Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos’s The Cosmic Race (first published in 1925) has enjoyed both considerable prestige and criticism in academic circles concerned with Chicano/a/x studies, among others. Despite frequent debates concerning Vasconcelean mestizaje, few have considered how the relationship between eugenics, public hygiene, and antichinismo (anti-Chinese sentiment) in Mexico influenced mestizaje’s development in his work. Investigating this relationship in the first place solidifies claims concerning the exclusionary function of Vasconcelean mestizaje. The influence of eugenic discourses and hygienic practices is demonstrated by the explicit racial preferences that are manifested in Vasconcelos’s public art commissions as well as his writings. Yet, I contest Vasconcelean mestizaje’s proximity to whiteness, a term frequently construed broadly and often in relation to Anglo Europe, by tracing mestizaje’s historical development in relation to Chinese immigration and labor policies in Mexico. The status of whiteness in Vasconcelos’s work has implications for Chicana/o/x studies since keystone texts and theorists, such as Gloria Anzaldúa, are criticized for their appropriation of Vasconcelos due to his alleged privileging of whiteness. Fostering a deeper understanding of the relationship between racial categories and state development, I shed light on the how material relations augment the determinable content of racial categories such as whiteness.