bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Positivism in Mexico
Authors: Reinhardt Kurt F.
Published: July 2006

At a time when Positivism and “the scientific method” are still—with some notable exceptions—the great shibboleths of North American education on all levels and in almost every department of the curriculum, including the “humanities,” it is particularly enlightening to learn of (if not by) the experiences of a neighboring nation where Positivism was for several decades the official political philosophy of a dictatorial régime and, by government decree, the universally taught philosophy of education.
The Contribution of the Franciscan College of Ocopa in Peru to the Geographical Exploration of South America
Authors: Arbesmann Rudolph
Published: July 2006

The expulsion of the Society of Jesus from Spain and its colonies in 1767 was a serious blow to the missions in Mexico and in Central and South America. Not everywhere, however, did the disappearance of the Jesuit missionaries from the scenes of their labors result in the collapse of the missions. The Franciscans, who had been among the pioneer missionaries of Peru and had played a prominent part in carrying the Cross into the most remote wilds of South America, came to the rescue in many places, and, efficiently and successfully, carried on the work of their predecessors. This is true not only with regard to the chief aim of their missionary activity—the Christianization and civilization of their converts — but also with regard to the important task of geographical exploration. Eduard Pöppig, the pupil of the great Alexander von Humboldt, unquestionably a witness above suspicion, who, during his extensive voyages of discovery in South America from 1827 to 1832, followed the mission trails of the Franciscans in Peru, makes the following judgment on their activity: “However well the Jesuits contributed to the civilization of the plain Maynas, however untiring they have been in throwing the first light upon the geography of the confluences of the Marañón (that is, of that part of the Amazon which flows within the Peruvian borders), yet their endeavours are not without counterpart. The Franciscans, probably less favored by the circumstances of time, began their work almost a century later than the former, but the results of their labors, although they lie in ruins, were not smaller, and today still fill us with admiration.”
Literary Contributions of Catholics in Nineteenth-Century Mexico
Authors: Steck Francis Borgia
Published: July 2006

A New era in the history of nineteenth-century Mexico began with the collapse of the Second Empire in 1867 and the re-founding of the Republic. Naturally, the first decade or so of this new era were years of transition. Then followed what is correctly termed the Díaz era, ending in 1910 with the overthrow of President Porfirio Díaz who for so many years, beginning in 1876, controlled the political affairs of Mexico and by his policy of peace, as González Peña points out, made it possible for Mexican literature to flower as it never had flowered before. For the Church, too, despite the existing “Reform” laws, the policy of Diaz meant comparative peace and greater freedom of action in promoting the common good of the nation. Correspondingly, as might be expected, Catholic “conservatives” in matters of religion began to feel more at ease also in the temple of Mexican culture and participated with renewed enthusiasm in the literary life of their native land.
The Brazilian Negro
Authors: Saunders J. V. D.
Published: July 2006

An adequate comprehension of Brazilian institutions, history, economics, and other aspects of national life could be but with great difficulty acquired without a consideration of the role played by the Negro in the development of the Brazilian nation. His influence has been far-reaching, encompassing the major social institutions; and his impress is to be found in virtually every phase of the culture. Although originating from a wide diversity of African nations with distinctive cultural backgrounds, he has received as well as given culturally, and is distinctively Brazilian.

In this paper the Negro in Brazil will be discussed from three different points of view: the demographic; the historical; and the social.
Sir Lionel Carden's Proposed Agreement on Central America, 1912
Authors: Scholes Walter V.
Published: July 2006

As American economic interests expanded in Central America in the early twentieth century, many British representatives concluded that the Foreign Office would have to devise some method to protect existing British investments against American encroachment. When Secretary of State Knox visited Central America in 1912, he and Sir Lionel E. G. Carden, the British Minister to Central America, discussed Central American affairs when they met in Guatemala on March 16. Knox could scarcely have been very sympathetic as Carden expounded the British point of view, for the Department of State believed that the greatest obstacle to the success of its policy in Central America was none other than the British Minister. As early as April, 1910, Knox had unsuccessfully tried to have Carden transferred from his post; the attempt failed because Sir Edward Grey backed up his Minister.
Geographical Ideas and the Conquest of Venezuela
Authors: Friede Juan
Published: July 2006

The geographical configuration of a territory undoubtedly has great influence on events there. Geography guides migration, decides the economic life of the region, weakens or strengthens its people, and opens or closes the roads to cultural influences and to foreign invasions.

