La frontera que nos une : proyecto para educar al bárbaro, México, 1807

Abstract

Strongly influenced by the enlightened ideas that were making their rounds throughout the Spanish American colonies toward the end of the 18th Century, and due to the contact with European missionaries from Asia, a Franciscan friar took it upon himself to design a project for a Mission School for Indian children from the Internal Provinces of New Spain. The same school was to provide education for children from China and other Asian nations. This article revises the reasons that sustained the friar’s ambitious project, and the social and historical background that justified it. One of its principal aspects centered on the contact between the different cultures and the benefits that would be obtained by it. The invasion of Spain by Napoleon and the colonial efforts to gain independence from the mother country endangered the project, but the initiative was a reflection of a real need to educate and civilize the Barbarian.