Jose Vasconcelos (27 February 1882 – 30 June 1959) was Education Secretary of Mexico in 1914 and from 1921 to 1924.
Biography[]
Jose Vasconcelos was born in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico in 1882, and he was raised in Piedras Negras, Coahuila and went to school in Eagle Pass, Texas, becoming bilingual in English and Spanish. He came to believe in the "cosmic race" of Mexicans (advocating for the assimilation of all Mexicans into a new mestizo culture) and rejected Anglo culture, and he became a philosopher and an opponent of Porfirio Diaz's regime. Vasconcelos became an active member of the Anti-Reelectionist Party and became an educational reformer during the Mexican Revolution, and he was exiled to Paris from 1913 to 1914 due to his opposition to Victoriano Huerta. He served as Eulalio Gutierrez's Education Secretary in 1914, and he went into exile during Venustiano Carranza's presidency before returning during Adolfo de la Huerta's presidency. He served as rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico from 1920 to 1921 and Education Secretary from 1921 to 1924, but he resigned in 1924 due to his opposition to Plutarco Elias Calles. Vasconcelos launched a failed 1929 Anti-Reelectionist presidential bid and was briefly exiled to the United States after urging a rebellion, and he became director of the National Library in 1940. Later in his life, he became a Catholic conservative who sympathized with Francisco Franco, disavowed some of his earlier liberal views, and supported the use of nuclear weapons as a last resort. He died in Mexico City in 1959 at the age of 77.