On the other hand the influence of “false geography,” that is the mistaken ideas of the location of a certain territory, carried on by tradition penetrates the minds of people and lures them to attempt enterprises they would not try otherwise. And even though these projects originate in erroneous, objectively false concepts, they still produce important historical events of decisive importance.
Spanish Influence on Early American Poetry
Authors: Stimson Frederick S.
Published: July 2006

Driven by a spirit of nationalism and romanticism and stimulated by certain literary sources, many of North America's first poets, those of the revolutionary, national, and early romantic periods of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (until ca. 1830) sought inspiration in the Hispanic world. There they found some seven themes for verses, which today, with the possible exception of Freneau's and Bryant's, may seem of questionable aesthetic value. But because of these poets' interpretation of and surprisingly great concern for things Spanish, their works are of considerable historical interest.
Colonial Mexico's Two Imprints in English
Authors: Burrus Ernest J.
Published: July 2006

Bibliographers record only two items in English out of the thousands of publications that appeared in New Spain from 1539 to 1821: (1) a 1784 English translation of the sixth article of the 1783 peace treaty concluded between Spain and England, and (2) a brief catechism of Catholic doctrine published in 1787 or shortly after. Both appeared in Mexico City. I have found no reference to any other imṕrint in English issuing from the Mexican colonial presses. I consulted the first in the splendid collection of Señor Martín Carrancedo of Mexico City and the second in the library of the Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus in Rome.
Early Jesuit Missionary Methods in the Philippines
Authors: Cushner Nicholas P.
Published: July 2006

In 1565, when Spain was still on the ascending arc of its colonial ventures, the first permanent settlement in the Philippines was made. The subsequent decades witnessed, not only a military conquest by Spanishconquistadores, but a spiritual conquest as well. The efforts of Salcedo, Legazpi and the others were, so to speak, the first stage, ushering in the missionaries, “… the real conquerors, who without any other arms than their virtues, gained over the good will of the islanders … and gave the king two millions more of submissive and Christian subjects.”
The Clergy and the Enlightenment in Latin America: An Analysis
Authors: Schmitt Karl
Published: July 2006

Several currents of “enlightened” doctrine ran swiftly and strongly through Latin America by the end of the eighteenth century. Scholarly work of the past two decades obviates the need to prove that the new philosophy, the new science, and the new politics found acceptance in the Spanish world. Forbidden books made their way into Latin America with relative ease, the Inquisition proved ineffective in preventing the spread of new ideas, and the Spanish crown itself not only promoted useful knowledge but encouraged “ modern ” philosophical studies. Aside from special studies on the Enlightenment, however, the more general histories of Latin America too frequently take the position, implicit if not explicit, that the Catholic clergy, monolithic in their obscurantism, constituted the primary obstacle to the complete victory of “enlightened” ideas. It appears to me that this point of view is somewhat inaccurate. This paper holds as a thesis, rather, that the clergy were seriously split on practically all aspects of the Enlightenment. Some supported, some opposed, and many were indifferent to or ignorant of “ enlightened ” notions. The degree of support or opposition varied, and not all who opposed or supported the movement, supported or opposed it in toto.
A Seventeenth-Century Encomienda: Chimaltenango, Guatemala.
Authors: Simpson Lesley Byrd
Published: July 2006

Captain Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán, whose proud boast it was (as he never tires of reminding us) that he was the great-great-grandson of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in his erratic, rambling, and frequently delightful Recordación Florida (c. 1690), has this to say about the ancient town that will be the subject of this article:

Three smooth and pleasant leagues north of this City of Goathemala, on a road thickly studded with villages and tile yards, upon a high eminence in the midst of a wide and marvelous plain, but so accessible and gently sloping that, despite the many carts, the journey can be made quite comfortably in a carriage, lies the town of Chimaltenango (called by the Indians, Bocco). This broad and smiling plain is always clothed with pleasant and fertile meadows, and with rich and extensive cornfields. It is more than sixteen leagues in circumference, of rich and very fecund soil, and produces in abundance, corn, chickpeas, beans, capons and chickens, as well as other things… . The Indians of the district do not cultivate other crops, but maintain themselves with what it yields, so that the people of its villages are plentifully supplied with everything, according to their own way of living, and have no need to seek food elsewhere… . On the contrary, the people from other villages come to their market to buy whatever they lack … , so that for three leagues roundabout (the distance to which their commerce extends) there is as much provender as one finds in the abundant markets of Goathemala City.
Comments on the Evangelization of the New World
Authors: D’olwer L. Nicolau
Published: July 2006

Dr. Silvio Zavala is to be congratulated on his draft chapter dealing with the history and influence of religion in the New World. The topic covers the planting of Christianity on American soil and, under its influence, the birth of a new society that was to be Christian in its institutions, in its culture, and, for several centuries, in all outward manifestations of its thought. In summarizing so broad a subject in few pages, Dr. Zavala leads us to ponder many extremely important points. The pages that follow are the product of a good deal of thinking, with regard both to the provisional text and to the subject in general. What a pity that meditation does not always succeed in fully clarifying our ideas and in completely dispelling our doubts!
Religion in French America
Authors: Maheux Arthur
Published: July 2006

This paper is limited to the French-speaking Canadians; it does not include those who live in the United States, in the West Indies, in Latin America. In time it applies mainly to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The cultural foundation of the French Canadians is rooted in the sixteenth century. Most of the settlers who came from Old France to New France had been born in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, or were sons of these.

