Capital Of New Spain Research Articles

Demographic fluctuations of an extravagant congregation in the capital of New Spain (1703-1753)

Los predicadores fueron asignados a la evangelización de la zona centro-sur, incluyendo el actual territorio de Oaxaca, constituyendo la provincia de San Hipólito mártir, dominando las lenguas de la región y favoreciéndolos ante las disputas con franciscanos y agustinos por el adoctrinamiento de los mixtecos y zapotecos avecindados en la capital novohispana, en jurisdicción de los frailes disputantes. Es así que, los dominicos fueron los encargados de impartirles los sacramentos a esta feligresía, reconocida canónicamente como extravagantes dada la falta de asiento fijo dentro de la capital novohispana, pero que lograron congregarse y erigir su capilla bajo la advocación rosariana. En tanto, este artículo reconstruye el perfil demográfico de los extravagantes empleando como principal corpus documental, los libros sacramentales de la capilla del Rosario del convento de Santo Domingo de México con fechas extremas de 1703-1753, mismas que delimitan la temporalidad del estudio.

Indigenous and Black Confraternities in Colonial Latin America: Negotiating Status through Religious Practices

Indigenous and Black Confraternities in Colonial Latin America: Negotiating Status through Religious Practices

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: La resistencia del deseo by Francisco Ramírez Santacruz

Reviewed by: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: La resistencia del deseo by Francisco Ramírez Santacruz George Antony Thomas Ramírez Santacruz, Francisco. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: La resistencia del deseo. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 2019. 317 pp. Octavio Paz’s monumental book Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz o las trampas de la fe (1982) has been the standard reference work on the life and literature of the celebrated colonial Mexican writer since its publication in 1982. Francisco Ramírez Santacruz’s recent biography of Sor Juana offers a new interpretation, one that incorporates the many significant archival finds that have been made since Paz’s book first appeared. As Ramírez Santacruz explains in the prologue, his primary objective in this biography is to document the details of Sor Juana’s life and provide an objective analysis: “esta biografía propone una exégesis lo más objetiva posible de [End Page 873] todos los datos que se conocen de sor Juana hasta el día de hoy” (12). Paz attempted to paint a very broad picture, highlighting the colonial milieu in which Sor Juana worked and offering interpretations of many of her literary works, and he sometimes strayed from objectivity in trying to offer a psychological portrait of the nun in the mode of Ludwig Pfandl’s early monograph. Ramírez Santacruz’s biography is more traditional in that it covers the entire trajectory of Sor Juana’s life and it offers more details about her family and her interactions with a variety of important figures in the viceroyalty of New Spain. The first two chapters of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: La resistencia del deseo deal with Sor Juana’s life before she became a Hieronymite nun. Chapter one, “Los riesgos del mar (¿1648/1651?–1664),” provides a great deal of information about Sor Juana’s family, beginning with her maternal grandparents. Although this biography does not resolve the issue of Sor Juana’s exact birth date, it does affirm that her father was a native of the Canary Islands named Pedro de Asuaje (24). In addition, while many critics (and Sor Juana herself) seem to have believed that her father was of Basque origin, Ramírez Santacruz proposes that this was probably not the case and that this feigned lineage possibly had something to do with the high esteem of the Basque community in New Spain (27). There is a wealth of information about Sor Juana’s family and her early years in this chapter. The author goes beyond emphasizing the importance of Sor Juana’s grandfather (and his library) by establishing the key role played by the Mata family (Sor Juana’s uncle and aunt), who adopted her into their home in the capital of New Spain and played a central role in establishing her place at the court of a new viceroy. Chapter two, “El objeto venerado (1665–1667),” attempts to provide a glimpse into Sor Juana’s time at the viceregal court of the marquesses de Mancera and her brief attempt to join the Discalced Carmelite convent in Mexico City. This period is very difficult to document and so the author frequently strays from discussing what Sor Juana did during these three years and instead tries to speculate on the nature of her religious faith and why she decided to profess as a nun. Many of the primary sources cited in this chapter are Sor Juana’s own writings in addition to the somewhat hagiographic texts written by contemporaries (Diego Calleja and Juan Antonio de Oviedo). Although the author does try to maintain his objectivity, some Sor Juana scholars have advanced alternative interpretations on these issues. Despite the clear difficulties in establishing many factual details pertaining to this period, the author offers many interesting ideas about why Sor Juana first chose the Discalced Carmelites and, when discussing her abrupt departure from their community, highlights the intriguing fact that, between 1665 and 1670, there weren’t any professions in the convent that Sor Juana chose to abandon (57–59). In comparison to chapter two, the subsequent section on Sor Juana’s ultimate profession and entrance...

