Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/392

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
386
FACE TO FACE WITH THE MEXICANS.

quota of that invaluable history called Mexico á travers de los Siglos has just been published.

Señor Chavero has written numerous dramas and zarsuélas, several of which have been enthusiastically applauded in Cuba and the principal cities of Mexico.

Chavero's most important work, entitled A Study of the Aztec Calendar Stone, has created quite a sensation among archæologists. He maintains that this relic was an altar dedicated to the "Sun God."

The talents of Mariano Bárcena are so varied that he may justly be called the Crichton of Mexico. He had accomplished at the early age of thirty-nine a vast work in the study and application of various arts and sciences.

Señor Bárcena has acquired a brilliant reputation as a botanist and mineralogist. He has also had charge of the national observatory for several years; nevertheless he has always found time for the composition of poetry and music, and has long been a corresponding member of several scientific associations in Europe and the United States.

Since the decease of Barreda and Ramirez, who by common consent were the leaders of the new "Schools of Philosophy," the foremost philosophers in Mexico are Parra and Ramon Manterola. The former is a positivist, very austere in manner and inclined to be a recluse, while Manterola—an ardent searcher for truth, devoting the best years of his life to the study of mental and moral philosophy—aims at introducing practical reforms which will speedily ameliorate the condition of his people. Señor Manterola, as one of the editors of El Economista, has made valuable suggestions which the Federal Government adopted, thus paving the way for the recent abolition of the "Alcabalas," or Inter-State Customs. During his leisure hours Señor Manterola has written some dramas, which have been well received in Mexico; and it is even whispered that one of these dramas is to be translated for the American stage.

As a savant, a litérateur and moral reformer, few Mexicans have surpassed Padre Carrillo, a native of Yucatan. Padre Carrillo has devoted many years to the study of philology, is a member of the