Their culture was made of a rich folklore still alive, of the laws then called the Coutume de Paris, which survive in the civil law still applied in the province of Quebec, of social attitudes which for a long time were characterized by the seignorial system, of ideas about education, of scientific curiosity then awakening in Europe, and of religious attitudes.
Relations of the Negro with Christianity in Portuguese America
Authors: Ribeiro René
Published: July 2006

The African came to know Christianity, in this part of the New World, as a system of values (the Christian ideas), and as a normative structure (the Catholic Church). These two were interrelated, although frequently in conflict with other values and other structures emerging from the social system which was established as a consequence of Portuguese colonization. In his quality as slave he was integrated into an inter-relational combine which included new forms of ecologic adaptation, of economy, of inter-personal relationships and their regulation, on a rural basis, and of a slave-holding, latifundiarian and senhorial orientation.
The Dutch Calvinists and Religious Toleration in Portuguese America
Authors: De Mello José Antônio Gonsalves
Published: July 2006

This brief communication will try to show the attitude of the Dutch Calvinists towards the other religious groups in Portuguese America, during the period of the occupation by the Dutch West India Company of northeast Brazil, from 1630 to 1654. At the time of their greatest expansion, the Dutch controlled all the coastal region from Sergipe to Maranhão.

Liberty of conscience had been announced beforehand for all Christians and Jews of the captaincy of Pernambuco in Brazil, which that company proposed to conquer. De facto, in the “Secret Instructions to General Lonck,” commandant of the squadron which took possession of that captaincy, instructions dated Middelburg, August 18, 1629, this liberty of conscience was immediately promised, although, at the same time, it was determined that “all the Jesuits, fathers and friars and other religious must be embarked with all their baggage.” Liberty of conscience was again promised by the Dutch in a manifesto addressed in 1632 to the owners of the sugar-mills and the inhabitants of Pernambuco, and, in 1635, when at the capture of Paraíba not only was this liberty promised but also liberty of cult.
Influence of Religion in the West Indies
Authors: Goveia Elsa V.
Published: July 2006

The general framework of the provisional chapter appears to rest upon discussion of the expansion of European Christianity in the New World, of factors which influenced the course of this religious expansion, and of the influence which, in its turn, the Christian religion exercised on the new society. The emphasis of the entire discussion falls, therefore, upon Christianity, and the religious heritages of the Indians and Negroes are noticed only as providing elements absorbed by a syncretism with Christianity.
The Painter, Mateo Mexía, and his Works in the Convent of San Francisco de Quito
Authors: de Mesa José , Gisbert Teresa
Published: July 2006

The religious painting of Ecuador started very early. In fact, the first Franciscan friars who accompanied the conquistadores brought the visual arts to this new territory. Fr. Jodoco Ricke de Marselaer, with another priest, Fr. Pedro Goseal, or Gosseal, founded a school of art in 1534.

In 1553 this school was raised by Fr. Francisco de Morales to the category of a college with the title of Colegio de San Andrés. In this school, until its extinction in 1675, a great part of the painters of the región were educated, not only Indians but also Creoles.

The three main influences which molded this Quito school of painting were the following: It was born under the Flemish style at the Franciscan school of San Andrés; then it was influenced by the Spanish painting of the second half of the sixteenth century, and lastly it absorbed the teachings of two Italian masters. The influence of these three currents was felt in various ways: the Flemish appeared through the first Franciscans and through the engravings they constantly used in the composition of paintings; the Spanish appeared more directly in the style of the paintings themselves, and the Italian current, the last and most powerful, was the one which triumphed in all of America at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The Quesadas of Cuba: Biographers and Editors of José Martí Y Pérez
Authors: Gray Richard B.
Published: July 2006

Students of the life and writings of José Martí y Pérez (1853–1895), the National Hero of Cuba, will be forever indebted to the lifelong efforts of Marti’s close friend, fellow revolutionist, and “literary heir,” Gonzalo de Quesada y Aróstegui, and to those of his son, Gonzalo de Quesada y Miranda. Through painstaking research and editing they have preserved, over a period of nearly seventy years, the record of Martí’s prodigious writings as a revolutionist, journalist, novelist, dramatist, and poet. It is no exaggeration to say that most of the writing on this remarkable Cuban is derived from their carefully edited collections of his works. Gonzalo de Quesada y Aróstegui, as one of the architects of Cuban independence, Cuba’s first Minister to the United States, and major participant in the early International Conferences of American States, is deserving of special attention by scholars in the Americas. Now that a third official edition of Marti’s writings is nearing completion by Gonzalo de Quesada y Miranda in Cuba, a biographical and bibliographical sketch of the Quesadas, father and son, is in order.
José del Valle's Unfinished “Diario de mi Viaje de Guatemala a México en 1822 ”
Authors: Bumgartner Louis E.
Published: July 2006

