20. Vasconcelos’s belief in the power of aesthetics to improve humanity reflected itself in his policy as Mexican Minister of education (1921-4) when he implemented his famous programme to popularize art by covering the walls of public buildings with murals. See D.J. Jaén (ed.), José Vasconcelos: The Cosmic Race/La raza cósmica (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), p. xxiii.