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The last quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed the beginning of Mexico's “Golden Age.” During this time Mexico received bounteous foreign capital, industry and agriculture flourished, railroads pushed their way south from the United States, the ancient reales de minas of the Spaniards reopened, and smelters began to “belch their yellow fumes into the desert air.” The valuable silver, gold, copper, lead, and zinc flowed north to feed the rapidly expanding commerce and industry ofthe United States, and many domestic products found a ready market abroad. The capital city was cleaned up and modernized, electric lights and streetcars were everywhere, and many new buildings arose, such as the elaborate Palace of Fine Arts. Porfirio Díaz, Mexico's president during these years, surrounded himself with able científicos, a group of brilliant lawyers and economists who “worshipped at the new and glittering shrine of Science and Progress” and who as cultivated men brought, along with Mexico's material improvements, cultural ornaments as well. They encouraged poetry, novels, art, and music, all of which thrived in Mexico City. The theatre was just as much a part of that cultural growth as the other arts. Beyond question the economic and cultural development of Mexico during the regime of Don Porfirio was great. |
