Article 3 of the new constitution prescribes that education, whether in national, state, or municipal institutions, should develop all the faculties, encourage patriotism and an awareness of international solidarity, shun religious dogma, advance science, and oppose fanaticism and slavery.
This progress was based on a past that combined two distinct traditions. Mexico's pre-Columbian culture had mastered concepts of intellectual and practical value, had a knowledge of astronomy, a number system, metropolitan and temple architecture, and made advances in writing, surgery and medical skills, sculpture and mural art, irrigation, and the construction of a system of highways.
The other tradition was based on the methods and knowledge that the sixteenth-century Iberian brought Mexico: the wheel, sophisticated tools, steel, industrial know-how, marine architecture, navigational skills, and gunpowder. But the Conquistadors also destroyed much. Although many of the pre-Columbian societies were warlike, the Monte Albán temples in the state of Oaxaca appear to represent a local culture that had fostered peace for some fifteen hundred years. The Iberian invaders were not familiar with such ancient traditions and often failed to appreciate their values. They destroyed towns and cities, burned books, disrupted the ecology, spread disease, and diminished the arts, crafts, and culture of the new world.
It was not until the twentieth century that Mexico came to the forefront internationally. Respect for the country grew as Mexico undertook to restore its pre-Columbian sites, assembled comprehensive anthropological collections, and established a University City and a dynamic, original metropolitan architecture. Famous artists contributed to this period of awakened cultural awareness: Roberto Montenegro, Covarrubias, Orozco, Rivera, O'Higgins, Tamayo, and Siqueiros. A folkloric ballet, a national symphony, and entertainers like Conchita Cintrón, Dolores del Río, and Cantinflas broadened the cultural landscape.
Among contemporary writers, Luis Spota, Carlos Fuentes, Sergio Galino, Luisa Hernández, Augustín Yañez, Octavio Paz, and Antonio Haas have interpreted Mexico for a large public. Leopoldo Zea and Ramón Xirau have added to Mexico's philosophical thought. Silvio Zavala has contributed to Mexican history.
The radio and television media are following American footsteps—eager to keep pace. There is no hacienda nostalgia in Mexico—only frenetic pressure for industrialization and overall capitalism. Most renowned haciendas are only memories: they are cascos, recuerdos.
The 1529 Hacienda San Gabriel de Las Palmas, in Morelos, has become an American luxury residence; other mansions house millionaires; still others have become motels, dairies, factories, schools, posh restaurants, subdivisions with an hacienda office. But hundreds of hacienda homes have been totally abandoned. They are piles of rubble—no more than place-names.