Jose Vasconcelos developed a cultural and racial supremacy doctrine for the hispanic mixed race (mestizos), documented in his book “La Raza Cosmica”. This supremacy doctrine has been appropriated by the Chicano political movement in the United States.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a notorious, anti semitic conspiracy pamphlet, which was used by the Nazis to justify their pogroms against Jews. Vasconcelos defends the pamphlet and concludes that the Jews deserved what they were getting.
This article has been translated and posted not to promote hate, but to show the darker side of Jose Vasconcelos, who was a very influential philosopher, politician and educator in Mexico.
In 1940, Vasconcelos was editor of a pro-Nazi magazine, entitled Timon. Itzhak Bar-Lewaw wrote about this magazine in his book, “La Revista Timon y Jose Vasconcelos”, which was written in Spanish, has been out of print for many years and is not readily available to the public. This translation to English is being posted in order to make some of his pro-Nazi sentiments more accessible.
Below is an English translation of the article entitled, “Ese olvidado nazi mexicano de nombre Jose Vasconcelos” by Hector Orestes Aguilar. Jose Vasconcelos was a very prominent Mexican writer, philosopher and politician Mexico. He produced the “La Raza” racialist concept for the mixed-race Hispanic peoples, on which the La Raza and Chicano political movements in the United States are based, formalized in his book, La Raza Cosmica (1925).
In La Raza Cosmica Vasconcelos developed a racial/ethnic supremacy concept, similar to Nazi racial theory but designed for the mestizo (mixed) race. Many Mexicans knew about his Nazi collaboration at the beginning of WWII, but the embarrassing information was being suppressed by Mexican literary and media elites to outsiders.
However, an American Jewish scholar of Latin America, Itzhak Bar-Lewaw, discovered that Vasconcelos was a Nazi agent and top propagandist, publisher of the pro-Nazi magazine, Timon (the Rudder). Bar-Lewaw publicized the information, starting in the early 1970’s in books and articles. Unfortunately, it is only available in Spanish, which relatively few Americans would find and read. This translation of the article by Orestes makes the information more accessible to the American public. Please leave a comment if you cannot access the translation for any reason and I will fix the problem.
Jose Vasconcelos, father of “La Raza” Hispanic racialismJose Vasconcelos was a prominent Mexican writer, philosopher and politician, known throughout Latin America. He produced the “La Raza” racialist concept for mixed-race, Hispanic peoples, on which the Chicano political movement was based.
His ethno-racialist theory is formalized in his book, “La Raza Cosmica,” published in 1925, still available on Amazon and other book dealers. In “La Raza Cosmica” Vasconcelos develops a racial/ethnic supremacy concept for Hispanics, similar to the Nazi racial theory, but designed for the mestizo (mixed) race, published in the same year as Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, a time when racial supremacy theories were very popular. Vasconcelos apparently thought especially Mexicans and Hispanics, in general, needed their own (mestizo) racial theory.
Many Mexicans knew about his Nazi collaboration at the beginning of WWII, but the information was being ignored, if not actively suppressed after the war. However, an American, Jewish scholar of Latin American Literature, Itzhak Bar-Lewaw, discovered Vasconcelos’ Nazi connections as publisher of the pro-Nazi propaganda magazine, Timon (the Rudder). Bar-Lewaw re-publicized the information, starting in the early 1970’s, but he did it mainly in the Spanish language. It seems Spanish speakers have generally ignored the information and not many English speakers would read it.
Below is an English translation of a 6-page article, linked below, that Bar-Lewaw wrote in Spanish about it.
Bar-Lewaw is too kind to Vasconcelos in places. He was a literary fan of Vasconcelos until he found out about the Nazi collaboration. Vasconcelos was extremely anti-American, anti-Anglo and anti-Semitic long before WWII, blaming Anglo society for preventing Mexico from becoming a great nation. He demonized Anglos and America.
The clip shows a few details of how many Mexicans collaborated with the Nazis and had sympathy for Nazi Germany during the first part of WWII. Mexican audiences used to applaud the Nazis in newsreels shown in the cinemas. To Mexicans, the USA was the evil empire and not the Nazi Reich. Mexico did eventually declare war on Nazi Germany, because the Americans pressured the Mexican Government, but they did not contribute much to the war effort directly.
Widespread Nazi sympathy and collaboration did not stop at the US/Mexico border and this sympathy helps explain some similarities of the La Raza / Chicano nationalist movements with the symbols and concepts of Nazism. Hispanic ethnic nationalists aligned with Marxists in the United States after the war, however, and that explains why political La Raza / Chicano-ism have features of a hybrid of both Nazi-like, ultra nationalism and neo-Marxism.
Jose Vasconcelos, who appears in this clip, developed the mestizo racialist concept of “La Raza” and documented it in his book “La Raza Cosmica” (The Cosmic Race), published in 1925. Vasconcelos is featured in this clip and was the most important pro-Nazi propagandist in Mexico during WWII. His concept of “La Raza” is a Nazi-like, racial theory for the Hispanic, mestizo (mixed) race.
To see subtitles in English, start video, then click on the settings wheel and turn on “captions”.
The image below shows the Nazi Battle flag and the original United Farm Workers flag. The UFW is a part of the Chicano political movement and a part of the greater “La Raza” movement. It’s just one example of the similar symbolism and concepts that La Raza shares with Nazi ultra nationalism.
Nazi Battle Flag vs. Chicano United Farm Workers Flag
Both flags are red with a white circle that contains a national symbol. The Nazi flag has a swastika and the UFW flag a Mexican eagle. The eagle in the UFW flag, however, still looks more like a Nazi reichsadler than a Mexican eagle.
Nazi Reichsadler (Reich Eagle)
This is an article in Life Magazine from 1940 about the Nazi influence in Mexico and Mexican collaborators. One of the most important collaborators was Jose Vasconcelos, an important Mexican, educator, writer, philosopher and cultural figure. Vasconcelos was the father of the “La Raza” racial theory, which became a basic concept for the Chicano political movement in the United States.
Lucky Morales is a gang activist in San Diego. Here, he explains Chicano / La Raza racial and ethnic supremacy. This occurred just before a group of pro-Americans were scheduled to have a American-flag waving event in Chicano Park in San Diego. The message appears to be that non-Raza do not belong in the park and that they should be physically attacked and driven out of the park, which was exactly what happened. Chicano Park is known as an anti-American park, where waving the flag freely is not tolerated.
The La Raza concept was developed by a well-known, Mexican politician and philosopher, named Jose Vasconcelos. The concept is described in his book “La Raza Cosmica”. It is a racial supremacy doctrine for the mestizo race, that is, the Hispanic mixed race.
The La Raza concept is similar to Nazi racial theory, adapted to the mestizo racial environment in Latin America. Vasconcelos was actually the most important pro-Nazi propagandist in Mexico, during WWII. Vasconcelos published the pro-Nazi propaganda magazine Timon (the Rudder).