José del Valle (1776-1834) distinguished himself as a royal servant, as a scholar, and as a leader of the Federation of Central America. Loyal to the crown until the last minute, he gracefully accepted independence (September 15, 1821), and his political agility put him in a position that allowed him to help write the declaration that made the Kingdom of Guatemala free. He immediately became a member of the provisional government and then provided leadership until Mexico annexed Central America (January 5, 1822). After the annexation, the town council of Tegucigalpa elected him to the constituent congress of the Mexican Empire.
The Birthdays of the California Missions
Authors: Bowman J. N.
Published: July 2006

Since 1773 various official and semi-official lists of the California missions with their founding dates have been compiled, but the lists do not all agree with one another nor with the founding reports. This paper is an attempt at a critical and analytical study of the founding dates based on the founding reports, on the annual reports (estados) of the individual missions, on the beginning dates (comenzadas) on the title pages of the parochial books, on the traditional lists, and on the factors involved in the founding of the establishments. In the 1920's Father Engelhardt made some study of these lists in his various histories of the missions, but some of the findings may be questioned.
The Land, People, and Problems of America in Eighteenth-Century Spanish Literature
Authors: Tudisco Anthony
Published: July 2006

Twentieth-Century historians accept the fact that history can no longer be viewed merely as past politics; it must now embrace all aspects of national life and thought—total history. In the study of a colonial empire, the social scientist must seek his sources not only in the colony but also in the mother country. The enumeration and analysis of American themes in the literature of imagination of eighteenth-century Spain can open new panoramas to the student of history since these themes reflect the ideas of the peninsular Spaniard and might help explain the reactions which they caused in the colonies.
The Mexican Agricultural Society, 1879–1914
Authors: Dusenberry William H.
Published: July 2006

Prior to 1914 the most notable agricultural organization in Mexico was the Mexican Agricultural Society (Sociedad Agricola Mexicana), founded at a large convention of farmers and stockmen in Mexico City, on September 26, 1879. During the greater part of this period, Mexico was enjoying sufficient political stability, with Porfirio Díaz as President, to make possible the maintenance of such an association. Destined to become a powerful institution, it aimed “to promote the improvement and aggrandizement of agriculture in the country, and to defend its legitimate interests.” It was intended to benefit both stockmen and farmers who tilled the soil.
Fray Pedro De Aguado, O.F.M.–Date of Baptism
Authors: Morón Guillermo
Published: July 2006

Anyone interested in early New World historians recognizes the difficulties encountered in reconstructing the lives of those scholars who, in the midst of wars or in the peace of convents, or even enjoying the fruits of an office in Spain, wrote books about the events in the New World. Many of these scholars were conscious that they were writing about tremendous happenings in the history of mankind and, weighed down by such responsibility, took little care in leaving any traces about their own lives. They were writing works of history, not autobiography. Investigators into this early New World history have been obliged to rely on conjectures concerning the personal life of these authors when the archives produced no documentation or when their patience has been exhausted before the enormous task of classifying millions of pages written by the indifferent hand of the salaried copyist or by the pen of authors or partakers in the colonizing activities in America.
Labor and the Theory of the Mexican Revolution under Lázaro Cárdenas
Authors: Ashby Joe C.
Published: July 2006

Since Mexico now seems to be the key nation in Latin America in the implementation of President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress, it becomes even more pressing that we in the United States understand the nature of the Mexican social order. As a point of departure for this effort, one might well begin by considering the basis for contemporary industrial and political development of Mexico as formulated in the years 1934-1940 under Mexico'sNew Dealof Lázaro Cárdenas. Sanford Mosk noted, “… what went on during the time of Cárdenas has had an indirect effect on the subsequent industrial development.” Or, as the United States Tariff Commission claimed, the reorientation of Mexico's economic and social policy has been an important part of her political life since 1910. The new program was given impetus by the Constitution of 1917, which contained important provisions for agrarian reform and for the protection of labor. Yet, aggressive implementation of the new policy began under president Lazaro Cardenas with the inauguration of the Six-Year Plan in 1934.
The Inquisition and the Indians of New Spain: A Study in Jurisdictional Confusion
Authors: Greenleaf Richard E.
Published: July 2006

The question of the jurisdiction of the Holy Office of the Inquisition over the native populations in New Spain and the rest of the empire has been one of controversy and confusion since the earliest days of the conquest. The perplexing problem of enforcing orthodoxy among the recently converted Indians was linked with the debate over whether or not the Indian was a rational human being who had the capacity to comprehend the Roman Catholic faith and enjoy the full sacramental system of the Church. As in the case of the rationality controversy, the position of the Indian vis-à-vis the Holy Office of the Inquisition was not resolved articulately, and after the first decades of the spiritual conquest the question took on added importance as the Mexican clergy discovered recurrent idolatry and religious syncretism among their flocks.
California Indian Art
Authors: Baer Kurt
Published: July 2006