The Codex Mexicanus: Time, Religion, History, and Health in Sixteenth-Century New Spain

About 60 years after the Spanish invasion and conquest of Mexico, a group of Nahua intellectuals gathered in Tenochtitlan. On the very site of the heart of the Aztec empire stood a city of a new name: Mexico City, capital of New Spain. There the Nahuas set about compiling an extensive book of miscellanea, now known as the Codex Mexicanus. Owned by the Bibliothèque National de France, the codex includes records pertaining to the Christian and Aztec calendars, European medical astrology, a genealogy of the Tenochca royal house, and the annals of preconquest and early colonial Mexico City, among other intriguing topics.

Las guías urbanas: imagen e invención del espacio de la Ciudad de México

This article analyzes the urban guides of Mexico City from a wide time-lapse perspective, from the end of the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century and up to 1940, in order to detect major themes and the change of urban perception. In foreigner's guide outlines, from 1792 to 1793, the Cathedral's central position conferred strength to the maps inserted in such editions. It is worth noting the subliminal role of this document regarding urban perception, social behavior and the maintenance of religious devotion in the capital of New Spain. After Mexico's independence these guides lacked novelty. During the years between 1842 and 1854, this editorial genre was reactivated in the Mexican capital. In those years the guides were included in an attempt to fulfill the increasing need for information about the city regarding political, judicial, ecclesiastical andmilitary aspects including, as the main novelty, the continuously expansive commercial sector. While guide editions were modified in order to satisfy the consumption and preferences of the nascent urban bourgeoisie, both editors and authors detected novel concerns among readers, not only about commercial life but they also looked for pleasant and ludic experiences in the city.In the guides from the period 1882 to 1891 there is a substantial change of spatial perception of Mexico City. Without losing attention to commercial life, which was becoming progressively more complex and diversified, for the first time the guide's pages proposed the discovery of the city under a different perspective. In regard to this, the figure of Antonio García Cubas was essential for the generation and internalization of new habits in order to travel across the city in an ordered fashion through a series of fixed routes. On the pages of the guide published by this geographer in 1891, he suggested several itineraries including the map and the respective historic register, over one or two days and starting at the majestic Plaza de la Constitución. It combined the “weight of the ecclesiastical”with the novelties of that time, the educational and scientific institutions, including the mansions with ancient lineages built by the bourgeoisie, beginning at the center of the city and afterwards continuing by electric streetcar towards the “Santa María la Ribera”neighborhood in the capital's northwest. The authors added to the already existing corporal and visual experience, the extension of the urban stroll from Juárez Avenue to Chapul- tepec in the afternoon, and finally to come back to attend a theatrical presentation. Such social behavior meant the definitive change of both habits and spatial perception in the Mexican capital.The thorough renovation of urban guides was detected in Juan Buxó’s work, a Catalan editor to whom noticeable technical changes in bookbinding and editorial formation esthetics were attributed. With this editor, Adolfo Prantl and José L. Groso published the most diverse guide of the Mexican capital. The 1901 edition surpassed its predecessors, establishing the change of century between the ancient and traditional nature of some spaces with the most vibrant and novel aspects of the Mexican capital. On the guide's urban map, the richness of Plateros Avenue (Francisco I. Madero)and the opulence of Paseo de la Reforma were contiguous to decadent spaces, rude people, thieves, reve-lers and the rumba at Candelaria de los Patos, Tepito or la Merced, just to name a few neighborhoods, in order to establish a comprehensive view of the inequality, as it was not shown in previous editions.In the last section there is an interpretative integration in order to place the change of perception on a timescale. To achieve this, the guide published by García Cubas in 1891 and Gante's guide (a Belgian historian)in 1940, were considered. In the space of one day, in the morning and/or afternoon, these authors proposed itineraries that, when comparing both editions, substantially changed the space perception for travelers. While García Cubas's guide indicates a departure beginning at the majestic Plaza de la Constitución, to penetrate into the streets among religious and public buildings, and finishing at the corporal and visual experience of Chapultepec, that of Gante suggested several routes by automobile to those localities with pre-Hispanic and Colonial origin in the Valley of Mexico. Thus, the traveler experienced a space shrinking, because in the same time lapse proposed by both guides he reached a longer distance and broadened his view of the territory, to such a degree that the 1940 guide placed nationality features within the list of suggested sites in each route. Social dissemination of automobiles modified the space perception in time and its use was at the base of changes in awareness about Mexican landscapes.

