Biography
Bulnes was born in Mexico City in 1847 and attended the National Mining School. He then taught mathematics at the prestigious National Preparatory School, later also teaching other sciences as well as political economy. As a member of Mexico's Society of Geography and Statistics, Bulnes traveled to Japan with a delegation of Mexican scientists. He entered political life through his work on the Mexico City-Veracruz railway line when he met liberal Veracruz politician Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada. Bulnes became a long-serving Mexican senator, where he drafted the first Bank Law and the Mining Code of 1880. He was an admirer of the British political system and admired the progress of both the United Kingdom and the United States. He was a full supporter of liberal ideology which in Mexico sought to curtail the political and economic power of the Roman Catholic Church. Its religious doctrines stressed rewards in the afterlife and in liberals' view was an impediment to personal advancement and national economic development. He viewed Protestantism as "more suited to modern cultures." In ''El porvenir de las nations Hispano-Americanas'' (The Future of the Hispanic-American Nations), published in 1899 in the wake of the Spanish–American War, Bulnes attributed Mexico's backwardness to a combination of Iberian conservatism and Indian debility. He explained the natives' weakness, using the recently developed science of nutrition, by dividing mankind into three races: the people of corn, wheat, and rice. After some dubious calculations of the nutritional value of staple grains, he concluded that “the race of wheat is the only truly progressive one,” and that “maize has been the eternal pacifier of America's indigenous races and the foundation of their refusal to become civilized.” Bulnes attacked the reputation of the late presidentWorks
* ''Sobre el hemisferio norte, once mil leguas''. Impresiones de viaje a Cuba, los Estados Unidos, el Japón, China, Cochinchina, Egipto y Europa. México: Imprenta de la Revista Universal (1875). * ''El porvenir de las naciones latinoamericanas ante las recientes conquistas de Europa y Norteamérica. Estructura y evolución de un continente''. México, (1899). * ''El verdadero Juárez y la verdad sobre la intervención y el imperio'', (1904). * ''Las grandes mentiras de nuestra historia: la Nación y el Ejército en las guerras extranjeras'', (1904). * ''Juárez y la revoluciones de Ayutla y de Reforma'', (1906). *''The Whole Truth About Mexico: President Wilson's Responsibility''. (New York: M. Bulnes Book Co., 1916) * ''El verdadero Díaz y la Revolución'', Editorial Gomez de la Puente, 1920. * ''Los problemas de México'', (1926).References
Further reading
*Cockcroft, James. ''Intellectual Precursors of the Mexican Revolution''. Austin: University of Texas Press 1968. *Cosmes, Francisco. ''El verdadero Bulnes y su falso Juárez''. Mexico City: Talleres de Tipografía 1904. *Gómez Quiñones, Juan. ''Porfirio Díaz, los intelectuales y la Revolución''. Mexico City: El Caballito 1981. *Lemus, George. ''Francisco Bulnes, su vida y obras''. Mexico City: Ediciones de Andrea 1965. *Racine, Karen. "Francisco Bulnes" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico'', vol. 1, pp. 168–69. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997. *Romanell, Patrick. ''The Making of the Mexican Mind''. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press 1969. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bulnes 1847 births 1924 deaths Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico) Liberalism in Mexico 19th-century Mexican historians 19th-century male writers 20th-century Mexican historians 20th-century Mexican male writers Mexican engineers Historians of Mexico Mexican journalists Male journalists de:Francisco Bulnes