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In this post I will analyze some of the historical and cultural conditions that have made technological innovation difficult in Mexico. Some have talked that the highest achievers, instead of being encouraged, are often forgotten by the institutions in Mexico. Those achievers-- such as sports people, scientists, engineers, developers, and especially entrepreneurs--should be supported to propel the change in Mexico.
A changing social, cultural and technological landscape
Historical and social circumstances have made it difficult to create technological innovations in Mexico. The educational system has produced uneven results in training the managers, scientists, and engineers needed to advance the industry. For a long time the most accomplished innovators working in academia or government have received little support in their research and development efforts.
But today many entrepreneurs and technologists share a strong desire to overcome Mexico’s lack of technological competency, and have started innovating for their country. Various factors have made it more practical and desirable to be an Internet entrepreneur in Mexico. First, technological platforms, such as Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft Azure, have made possible to create Internet products and services with a very low capital investment, affordable to entrepreneurs in middle income countries. High-quality, low cost software frameworks for rapid application development, such as Ruby on Rails, have reduced the complexity, and cost of creating an application prototype. A wealth of technical documentation available on the Internet, on blogs, wikis, and electronic books, has made available the technical knowledge to create Internet products. An educated workforce of engineers, programmers and designers has been exposed to the stories of stories of entrepreneurs who made it big in Silicon Valley, igniting the ambition and imagination of many to become entrepreneurs in Mexico. These stories had traveled via the Internet, movies, or in some cases, when Mexicans travel and work at global centers of innovation. Finally, several communities of the Internet industry in Mexico, which will be presented later on this proposal, have started consistent, directed efforts to introduce a series of innovation and entrepreneurship practices in Mexico, creating a turning point for Mexico to transition towards innovation-driven industry.
Moshinsky's Theorem: the lack of support for the highest achievers
However, in the past, a series of cultural-historical conditions hampered technological innovation in Mexico. Marcos Moshinsky, one of the most accomplished Mexican physicists, characterized the country’s lack of support for its highest achievers: “Any Mexican that has demonstrated capacity in his work, is automatically a privileged person, and public institutions should forget about these individuals, to concentrate on those who do not have that characteristic” (Moshinsky, 1986). More recently the influential Mexican cultural anthropologist Roger Bartra found that Moshinsky’s observation is still valid. Populism, the root cause of this problem, is “deeply rooted in the culture, in the customs, and the habits that imbue the political life of Mexico” (Bartra, 2010). The lack of support to the highest achievers can be traced back to the period of the Mexican Revolution, at the beginning of the 20th century, when the government sought to close economic and social inequality gaps. At the time, large estates were distributed among dispossessed peasants, and a public education system was created to educate the masses. But in their efforts to serve the masses, the post-revolutionary political leaders overlooked the importance of supporting the highest achievers. Thus there is a lack of tradition in Mexico for world-class Research and Development efforts. Few scientists, Moshinsky and Bartra being exceptions, have created successful research programs that figure in the world stage. The same holds true for technology companies, which mostly focus on manufacturing or services, and almost never venture into creating new technologies.
A widely held opinion is that Mexicans’ lack of “self-confidence” prevents them from notable achievements. The national soccer team is often used as a cultural metaphor to explain how this lack of self-confidence defeats Mexicans. Many sports commentators, psychologists, and fans maintain that the Mexican soccer team has a strong sporting capacity, but it is the lack of self-confidence that defeats the team on world stages. In a classical study of sociology of Mexicans—which is now strongly contested—Ramos (1972) spoke of how many Mexicans had an inferiority complex, which led them to self-defeating attitudes. Even if these self-defeating attitudes might be present in some people, there are many cultural manifestations showing a strong desire to become competent and self-confident. Continuing with the soccer metaphor, the most popular chant when supporting the Mexican soccer team is “Si se puede” (Yes, we can). In my fieldwork with Mexican innovators I have seen a strong desire to overcome self-limiting attitudes. For instance, in an entrepreneurship panel that took place in one of the most important events for the Mexican Internet industry, the “Campus Party,” a panelist explained that “what Latin Americans [and Mexicans start-ups] need [to create great start-up companies] is to believe that they can.”
A false "Mexican" inferiority complex
Bartra (1986) demonstrated that the “inferiority complex” attributed to Mexicans by some scholars is neither particular nor determinant to Mexican culture, but rather is a condition that many nations undergoing modernization processes have experienced. In the process of characterizing the Mexican identity, many scholars felt the temptation of reducing the image of a nation to a few traits that served to create a myth of what constituted “The Mexican Problem.” This myth of the Mexican centered around negative cultural images, in fact a caricature of reality, such as the lazy indigenous farmer and the deceitful mestizo city dweller, that serve to justify the frustrated attempts of progress in this country: “the image of a Mexican is the metaphor of the permanent underdevelopment, the image of a frustrated progress” (Bartra, 1986).
Challenging the perspectives of what can be done in Mexico
Bartra (1986) demanded not to consider specific cultural–historical conditions as universal cultural traits, explaining how the Mexicans’ alleged inferiority complex was used by post-revolutionary politicians as an excuse to explain the under-development of the country instead of focusing on creating a congruent national project to modernize the country. Mexico is a country with a plurality of cultures, and thick layers of history that have created a very diverse society, drawing from a vastness of cultural patterns. Mexico is a complex and contradictory country, where the richest man and some of the most marginalized people in the world are living together. But to overcome the painful contradictions of this country it is necessary to understand the complexity of reality, and the potential structural and cultural changes that can lead to overcoming these problems. The task for scholars and practitioners studying and participating in cultural change is to be attentive to the cultural–historical conditions of the country and how they were constituted, and the ways in which these conditions can change.
Helping a group of people to achieve their maximum potential will not in itself solve the inequalities of Mexico. But I agree with Moshinsky that creating such opportunities will propel the development of the country, and will be an inspiration for the younger generations of Mexicans.
Bibliography
Bartra, R. 2003. La Jaula de la Melancolía. Grijalbo.
Bartra, R. 2010. El teorema de Moshinsky. http://www.letraslibres.com/blog/blogs/index.php?blog=11&title=el_teorema_de_moshinsky
Moshinsky, M. 1986. Universidad en la encrucijada. Vuelta 120, November 1986.
Ramos, S. 1972. El Perfíl del Hombre y la Cultura en México. Espasa Calpe Mexicana.
