bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Some Backgrounds of Latin-American Education
Authors: Lee Muna
Published: July 2006

From the very start, the School of San Francisco had close to one thousand students. Some were the children of the Spanish conquerors, but most were sons of Indian nobles. They received elementary instruction in religion and in the rudiments of learning. Later on came Latin and music. Vocational classes for adults, organized after a few years, turned out excellent artists and craftsmen, sculptors and stonecutters, painters and engravers, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers. A children’s hospital was operated in connection with the school.
Dom Rodrigo De Castel-Blanco and the Brazilian El Dorado, 1673–1682
Authors: Cardozo Manoel Da Silveira Soares
Published: July 2006

When, in the year 1670, Afonso Furtado de Castro do Rio de Mendonça became governor-general of Brazil, and assumed the responsibilities of the highest office in the colony, the search for El Dorado was already something of a recognized pursuit on the part of many government officials and of many enterprising colonists. The existence of rich deposits of gold, silver, and precious stones within the confines of Portuguese America was pretty generally taken for granted; and numerous people were periodically diverted from agriculture, which early formed the basis of much of colonial wealth, to follow the will-o’-the-wisp of hidden treasure into the wilderness. The appeal of the unknown was, of course, enormous, and the vision of El Dorado had become fixed in many minds, especially after the news of Spain’s good fortune in Peru and Terra Firma was spread. With geographical knowledge as piecemeal and as imperfect as it then was, it was no difficult matter for a credulous age to suppose that by penetrating the jungle areas westward from the sea the Portuguese might in some way tap the sources of Spain’s Andean mines.
The Franciscan Provinces of Spanish North America
Authors: Habig Marion A.
Published: July 2006

Although the Franciscan Province in the West Indies was the first in the New World, it was the Province founded in Mexico shortly after its conquest by Cortés that became the parent unit of most of the other Provinces in Spanish America. By its extraordinary missionary achievements it likewise set the pace for the work of the other Provinces. It would require much more than a few pages to present a mere outline of the history of the Franciscan mother Province of Spanish America; we can call attention only to some outstanding facts.
Father Marquette’s Place in American History
Authors: Steck Francis Borgia
Published: July 2006

To Judge from the numerous monuments erected to honor Father Marquette during the past century; the festive demonstrations held at intervals to pay tribute to his name; the prominence accorded him in textbooks and literary productions as discoverer and explorer; the naming for him of localities, social groups and commercial enterprises—to judge from all this, one must conclude that Marquette deserves to rank among the foremost celebrities in American history. Assuredly, no one would think of depriving him pf this place in our annals if it tallied with the testimony which the available records of the past supply. But does it?
Guillermo Prieto (1818–1897), A Forgotten Historian of Mexico
Authors: McLean Malcolm D.
Published: July 2006

It is fairly well known that in 1890 Guillermo Prieto was crowned the most popular poet in Mexico. Students of Mexican literature will add that he also wrote articles on manners and customs, criticism, original dramas, satire, travel books and folklore. Those who delve into political science have discovered that he served in the national congress for some forty-eight years, that as postmaster general he reorganized the Mexican postal system, and that he served four terms as minister of finance. Some have even seen the fat tomes in which he published his views on political economy, but practically nobody today knows that Prieto was also a writer of history. The purpose of this paper is to shed more light on Guillermo Prieto as a historian.
Juan Bautista Alberdi and his Influence on Immigration Policy in the Argentine Constitution of 1853
Authors: Schulman Sam
Published: July 2006

Juan Bautista Alberdi is a name not often heard in the United States, even among students of Hispanic-American affairs. Many of his Argentine compatriots and contemporaries are well known to us; we repeat their names as easily as we do those of our own national heroes: Sarmiento, Mitre, Echeverría. Yet the position of Alberdi in the historical development of the Argentine Republic is one of high honor and extreme importance. He is called “The Father of the Argentine Constitution,” and, indeed, such he was. Yet, even more important than this, Alberdi’s arguments in favor of a vast, all-encompassing program of immigration, was the impetus that stimulated his native country and made Argentina the most forward-moving and politically successful nation in Latin America.
EL MENSAJERO and the Election of 1871 in Mexico
Authors: Scholes Walter V.
Published: July 2006

The Late 1860’s and early 1870’s marked for Mexico the end of an era, for Benito Juárez was serving his last years in the presidency. At the same time there were the stirrings of a new personal order; Porfirio Díaz was making his first overt attempt to gain control. In this period some of the greatest liberals turned against Juárez and toward Díaz. The charges which they hurled against the former during the year 1871 resemble those used against Díaz during the later years of his reign. To many of the liberals Juárez was the bureaucratic leader of a personal party and Díaz was the rising dynamic liberal. Their views are well reflected in the newspaper El Mensajero, published in Mexico City from January 2 to September 30, 1871.
The Terra Australis–A Franciscan Quest (Part II)
Authors: Kelly Celsus
Published: July 2006

