Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/61

Rh between the sufferings of that devoted race and their own.

It is consoling to reflect, however, that this necessity of identifying themselves with the Aborigines, however absurd as argument, has led to good practical results. Castes can no longer be said to exist in Mexico, nor, I believe, in any other part of Spanish America: many of the most distinguished characters of the revolutionary war belonged to the mixed breeds; and, under the system now established, all are equally entitled to the rights of citizenship, and equally capable of holding the highest dignities of the state. Several Curas, of pure Indian extraction, have already been deputies; and I am acquainted with one young man, of distinguished abilities, who is a member of the supreme tribunal of justice in Durango. General Guerrero, too, who, in 1824, was one of the members of the Executive Power, and who is now a candidate for the Presidency, has a strong mixture of African blood in his veins, which is not considered as any disparagement. This is no slight indication of the amelioration, which a little time may be expected to produce. Rescued from political degradation, and awakened to a sense of a political existence, I shall not, I trust, be regarded as a theorist, for supposing that a sensible improvement will take place, and that many of the most valuable members of the community will, hereafter, be found amongst those very classes, who