La percepción sobre el niño en el México moderno (1810-1930)

Abstract

This article is about the relation between childhood and modernization process in Mexico City from 1810 to 1930. Here I analyze the modernization as a manifestation of the transition of economical structures which changed from a colonial society to a new industrial way of life called capitalism. This transition caused a modification in the perception about the childhood, children started to be the support of the social progress and it means the creation of institutions that work with the mind of the children in order to guide it to the normal status designed by the hegemonic social class. A new group of professionals appeared to support a cultural and rational formation in the children, changing their way of think, and their customs in the education. I study this process here. On the other hand, I explore the experience of the children in this period of time using documents from the files of one Institution to minors in Mexico City called: El Tribunal para Menores Infractores. There I found the opinion of different scientific persons like Doctors, Teachers, Psychologists. They wrote personal opinions about the integral personality of many boys who stayed in the Tribunal from 1926 to 1930. In this documents emerge the perception of the childhood at that époque.