Introduction
The author Bonfil Batalla’s book Mexican Profundo: Reclaiming a Lost Civilization addresses the encounters Mesoamerican heritage has endured throughout history and today. The author thoroughly discusses the two separate civilizations that have coexisted in Mexico throughout history. Batalla referred to these dual cultures as the Mexico Profundo and the Mexico of Fiction. He demonstrates the glaring disparities between these societies, making it impossible for them to cohabit peacefully. This book provides a thorough analysis of the differences and effects between actual Mexico and fictitious Mexico with regard to the colonization of Mexico, Mexico after the colonial period, and the current survivability of Mexico Profundo.
This understanding of Mexico and the persistence of the Civilization that the Spanish met is profound. For a comprehensive grasp of Mexico, including strands of thinking for some comprehension of its applicability to Mexican-American and Chicano culture, Bonfil Batalla’s insight into indigenous peoples in all of the Americas is essential. A must-read for anyone interested in learning more about this significant interaction and its history. Every high school and university in Mexico should force students to read this book. The numerous identities that we Mexicans have are explained in this book. Learn your history; Bonfil Batalla does an amazing job of explaining why Mexicans now view one another the way they do.
As Settler Civilization and Indigenous Nations work toward Truth and Reconciliation in a post-Residential School but unquestionably not post-Colonial era, México Profundo has much to teach Canada. Bonfil Batalla makes a strong case that Indigenous Civilization, possibly only Indigenous Civilization, has the fortitude and tenacity to see contemporary Mexico into the future. México Profundo has survived in all its diversity through 500 years of attempted annihilation. México Profundo offers an urgent message for Canada as well as for other colonial powers, old and new, during this period of severe crisis in the first quarter of the 20th century, during Idle No More, Truth and Reconciliation, and this period of time.
Details about the author
Mexican author Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, who lived from July 29, 1935, to July 19, 1991, was also trained as an anthropologist and ethnologist. He was the National Institute of Anthropology and History’s director general for popular culture. He established the National Museum of Popular Traditions. At the time of his passing, he served as the National Coordinator for the National Council for Culture and the Arts Seminar for Cultural Studies. Bonfil Batalla thought that ethnological research directly impacted how social reality changed. Co-founder of the INAH Center for Higher Research, formerly the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology. The library of the National School of Anthropology and History bears his name.
Evaluation of the book
Bonfil Batalla asserts that there are two contradictory Mexicans: “imaginary Mexico” and “Mexico Profundo,” in contrast to the overused cliché that “Mexico is a region of several expressions.” He also objects to representations of the nation as a single mixed-race culture. These civilizations are not just different but also at odds with one another. Imaginary Mexico is built on American or European ideas about who one is and how society should function. Its foundations lie in Western conceptions of development, as seen by rising consumerism and material gain. This idea of what comprises the civilized world is based on pernicious colonialism that has never left Mexican soil since the conquest. Two more features of hypothetical Mexico, according to Bonfil Batalla, deserve attention. Even though there have been numerous attempts to replicate the Western model in Mexico, they have never proven successful. Unfortunately, they have been effectively realized enough to appeal to the avarice of the elite while still capturing the general public’s attention, leading to a generalization of poverty in the nation.
Three sections make up the book. The subject and the major ideas of Bonfil Batalla’s “a civilization denied” are introduced in Section one. Mexico lacks a legal definition of Indians, unlike Canada and the US. Bonfil Batalla decides to identify the Indians based on specific historical events and cultural characteristics. He makes the case that many communities are truly Indian even though they have abandoned their superficial claims of being of an indigenous ancestry and replaced them with a Mestizo identity. Bonfil Batalla views mestizaje as ethnic cleansing and genocide, in stark contrast to the majority of authors who see it as a process of racial and ethnic blending, as well as those who characterize it as either cultural assimilation or pressure on domestic and attempts to write that it “has indeed been accomplished when, intellectually, the community stops contemplating itself Indian, despite the fact that lifeway may very well proceed far as before.” Such communities now identify as Indians without realizing it (pg.46)
In light of Bonfil Batalla’s theory of cultural domination, which addresses subjects like Catholicism and the media, Part 2 of “How We Came to Be Where We Are” revisits five centuries of colonization and nation-building. Despite the fact that conquest had long been a feature of pre-Hispanic Mexican civilization, he notes that the Spanish dominion system was fundamentally different from Mesoamerican forms. For instance, unlike the Spaniards, the Aztecs did not need to modify their linguistic and religious practices while politically and economically subjugating peoples. A universal civilization, according to him, “makes the enslavement of a people feasible without suggesting the denial or illegitimacy of their culture” (pg. 75). Again, the theme is not that Mexico exemplifies the harmonious coexistence of two important civilizations or that traditional and modern forms increasingly diverge through time. Instead, the author contends that Mesoamerican and Western customs are fundamentally incompatible.