It was into the great unknown that the Spanish expedition of Mendaña sailed in search of the Southern Continent, the Terra Australis. Sharing the perils of this remarkable voyage of discovery were four Franciscan friars. They acted in a dual capacity: as chaplains to the Spaniards and as missionaries to the natives in the newly found lands. Although their missionary work was of necessity restricted because of the hostility of the natives, nevertheless they may claim the honor of being the first missionaries in the South Pacific. Fortunately the missionary experiences of these friars have been preserved in records and narratives, the reading of which, centuries after the events have taken place, is not unlike witnessing the unreeling of some religious drama in a modern picture-theatre. In graphic detail, the writers of these narratives draw picturesque and lifelike portraits of the officers, men and friars, sketching in events that run the whole gamut of human interest. As we read their vivid descriptions the centuries seem to roll back so that we are able to lay hold of, as it were, the elusive past with its throbbing Franciscanism; to catch glimpses of the life and work of these missionary friars, and to recapture for a brief moment the heroic spirit that animated them and inspired others whom they sought to influence for good.
García Moreno of Ecuador
Authors: Loyola Mary
Published: July 2006

In this era of Pan American enthusiasm, a more intimate knowledge of the careers of those statesmen whom the several countries hold in esteem should assist many who desire a truer understanding of our southern neighbors. Out of the welter of Latin American politics a few characters have emerged who are comparatively well known in English-speaking countries. But far more recognition than is generally accorded him is due to one who has evoked from his countrymen as well as from foreigners the most conflicting evaluations—Gabriel Garcia Moreno of Ecuador.
Doña Emilia Pardo-Bazan, Neo-Catholicism and Christian
Socialism
Authors: Hilton Ronald
Published: July 2006

THE CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH of Doña Emilia Pardo-Bazán has brought a revival
of scholarly interest in a great writer who played a significant part in the
intellectual and religious life of her age. She was one of Spain’s most
enlightened representatives of Neo-Catholicism and Christian Socialism.
The San Patricio Deserters in the Mexican War
Authors: McCornack Richard Blaine
Published: July 2006

One of the perplexing problems in the history of the Mexican War has been the account of a body of deserters from the American army which called itself the San Patricio Battalion. Many of these deserters were being tried and executed or severely punished as the troops of General Scott pushed into the heart of Mexico’s capital. The account of the desertion of the San Patricios has been the subject of much debate, a great deal of it bitter, between historians with either a Catholic or Protestant point of view. Many Protestant writers have been prone to use this event as an illustration of placing faith above patriotism, the desertions being laid at the door of the Mexican clergy who are charged with actively attempting to entice Catholic soldiers among the American forces, largely recent German and Irish immigrants, to leave the army of a Protestant power bent on the destruction of a Catholic nation and on the spoliation of the temples of the Catholic faith. Catholic writers have been quick to issue a full denial of such charges. To date most of the charges and countercharges concerning the San Patricio Battalion have been based almost exclusively on secondary evidence. The essential truth of the matter would appear to be obtainable only from the actual records of the deserters in the files of the United States Army. It is on these records that this article is based.
Queen Isabel and the Spanish Language in the New World
Authors: Carreño Alberto María
Published: July 2006

There are people who are called upon to transform customs and society, but of very few may it be asserted that they have changed the entire world. The remarkable woman, the fifth centenary of whose birth we are celebrating, is one of them.

Daughter of King John II and of Isabel of Portugal, his second wife, she is a warrior par excellence; one might perhaps say that her whole life was a battle in which were intermingled enthusiasms, passion and egoism, and there were also lofty thoughts and high purposes.
The Literary Personality of José María Roa Bárcena
Authors: Brushwood J. S.
Published: July 2006

Students of mexican culture have always been interested in the determined political conservatism of José María Roa Bárcena. He has been so definitely associated with the conservative-classic side of Mexican politics and literary expression that it is as surprising to find elements of romanticism in the writings of Roa Bárcena as it is to find poetry of a classical nature written by Ignacio Ramírez. The fact is that although these two men worked toward opposite goals with astonishing consistency, neither was immune to the influence of the opposing faction. For this reason, both men reflect their times, though Roa did so in a much quieter way than did the flamboyant Ramírez.
Some Remarks Concerning André Thevet
Authors: Cardozo Manoel Da Silveira
Published: July 2006

André Thevet, priest and friar, almoner to Catherine de Medici, cosmographer to four kings of France, is remembered by students of Brazilian history as one of the chroniclers of the unsuccessful attempt on the part of Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon (1510–1571) to found a French settlement in Rio bay. One might say that Thevet’s career was in a very real sense the product of the Christian humanism of the sixteenth century, and his life practically spanned those momentous one hundred years. Apparently of humble stock, he was born in the ancient town of Angoulême in 1502, almost at the time when Brazil was discovered. Of his early life and education virtually nothing is known, and a search for records made a number of years ago in his native city failed to disclose anything that might throw light on his first years.
José Vasconcelos
Authors: Hilton Ronald
Published: July 2006

