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José Vasconcelos Classical Readings for Children and the making of childhood in post-revolutionary Mexico
- Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 55, Number 1, 2017
- pp. 14-23
- 10.1353/bkb.2017.0002
- Article
- Additional Information
This paper discusses the work of Mexican writer and politician José Vasconcelos, focusing on his polemic ideas regrading notions of childhood and race in the context of post-revolutionary period, during the 1920s. Our approach centers specifically on a very rare contribution to children’s genre: Classical Readings for Children, an anthology of “high literature” adapted for young readers. This edition, in two volumes, was conceived, planned, and sponsored by Vasconcelos during the time he served as Minister of Education. It represented a part of a vast cultural project intended to redefine the principles of Mexican identity through the exaltation of miscegenation and the promotion of the concept of “Cosmic Race.”