The third section is both the smallest and the most thorough; it is headed “The Socialist Policy and the Modernity Agenda.” The only way to guarantee a sustainable future for Mexico is to shatter the illusions of an unreal Mexico while taking control over Mexico Profundo. Ethnic diversity must be taken seriously if a national order is to be established that is rooted in Mesoamerican reality. In fact, he advocates realigning governmental entities so that they substantially adhere to ethnic foundations.
Someone might criticize the author for espousing a romantic and nativistic nationalism, embracing an openly Manichaean philosophy, or confusing an ideological manifesto with a future grammatical perspective. However, in light of recent changes to Section four of the Mexican Constitution, the happenings in Oaxaca, and the awareness raised by the Communist guerrilla Battalion of Revolutionary Socialism, Mexico Profundo appears breathtakingly prophetic. Only the most astute could have guessed that racial diversity and indigenous liberties could shortly assume previously unheard-of importance in national affairs when the book was first published in 1987.
Personal perception regarding the book
Reading this book is essential to understanding Mexico, in my opinion (although it is not guaranteed that reading this book will assist you in comprehending Mexico). Although it summarizes the country’s history, Batalla’s most remarkable work is not history. Although it describes the various cultures of Mexico, it is not an anthropological study. Although it describes the Mexican people’s sociological and economic difficulties, it is not a socioeconomic treatise. What, then, if none of these apply, can it be? It offers a comprehensive picture of what Mexico is, how it came to be, and what it might become in the future, depending on the course we choose.
The book gave me the most thorough grasp I’ve ever had of contemporary social movements in Mexico, including the Zapatistas. It has radically altered how I view some of the inferences I made about Mexican society on my own, and it has strengthened others by supplying information that I, as an outsider and amateur, would probably not be able to notice.
The book does, in my humble view, have certain flaws. Before everything else, why did Batalla confine his Profundo, or indigenous experience, within the confines of the contemporary nation-state of Mexico? These encounters undoubtedly cross contemporary boundaries. For instance, the Maya, a unique cultural group with populations in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras, belongs to the Mexican and American Profundo. Second, I discovered that he frequently employs general phrases like “civilization,” “culture,” and “custom” without first offering a clear meaning. Even though this might be done on design because defining such concepts is probably a waste of time, it would still be beneficial. Ultimately, Batalla proposes a pluralistic society incorporating Western and indigenous knowledge and culture as his final course of action. Given the former’s voracity in consuming its progeny, I question whether this is conceivable.
Whatever the case, I think this book is utterly intriguing. It is surprisingly simple to read despite the serious and scholarly subject. English translation by Batalla, who writes in clear and elegant writing, is superb and faithfully captures the original’s mood (which is often difficult to attain for such a dense book). Finally, unlike many works that highlight the issue without proposing a remedy (which is acceptable if unfinished), this one envisions an excellent future. It may be utopian and naive, but despite that, it is able to acknowledge the difficulties without giving up.
Conclusion
Contrarily, the author emphasizes that despite being forcibly enslaved by western capitalist powers, Mesoamerican contextual elements and customs have endured. The Mexican way of life has survived in large part thanks to the Mexico Profundo. The Mesoamerican way of life is attempted to be eradicated and replaced with western capitalism in Fictional Mexico, on the other hand. Reading Batalla’s work made me aware that the authoritarianism of Mexico Profundo is still in place today. The pressures of western capitalism and the internal and external forces of fictional Mexico are all directed at wiping out the Mesoamerican ethnic heritage. These civilizations are in fierce competition with one another because they each have unique ethnic motivations, goals, and customs. The Mexico Profundo values being a member of a community whose tradition is founded on agricultural production; on the other hand, fictitious Mexico has a strong commitment to environmental exploitation for monetary gain.
Work Cited
Batalla, Guillermo Bonfil, and Philip A. Dennis. “Introduction.” México Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization, University of Texas Press, 1996, pp. xv–xxiv. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/708440.5. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
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