José Vasconcelos, whose lawyer’s degree entitles him to the designation “Licenciado,” but who more commonly is referred to respectfully as “El Maestro Vasconcelos,” has suffered in recent years a political eclipse which has deprived him of the publicity enjoyed by less distinguished Latin Americans who have kept themselves more attuned to political changes. The writer of this article does not share Vasconcelos’ political or religious creeds, but he cannot help recognizing in him one of the noblest expressions of Latin-American thought. His vast culture and universal philosophy is free from the parochialism which is the curse of much Latin-American culture. This eulogy by one of a different persuasion is intended to counteract the oblivion into which a hostile partisan spirit would relegate him.
Some Truths about Mexico
Authors: Royer Fanchón
Published: July 2006

It is Probable that no country outside the borders of the United States has, during the past half century, been more widely and more inaccurately presented by our American writers, than the Republic of Mexico. An examination of this surfeit of material and the multiplicity of its authors’ approaches to their topic discovers our Catholic neighborland to have long proved both an irresistible lure and an enigma to the professional producers of run-of-the-mill travel volumes as well as to the more popular (i.e., lighter-weight) theorists on economics and sociology. Their enthusiastic, even florid rhetoric has been ceaselessly inspired by the color and drama of Mexico; but otherwise their persistent output rarely gives much evidence of a clear understanding of Mexican attitudes or ideals and so, of competence to fathom the true significance of this nation’s turbulent history. Since the past cannot be overlooked in any safe estimate of the future, this is a regrettable fact that could prove most detrimental to that much-desired inter-American accord which has already cost the American taxpayer some millions of dollars. There are two easily understood reasons for such lack of insight on the part of so many of our writers; this has already served to rouse the resentment and disrespect of the Mexican reader of the American press while also resulting in a sincere acceptance by Anglo-Americans of a decidedly strange mixture of misinformation and absurdly ill advised opinion for “the truth about Mexico.”
The Library of the Apostolic College of San Fernando, Mexico, in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Authors: Geiger Maynard
Published: July 2006

The Apostolic Colleges of Spanish America, as is well known, were spiritual powerhouses which provided learned, zealous and dynamic missionaries, who not only evangelized the pagan Indians on the periphery of Christianity but also renewed the faith and morals of the professed Christians in populous cities and far-flung haciendas. These missionaries were recruited principally from the provinces in Spain, though a number of American-born friars became members. It was but natural that in the course of time these colleges came to possess great archives and valuable libraries. The correspondence of the missionaries out in the conversiones, of bishops and government officials, the official books of the college, such as the Acta of the discretory, the reception and profession of novices, the account books, the affiliation and disaffiliation of members, the records of benefactors, all, after a century or two, comprised bulky archival material. Just as naturally, in the course of time, large libraries developed. Home missionaries needed access to general and particular knowledge without the constant necessity of leaving their colleges to obtain it. The missionaries in the Indian fields had to rely almost exclusively upon the college or mother house to supply them with the books they needed in fields where printing was unknown and reading was confined almost to the circle of missionaries.
John A. Zahm, C.S.C.: Scientist and Americanist
Authors: O’Connor Thomas F.
Published: July 2006

In 1898 Bernard Moses, professor of history at the University of California, published the first of the series of volumes which contributed in a preeminent degree to the inception of a new era of Hispanic-American historical studies in the United States. Six years later appeared Edward Gaylord Bourne’s Spain in America, 1450–1580, which enjoyed a wider circulation and probably exerted a more immediate influence in English-speaking historical circles than Moses’ pioneer work. Bourne’s career was cut short by death in 1908, and one can only speculate on what might have been his influence on the development of Hispanic-American studies in the United States. Moses, however, lived on until 1930, active to the last in turning out the succession of volumes which have earned for him a distinguished place among the Anglo-American pioneers of the new era of Hispanic-American historiography. His scholarship, it is true, rested content with the utilization of the printed sources of his field, but these were abundant and Moses used them exhaustively and with discernment. The interest he stimulated sent his disciples on their highly rewarding researches in archives and manuscript depositories.
Franciscan Art in Peru
Authors: Wethey Harold E.
Published: July 2006

The Important Role of the religious orders in the evangelization and colonization of Spanish America is recognized by all historians. In both Mexico and Peru the Franciscans, Dominicans and Mercedarians were the earliest friars upon the scene. They traveled down from Panama to Tumbez and to San Miguel de Piura in Peru as early as 1531 when the conquest of that country was scarcely under way. Those were heroic days, when men braved the incalculable terrors of the unknown, the hostility of the natives and the rigors of extreme altitudes swept by angry winds and snows in the bitterness of winter.
The Contributions of Toussaint L’Ouverture to the Independence of the American Republics, 1776–1826
Authors: Healy Mary Aquinas
Published: July 2006