Balbuena's Grandeza mexicana and the American Georgic

Bernardo de Balbuena’s Grandeza mexicana (1604) stands between two worlds. One of the earliest and most spectacular poetic celebrations of the wonders of the city of Mexico, this text was addressed both at the American and the Spanish audience, producing a duplicitous message. The capital of New Spain is presented as one of the most loyal and productive colonies of the Hispanic empire, though it is also celebrated for its economic autonomy and cultural supremacy with regards to the metropolis. These dualisms are also noticeable in the poetic style of Balbuena’s work, which, following the traditional idea of the Wheel of Virgil, adopts old classical models to portray the New World whilst anticipating Baroque poetics. Following the example of Virgil, Balbuena fashioned his literary career as a process organised in three distinct evolutionary stages, beginning with a bucolic text, Siglo de Oro en las selvas de Erífile, and culminating with an epic poem, El Bernardo. Grandeza stood between these two, adapting the rural setting of the Georgics to an urban context, and offering an idealised account of the Virgilian praise of human industry, which placed Balbuena and the other members of the lettered class on the forefront of Mexican society.

El impacto local de una producción global. La Real Casa de Moneda de México y sus proveedores, 1732-1821

<p class="Standard">Este artículo aborda el efecto de "derrama" de la Real Casa de Moneda en la capital de Nueva España, en razón de la construcción de instalaciones, adquisición de maquinaria y compra de insumos tales como combustible, animales de tiro y minerales no preciosos como el cobre. El autor sostiene que el establecimiento de la administración gubernamental directa, a partir de 1732, implicó la introducción de principios racionales en la contratación y supervisión de proveedores. Finalmente, propone que el estudio del impacto local del gasto público es un tema que podría abrir perspectivas de interés en la historia de la economía de sociedades premodernas.</p>

Circulación y consumo de cacao en la ciudad de México en el siglo XVIII

La investigación se refiere a la importancia delconsumo de cacao en la ciudad de México en elsiglo XVIII; señala las dimensiones de su comercio, como también calcula los volúmenes decacao ingresados a la capital y menciona losprincipales circuitos a través de los cuales seabastecía. Del mismo modo percibe las fricciones que se generaron para surtir de cacao a la ciudad de México, al grado de entrar en competencia con la demanda de los mercados atlánticos. Se considera que el estudio permite tener un acercamiento a la integración que tuvo laciudad de México con el resto de los mercadoslocales y del ámbito centro y sudamericano. Deese modo, se considera que particularmente ladescripción de aquellas interconexiones permitevisualizar la integración de los mercados hispanoamericanos en función de la demanda degrandes centros urbanos, tales como la capitalnovohispana.

