Forty Miles from the Sea. Xalapa, the Public Sphere, and the Atlantic World in Nineteenth-Century Mexico by Rachel A. Moore (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Forty Miles from the Sea. Xalapa, the Public Sphere, and the Atlantic World in Nineteenth-Century Mexico by Rachel A. Moore Jacqueline E. Bixler Forty Miles from the Sea. Xalapa, the Public Sphere, and the Atlantic World in Nineteenth-Century Mexico. Rachel A. Moore. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2011. xiii + 230 pp., illustrations. $49.95 hardback (ISBN 978-0-8165-2933-9). Although my own scholarly interest is Mexican theatre, I was drawn by the title and Xalapa, the capital of the state of Veracruz and the place where, as an undergraduate, I fell in love with Mexico. I have returned to Xalapa many times since 1973 and, while the city has changed demographically and culturally, I have continued to feel that Xalapa is somehow different from the rest of Mexico. Having read Moore’s study, I have a better sense of what it is that sets Xalapa apart from other cities in that region and in the country in general. Relative location is obviously a factor. The mountains of the Sierra Madre form a formidable barrier between the coast and the Valley of Mexico. Noting this area’s freedom from Aztec domination on their 1519 march to Tenochtitlán, the Spanish conquerors included Xalapa on the Camino Real that stretched from Veracruz to Mexico City. While Veracruz was the official port of entry, Xalapa soon became the de facto “port of call.” At 1,500 meters, Xalapa provided a more hospitable climate as well as protection from epidemics, foreign invasions, and pirates. Indeed, Xalapa served for three centuries as the travel and trade hub for those arriving from the Atlantic. Ironically, as Moore explains, “by institutionalizing Xalapa’s position as a bulwark to the Atlantic world in the form of trade fairs, quarantine points, and passport regulations, authorities in Mexico City encouraged residents’ penchant for separatism” (167). At the same time, Xalapa’s geographical position and commercial strength made it natural for xalapeños to look toward the Atlantic and to be more concerned with transatlantic economies and politics than national ones. Though Xalapa is 40 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and even farther from the Atlantic Ocean, Moore situates the city within the broad concept of Atlantic coastal culture, which she defines as “a set of communication habits, commercial priorities, and cultural norms that rely upon and respond to vagaries of Atlantic trade and transatlantic conflict” (1-2). Viewing geography as a network of social interactions, Moore proposes to “atlanticize” the area’s history “by considering the compelling connections that residents of the interior developed with coastal communities” (6). She focuses on the years 1795-1867, from the placement of Xalapa under the jurisdiction of Veracruz to the final years of native son Antonio López de Santa Anna and his fostering of regional “particularism.” Mexico City’s continuous distrust and/or disregard of news and reports emanating from Xalapa merely encouraged the latter to maintain a separatist stance. However, the rise of Santa Anna from regional caudillo to president brought on a lean toward reform and liberalism when he imposed levies for “protection” from foreign invasions and shut down the free flow of information. [End Page 241] In addition to the introduction, a short conclusion, and an extensive bibliography, five chapters focus on the following topics: commerce and contagion in Xalapa and Veracruz (1790-1810); coastline monitoring and the Xalapa “frontier” (1812-1825); transportation rivalries between Xalapa and Orizaba (1812-1842); the rise and reign of Santa Anna, and the efforts of parochial Orizaba to enter the public sphere via mail service. Forty Miles from the Sea is a well-documented study of Xalapa’s “in-between” position with regard to culture, commerce, communications, and politics. It centers on what Moore terms “the sphere of credibility” and “how credibility functioned in an area run through with boundaries and pulled between two worlds – the world of central Mexico and the Atlantic world” (15). To this end, she examines multiple sources of communication, from muleteers to railroads and from rumors to pronunciamientos. As a case study, the book suggests the profound influence that external factors and circumstances can bear on a regional public sphere...