Francisco Bulnes (4 October 1847 – 22 September 1924) was a Mexican scientist, journalist, and politician who figured among the

Científico The ''Científicos'' ( Spanish: "scientists" or "those scientifically oriented") were a circle of technocratic advisors to President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz. Steeped in the positivist "scientific politics", they functioned as part of his prog ...

s, the Mexican intelligentsia who supported the authoritarian presidency of

Porfirio Díaz José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori ( or ; ; 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915), known as Porfirio Díaz, was a Mexican general and politician who served seven terms as President of Mexico, a total of 31 years, from 28 November 1876 to 6 Decem ...

. He was a critic of the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

Biography

Bulnes was born in Mexico City in 1847 and attended the National Mining School. He then taught mathematics at the prestigious National Preparatory School, later also teaching other sciences as well as political economy. As a member of Mexico's Society of Geography and Statistics, Bulnes traveled to Japan with a delegation of Mexican scientists. He entered political life through his work on the Mexico City-Veracruz railway line when he met liberal Veracruz politician Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada. Bulnes became a long-serving Mexican senator, where he drafted the first Bank Law and the Mining Code of 1880. He was an admirer of the British political system and admired the progress of both the United Kingdom and the United States. He was a full supporter of liberal ideology which in Mexico sought to curtail the political and economic power of the Roman Catholic Church. Its religious doctrines stressed rewards in the afterlife and in liberals' view was an impediment to personal advancement and national economic development. He viewed Protestantism as "more suited to modern cultures." In ''El porvenir de las nations Hispano-Americanas'' (The Future of the Hispanic-American Nations), published in 1899 in the wake of the Spanish–American War, Bulnes attributed Mexico's backwardness to a combination of Iberian conservatism and Indian debility. He explained the natives' weakness, using the recently developed science of nutrition, by dividing mankind into three races: the people of corn, wheat, and rice. After some dubious calculations of the nutritional value of staple grains, he concluded that “the race of wheat is the only truly progressive one,” and that “maize has been the eternal pacifier of America's indigenous races and the foundation of their refusal to become civilized.” Bulnes attacked the reputation of the late president

Benito Juárez Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican liberal politician and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. As a Zapotec, he was the first indigenous pre ...

, describing him "as an insignificant provincial lawyer with no clear ideology until he met Ocampo in New Orleans." Bulnes's attack on Juárez was contested by among others Genero García and

Justo Sierra Justo Sierra Méndez (January 26, 1848 – September 13, 1912), was a Mexican prominent liberal writer, historian, journalist, poet and political figure during the Porfiriato, in the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth ...

. In 1910 when the

(1910–1920) erupted and the Díaz regime collapsed, Bulnes left Mexico for exile in New Orleans and then Havana, returning to Mexico in 1921 following the end of the military phase of the Revolution. Bulnes published a defense of Díaz in 1920 and a critique of U.S. President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

's role in the Revolution. As a staunch defender of the Díaz regime and one who espoused politically charged opinions on a variety of topics, Bulnes's reputation in Mexico has suffered.

Manuel Gamio Manuel Gamio (1883–1960) was a Mexican anthropologist, archaeologist, sociologist, and a leader of the '' indigenismo'' movement. Although he rejected full sovereignty for indigenous communities in Mexico, he argued that their self-governing or ...

, the archaeologist who excavated the pyramids of Teotihuacán, denounced Bulnes as a racist, while Daniel Cosio Villegas, a leading historian, described him as “one of the most evasive, designing, and deceitful writers that Mexico has ever produced.” However, historian of Mexican liberalism, Charles A. Hale says "His critical insights have attracted many modern scholars to his work."Hale, "Francisco Bulnes", p. 485.

Works

* ''Sobre el hemisferio norte, once mil leguas''. Impresiones de viaje a Cuba, los Estados Unidos, el Japón, China, Cochinchina, Egipto y Europa. México: Imprenta de la Revista Universal (1875). * ''El porvenir de las naciones latinoamericanas ante las recientes conquistas de Europa y Norteamérica. Estructura y evolución de un continente''. México, (1899). * ''El verdadero Juárez y la verdad sobre la intervención y el imperio'', (1904). * ''Las grandes mentiras de nuestra historia: la Nación y el Ejército en las guerras extranjeras'', (1904). * ''Juárez y la revoluciones de Ayutla y de Reforma'', (1906). *''The Whole Truth About Mexico: President Wilson's Responsibility''. (New York: M. Bulnes Book Co., 1916) * ''El verdadero Díaz y la Revolución'', Editorial Gomez de la Puente, 1920. * ''Los problemas de México'', (1926).

Biography

Works

References

Further reading