When Harold Palmer Davis published his Black Democracy in 1928, after twelve years of study and of residence in Haiti, he wrote of Toussaint L’Ouverture that it would be impossible to form any true estimate of Toussaint’s character, because of the great mass of material that had been written about him from widely divergent and conflicting viewpoints.
How Aviation “Firsts” Took Place in Mexico
Authors: Freudenthal Elsbeth E.
Published: July 2006

Although, at the beginning of the year 1911, there was practically no aviation activity in Mexico, the development was so fast that by 1913 the airplane had demonstrated its usefulness in war and had even been used to bomb naval vessels. To those who would see, the events taking place in and over Mexico clearly foreshadowed the future importance of this weapon. While flying was not new in 1911, for many generations had worked on the problem, still it was only a couple of years before that Bleriot’s flight across the English Channel had convinced the world that flying was indeed a reality.
The Social Reforms of San Martin
Authors: Gray William H.
Published: July 2006

As a Part of the Centennial celebration of the death of José de San Martín, the year 1950 was designated by the Congress of Argentina as the “Year of San Martin.” Article 2 of Law 13,661 reads as follows: “From the first day of January until the thirty-first of December of the year 1950, all official documents of national, provincial and municipal authorities; the titles and diplomas granted by institutions of learning of all ranks and jurisdictions, be they of the State or incorporated; diplomatic dispatches and the notations and colophons of books, periodicals, dailies, reviews and every other class of publications whether they be official or private, national or foreign, shall be preceded by the denomination of ‘Year of the Liberator General San Martin’ to indicate the year 1950.”

José Francisco de San Martín is best known as the military genius on whose successes was founded the political independence of Argentina, Chile and Peru. In writing the account of his life, biographers have used such titles as “Captain of the Andes” and “Saint of the Sword.” Born of Spanish parents on the Argentinian frontier at Yapeyu, February 25, 1778, he accompanied them to Spain at the age of seven and was educated for a military career. Joining the Spanish army, he fought in Africa and defended the mother country against Republican France, England, Portugal and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Salvatierra’s Legacy to Lower California
Authors: Dunne Peter Masten
Published: July 2006

After the Failure of the Atondo-Kino attempt (1683–1685) to found permanent Christian missions among the Indians of the rock-ribbed peninsula called Lower California, the project lapsed for over a decade. Then a missionary who was to achieve historical fame, Juan María Salvatierra, was sent as official Visitor to the north Sonoran establishments where Eusebio Francisco Kino was working successfully and pushing the frontier of New Spain across the international boundary north to what is now Tucson in Arizona. As Kino and Salvatierra jogged on horseback over mission trails during the early months of 1691, the former was able to impart to Salvatierra a spark of his enthusiasm for the conversion of the Indians of Lower California. The spark fell amidst ready tinder which took fire. From that time on an unquenchable desire to convert the Indians of California took hold of Salvatierra. Though other duties intervened (Salvatierra was made rector at Guadalajara, then master of novices at Tepotzotlán), he never gave up the idea of founding permanent missions in the cactus-ridden peninsula. For years the holy man prodded viceroys in Mexico and Jesuit generals in Rome. Finally, through a fortunate combination of circumstances both in New Spain and in Rome, secular and ecclesiastical authorities became willing to allow the Black Robe to carry out his idea provided there would be no burden put upon the royal fisc and provided he would take full charge of the soldiers and seamen necessary to implement the founding of a permanent establishment on the peninsula. The happy turn of events came in 1696. Salvatierra with Kino and Juan de Ugarte as treasurer would beg money to finance the expedition, Kino would cross the gulf with Salvatierra, and the first permanent mission in California would be founded. The last minute Kino was detained and Francisco María Picólo, Tarahumar missionary, was designated. But the ardent Salvatierra could not wait. In a small boat with sixteen men, three of them Christian Indians, the missionary put off from the port of Yaqui on October 10, 1697. After dangers and adventures the party set foot on California soil five days later.
Viceroy Revillagigedo II as Vice-Patron of the Church
Authors: Manfredini James M.
Published: July 2006

Las funciones del patronato real que ejerce el virrey como vice-patrono son de las que más hacen resaltar la autoridad de aquel empleo por la trascendencia … del concepto que imprime en el pueblo el ver distinguida la persona del que les manda aún dentro del templo….

Revillagigedo in Instrucción Reservada.