During the past fifty years much scattered writing has appeared about the arts of the neophyte Indians resident in the California missions. But these arts: the sculpture and carving in stone and wood, the work in metal, the paintings on the walls and on canvas, most of these are not truly Indian. The California Indians were on the whole at a cultural level far below that of the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, to say nothing of those of Mexico. They were as primitive and backward as any in the western hemisphere. They had no writing, they had little social organization, they knew nothing of metals. Their housing was either huts of rushes or caves; they wore little or no clothing. Their arts were unusually primitive; pottery was almost unknown. Basketry, or the weaving of baskets, was the only craft that reached a considerable development, and the patterns and designs throughout the state are comparable to those of any Indian culture. Several techniques of weaving were used and the decorations comprised designs often using several colors. Sometimes shell mosaics were applied to the baskets to create more interesting patterns.
Caldera of New Spain: Frontier Justice and Mestizo Symbol
Authors: Powell Philip Wayne
Published: July 2006

In any study of extensive documentation of the past, one inevitably encounters personalities whose recorded actions stimulate speculation about the unknowable portions of their lives and their impact upon larger historical events. Such a one, to me, is the man called Miguel Caldera. For some years, and through many thousands of pages of Mexican frontier documentation, I have been increasingly intrigued by the story of this mestizo captain. He is omnipresent in the official papers of a critical phase of North American frontier history. His deeds—and their setting—have a dramatic, symbolistic quality which entitles him, I think, to recognition as one of the continent's most significant frontiersmen. Hence this present attempt—brief and incidental though it is—to “define” Miguel Caldera and his measure of significance.
The Mexican Government and the Mission Indians of Upper California, 1821–1835
Authors: Hutchinson C. Alan
Published: July 2006

The Newly independent government of Mexico became concerned in 1821 about the lack of progress made by the Franciscans in preparing the California mission Indians to take their place in the new nation. The government feared that Upper California might well be lost to the encroachments of the Russians or the Americans if it were not settled by a thriving community of Mexican citizens able to exploit its great natural resources. Influenced by the new egalitarian and humanitarian concepts of the day, the authorities felt that the mission Indians were more like serfs than citizens. Unimpressed by the arguments of the experienced Franciscan Fathers that the Indians would either revert to their wild life in the hills or be enslaved by the white settlers if they were prematurely released from the missions, the government decided to instigate a series of experiments, reminiscent of those made in the days of Father Bartolomé de las Casas, to see what actually would happen. A program was begun involving extensive research in the culture and civilization of the California Indians.
United States Commercial Pressures for a Nicaragua Canal in the 1890’s
Authors: Scheips Paul J.
Published: July 2006

There existed in the United States in the late nineteenth century a strong conviction that the Nicaragua route utilizing the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua was the only satisfactory route for an interoceanic canal across the American Isthmus. Not only had Lesseps earlier favored this route for a lock canal, but the activity of the French interests in Panama, and then their failure there, had reinforced in the minds of many United States citizens their old desire for a canal across Nicaragua. But the United States interest in a Nicaragua canal had never been dependent upon what happened in Panama; in the early 1880’s, as the French began work in Panama, and later as well, sentiment in the United States favored a Nicaragua canal even though the French should ultimately succeed, for influential persons in the United States—President Hayes and General Grant among them—feared foreign monopoly of a single interoceanic waterway at a time when they had come to regard our free access to such a transit as vital to the national interest.
Colin Ross in South America, 1919-1920
Authors: Beck Earl R.
Published: July 2006

Before he met death by his own hand in 1946, Colin Ross was one of Germany's most famous journalist-travelers. No less than fifteen books and a host of articles described his visits to countries from the Arctic to the Pacific and Haha Whenua to Africa, “ mit Kind und Kegel und Kamera ”—“ bag, baggage, and camera.” His greatest renown—or notoriety—dated from the Nazi era. Hitler himself said, “A man like Colin Ross, for example, gave me infinitely more precious information on the subject” of the Far East than all of the professional diplomats. Ross was, indeed, regarded with some exaggeration as “ one of Hitler's foremost geopoliticians,” and, probably with even greater exaggeration, as a paid spy for the Third Reich. When he visited South America in 1919-1920, however, it was suspicions of Bolshevist rather than Nazi inclinations which placed obstacles in the path of high ambitions.
The Cortés Codex of Vienna and Emperor Ferdinand I
Authors: Borah Woodrow
Published: July 2006

