José Vasconcelos (Oaxaca, Oaxaca, 1882 – Mexico City, 1959) was a Mexican writer, thinker and politician. After graduating as a lawyer (1907), he represented the Anti-Reelection Club in Washington, D.C., USA, and supported the Mexican Revolution of 1910 headed by Francisco I. Madero. Later, after a brief period of exile in the United States following a disagreement with Venustiano Carranza (1915-20), he returned and directed the National University of México (1920) and created and ran the Ministry of Public Education under Álvaro Obregón (1920-25). From that position he worked in favour of the education of the masses and oriented the nation's education efforts along secular, civic, and pan-American (americanista) lines. He ran for president in 1929 but lost to Pascual Ortiz Rubio and again left the country. He later directed the National Library (1940) and presided over the Mexican Institute of Hispanic Culture (1948).

Oeuvre

• La intelectualidad mexicana (1916)
• El monismo estético (1919)
• La raza cósmica (1925)
• Indología (1926)
• Ulises criollo (1935)
• Pesimismo alegre (1931)
• Estética (1936)
• La tormenta (1936)
• El desastre (1938)
• El proconsulado (1939)
• Ética (1939)
• Historia del pensamiento filosófico (1937)
• Lógica orgánica (1945)
• El ocaso de mi vida (1957)

Source

• Initial version loosely based on corresponding Spanish-language Wikipedia article