Ateneo de la Juventud and the Mexican Revolution of 1910

Abstract

The Mexican Revolution of 1910 was a multi-faceted phenomenon involving not only great political, economic and social change, but also an equally-significant intellectual upheaval. In the preRevolutionary years, the dictatorial rule of Porfirio Diaz found justification in a philosophy which incorporated positivist and Social Darwinist principles and which was given expression by a powerful governmental clique known as the cientifico party. In the course of the Revolution, the Mexican people freed themselves not only of Diaz himself and his cientifico cronies, but also of the philosophy which they had espoused. Among the heroes of this cultural revolt in Mexico was a group of young intellectuals who banded together between 1909 and 1914 as the Ateneo de la Juventud. This thesis examines both the positivist philosophy of the Porfiriato and the revolution in thought which was engendered by the Ateneo. In addition, it undertakes to comment generally on the political activities of both the cientificos and the members of the Ateneo, and to relate their philosophies to the social environments in which they were spawned.