The publication of a handsome facsimile edition of the Cortés Codex in the National Library at Vienna makes it peculiarly appropriate to raise again the long-disputed question why the volume was prepared and what the circumstances were that brought it to the Imperial Library at Vienna. The story of how the codex came to the attention of scholars is well known. In preparing his History of America, William Robertson hunted for Cortés' first letter in Spain without success. He then thought that since Charles V was in the Germanies when the letter arrived in Spain, it might have been forwarded to him and thereafter deposited in the Hapsburg Imperial Library in Vienna. Through the good offices of Sir Robert Murray, then British ambassador at the imperial court, permission was obtained from Empress Maria Theresa for a search not merely for the letter but also for any papers of interest for the History of America. The search did not bring to light the lost first letter but did uncover the Cortés Codex, and in it the letter of the city council of Veracruz written at the same time as Cortés' first letter. The codex contains also a copy of the fifth carta de relatión of Cortés, unknown until then but now known to exist in other manuscript versions. Since Robertson's day, the Cortés Codex has been consulted continually. It has served as the basis for verifying the texts of those relaciones for which there are other copies, and is the sole source for the letter of the city council of Veracruz, which is usually published as the first carta de relatión.
Matías Romero and Congressional Opposition to Seward's Policy Toward the French Intervention in Mexico
Authors: Goldwert Marvin
Published: July 2006

During the period of the French intervention in Mexico (1862-1867), the United States Secretary of State, William H. Seward, pursued a policy which historians have aptly termed “ cautious moderation ” and “ masterly inactivity.” Caught between the fear of French recognition of the Confederacy, or even a French-Confederate alliance, and outright war with France, Seward steered a middle course. The French government was informed that the United States disapproved of intervention in Mexico and that a monarchy established by external force held no promise of permanency. But this was done in such a way as to avoid the active antagonism of France toward a Union plagued by civil war. Although at no time was the Monroe doctrine invoked prior to 1865, these mild but consistent protests paved the way for a firmer policy toward France.
The Caravajal Visitation: First Spanish Survey of Michoacán
Authors: Warren Fintan
Published: July 2006

During the conquest of New Spain the Tarascan kingdom of Michoacán was one of the richest areas to submit to Spanish control without significant resistance. Shortly after the capitulation of Tenochtitlán the native king of Michoacán, called the Cazonci, exchanged ambassadors of peace and friendship with Henando Cortés. The Spanish commander gladly accepted the submission of this strong Indian nation which had repelled all attempts at conquest by the Mexican Empire.
B. Eguiara y Eguren’s Entry of Father Plaza’s Writings
Authors: Burrus Ernest J.
Published: July 2006

Cathechismus quo rudimenta christianae religionis tenerae aetati traderentur, quem jussu Concilii Provincialis Mexicani composuit, vidimusque mss. in Actis eiusdem Concilii apud Archivum nostrae Metropolitanae Ecclesiae asservatis tomo 1 a folio 445 usque ad 455, exstatque etiam tomo 3 a folio 20 usque ad 33, Episcoporum Concilio assistentium subscriptione munitus et signatus die 16 Octobris anno 1585.
Pre-Baptismal Instruction and the Administration of Baptism in the Philippines during the Sixteenth Century
Authors: Phelan John Leddy
Published: July 2006

Magellan’s abortive attempts to introduce baptism among the natives of the island of Cebu during the month of April of 1521 and the more successful efforts of the Spanish missionaries to preach the Gospel following the arrival of the Legazpi-Urdaneta expedition at Cebu on February 13, 1565 occurred during the initial and the culminating chapters respectively of the “spiritual conquest” of those native peoples of America and the Far East who were to enter the orbit of Spanish culture. During April of 1521, as Magellan was transforming himself into a lay missionary, Hernán Cortés was making the final preparations for the siege of Tenochtitlán. Its successful issue on August 13, 1521 laid the foundation not only of the Spanish Empire in the New World, but also it provided the Spaniards with the base of operations from which eventually they could extend their power to the Philippines. It was Cortés’ conquest of the Aztec Confederation in 1521 which enabled the Catholic missionaries of Spain to undertake one of the most extensive expansions in the history of the Christian Church. In 1565 the Spanish Church for its Philippine enterprise was able to draw upon a vast storehouse of missionary experience acquired in both North and South America. Magellan’s apostolic labors, ill-starred and brief though they were, exemplify many of the permanent features of the Spanish missionary enterprise. The Magellan episode also illustrates how his successors after 1565 did in fact profit from the Circumnavigator’s errors of judgment and tactics.
The Franciscan Teachers of Bernardo O’Higgins
Authors: Eyzaguirre Jaime
Published: July 2006

The evangelization of the Chilean natives, which was always a motive of special interest to the kings of Spain, received new impetus in the last years of the Austrian dynasty. By the royal decree of May 11, 1697, Charles II ordained the formation of a council for the missions of Chile and the establishment of a college in that country to educate the sons of the caciques of Arauco. Don Tomás Marín de Poveda, the governor, had the responsibility of putting into execution the commands of the monarch. He established the council and from its meetings resulted the foundation in Chilian of a college for natives.
Civil Congregation of the Western Chinantec, New Spain, 1599–1603
Authors: Cline Howard F.
Published: July 2006

