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Literary Contributions of Catholics in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Part Two: The Díaz Regime (1867–1910)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Francis Borgia Steck
Francis Borgia Steck*
Affiliation:
The Catholic University of America
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Extract

Having dealt with the poetry which Catholics contributed to Mexican literature during the Díaz era, we now turn our attention to their literary contributions in the field of prose composition. As in the case of poetry, much of this literary prose appeared originally in the periodicals of the day and, unfortunately, much of it is still there, comparatively little having been assembled and brought out in book form. In this respect the prose writers have received smaller recognition from posterity than the poets, owing perhaps to the fact that the Mexican by tradition and temperament prefers verse to prose, finds greater delight in the measured magic of a song than in the less appealing beauties of an essay, a discourse, or even a novel.

Whatever the reason may be, we must examine the periodicals of the time before we can form an adequate estimate of contributions to literary prose. The part that Catholics played in the realm of periodical literature will, therefore, occupy our attention before we marshal the writers themselves and their productions in prose.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , April 1946 , pp. 431 - 453
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1946

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References

1 See THE AMERICAS, April, 1945 (pp. 456–479), July, 1945 (pp. 30–50), October, 1945 (pp. 165–188).

2 Márquez, Octaviano (Ed.), Obras Selectas de D. Trinidad Sánchez Santos, Tomo I (Discursos y Poesías), (Puebla, 1945), p. 73 Google Scholar, note 2.

3 Covarrubias, José Díaz, La Instrucción Pública en México (México, 1875)Google Scholar, p. CCL.

4 Newspaper Directory of Latin America (Washington, D. C: Bureau of American Republica, Bulletin No. 42, January, 1892), pp. 3–12. Lepidus, Henry in his The History of Mexican Journalism (p. 59)Google Scholar erroneously credits Mexico with six hundred and sixty-five newspapers and periodicals as “listed in this directory.”

5 La Revista Eclesiástica (Mexico), II (1870), p. 267, copying from La Revista Católica (Guanajuato).

6 Memoria de la Sociedad Católica de la Nación Mexicana (México, 1877).

7 Newspaper Directory of Latin America, p. 7.

8 See Obras Selectas, pp. 52–62, where the discourse is printed.

9 Ibidem, pp. 78–79.

10 Ibidem, p. 12.

11 See the Memoria de la Sociedad Católica, passim. The Memoria (pp. ii-iv) also prints the letter which, under date of September 30, 1874, Pope Pius IX addressed to the Sociedad Católica and its members, commending them for their efforts and bestowing on them his Apostolic Blessing.

12 See La Revista Eclesiástica (Mexico City), II (1870), p. 182.

13 Polémica entre El Diario Oficial y La Colonia Española sobre la Administración Vireinal en Nueva-España y la Colonización en México (México, 1875), 2 vols.

14 The “Prospecto” is printed in La Sociedad Católica (Mexico City), II (1870), pp. 318–320. It is dated April 3, 1870.

15 See the Memoria, p. 156. It is interesting to note that by 1877 the Sociedad Católica had affiliated social organizations in thirty-eight cities and towns of Mexico. See the Memoria, pp. 157–159.

16 See Spell, Jefferson Rea , “Mexican Literary Periodicals of the Nineteenth Century” in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (New York), III (1937), No. 1 (March), pp. 272–312 Google Scholar. The writer is indebted to Professor Spell for a reprint of this excellent study.

17 Lepidus, Henry, The History of Mexican Journalism (Columbia: The University of Missouri Bulletin, Vol. 29, No. 4, 1928), p. 55.Google Scholar

18 Ibidem, p. 52.

19 Ibidem, p. 55.

20 See Obras Selectas, Tomo I, pp. 78–79.

21 The discourse is printed in Obras Selectas, pp. 63–73.

22 Eighty-nine of these belong to the Díaz era.

23 Díaz Covarrubias, op. cit., p. 218.

24 These eight are: The “Edición Literaria” (1883) and the “Edición Illustrada” (1891–1905) of El Tiempo (Mexico City), La Aurora Literaria (Morelia, 1875), El Instructor (Aguascalientes, 1884–1901), La República Literaria (Guadalajara, 1886–1887), La Juventud Literaria (Mexico City, 1887–1888), El Domingo (Mexico City, 1892), La Lealtad (Morelia, 1892–1894), La Lira Michoacana (Morelia, 1894), and El Diadema de Gloria (Morelia, 1896–1906).