La ciudad de México dentro del sistema urbano latinoamericano

Thomas More published in 1516 in London his book Utopia, a description of the ideal city, built on a lake. Three years later, at the end of 1519, Hernán Cortés, is witness to the temples of the Great Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was built on top of the waters of Lake Texcoco. This Utopian destiny accompanies the Mexican city since its origins, the great capital of New Spain, main centre of a vast urban system at a continental scale, feat of the Spanish modernity in the New World. Today, Mexico City, the most populated and rich Spanish speaking city, chaotic and different is the head (power wise) of the biggest urban system in the West.

Mexico City's Symbolic Geography: The Processions of Our Lady of Remedios

Entre las muchas celebraciones públicas que definieron el espacio urbano de la ciudad de México durante el virreinato, las relacionadas con Nuestra Señora de los Remedios—primera patrona de la capital de la Nueva España—merecen atención especial. Este artículo propone que las 57 veces que la imagen fue traída desde su santuario a la ciudad (en el período de 1577 a 1810), pueden considerarse como autorretratos sociales en los que se mostraba, y definía, la devoción, la lealtad y la política: las procesiones se organizaban en tiempos de sequía, epidemia y guerra, y siempre mostraban los lazos que esta imagen mariana tenía con la conquista y por tanto, con la fundación de la ciudad ya como una entidad colonial.

La calle de Moneda de la Ciudad de México y sus palacios

<p><strong> </strong></p> <p>El tema de este artículo trata acerca de la actual calle de Moneda, parte clave en la integración del centro de la ciudad de México, así como de los momentos brillantes en la historia de la arquitectura que concluyeron en la conformación de una de las calles más emblemáticas del país, y desde luego, para revisar los edificios que la componen y que fueran escenario de los muchos episodios de la historia y que hoy continúan no sólo vigentes, aunque con diversos usos, sino que conservan sus valores plásticos como edificios unitarios y de conjunto, enclavados en esta zona urbana.</p> <p>Además, se pretende exponer información sobre estos magníficos edificios que componen la calle de Moneda y propone, como tema de reflexión, que acciones se pueden sugerir para su conservación como conjunto de la antigua capital novohispana.</p>

El nuevo orden parroquial de la Ciudad de México: población, etnia y territorio (1768-1777)

El artículo analiza ciertos problemas de la demografía de la ciudad de México y de la estructura eclesiástica de la capital virreinal, a la luz de una fuente demográfica poco empleada hasta ahora, el padrón del Arzobispado de México de 1777, la cual permite un enfoque cuantitativo que posibilita relacionar la población, la etnia y el territorio. El texto retoma algunos de los temas analizados por la historiografía de la ciudad de México en el periodo colonial, como la secularización parroquial, el proceso de castellanización de la población indígena, los cambios sociales y económicos de la urbe, etcétera, con el propósito de obtener nuevos resultados sobre lo que implicó el reformismo borbónico en la capital novohispana

La preocupación médica y religiosa del doctor Pedro López por las personas de raza negra de la ciudad de México (1582-1597)

The article deals with the charitable care and assistence carried out by the Spanish physician Pedro Lopez (1582-1597) with the non-white population in Mexico City. After a biographical sketch of Lopez, the juridical and social situation of blacks and mulattos in Mexico City in the second half of the 16 th century is presented. Then two of Lopez’s initiatives on behalf of the blacks are described: the founding of the hospital of the Desamparados (1582), and the request to the Third Council of Mexico (1585) for permission to create a confraternity of black men and women in the capital of New Spain.

