Culture and Society

Ignacio Manuel Altamirano was a writer and literary Guerrero who was born in 1834, Zapotec ancestry. He studied at Cuernavaca, and later became professor of Latin. During the Reform War fought on the liberal side. His best known work was Clemence. After several years of literary work he was appointed ambassador to Italy. He died in San Remo on 13 February 1893. The literature was the cultural field that further progress was in the Porfiriato. In 1849, he founded the Liceo Francisco Zarco Miguel Hidalgo, who trained poets and writers during the rest of the nineteenth century in Mexico. The graduates of this institution were influenced by romanticism. Restoring the republic, in 1867 the writer Ignacio Manuel Altamirano founded called “literary evenings, groups of Mexican writers with the same literary vision. Among this group were Guillermo Prieto, Manuel Payno, Ignacio Ramirez, Vicente Riva Palacio, Luis G. Urbina, Juan de Dios Peza and Justo Sierra.By late 1869 the members of the literary evenings founded the magazine “The Renaissance”, published literary texts of different groups in the country with different political ideology. Discussed issues relating to doctrines and cultural contributions, the different patterns of national culture in terms of literary, artistic, historical and archaeological sites. The writer Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Guerrero created study groups related to research on the history of Mexico , Languages of Mexico, but was also encouraged the study of world culture. He was also a diplomat and served in these positions work to promote the country as culturally foreign powers. He was consul of Mexico in Barcelona and Marseille and the end of 1892 he was commissioned as ambassador to Italy. He died on 13 February 1893 in San Remo, Italy. Altamirano’s influence was evident in nationalism, whose main expression were cut Campirano novels. Writers of this school were Manuel M.Flores, Jos Cu llar and Jos L pez Portillo y Rojas. Shortly after modernism emerged in Mexico, who left the nationalistic pride to receive the French influence. This theory was founded by the Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario and proposed a reaction against the establishment by custom of literature, and declaring the freedom of artists on the basis of certain rules, and leaning towards sentimentality. The modernist changed some rules in verse and narrative, using metaphors. Mexico’s modernist writers were Louis G, Urbina and Amado Nervo. Following the philosophy of positivism in Mexico, gave considerable importance to the study of history. The Diaz government needed to achieve national unity, because conservative groups still exist in Mexican society. Therefore, the Ministry of Education, led by Justo Sierra used the country’s history as a means to achieve national unity.He gave special importance to the French intervention in Mexico, while anti-Hispanism was abandoned in Mexico since Independence. In 1887, Diaz opened the prehispanic monoliths exhibit at the National Museum, which also was shown to public a replica of the Sun Stone or Aztec Calendar. In 1908 the museum was divided into two sections: Museum of Natural History and Archeology Museum. By early 1901, Justo Sierra created the department of ethnography and archeology. Three years later, in 1904 during the St. Louis Exposition -1904 – presented the Mexican School of Archeology, History and Ethnography, which was introduced to the world the main signs of pre-Hispanic culture. The Valley of Mexico, painted in 1885 by Velasco. The Mexican landscape was booming during the period when Porfirio D az ruled the country.In general, Mexican culture was affected by the economic and political changes, and developed an art in two stages. The first, comprising of 1876 to 1888 represented the rise of nationalism. The second and final phase of Porfirian art began in 1888 and ended with the government of Diaz in 1911 and was marked by a cultural preference for France and its culture. Jos Mar a Velasco was a Mexican landscaper who was born in 1840, and graduated as a painter in 1861, the Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos. Also studied zoology, botany, physics and anatomy. His major works were to portray the Valley of Mexico and also painted figures of Mexican society, farms, volcanoes, and fields. A series of his work was devoted to translating the provincial landscape of Oaxaca, including the Cathedral and the pre-Hispanic temples such as Monte Alban and Mitla.Other paintings by Velasco were dedicated to Teotihuacan and Guadalupe. The advancement of public education was favored by positivism, and its Mexican representative Gabino Barreda.