In Addition to being Head of the civil government in his capacity as governor, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces as captain general, the Spanish viceroy was also ecclesiastical patron in the colony. In this capacity he held the title of vice-patrono.
Aspects of Navaho Life: An Appraisal of Two Recent Studies
Authors: Haile Berard
Published: July 2006

In 1910 the Franciscan Fathers of St. Michaels, Arizona, published An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language which presented a first-hand ethnographic account of the Navaho. In the preparation of this work, native assistants and headmen were always insistent upon choosing informants among men “who knew their stuff” and ignoring the rank and file. In addition to following these native leads, the Franciscans followed the practice of many anthropologists of those days, of presenting facts without attempting their analysis. No doubt, a knowledge of the way of life, the customs, industries, religious beliefs and social organization of the Navaho would assist the men in missionizing the tribe. The work has served and still does serve this purpose.

Anthropology, however, has made great strides since those early days. In recent years especially, there has been a marked tendency to join up with psychology in an effort to interpret anthropological facts. A recent example of this tendency is afforded by two very important studies by Clyde Kluckhohn and Dorothea Leighton. The volumes are part of a series of monographs written under the auspices of the Indian Education Research Project and “undertaken jointly by the Committee of Human Development of the University of Chicago and the United States Office of Indian Affairs” (LK, p. vii).
Note on the Life of Francisco de Cárdenas Valencia
Authors: Adams Eleanor B.
Published: July 2006

Very little has been known about the life of the seventeenth century Yucatecan historian, Francisco de Cárdenas Valencia, author of the Relación historial eclesiástica de la provincia de Yucatán. He completed this important work on the early colonial history of Yucatan in February, 1639, but although it was known and used by Diego López de Cogolludo and later historians, it remained unpublished for nearly three hundred years. In 1937 it was finally printed in the Biblioteca histórica mexicana de obras inéditas. In his bibliographical note to this edition, Federico Gómez de Orozco tells the history of the manuscript, refuting the erroneous belief that Cárdenas Valencia wrote two works, but he does not give much new data concerning its author.
Literary Contributions of Catholics in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Part Two: The Díaz Regime (1867–1910)
Authors: Steck Francis Borgia
Published: July 2006

Another gifted writer whose name has almost passed into oblivion is Tirso Rafael Córdoba. Like Rafael Gómez, he from Michoacán, a circumstance that seems to explain why during the period we are considering these two men stood on such intimate terms of friendship and in their literary career had so many things in common. His biographer tells us that in 1853, at the early age of fifteen, Córdoba, then a student in the Seminario de Morelia, was admitted to membership in the Liceo Iturbide, a distinction conferred upon him in view of the exceptional progress he had made in the arts and sciences. Only for the disturbed times in which his youth and early manhood fell, Córdoba would have entered the priesthood, this being his intention when he studied philosophy in the Seminario Conciliar Palafoxiano in the city of Puebla. From this celebrated school he graduated with high honors and then proceeded to Mexico City where he studied canon and civil law in the Colegio de San Ildefonso and passed the bar examination in the University of Mexico. But again he became a victim of circumstances, unable to engage freely and fully in the legal and political circles for which he was so richly qualified. After the fall of the Second Empire, at which time he was Secretary General of the municipal government of Puebla, he retired from public life and thereafter took a prominent part, chiefly in Mexico City, in social and literary activities. He was one of the founders of the organization known as La Sociedad Católica and collaborated in the founding and editing of periodicals, popular as well as literary, such as La Voz de México, El Obrero Católico, El Hijo del Obrero, La Lira Poblana, La Aurora, and La Oliva.
Latin American Studies in the Economics Curriculum, with Special Reference to Teaching Material
Authors: Spiegel Henry W.
Published: July 2006

The present article is concerned (1) with an evaluation of the place of Latin American studies in the economics curriculum on the college or university level and (2) with a review of the principal publications which are available for organized studies in Latin American economics. The correlation of both topics and their combination in one article does not require an elaborate justification for those who are acquainted with the development and growth of new subjects in the college curriculum. Organized studies, i. e., new courses, develop chiefly under the influence of two factors: available teaching personnel and available teaching material. It goes without saying that these factors operate, or should operate, only as manifestations of a more general tendency which assigns to the new subject its rank and place in a systematic order of cultural values.
Agriculture in the Days of the Early California Padres
Authors: Webb Edith
Published: July 2006

The study of agriculture, as it was practiced by the early California Padres, should begin in the rough, mountainous region of the Sierra Gorda of Mexico. There, in 1744, Franciscan missionaries began the work of evangelizing the Indians of the central belt of that region. Fathers of the Dominican Order had already established missions along one side of this range, while others of the Augustinian Order were laboring among the Indians of the other side, leaving the middle strip untouched.