The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca (review)

Reviewed by: The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca David A. Boruchoff (bio) The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. vii + 204 pp. When the expedition of the Spanish conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez set out from Spain on 17 June 1527, it was with the hope that the uncharted territories of the American mainland then known as Florida would yield riches comparable to those recently won by Hernán Cortés in the conquest of New Spain to the south. No one imagined the travails to come or that, of the original group of some six hundred men and ten women, only four of those to go ashore in Florida would survive to recount their experience. The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca is the report ostensibly addressed to Charles I of Spain by one of these four survivors. In it, the expedition's royal treasurer, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, relates how he endured nine years of adversity at sea and on land among an ever-shifting array of primarily nomadic native peoples. Hungry, disoriented, and alone from late 1528 to early 1533, later in the company of two equally tattered Spaniards and a black African slave (from mid-1533 to early 1536), he would traverse the southern tier of what is now the United States, making his way by raft and on foot from the Gulf Coast of the Florida Peninsula to south Texas and the upper reaches of the Rio Grande, until at last in the spring of 1536 he came upon a band of Spanish slavers near the Gulf of California, in the present-day Mexican state of Sonora, and was returned to the capital of New Spain, México-Tenochtitlán. By the time Cabeza de Vaca again set foot in the Iberian Peninsula on 9 August 1537, he had spent over 10 years abroad, living in abject conditions in lands and among people totally unknown to his countrymen. Although Cabeza de Vaca's account was first published in Zamora, Spain, in 1542 with the intent of winning recognition for its hero's loyalty and judgment in service to his nation, readers today are more, if not exclusively, familiar with the 1555 edition issued in Valladolid for a broader public. Divided into chapters with titles that help the reader comprehend what is at times a confusing narrative due to its erratic chronology and digressions, [End Page 385] the 1555 edition paired the Relación with Pero Hernández's Comentarios, a critical synopsis of Cabeza de Vaca's disastrous governorship of Río de la Plata from March 1541 to April 1544, when Cabeza de Vaca was arrested, imprisoned, and returned in chains to Spain for trial on charges of criminal misconduct. The notion of unrelenting misfortune occasioned by this pairing of the Relación with the Comentarios was consolidated in modern readers' minds in 1731, when Andrés González de Barcia reissued the 1555 text of the Relación in his collection of Historiadores primitivos de las Indias Occidentales (Early Historians of the Western Indies) under the new title Naufragios de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. This portentous title—literally the shipwrecks of Cabeza de Vaca; figuratively, the calamities, travails, and setbacks suffered in his journey through life—recurs in nearly all subsequent editions of the Relación, which similarly reproduce the 1555 text, often coupling it, as in Barcia's collection, with other works privileging the exotic or unorthodox occurrences of New World experience, such as the Examen apologético de la histórica narración de los naufragios, peregrinaciones i milagros de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca en las tierras de la Florida, i del Nuevo México (Apologetic Examination of the Historical Account of the Shipwrecks, Peregrinations, and Miracles of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in the Lands of Florida and of New Mexico), by Antonio Ardoino. In a break with this myopic editorial tradition, Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz have sought to present the Relación as Cabeza...

The first neuroanatomical text published on the American continent: Mexico City, 1579.

DETAILS OF PUBLICATION: The first neuroanatomy text published on the American continent was included in the Tractado de Anothomia y Chirugia by Fr. Agustín Farfán, O.S.A., who received his M.D. in 1569 from the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. It was printed in 1579 by Antonio Ricardo, a Piedmontese who had settled in Mexico City, capital of New Spain. . This text encompasses a very correct and complete neuroanatomy of an eminently Galenic type.

