Fernando Cajas

This Guatemalan scholar is proposing a solution to the student protests engulfing his workplace. In Spanish you can read his solution here.

I write here some thoughts on the general state of Latin American universities.

The oldest universities in this American continent were established by the Spanish Empire in Peru and Mexico. The first printing press of the Americas was brought to Mexico from Europe.

In Mexico, and I  assume in Guatemala the race composition of our countries paints the nature of conflicts. In 1968, the Mexican government ordered the violent suppression of a student protest for basic human rights and a civilized treatment by the Mexico City police department towards students, in theory, not too different from the Kent State University massacre a few years later. If in Ohio less than five deaths caused a national outrage, in Mexico, the sixty or so acknowledged  victims were not equally perceived as outrageous by the Mexican public. Why? Because of class distinctions, since most of those killed were from the lower classes, sometimes even Indians. In Guatemala the proportion of Mayans is even bigger than the equivalent one in Mexico.

My first point then is that Guatemala, and Mexico, are more like South Africa, than the US, or for that matter France, or Czechoslovakia.

I hope that the good proposal of professor Cajas is taken into account to solve the present emergency situation.

In conclusion, Mexico and Peru never ``solved'' their Indian problem, in my view that fact goes a long way in explaining the slow academic development of our countries. So Americans understand my point, imagine ten or more Wounded Knee incidents through US history during the same time span.

I am hopeful, as the great Mexican philosopher, José Vasconcelos stated almost a hundred years ago: ``The spirit shall speak for my race.'' I do not quarrel with this translation in Wikipedia, nevertheless due to my knowledge of Vasconcelos' philosophy I'll rather translate it as : ``Through my Race the Spirit will Speak''. Down here we believe we are making a real New Race, a mestizo brown race: La Raza de Bronce. The Bronze Race.

When some Americans quote this thought they accuse us of racism, they completely fail to understand that we mean a new race, which will be the combination of all races. That is not racism. If anything, it is Panracism.

``Por mi raza hablará el espiritú.''

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