CIVIL congregation of the Indians in New Spain was one phase of the continuing program which Spanish colonial officials had been conducting since earliest days in the New World to civilize and Christianize American native groups by urbanizing them. Application of this doctrine to New Spain as a whole in the years which began in the seventeenth century has been discussed elsewhere. Here the purpose is to fit the general procedures to a specific case by describing in detail the congregation process as it affected San Pedro Yolox, a small center of Chinantec Indian hamlets in the Sierra de Juarez, lying in the modern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Some Contemporary Views of the Monroe Doctrine: The United States Press in 1823
Authors: Falk Stanley L.
Published: July 2006

RESIDENT James Monroe’s message of December 2, 1823 to the United States Congress was greeted with a national acclaim and approval seldom accorded the pronouncements of the American chief executive. The statement of foreign policy—since become known as the Monroe Doctrine—embodied in this message met with almost unanimous praise. “It would indeed be difficult,” noted Addington, the British chargé in Washington, “in a country composed of elements so various, and liable on all subjects to opinions so conflicting, to find more perfect unanimity than has been displayed on every side on this particular point.”
The Relation Between the Noticias Secretas and the Viaje a la America Meridional
Authors: Merino Luis
Published: July 2006

IT can be readily understood that before any study can be made regarding the truth of the statement concerning conditions in Peru in the Noticias secretas a detailed examination should first be completed of the Voyage to South America, also written by Ulloa. All of the information contained in the Noticias was gathered while on this trip and such an examination should yield valuable clues concerning the places visited by the two scientists, the people with whom they spoke and the length of time spent in each region. In this way, the student should be able to form an opinion concerning how much of the material in the Noticias is first hand and how much was gathered either from other people by word of mouth or from written reports found in the archives of the various governmental agencies. At the same time, such an examination should yield a list of informants, who are known to have given information to the Spanish travellers.
The Conselho Ultramarino’s First Legislative Attempts to Solve the Indian Question in America, 1643–1647
Authors: Kiemen Mathias C.
Published: July 2006

The Conselho Ultramarino in Portugal was created by King João IV in 1642 although there is some doubt that it functioned effectively until the following year in December. Certain it is that the king despatched an alvará under date of December 22, 1643, directed to all parts of the empire, telling all officials to send directly to the Council all correspondence concerning overseas provinces.

The first order of business for the fledgling Council was to request the king to clear up certain vague remarks in the founding regimento concerning their power. This regimento of 1642 had been based upon that given by Philip II in 1604 at the founding of the short-lived Conselho da India but contained important omissions, which seemed to lessen the scope of the new council and led to innumerable questions of authority between the Conselho and the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens in matters ecclesiastical.
The Coca Debate in Colonial Peru
Authors: Gagliano Joseph A.
Published: July 2006

Spanish preoccupation with what seemed to be the inexhaustible mineral resources of the Andes contributed to the collapse of the highly developed agrarian economy of the Incas. The disruption of stable food production and the end of Inca political authority, which had prohibited the indiscriminate chewing of coca, led to the extensive use of the leaf among the Indians as a stimulant, a nutritive substitute, and a fetish. Within a generation after the conquest, several missionaries began to oppose the use of coca by the indigenous population. The leaf soon became the center of a controversy in the Viceroyalty of Peru, which endured in varying degrees of intensity for nearly a century.
Notes on the Franciscans in the Huasteca Region of Mexico
Authors: Meade Joaquín
Published: July 2006

The huasteca region in northeastern Mexico covers sections of the six states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Puebla, and Querétaro. Its boundaries are approximately the following: to the north the river Soto la Marina, known in the sixteenth century as the Rio de las Palmas; to the south the Rio Cazones; to the east the Gulf of Mexico and to the west the mountainous section of the eastern Sierra Madre.

The Christian conversion of the Huasteca began, no doubt, in 1518 with the expedition of Juan de Grijalva, who actually sailed as far north as Tuxpan and Tamiahua in the Huastec region of the state of Veracruz. John Diaz, a priest, accompanied this expedition. In 1519 Francisco de Garay, then in Jamaica, sent Alonso Alvarez de Pineda to Tampico and the Río Panuco, where he stayed some time and made contact with the Huastecs who belong to the great Maya family.
Research Opportunities in Modern Latin America: I. Mexico and Central America
Authors: Naylor Robert A.
Published: July 2006

If by opportunity we mean “a favorable juncture of circumstances” then the picture which emerges is not exactly propitious. The Latin American Conference held this year in Los Angeles reflected the concern about the post World War II decline of interest in Latin America and the prevailing indifference of students, the public, and many academic institutions toward Latin America, past and present. Contributing to this general apathy were both the general cultural orientation of the United States and Latin America toward Europe, and the general shift of American emphasis after 1945 to “crisis areas” which reduced Latin America to a minor position since it appeared to be neither threatened nor threatening in the polarized world. (In this respect, Castro remains our greatest benefactor.) Furthermore, the more obvious availability of funds, both public and private, for studies of these “crisis areas” tended to confirm the seeming unimportance of Latin America. The failure to attract the needed personnel, recognition, and support, coupled with the dissipation of current resources for the study of Latin America in the United States have, with few exceptions, prevented Latin American programs from developing momentum and visibility.
Sidelights on the Spanish Conquest of America
Authors: McMahon Dorothy
Published: July 2006

