A brief precis of the institutionalization of history of science in Mexico

• Published in: The British journal for the history of science 2020-09, Vol.53 (3), p.397-406
• Main Authors: ALONSO-PAVÓN, JOSÉ ANTONIO, CHEÉ-SANTIAGO, JOCELYN, GRANADOS-RIVEROS, MARTHA LUCÍA, ORNELAS-CRUCES, MARCO, ROJAS, ERICA TORRENS, BARAHONA, ANA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 19th century; Academic disciplines; Chemistry; College professors; Ephemera; Exploitation; Foreign investment; Forum: Retrospectives; Geography; Historians; History of medicine; History of medicine and histology; Inequality; Institutionalization; International financing; Masters degrees; Materialism; Mathematicians; Mining; Philosophers; Philosophy; Positivism; Research centers; Research facilities; Science history; Socioeconomic factors
• ISSN: 0007-0874; 1474-001X
• DOI: 10.1017/S0007087420000357

During these years, Mexico experienced great changes: by increasing foreign investment in the country, which allowed the growth of agriculture, mining and communications, including the railway industry and the telegraph network, Díaz reformed the socio-economic structure of Mexico at the expense of the exploitation of vulnerable groups and increased general inequality. Adolfo Castañares, a pharmacist and professor at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (ENP), published in 1911 an important pamphlet on the history of chemistry during the scientific and artistic contest of the century.3 Among the efforts to historicize other areas, in geography we find Manuel Orozco y Berra's work Notes for the History of Geography in Mexico, and the Colegio de Minería's Ephemera of Development.4 Although these authors were settled in different areas, and developed their works independently, they were all part of the cultural and social elite in Mexico. Revival after the revolutionary period It was not until 1939, during General Lázaro Cárdenas's administration, after the reopening of research centres that had been closed during the Mexican Revolution and the creation of new ones, that history of science began to be considered an independent discipline.6 This resurgence of the history of science aimed at resurrecting the memory of Mexican scientific work, by recalling its institutions, achievements and pioneers. In this position, Saldaña organized the XIX International Congress of History of Science carried out in Mexico City in 2001, the first of its kind in the country.11 Like many historians of his time, Saldaña based his historiographic work on George Basalla's diffusionist model of centre–periphery published in 1967, giving rise to colonial studies of science in Mexico.12 Historian Moreno de los Arcos got his bachelor's degree at the School of Philosophy and Literature of the UNAM in 1967, and then his master's degree in 1973 with a study on Joaquín Velázquez de León's scientific works on geological, mineralogical and meteorological aspects and the results of measurements in the Valley of Mexico.