THE INTELLECTUAL SCENE

With few exceptions, only those who could afford to arrange private tutors received an education. Mass education was frowned upon. In a 1785 cedula (decree), King Carlos IV declared that it was not desirable to “illustrate the Americans.” He also proclaimed that “His Majesty did not need philosophers but good and obedient subjects.”276

However, the need for an educated elite was recognized. In response, the Crown founded the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico in 1553, eighty-three years before Harvard, “to serve God and the public welfare.” A 1557 decree limited the number of students of mixed blood (mestizos) to six. In 1645, a constitution drawn up by Archbishop Palafox codified the racial makeup of the university. It excluded blacks, mulattos, slaves, Orientals, Jews, and Moors from enrollment. For the two-and-a-half centuries following its founding, the university provided New Spain with priests, lawyers, and doctors. By 1776, the university had granted 1,162 masters and doctorates and 29,882 bachelors degrees.277

Initially, the university, which was modeled on the renowned University of Salamanca, concentrated on four traditional faculties—law, the arts, theology, and medicine. Except for medical classes, professors taught in Latin and students wrote exams and theses in that language. Later, the university included such subjects as anatomy, surgery, mathematics, and astrology in the curriculum. Courses in Indian languages trained aspiring missionaries.278

University professors received little pay, even by the standards of the time. However, along with the student body, they did enjoy two privileges. The two groups formed a corporate body whose members were immune from judgment by civil authorities. Professors and students also elected the rector of the university, providing one of the few examples of democracy to be found in the colony.279

In 1539, an Italian who adopted the name Juan Pablos opened a print shop in Mexico City under the auspices of the first viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, and the first bishop of Mexico City, Juan de Zumarraga. That year, Pablos printed Doctrina cristiana in Spanish and Nahuatl. Between 1524 and 1572, the mendicants published 109 books facilitating evangelization in various American Indian languages. By the end of the century, roughly 220 books had been published, and eight other printers had opened shops. Initially, publishing in the colony served to disseminate Christian doctrine and the King’s laws. Later works included scholarly treatises and literature, including works of Sor Juana.

The Mexican publishing industry grew slowly through the colonial period. In 1810, the Mexican press published 275 titles (excluding newspapers) on religion, politics, literature, and other subjects. The number of copies of each book printed ran from a few hundred to several thousand. Several factors limited further increases in book publication. The high cost of paper and competition from imports limited demand for books printed in Mexico. The small number of copies printed increased the cost of each book. Low levels of literacy limited sales. Before a book could be published, the approval of a religious censor and civil authorities was required. Priests in religious orders also needed the approval of their order before they could publish their writings. Books dealing with the New World required authorization of the Council of the Indies.280

The first literature from Mexico, written by Spaniards, dealt with the Conquest itself. Cortes’s Cartas de Mexico (Lettersfrom Mexico) and Diaz del Castillo’s Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espana (True History of the Conquest of New Spain), the two outstanding examples of this genre, continue to be read widely. These chronicles displayed a messianic sense of history, denigrated indigenous culture, and condemned native idolatry.281

During the seventeenth century, Mexico City remained the intellectual center of New Spain. Academies, literary groups, poetry readings, and musical performances complemented the university there. As in the previous century, rather than innovating, Mexico imported ideas and cultural norms from Europe. During this century, native-born Creole writers replaced the Spanish immigrants who had been the dominant writers of the sixteenth century.282

The expulsion of the Jesuits unintentionally resulted in the exiled Mexican priests making fundamental contributions to Mexican thought and culture. Much of their work responded to Europeans who proclaimed the “inferiority” of the geography and people of the Americas. The exiled Jesuits, who remained in Europe, compiled information on Mexico’s ancient history, languages, geography, and ethnography.283

The Jesuit historian Francisco Javier Clavijero, born to Spanish parents in Veracruz in 1731, was the most eloquent and scholarly of these exiled authors. While in Mexico, he learned several indigenous languages. Clavijero did not begin writing history until after the Crown forced him and his fellow Jesuits from Mexico. His works defended pre-Hispanic civilization and Creole culture, which Europeans, most of whom had never even visited the New World, often misrepresented. Clavijero indicated his sympathies when he compared the Spanish destruction of Tenochtitlan to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. His best known work, Historia antigua de Mexico (Ancient History of Mexico), provided a scientific description of pre-Conquest cultures and nurtured Creole pride in Mexico’s ancient heritage.284

Clavijero considered that pre-Conquest Mexico was shaped by social, geographic, and political forces, rather than its being the product of diabolic influence as previous historians had claimed. He readily acknowledged the role Indian labor played in the construction of colonial society. The tasks he mentioned as being performed by Indians, whom he referred to as americanos, included working the land, reaping wheat, lumbering, working stone, construction, road-building, mining, and herding.285

Mexico City remained the colony’s outstanding intellectual center. Humboldt stated, “No city on the continent, without even excepting those of the United States, can display such great and solid scientific establishments as the capital of Mexico.” In 1785, the Crown established the prestigious San Carlos Noble Arts Academy in the capital. There, European masters, highly influenced by prevailing neo-classic styles, taught drawing, sculpture, architecture, and mathematics. From 1805 to 1812, Carlos Maria de Bustamante published the first Mexican newspaper, El Diario de Mexico. This Mexico City paper demonstrated Creole intellectual development, opening its pages to critical reflection on social and political matters as well as publishing substantial contributions concerning Indian history and antiquities.286