Narciso Bassols  Narciso Bassols García (October 22, 1897 – July 24, 1959) was a Mexican lawyer, socialist politician, ambassador to France, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, and professor of law at the National University of Mexico. He co-founded the Popular Party (), and the League of Political Action (). Bassols is most noted for his role in socializing the country's public education system. Narciso Bassols, born in Tenango del Valle, Estado de México, was an atheist and the nephew of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. As author of the Agrarian Law of 1927, Bassols fought for agrarian reform and is noted as stating of the long suffering Mayan people: ""hundreds of infamies, deceptions, Socialist mystifications, mass murders, immortal and ostentatious corruptions, banquets of bureaucrats, and Roman orgies all practiced by Socialist compañeros."" Narciso Bassols presence at National Autonomous University of Mexico () (UNAM) began in 1920 when he attended the University in pursuit of a law degree. Prior to achieving his degree in 1931, he was given the position of Director of the UNAM Law School in 1928. As Director, Bassols attempted to implement a tri-semester system, which the student body rebelled against, forcing Bassols to resign. His interaction with UNAM continued as he is credited with founding of the National School of Economics, the details of which are contested by Daniel Cosío Villegas, a fellow UNAM graduate who claims credit in his own autobiography. In 1931, at age 35, Bassols took position of Secretary of Public Education () By accepting this position, Bassols became the first Marxist to hold a ministerial office in Mexico. Bassols, in addition to other changes to the education system, began to alter the manner in which school prepared rural students. Bassols argued ""a hungry Indian cannot be turned into a good scholar, and, furthermore, his studies only have value in so far as they aid him completely to transform his economic life"". Bassols believed that schools should rely less on the classics of Dewey, and more on practical skills and technical knowledge. Motivated partially by the onset of world recession in 1929, Bassols felt a greater emphasis should be placed on the teachings of better production methods for satisfaction of local needs. To accomplish this he began integrating the already existing normal schools, agricultural centers, and cultural missions into unitary "Regional Peasant Schools."