Ciencia y Técnica en la Metropolización de América by José Sala Catalá

244 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE and lacking bibliographic references, may at first seem an awkward appendage tacked onto the two thoroughly researched treatises on the history of this technology. Yet it is founded in history and brings to life the technology, and so serves as a coda to the academic en­ deavors of the more senior authors. Ayalon also deserves credit as the editor of this tripartite book. Research presented in this book is based on an impressive bibliog­ raphy of Hebrew, English, French, Spanish, and German-language works focusing mostly on research in Israel but also drawing on re­ lated studies elsewhere in the Mediterranean. This historical collec­ tion ranges in publication date from 1762 to 1989 and includes re­ publications of ancient texts, including Talmudic literature, the Bible, and works by Roman agronomists. The book includes a com­ prehensive glossary, helpful for deciphering the many Hebrew and Arabic terms used throughout the text. A flow chart of the olive oil extraction process and a chronology ofHoly Land historical periods and literary sources, both in Ayalon’s preface, provide essential in­ formation for periodic reference. The book is richly illustrated— with more illustrations than there are pages in the book—using black and white photographs, old prints and engravings, clear dia­ grams and sketches, and expertly drafted maps. Geographers and other spatially oriented readers will especially appreciate the de­ tailed map of all sites and regions mentioned in the text, provided at the end of the preface. This book will appeal to a much wider audience than might be expected from its narrowly focused title and theme. This history of the production of olive oil in Israel speaks to larger issues of technol­ ogy as a social construction, the conflict between continuity and change, and the preponderance and multiplicity of human inven­ tiveness, especially when the object of invention plays an essential role in the economic, cultural, and religious facets of daily life. Dale R. Lightfoot Dr. Lightfoot is associate professor of geography at Oklahoma State University. His research involves traditional agriculture and water technology, resource manage­ ment, and landscape change. He has worked in North America, Latin America, the Maghrib, and the Middle East. Cienáay Técnica en la Metropolización de América. ByJosé Sala Catalá. Madrid: Theatrum Machinas, 1994. Pp. 347; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. José Sala Catalá died on December 23, 1991, aged 37. An accom­ plished specialist in the history of science and technology, he fin­ ished and had this book ready for publication only a few days before his death. Sala Catalá focuses on the organization of space as one of the most TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 245 important traces of civilization. Intimately related to this we have scientific and technological development. The perception of time and space are naturally linked to urbanization. The distinctive ap­ proaches to astronomy, agriculture, geometry, engineering, archi­ tecture, the arts and religions in general, as well as to the social and political sciences, by different civilizations reflect different options of urban life. The characteristics of cities and of city life thus consti­ tute the imprints of civilizations. Consequently, the city is where we recognize the institutionalization of science. This was probably the main motivation for Sala Catalá to write this important and beautiful book. The book offers three case studies: Mexico; Lima, Peru; and Olinda/Recife, Brazil. Much of the analysis is focused on problems related to water. In addition, a prologue by Horacio Capel considers José Sala Catalá and his important contributions to the history of science, particularly through this book. The case study of Mexico focuses on the discussions surrounding the choice made by Hernán Cortes of a site for the capital of New Spain. The main problems faced by the colonizers were related to hydraulic conditions in the region, and these problems raised impor­ tant political considerations. The proposed solutions were strongly dependent on the work of indigenous peoples. Sala Catalá claims that “the control of the hydraulic system through a labor tribute, in proportion and intensityunknown in Europe, gives us an explana­ tion for the technical decision involved in establishing the capital” (p. 41). Frequent earthquakes complicated the problem...

The first mexican maiolicas: Imported and locally produced

Sixteenth century deposits beneath the Mexico City Cathedral and Sagrario tend to confirm the early initiation of a pottery industry in the Valley of Mexico and also have yielded an important eclectic sample of tin glazed and porcelain ceramics indicative of the crossroads nature of the colonial capital of New Spain. Present among imported Spanish wares are examples of 16th century Sevillian, Manises, and Talaveran types, some not previously known to have reached central Mexico. Also, surprisingly plentiful Italian maiolicas from shops in Montelupo, Liguria, and Faenza presumably were rather commonly traded through Sevilla to the overseas colonies. Representative of the Far East, numerous fragments of blue on white porcelains of the Ming export tradition were recovered beneath the Sagrario.