25 Seven volumes of this periodical were published between June, 1869 and December, 1872. The writer has seen a reference to an eighth volume, but his efforts to locate and examine it were of no avail.

26 Vols. I and II (Mexico, 1855–1856).

27 García, Luís Islas, Trinidad Sánchez Santos (México, 1945), p. 20.Google Scholar

28 Pimentel, Francisco, Historia Crítica de la Poesía en Mexico, 2nd corrected and enlarged edition (México, 1892), p. 911.Google Scholar

29 Téller, Emeterio Valverde, Apuntaciones Históricas sobre la Filosofía en Mexico (México, 1896), p. 281.Google Scholar

30 Agüeros, Victoriano, “Don Alejandro Arango y Escandón” in El Tiempo, “Edición Literaria”, Tomo I (México, 1883), pp. 374–578.Google Scholar

31 La Sociedad Católica (México), Vol. V (1871), pp. 71–78.

32 Ibidem, Vol. V (1871), pp. 136–144.

33 Agüeros, Victoriano, Escritores Mexicanos Contemporáneos (México, 1880), p. 58.Google Scholar

34 Henry Lepidus, op. cit., 45–46. The writer had no occasion to examine the work of Gómez-Haro, cited by Lepidus; nor has he found any other reference to the periodical El Cronista de México in connection with the literary activity of Segura. It is not on Spell’s list.

35 For the titles of these periodicals see previous portions of the present study, THE AMERICAS, Vol. I (1945), No. 4 (April), p. 474 and Vol. II (1945), No. 1 (July), p. 30.

36 Valverde Téllez, op. cit., p. 323.

37 See Iguiniz, Juan B., Catálogo de Seudónimos, Anagramas e Iniciales de Escritores Mexicanos (México, 1913), p. 17.Google Scholar

38 For a detailed and critical study of this work see Valverde Téllez, op. cit., pp. 324–332.

39 On the prose writings of Córdoba see Agüeros, Victoriano, Escritores Mexicanos Contemporáneos, pp. 138–139, 140–142, and the same writer’s Artículos Literarios (México, 1880), pp. 279–285.Google Scholar

40 Otero, Luís Gutiérrez, “Algunas Palabras sobre el Libro” prefacing Córdoba’s Historia Elemental de México, p. vi-vii Google Scholar. On the Manual de Literatura Hispano-Mexicana in particular see Agüeros, Victoriano, Artículos Literarios (México, 1880), pp. 279–285.Google Scholar

41 Agüeros, Victoriano, Escritores Mexicanos Contemporáneos, pp. 138–139.Google Scholar

42 Concerning Antonio de Paula Moreno see Iguiniz, Juan B., Bibliografía de Novelistas Mexicanos (México: Monografías Bibliográficas Mexicanas, No. 3, 1926), pp. 228–230 Google Scholar. The short-story Ecos de Ultratumba appeared originally in the “Edición Literaria” (Vol. I, 1883, pp. 455–463) of El Tiempo (México).

43 Ibidem, pp. 140–141.

44 Ibidem, pp. 116–117.

45 Ibidem, pp. 380–382.

46 Ibidem, pp. 343–348; also José Castillo y Piña, Mis Recuerdos (México, 1941), pp. 263–275.

47 Castillo y Piña, op. cit., pp. 273–274.

48 Iguiniz, op. cit., p. 345.

49 Peñalosa, Joaquín Antonio, “Manuel José Othón, Novelista Olvidado” in Lectura (México), Tomo XLVIII (1945), No. 2 (15 de Septiembre), pp. 91–97.Google Scholar

50 See Peñalosa,, Joaquín Antonio loc. cit., Tomo XLIX (1945), No. 3 (1 de Diciembre), pp. 160–168.Google Scholar

51 Both are printed in Obras de Manuel José Othón (Mexico: Publicaciones de la Secretaría de Educación Pública, 1926–1928), Tomo I: Poesías and Tomo II: Prosa. A list of Othón’s works, both prose and verse, is also found in Manuel José Othón: Paisaje, Biblioteca del Estudiante Universitario, No. 50 (México: Ediciones de la Universidad Nacional Autònoma, 1944), p. xxxvii-xxxviii. This volume of the BEU with an excellent appreciation of Othón’s poetry was prepared by Manuel Calvillo.

