born Feb. 28, 1882, Oaxaca, Mex.
died June 30, 1959, Mexico City
Mexican educator, politician, essayist, and philosopher.
He campaigned for the revolutionary candidates Francisco Madero and Pancho Villa . As minister of education (1920–24) he initiated major reforms in Mexico's school system, especially expansion of the rural school program. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 1929. Vasconcelos's political activism forced him into exile several times. He regarded the indigenous Indian culture as transcending Western culture. His autobiography (5 vol., 1935–59), abridged as A Mexican Ulysses (1962), is one of the finest sociocultural studies of 20th-century Mexico.