[Evolutionary and racial ideas in Mexico: the case of Andrés Molina Enríquez in Los Grandes Problemas Nacionales (1909)].

Abstract

This paper analyzes the evolutionary and racial ideas of Andrés Molina Enríquez contained in his work Los grandes problemas nacionales (1909). The work explores the concepts of superior and inferior societies, human races, indigenous attributes, and mestizaje. The analysis suggests that these themes are influenced by Molina Enríquez's evolutionary interpretations, based on Ernst Haeckel and Charles Darwin. Four ideas are elaborated here: internal and external forces in Haeckel and Darwin; races, from Darwin to physiology; individual and collective selection; and Molina Enríquez and Mexican evolutionism. These sections show that the author studied was a significant evolutionist in Mexico during the Porfiriato.