r class on the
great haciendas, and are almost retainers of the wealthy proprietors.
Their women are of widely different type from the senoras who form the
bulk of the upper classes; and the same difference which exists to-day
was even more determined in the days of the youth of the Mexican
republic. So constant, indeed, have been the individualities of this
people that it matters little whether we look at them in the past or in
the present; as is generally the case with classes which represent the
lower strata of the population and are from their very unimportance in
the social scale less affected by outer influences and therefore more
steadfast to national type, the peon class has altered but little in its
peculiar customs and characteristics, these being modified only as is
rendered necessary to meet the changes in material conditions which have
from time to time occurred. In this peon class are encountered many
recurrent and persistent customs of the Aztec civilization; but as these
instances do not strongly affect the life of the women they may be
passed over. That which it is needful to note, however, is the fact that
always in the history of feminine Mexico it is these women, of truly
native stock, who have formed the characteristically native class. It is
they who have had and held a settled and constant tradition and custom;
it is they who have conserved an individuality which has come down to
them from mingled cultures--from that of the Aztecs, with their
paradoxical civilization and nature, and that of the Spanish intruders,
with their Latin characteristics modified by new environment. The
mingling of these cultures produced the true Mexican individuality.

Yet, though individuality was at the time of the foundation of the
republic to be found most decisive in the peon class, it may be broadly
said that at that period the Mexican woman was generally characteristic
and individual. She reproduced and accentuated many Spanish traits; she
was gay beneath a mask of propriety, immoral--the rule of generalities
must be remembered--under the cloak of a profound piety, vengeful and
jealous under the garb of a real love, and in all ways was the emphasis
of the Spanish woman of her time. She was more than that, however; she
had her national and even racial traditions and characteristics which
parted from the Castilian culture at certain points and turned to the
old fount of the Aztec racial influence. She was more profou