Some of the friars'…

Examines how the Mexican government's penetration into 299 rural and urban counties, 1900-40, was related to growth in trade and service jobs. Emphasizes the government's support for written literacy and mass schooling as subtle strategies for incorporating peasants into urban institutions. Contains 39 references. (SV)

Examines the place of Indian people in Mexican society and politics, from the conquest to the 1994 Zapatista uprising in Chiapas (fueled by the threat to rural indigenous communal lands posed by economic reforms). Although Indianness is celebrated as contributing to the idealized mestizo "race," self-identification as Indian threatens…

This paper provides a general overview of Aztec education as it existed when the Spanish arrived in 1519. A brief history traces the rise of the Aztecs from lower-class squatters and mercenaries in the Valley of Mexico to the rulers of a loosely structured "empire" consisting of some 15 million people. Aztec society was highly…

This chapter traces the development of education in Mexico and describes recent reforms and current organization of the Mexican educational system. During the colonial period, Catholic religious orders created numerous educational institutions and established the first university (1551). Following independence, education was taken over by the…

The level and character of school investment affected the national economic output in agriculture and industry in Mexico during two periods, 1880-1910 and 1920-1925. Prior to the 1910 revolution, the Mexican government encouraged urban-centered industrial development, and schools were mostly locally- controlled, urban institutions. In…