The University of Mexico and the Revolution, 1910-1940
Conflict between revolution and academia, between the activist and the scholar, is probably inevitable. At times when urgent demands for radical change threaten the very fabric of a society, when popular violence and ideological bitterness question all traditions, a university becomes especially vulnerable. As an institution dedicated to preserving the cultural inheritance of the past, a haven for the calm, deliberate pursuit of truth, the university in the midst of revolution must choose whether to adhere to its traditional role, or to become an active partner of social change, promulgating new ideologies and providing practical training for revolutionary leaders. During the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the popular image of a university as a refuge for the privileged and wealthy added to a long history of the conscious use of education to promote a prescribed set of values to make the National University particularly controversial. Dedicated only two months before the Revolution erupted, the new institution found itself under immediate pressure to become “revolutionary” in a society that had little patience for scholarly aloofness.