There could scarcely be an event of the magnitude of the Spanish discovery and conquest of a brand new world without its giving rise to a whole inundation of literature about the New World. For one thing, it really was a new world. Every detail reported about America had the same exotic appeal for the Spaniard of the day that an eye-witness account of life on another planet would have for us. Another reason for the great interest of the Spaniard in the happenings in America was his taste for greatness, for heroic deeds, a taste which he had developed and nurtured through the novels of chivalry so popular with all classes in Spain. It would be interesting to know to what extent the novels of chivalry influenced the psychology of the Spanish explorers and conquerors. Many of the feats accomplished in the New World bear comparison with feats described in the novels, and many of the chronicles and documents describing the conquest reveal attitudes and even turns of expression such as were often found in the novels of chivalry.
The Paraguayan “Jewel Box”
Authors: Dahl Victor C.
Published: July 2006

During one of the most brutal wars in modern times the combined forces of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay fought against and almost annihilated the Paraguayan nation. From 1865 to 1870 Paraguayans earned the world’s respect for their resistance to overwhelming invading forces, yet they endured hideous oppressions under a tryannical government. Although the United States then had little interest in Paraguay or direct involvement in the war and its issues, some valuable articles, including jewelry and money, deposited for safe-keeping in the United States legation in Asunción during the hostilities opened a lingering controversy that plagued the two countries’ relations for more than a half-century.
Observations on Latin American Constitutionalism
Authors: Busey James L.
Published: July 2006

Scholars are in substantial agreement that Latin American constitutionalism leaves much to be desired.

First, there is the wide gap between constitutional formulations and actual political practice. No one would contend that any constitution, Latin American or otherwise, corresponds exactly to reality. There are provisions in the United States Constitution which are no better observed than are those of the Latin American documents. Even so, there can be little doubt that the gulf between theory and reality is far wider in much of Latin America than it is in many other parts of the world. Though many provisions of other constitutions do not correspond to actual political practice, Latin American stipulations on significant principles of government are often so much at variance with reality as to be totally misleading for the description of their political systems. Professor Martin C. Needler puts it quite bluntly:

Quite clearly, many constitutional provisions are honored only in the breach; and yet great stress is placed upon constitutional forms and procedures, even where these mask political realities quite discordant with their intent.
Notes on the “Junta Phenomenon” and the “Military Regime” In Latin America With Special Reference to Peru, 1968-1972
Authors: Nunn Frederick M.
Published: July 2006

“Long before other organs of the state or private enterprise, the Army began to exercise effective influence on the progress of modernization and development of the country.”

Edgardo Mercado Jarrín, 1964

“What is the principal objective of the national census?” the uniformed colonels asked. From groups of primary and secondary school-teachers assembled for orientation purposes in preparation for Peru's first complete census in decades, that question evoked a number of reasoned responses during the weeks prior to census day, Sunday, June 4,1972.
Ancient and Colonial Zapotec and Mixtec Calendars: A Revisionist View
Authors: Cline Howard F. , Cline Mary W.
Published: July 2006

In 1966 José Alcina Franch published preliminary descriptions of a remarkable group of 29 Zapotec colonial calendars in the Archives of the Indies. As colonial material on Zapotec calendars has been nearly non-existent, this find is very important. Alcina Franch illustrated some folios and discussed the solar tropical year which Calendar 21 provides. He noted the provisional nature of his findings, and indicated that fuller publication would follow after further study. So far as the writer is aware this more definitive publication has not appeared.

Using techniques and approaches he developed in the course of a long and detailed comparative study of ancient and colonial Mesoamerican chronologies and calendars now nearly completed, the writer will extract further information from the material partially published by Alcina Franch.3 His data, even in their incomplete form, can be made to yield several significant results under such analysis, especially when the Zapotec is related to what is known about Mixtec calendrics. In the early stages the two cultures were nearly undifferentiated, and in ancient and colonial days shared a common tonalpohualli.
World War I and “Continental Solidarity”
Authors: Rosenberg Emily S.
Published: July 2006

Students of the hemispheric system have generally neglected the era of World War I, probably because no major inter-American conferences were held between 1910 and 1923. Yet the disparate reactions to the European conflict represented a crisis of “continental solidarity”; World War I gave rise to a potentially important challenge to United States leadership and helped shape future patterns of hemispheric relations. The war called forth two rival blocs—United States-Brazil and Mexico-Argentina. These blocs differed over more than war policy. Their rivalry reflected an inter-American power struggle, each side invoking “continental solidarity” to gain support from other American nations. The impact of World War I upon the inter-American system and, in particular, the Argentine attempt to convene a Latin American congress need fuller examination.