The Cosmic Race

Jos Vasconcelos contends in The Cosmic Race a main thesis which is:
various races of the earth tend to intermix at a gradually increasing pace, and
eventually will give rise to a new human type, composed of selections from each of
the races already in existence, a cosmic race. (3) Spain, Mexico, Greece and India
are the four civilizations that will contribute for the formation of this cosmic race
(39). He holds the theory that the Latin American race can be the dominant race
and it was only not the case mainly because of history. He blames Napoleon
Bonaparte for giving Louisiana to the Anglo-Saxons than letting it remain with Latin
Americans and also Absolutism which perpetuated for many years and stopped
Latin Americas progress (14). But he also blames the Latin Americans for not
having a sense of patriotism because of a lack of universalism, which the whites had
and which gave them advantages in order to become more powerful within the
years. While in Latin America the sense of patriotism that perpetuated for a long
time was for material aims instead of vast and transcendental ones, meaning that
no patriotism or sense of unity existed in Latin America. People in Latin America
were more inclined to autonomy rather than Unitarianism. He also points out that
geography was a big obstacle for unity, but it was a small obstacle compared to the
notion of unity itself, which again, didnt exist. Some questions are: Did the Anglo-
Saxons hold power because of the union in their civilization or was it more because
of the notion of order they had?

The author does not deny the mixture of races and states that the only
continent with the inclination and resources to produce the fifth race was Latin
America. The mestizaje within Latin America has mainly three advantages: the
weather which he mentions that soon all peoples from the North will be coming to
the South, tropics to live in cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (24). Also he
mentions that: the greater facility to sympathize to strangers and not committing
the sin of destroying races as the Anglo-Saxons did. (17) As he mentions, whites
became invaders of the world (9). With that he introduces the notion of the three
spiritual states. In addition he suggests that the gift necessary for the creation of
the new race is held in a great degree by mestizos, the main population of the
Ibero-American continent. Questions are did history make the whites and Anglo-
Saxons so aggressive but why didnt it make the peoples that were to create a fifth
race as aggressive as well, as both had been through colonialism in their past
histories?

There is, in addition to the advantages of the fifth race being created in Latin
America the notions that the peoples in this continent would be inclined to embrace
more firmly the views of Bolvar and also believe in Mendelianism instead of
Darwinism. Mendelianism would be a view embraced by Latin America because the
sympathy to strangers that would directly link to seeing one free from physical
pressure, ignorance and misery, which was implied in Darwinism when suggesting
that the blacks come from the monkeys and whites from a less inferior status than a
monkey. The author also suggests that the Darwinist laws are directly linked to
wars. He thus recognizes that: race has to develop itself harmoniously, without the
impediment of other races. (34) Interesting points might be the explanation that
Darwinism in itself implies a notion of violence because the whites or the most fit
race has to survive and the others who or not as fit will end up being extinct, yet the
author confirms that Latin America, being inclined to be the generator of the fifth
race does not mean

Therefore the author is clearly favourable to the mixture of races and suggest
that the more mixed people, there will be more illustrious epochs to come (32). He
also suggests that even if Latin America is the fittest country to have the creation of
the fifth race, but if Latin America does not know how to offer fraternity to all men,
it may happen in another place thus the author concludes that the fifth era, the era
of universality and cosmic sentiment will be created sooner or later in one place of
the earth.

The author repeats that: oly the Iberian part of the continent possesses
spiritual factors, the race and the territory necessary for the great enterprise of
initiating the new universal era of Humanity. He strongly suggests that all the races
that are to provide contributions are already in the continent, but he makes clear
generalizations about each race: Nordic man, who is today the master of action but
who had humble beginnings and seemed inferior in an epoch in which already great
cultures had appeared and decayed(39). He also uses these descriptions for blacks
and Indians. He also uses these general descriptions to mention the law of the three
states, which links to the spiritual concet of producing a fifth race. He describes
Japanese and Americans in a general way.

He thus concludes that Mendelianism in biology, socialsm in government,

growing sympathy among souls, generalized progress will bring to an emergence of
a fifth race together with a cosmic culture. (39)