The Reverend Father Fr. Pedro Pérez de Mezquía, Superior of the recently founded College of San Fernando in the City of Mexico, had accompanied the Franciscan Padres to aid them in the founding of five missions. From his experience in the missions in Texas whither he had gone with Fr. Margil, Fr. Mezquía had formulated a set of rules and regulations for both the spiritual direction and the temporal government of the Indians of the region. Unfortunately the climate of the Sierra Gorda did not agree with most of those first Padres. Some became ill and were obliged to retire to the College, others died, making frequent changes of missionaries necessary. Few stayed long enough to acquire a knowledge of the language of the Pame people, consequently little progress was made in the conversion of those Indians.
Notes for a Biography of Salvador Correia de Sá e Benavides, 1594–1688
Authors: Cardozo Manoel
Published: July 2006

When the Editors of THE AMERICAS invited me to write an article for this issue of their journal and thus join with them in honoring the International Colloquium on Luso-Brazilian Studies, it occurred to me to say something about Salvador Correia de Sá e Benavides. Could anything be more appropriate for such an occasion, I thought, than to touch upon the activities of a man whose life was intimately connected with Portugal, Brazil and Angola? Surely no other figure out of the common past of the Portuguese-speaking countries more nearly symbolizes their basic unities and, to a certain extent even today, their interdependence. The pages that follow will not directly bring this out, because my purpose was simply to present the facts that have been available to me. But the reader will be in a position to draw his own conclusions, and these, I believe, will bear out what I have suggested above.
The First History of Latin-American Art: The Second Volume
Authors: Smith Robert C.
Published: July 2006

In the Issue of January, 1946, the editor of THE AMERICAS published in the form of an article an extended review of mine of a book that had appeared the year before. This was the first volume of the Historia del arte hispanoamericano, written by Diego Angulo Iniguez and Enrique Marco Dorta. Now, five years later, I have been invited to review for the same journal the second volume of this monumental work. It is not often that such a privilege is accorded and I am duly grateful for this opportunity to continue the consideration of a major work of Spanish and Spanish American scholarship, which in its gradual development is bound to be increasingly a subject of prime interest and usefulness to all who are concerned with the culture of Latin America.
Fernando Trejo Y Sanabria, O.F.M
Authors: Furlong Guillermo
Published: July 2006

From the Early Days of the conquest of the River Plate up to our times, there have been numerous religious of the Order of St. Francis who have occupied episcopal sees in what is today the Argentine Republic, but not one of them has filled such glorious pages of the history of this country as Fray Fernando Trejo y Sanabria. Only one has come close to imitating his intense and extraordinary labors, and that was Fray Martín Ignacio de Loyola, Bishop of Asunción del Paraguay between 1602 and 1606, an epoch when all the Argentine coastland belonged to the Asunción Diocese.
Franciscan Missionary Scholars in Colonial Central America
Authors: Scholes France V.
Published: July 2006

Last summer, during a vacation in Mexico City, I received a letter from Father Wyse inviting me to speak at this Annual Convocation of the Academy of American Franciscan History. The invitation did me great honor, and in view of the many courtesies extended to me by the Academy since its founding more than seven years ago, including election to corresponding membership, I also regarded it as a command. It gives me pleasure and satisfaction to participate once more in the academic exercises of the Academy and to renew association with old friends and comrades in the field of Franciscan studies. To Father Wyse, Father Wheeler and their associates I offer congratulations for their splendid contributions to historical scholarship relating to the Americas and best wishes for continued success in the enterprise to which they are dedicated.
The Franciscan Contribution to Maya Linguistic Research in Yucatan
Authors: Roys Ralph L.
Published: July 2006

Linguistic Science, like history, ethnology and epigraphy, is deeply indebted to the Franciscan missionaries who worked among the Maya Indians of Yucatan. About 1566 Fray Diego de Landa, later Bishop of Yucatan, not only wrote an ethnological treatise perhaps unique in the history of that science, but, as an outstanding contemporary epigrapher recently wrote: “Landa’s description of the calendar and his illustrations of day and month signs supplied a firm foundation on which to reconstruct Maya hieroglyphic writing; it is as close to a Rosetta Stone as we are ever likely to get.” Further development of our investigation of the Maya glyphs will in all probability be closely linked with our knowledge of the language.
A Bio-Bibliography of Franciscan Authors in Colonial Central America
Authors: Adams Eleanor B.
Published: July 2006

In the long story of the Hispanicization of Central America, the civilizing role of the regular clergy plays a major part. The difficulties of their task cannot be overestimated. Laboring in harsh and alien lands, the friars faced the problem of teaching the Christian religion and European concepts of morality to men reared in ancient and powerful religious traditions of their own which permeated every aspect of their daily lives. The conversion and indoctrination of these pagan peoples required unremitting effort, often under conditions of extreme physical hardship and mental anguish. The general history of the heroic labors and achievement of the Religious Orders is well known. But it is not perhaps as widely realized how many active missionaries also found time for study and writing that resulted in a large body of literature covering a wide range of subject matter, from works on the native languages and culture inspired by the urgent needs of the missionary program to erudite theological treatises. This bibliography of the Franciscan writers who flourished in the Yucatan and Guatemala areas during the colonial period has been compiled in the hope that it may shed more light on the scope of the intellectual activities of the missionary religious and be useful as a reference tool for future research.
Why I Chose History
Authors: Castañeda Carlos E.
Published: July 2006

Back in 1916 the world was in the midst of World War I. When I graduated from high school in that year, the United States had not entered the great struggle yet. In the fall of 1917, I, registered in the University of Texas. There was as much, if not more, uneasiness and uncertainty among students as there is today. We were already in the war. No one knew how long it would last, nor when the draft call would come.