52 José López Portillo y Rojas, “Elogio de Manuel José Othón” in the Government edition of the Obras just cited, pp. xvi-xli.

53 Peña, Carlos González, Historia de la Literatura Mexicana, 2a edición (México, 1940), p. 249 Google Scholar. See also, for the opinion of Antonio Castro Leal, his “Prólogo” to the latest edition of La Parcela in Colección de Escritores Mexicanos (México: Editorial Porrua, S.A., 1945).

54 Carreño, Alberto María, El Licenciado José López Portillo y Rojas (México, 1923), p. 15 Google Scholar.

55 Lepidus, op. cit., p. 54.

56 Concerning this Crónica and the López Portillo edition of it see Iguiniz,, Juan B. Disquisiciones Bibliográficas (México, 1943), pp. 166–172.Google Scholar

57 See Spell, op. cit., 287. Also Castro Leal, loc. cit., p. xi.

58 Carreño, op. cit., p. 15.

59 Ibidem, p. 9.

60 Ibidem, pp. 16–22. The novel Fuertes y Débiles was published in 1919.

61 See Iguiniz, , Bibliografía de Novelistas Mexicanos, 195–197 Google Scholar. A list of López Portillo’s writings is also published by Castro Leal, loc. cit., p. xii.

62 La Cruz (México), Vol. I (Nov. 1, 1855 to March 13, 1856), nine issues. Maese Martín is from the German of E. T. A. Hoffman, Meister Martin der Kuefner una Seine Gesellen (1817). For a study of Roa Bárcena’s translations from the German, prose and verse, see Rosaldo,, Renato “Roa Bárcena y Sus Traducciones del Alemán” in Abside (México), Vol. IX (1945), No. 3, pp. 329–340.Google Scholar

63 Ibidem, Vol. III (Aug. 7, 1856 to Dec. 18, 1856), seven issues. La Novena is from the French of Charles Nodier, La Neuvaine de Chandeleur et Lydie (1839).

64 Ibidem, Vol. V (May 14, 1857 to Sept. 24, 1857), eleven issues.

65 Ibidem, Vol. II (March 20, 1856 to July 31, 1856), pp. 416–422 and 449–453.

66 Ibidem, Vol. VI (Oct. 1, 1857 to Feb. 11, 1858), pp. 231–234.

67 Ibidem, Vol. III, pp. 178–185.

68 Ibidem, Vol. VI, pp. 99–107.

69 Ibidem, Vol. VI, pp. 331–336.

70 Ibidem, Vol. VI, pp. 482–490.

71 Ibidem, Vol. II, ten issues.

72 Ibidem, Vol. III, five issues.

73 These three periodicals, like most of those cited in the present study, were not examined by the writer.

74 See Agüeros, Escritores, pp. 71–72.

75 Agüeros, , Artículos Literarios (México, 1880), pp. 250–251 Google Scholar. The entire article (pp. 233–251) is devoted to Roa Bárcena’s biography of Pesado.

76 González Peña, op. cit., p. 167.

77 The six parts of it together with Lanchitas and several other short stories appeared originally in the first volume of the “Edición Literaria” (México, 1883) of El Tiempo. Recently, Julio Jiménez Rueda embodied them together with Lanchitas and Combates del Aire in his selection of Roa Bárcena’s writings entitled Relatos, Biblioteca del Estudiante Universitario, Vol. 28 (México: La Universidad Nacional Autónoma, 1941), pp. 3–118.

78 See Iguiniz, , Biografía de Novelistas Mexicanos, 313–314.Google Scholar

79 Ibidem, p. 312–313.

80 Rueda, Jiménez, Relatos, p. xx.Google Scholar