The title of this chapter says it all, this chapter emphasizes on problems that happened during modernity. In the previous chapter, we only hear about the great impacts of modernity and how Diaz was optimistic about Mexico’s future. In this chapter though, we hear a contrasting side to the story, we see how Diaz made a blunder during his interview and that not all people experienced positive things during modernity, particularly people from the countryside

Modernity had some negative impact to the countryside. “In Mexico, almost every mile was accompanied by some minor conflict. Rural groups were neither as compliant nor as easily controlled as Porfirio Diaz had hoped” (Dawson, pp.142-143). Many violence had occurred in the countryside. Whenever the rural groups could not agree with the elites, they would respond to them with rebellion.

One of the most interesting things in this chapter is the document La Raza Cosmica by Jose Vasconcelos. Vasconcelos talks about his appreciation of racial mixing, and pretty much describes what is considered “beautiful”.

Overall, what I liked most about this chapter is we hear another side to the story. Rather than just hearing the positive outcomes of modernity, we finally hear voices that were left out in the previous chapter, voices of people who faced negative impacts and struggles during modernity.