With the lightheartedness of youth I chose engineering. In high school I had been good in mathematics, and everybody had said, “You are cut out for an engineer.” Dean T. U. Taylor of the Engineering School agreed, and I made a good record that first year. Engineering students in those days had to take public speaking and the public speaking teacher assured me the first day I came into his class that I would never make a public speaker. Time proved that if Dean Taylor was mistaken in his deduction as to my engineering vocation, the public speaking teacher was only half right.
Three Interpretations of America in History
Authors: Davis Harold E.
Published: July 2006

Leaders of the american independence movements thought in concepts of natural law and natural rights. They assumed that a society not only should but could be based upon reason and liberty rather than authority or tradition. Even those who took the more dismal Hobbsian view believed that there was a large measure of rational consent to the laws which necessity forced upon men who were dominated by passion rather than by reason. In any case, Nature was believed to have a universal character, and differences in geographical background were thought to have relatively little importance in shaping society and civilization. Nor did they think in terms of the historical determinism, whether idealistic or materialistic, which dominated nineteenth-century thought. The New World was held to be the seat of liberty and equality, not because American soil necessarily produced freedom, but because in America man had freedom to reach his fullest development. The New World thus differed from the Old chiefly in the institutions and civilization which man had created here. Incidentally, this rationalist view had much in common with the older Utopian concept of America, from which, in no small measure, it was derived. Moreover, the very idea of Utopia was partly American in origin. Thomas More, for example, based his Utopia upon what he knew of Inca civilization. For a long time, therefore, Europeans had thought of America as a Utopia in which liberty, equality and opportunity for the immigrant were natural products of man’s freedom to live a life more in accord with Nature than Europe permitted.
Charles de Forbin-Janson, Missionary Bishop
Authors: Royer Fanchón
Published: July 2006

Charles Auguste marie Joseph Count de Forbin-Janson (1785–1844) had one of those rare natures whose essential spirit is that of the Christian apostle. That he was born to be a missionary is the only explanation of the single-minded, lifelong dedication of this greatly gifted nobleman whose apostolate included a dramatic and outstanding contribution to the mission record of the United States and Canada and who, although he did not die in America, was a martyr to his labor for its evangelization.
The Development of Foreign Trade and Communication in Costa Rica to the Construction of the First Railway
Authors: Houk Richard J.
Published: July 2006

The poorest, the most abandoned, the most isolated of the Spanish possessions in North America was the province of Costa Rica. Despite valiant efforts made by the royal governors to build roads and to stimulate the production of items for export, the colonial history of the nation indicates a vegetating and unstimulated economy. The smallest settlements made by the Spaniards were scattered throughout the country, and the greatest concentration of population was in the fertile Meseta Central, which had no easy access to the sea. All of the early settlers were “miserably poor with no prospect of finding mines to bring them quick wealth, no export crop in demand in world markets, and no means of bringing such a crop to the coast had it existed.”
William Hickling Prescott: Launching a Bark
Authors: Gardiner C. Harvey
Published: July 2006

The indecision which plagued Prescott regarding the advisability of publishing the massive manuscript on which he had labored a decade yielded to a decisively vigorous, though little known, presentation of that work to the American reading public.

The manuscript of the History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, concluded by Prescott in mid-1836, passed, in succeeding months, through the hands of one friendly critic after another. First to subject the long opus to critical evaluation was William Howard Gardiner, a foremost figure in the inner circle of Prescott's Boston neighbors and literary friends. Next it went to editor-historian Jared Sparks, then situated in Cambridge. Reflectively reading and, as circumstances permitted, occasionally visiting Prescott to discuss the manuscript with him, Sparks never had reason to retract the judgment he pronounced on February 24, 1837 in a brief note which closed with the succinct assertion, “The book will be sucessful,—bought, read and praised.” With the spring of 1837 the itinerant manuscript passed into the hands of the scholarly-minded city solicitor of Boston, John Pickering, but before that reader could be heard from, Prescott was actively facing the publication problem on another front.
The Origins of Costa Rican Federalism
Authors: Karnes Thomas L.
Published: July 2006