Evolution of the Textile Industry of Puebla 1544–1845

This article deals with an important chapter in the economic history of Mexico. Throughout its history Puebla was an industrial center. Well into the 19th century it was the prime center of the country's chief manufacture — textiles. The city became the commercial and industrial capital of New Spain within a few years of its foundation. I shall concentrate on the ways in which the several branches of the textile industry were organized, comparing their development with that of the textile industries of medieval and early industrial Europe.

Early Psychological Warfare in the Hidalgo Revolt

C OLONEL TORCUATO TRUJILLO had been sent on a desperate-almost hopeless-mission by the viceroy of New Spain.' His orders were to hold the pass at Monte de las Cruces on the Toluca road over which the priest Miguel Hidalgo was expected to lead his insurgent horde. Trujillo's 2,500 men did have the topographical advantage, but the mob, one could hardly call it an army, which advanced toward the capital of the kingdom outnumbered them more than thirty to one. If the vain and unpopular Spanish colonel failed, the rebels could march unhindered on Mexico City. On October 30, 1810, the forces clashed in a bloody and prolonged battle. It was the first time that the unwieldy mass of rebel recruits had faced disciplined soldiers and well serviced artillery in the field. Under such circumstances coordinated attack was difficult and Hidalgo's casualties were heavy. Toward nightfall Trujillo's troop, though decimated, was able to break out of its encircled positioni and retreat into the Valley of Anahuac. The insurgents gained the heights of Las Cruces and advanced the next day over the divide and down to the hamlet of Cuajimalpa. The capital of New Spain lay below them. Why was the six weeks old revolution not consummated immediately by the occupation of Mexico City? Why, after poising three days above the city, did Hidalgo abandon his goal and retreat? * The author is assistant professor of history at Ohio Wesleyan University. ' Materials from Mexican archives used in this article were obtained in 1954 while I was enjoying the benefits of a fellowship from the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation. Archives conisulted include the Archivo General de la Naci6n; Archivo del Museo Nacional de Arqueologia e Historia; and the Mariano Cuevas Collection, Colegio Maximo de Cristo Rey de la Provincia Mexicana de la Compafiia de Jesius, Sani Angel, D. F. (abbreviated hereinafter as AGN, AMN, and Cuevas, respectively). For additional primary materials I am indebted to the staffs of the Library of Congress; the Sutro Branch of the Califorlnia State Library; the Latin American Collection of the University of Texas Library; the Henry Raup Wagner Collection of Yale University; and the Yale University Library (cited hereinafter as L.C., Sutro, Texas, Wagner, and Yale, respectively). I wish to thank Charles Griffin and Charles Hale for their helpful suggestions. I am responsible for all errors and conclusions.

The Valley of Mexico

IN the paper I am about to read to you I endeavour to give some description of the valley and city of Mexico. The city originated in an Aztec settlement on two small muddy islands in a lake which at one time must have filled the greater part of the valley, 800ooo feet above sealevel. By an examination of early maps and plans I shall endeavour to trace the development of the city which, after becoming the capital of a native Indian empire, was successively the colonial capital of New Spain and of the Mexican Republic; furthermore, to follow the engineering works both native and foreign for the protection of the city from inundation, and finally for the drainage of the lakes. The Gulf of Mexico is curiously devoid of harbours, and the early voyagers always sought the shelter of the small island of San Juan de Ulua as a protection from the dreaded Norte, the cold north wind which sweeps down from North America. This island is close to the shore, and on the mainland opposite to it the city of Vera Cruz was built, a city which always had a bad reputation as the home of yellow fever; but quite recently, mainly owing to the skill of English engineers and contractors, it has become a well-dtained health resort and possesses wharves capable of accommodating ocean-going steamers. However, until quite lately the island of San Juan de Ulua was the only protection for vessels, and the picture plan, dated i608, by Bautista Antonelli shows the ships moored to rings attached to the wall which had been built along the landward side of the island.