In this article, Mexican anthropologist Manuel Gamio argues that despite the abundant natural resources and the skill of its workers, Mexico’s industry fails to expand due to the preferential treatment given to foreign products over nationally produced goods. Gamio explains that after the nineteenth century, modern European industry supplanted traditional Mexican production. Attempts to produce previously imported products, such as paper, beer, and shoes, often required the purchase of foreign machinery. Gamio argues that Mexico should focus on producing and exporting its traditional ceramics, tapestries, and clothing instead of replicating European products. Gamio does not propose that modern development be excluded from Mexico, but that it should instead contribute to the formation of an industry that fuses current technology with local knowledge and tradition. In other words, the author suggests that there be the creation of a reciprocal flow of ideas and industry between Mexico and Europe.

Manuel Gamio (1883–1960) was a leading Mexican anthropologist, archaeologist, and sociologist. He was also a proponent of the indigenismo movement, which advocated the appreciation and preservation of indigenous South American cultures, and fought for rights and improvements in the quality of living for indigenous people. At age nineteen, Gamio abandoned his study of engineering to work on a rubber plantation owned by his family. On the plantation he learned Nahuatl from indigenous workers and became interested in the study of native Mexican cultures. Gamio began studying anthropology and earned a PhD under the supervision of Anthropologist Franz Boas at Columbia University. He returned to Mexico in 1910 during the Mexican Revolution, and founded the Escuela Internacional de Arqueología y Etnología Americana. From 1913 to 1916, he served the Mexican Ministry of Education as inspector general of archaeological monuments. During this period he performed fieldwork throughout the Valley of Mexico. In 1922, he became the first anthropologist to examine the city of Teotihuacan. Applying Boas’s theories of cultural relativism to his study, Gamio argued for the need for a greater understanding of indigenous culture and practices in context. Gamio’s findings influenced the Mexican revolutionary governmental policies with regard to issues affecting the indigenous population of Mexico, such as land distribution, education reform, and social services. In 1916, Gamio published the book, Forjando patria: pro nacionalismo [Forging a Fatherland], which traced the development of anthropological and archaeological practice in Mexico, and advocated for greater efforts at the assimilation of indigenous Mexicans. The essay, “La industria nacional,” forms part of Forjando patria: pro nacionalismo. In the essay, Gamio applies his background as an anthropologist to formulate a solution to the decline of Mexican industry in the face of an influx of foreign products.