The reluctance of Costa Rica to join in cooperative political action with her Central American neighbors has for more than a century been a dominant theme in the relations of these states with each other. Costa Rican separatism—a traditional withdrawal or aloofness from Central American political affairs—has been cited in most studies as a powerful factor in the repeated failure of the attemptsof these nations to create a single Central American Government. Always apart by reason of geography, and largely ignored by Spain, the Costa Ricans acquired strong feelings of exceptionality in late colónial times near the end of the eighteenth century. The basis of this attitude was the conviction that they were being badly treated by other Central American provinces, Guatemala and Nicaragua in particular, who in various ways were responsible for Costa Rican administration. In the few years remaining before independence the Costa Rican distrust was substantially increased by Central American and international events. Independence in 1821 intensified this separatism and grossly compounded it by freeing the forces of localism in individual towns and villages.
The Church and the Enlightenment in the Universities
Authors: Lanning John Tate
Published: July 2006

The English-language historian who deals with Spanish civilization and culture has to think as much of how he is going to grapple with the bias of his public as he does of finding what the case is. If his conclusions do not conform to their preconceptions, the uninformed public and sometimes, unfortunately, the historian will set him right. Salvador de Madariaga wondered why, when he published a book, the series of misunderstandings that followed should be called reviews when they could “ equally well be described as Extraviews, Counterviews, Sideviews, Underviews, Superviews, Supercilious views,” or “ just views.” And, of course, the most perceptive of all, “ favorable ” views.
Religion in English America
Authors: Mead Sidney E.
Published: July 2006

I think it would be hard to overestimate the importance of such discussions as we are carrying on. From the beginning I was thrilled at the idea of being part of such a group. Historians are so commonly blamed, and I suppose rightly so in many cases, for encouraging and accentuating the differences between peoples and nations and groups that it is good for them to come together to discuss their common ground. Here I suppose, of all the possible topics, religion is most important. Every historian must begin with some conception of what is most important for human life, and this will condition all his work. And this suggests a form of exploration for each of us, at least privately. For with all our differences of background and understanding the fact that we are here suggests that we do believe it is important that such groups come together to discuss these matters. And this at least implies our conception of what really is “the last, best hope of earth.”
A Survey of Canadian Church History
Authors: Walsh Henry H.
Published: July 2006

It is a constant theme of all writers on Canada that the feat of “extending the thin ribbon of population towards the Pacific and of holding all together demanded both the alert resourcefulness of the pioneer and the strategic daring and tactical caution of the true statesman.” It is also affirmed that “in the annals of political architecture the formation of the Dominion of Canada deserves a foremost place.” Both in the process of extension and in the formation of the federal constitution the leaders of the Canadian churches played a vital role. Also they helped to give substantial reality to an artificially contrived nation by fashioning their own church structures in accordance with the new national boundaries of 1867. But what was far more important, they actively cooperated, perhaps even against their own inner convictions, in bringing about a modus vivendi between the two warring cultures that found themselves compelled to live together in one house. Preceding the present “mutual agreement to forgive and forget” there is a long story of religious warfare and rivalry which ought to be of interest to church historians generally, if only to gain some insight into the character of a Christianity which has been so largely shaped under negative conditions.
The Church and Culture in Spanish America
Authors: Villena Guillermo Lohmann
Published: July 2006

For more than three centuries in the territories dependent upon the Spanish crown, the shields of bishops or of religious orders dominated the façade of the universities and of the institutions of learning; during that same period, the title pages of books of any scientific merit almost invariably carried the name of a tonsured author; architectural monuments of every class proclaimed the patronage of prelates or the protection of saints recognizing thereby their origin and purpose; schools, colleges and institutions of letters of every kind flourished in the shadow of the parishes and of the monasteries; music and theatrical functions confessed their origin in sacred ceremonies; the prirlting presses began their function under the auspices of ecclesiastics and their entire production during those centuries bears this seal. In short, the names of the university professors and of the teachers in the other educational institutions form an almost unending list of dignitaries, either of the secular clergy or of the regular, so that any summary of the outstanding figures of the intellectual life of that period shows a tremendous percentage of individuals who wore the clerical garb. It is an axiom, indeed, that the Church was in Spanish America the active patron of culture and the sponsor of knowledge almost from the day following that of the discovery. Today, fortunately, such a statement is again commonly accepted, although it was not an easy task to reach this agreement.
The Enlightenment in Relation to the Church
Authors: Lanning John Tate
Published: July 2006

I SHOULD like to ask you gentlemen to allow me, in the very beginning, to set limits to my task. The most imposing of these limitations are my own. It would be unbecoming of me to make a tacit profession of authority on the Enlightenment in English America by discoursing on the subject. I have, moreover, never made a frontal assault on the broad field of theology in the Latin world, for I regard the subject as universal, well-known to historical theologists, and when known for Europe generally predictable for America. There is also a relation between the Enlightenment in Spain and the Enlightenment in America, but what happens in America cannot be absolutely foretold by what happens in Spain. I shall therefore treat Spain, when I treat it at all, as only a back-drop for the American scene.