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Literary Contributions of Catholics in Nineteenth-Century Mexico*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
A Phase of American history that calls for a more adequate appraisal is the role played by Catholics in the cultural life of Mexico during the nineteenth century, from Hidalgo’s dash for independence in 1810 to the collapse of the Díaz regime in 1910. It is commonly believed that during these hundred years Catholics in Mexico were dolefully sitting on the sidelines and sucking their thumbs, wistfully waiting for a chance to enter once more and enrich with their contribution the temple of national culture. So many imagine that Catholics in nineteenth-century Mexico, being fettered politically and black-listed socially, manifested little interest and made no worthwhile contributions along cultural lines. Belonging generally to the so-called “conservative” party in the political arena, they are supposed to have been debarred from the cultured “liberal” circles of the day and for this reason remained inarticulate, contributing nothing of real importance and enduring value to the culture of independent Mexico and exerting no appreciable influence on contemporary literature, art, science, and education.
- Type
- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1945
Footnotes
*
Introductory Note: This study has developed from a paper read at the annual convention of the American Catholic Historical Association in December, 1939. The author has since uncovered much new material and acquired greater certainty concerning the religious status of individual men of letters in nineteenth-century Mexico. The study, as it now appears, incorporates all this new material. The author does not pretend to have exhausted the subject. He is convinced that further researches will reveal the names of many scholars and writers who made valuable contributions to belles-lettres in nineteenth-century Mexico and who, for also having remained true to their faith and their Church, deserve a place with the writers mentioned in the present study.
References
1 Pimentel, Francisco, Historia Crítica de la Poesía en México, 2nd corrected and enlarged edition (México, 1892), 837. For the present study the writer has leaned heavily on this work, notably for the period preceding the Díaz régime.Google Scholar
2 See Cuevas, Mariano S.J., Historia de la Iglesia en Mexico, V (El Paso, Texas, 1928), 379 Google Scholar, note 9, in the case of Pallares, Vallarta, Mateos, Prieto, Nervo, Bulnes, and Sierra. Concerning Prieto see also Pina, José Castillo y, Mis Recuerdos (México, 1941), 256–360 Google Scholar, and Malcolm Dallas McLean, El Contenido Literario de “El Siglo Diez y Nueve” (México, 1938), 35–36. Concerning Flores, see Pimentel, op. cit., 877, 904; and concerning Vigil, cf. Iguiñíz, Juan B., Disquisiciones Bibliográficas (México, D.F., 1943), 89.Google Scholar
3 Published in Mexico City in 1877 and reprinted with a life-sketch of Sosa by Alberto María Carreño in Divulgación Histórica as an appendix to each issue (Nov. 15, 1939—June 15, 1943) of this magazine. Unfortunately the magazine has ceased publication, leaving the reprint of Sosa’s El Episcopado Mexicano unfinished.
4 Alberto María Carreño in his life-sketch of Sosa. See above, note 3.
5 Carreño, Alberto María, El Cronista Luis Gonzalez Obregón (México, 1938).Google Scholar
6 Peña, Carlos González, Historia de la Literatura Mexicana, 2nd ed. (México, 1940), 145.Google Scholar
7 Spell, Jefferson Rea, “Mexican Society as seen by Fernández Lizardi,” reprint of Hispania, VIII No. 2 (May, 1925), 152.Google Scholar
8 Urbina, Luis G., La Vida Literaria de México (Madrid, 1917), 122–123. See also his “Estudio Preliminar” in the Antología del Centenario (Mexico, 1910), CXXVIII-CLXII.Google Scholar
9 The entire poem is printed in Antologia del Centenario (Mexico, 1910), 397–401.
10 Following is an attempt by the present writer to render the quoted portion of the poem into English:
Yea, Lord, chastise me for my faults and failings,
But comfort me in my distress of soul,
And fortified anew with Thy assurance
I trustingly will rush into Thy arms.
Yea, Lord, I recognize in Thy chastisements
The summons of the Shepherd to His flock;
When punishment Thou metest as a Father
It can not be but with an aching hand.
Chastise me, Lord; but, oh! do not forsake me.
With lashings drive me back into the fold.
If Thee I have offended, with what justice
From sufferings then can I exemption claim?
Make me resigned, then be my lot affliction;
Imbue with courage my desponding soul,
Then sweet to me will suffering be and sorrow,
Content and grateful I will welcome pain.
So be it, Lord, burn here below and punish,
Cast to the ground and crush me into shards…
“HIC URE, HIC SECA, UT IN AETERNUM PARCAS,”
If yonder, Lord, my sins Thou pardon me.
11 Pimentel, op. cit., 440. Chapter IX (389–441) of this highly critical work deals with Martinez de Navarette. See also Urbina, op. cit., 85–96.
12
Quoted by Pimentel, op. cit., 410–411. Translation:
13 Quoted by Pimentel, op. cit., 439. Translation:
Call me not, O God! for a while;
But when my body you shall call
To Thy Presence, Judge Eternal,
Cast it not, Oh Lord! into Hell.
Be moved by my anguish and sighs,
By my sorrowing heart, so pierced
It liquid-like flows from mine eyes.
Bide near to God in tears all bathed,
As the tearlike limbs of poplar,
And to thy tired voice, O my sad lyre,
Let my tears merge with it entire.
14
Do you see this fair, heavenly painting,
—For her train she has the stars of Springtime—
Wherein each shade and color reflecting,
Is a star of pure scarlet and carmine?
For it is in its greatness, a heaven
Far higher than that of the solar sphere:
And better: as would tell any Cherubim
Beneath the feet of Her beauty so clear.
Proclaim her love, not with vain elation,
For she’s crowned with the beautiful circlet
Of yon lofty and flowery Heaven.
Fitting it is, such glory to proclaim,
For She, who could be high Heaven’s support,
Merits to wear the Heavens for a crown.
. …
“Accept, O beauteous Queen, the comely crown,
Which from the lustrous stones of precious coffers,
My inept muse has fashioned for thy person,
So it may match the beauty of thy Twelve Stars” …
The loving songs of my muse, at thy holy feet,
Are reverently placed there in thy safety;
Where there are also other hearts that meet
And burn as an eternal lamp before thee,
Praising the gentle Lord who created thee sweet
And filled thee with virginal grace and beauty.
Cf. Alfonso Méndez Planearte, “Fray José Antonio Planearte”—in Abside, III (1939), No. 9, pp. 39-Í4; and No. 10, pp. 42–59.
15 Urbina, op. cit., 96–102. Pimentel, op. cit., devotes the entire Chapter VIII (pp. 362–388) to Sartorio.
a. Let us not allow, O no! that laziness
Should rule over us with lengthy sleepfulness,
But rather, jumping from bed with speediness,
Sharply shake all lethargy and drowsiness.
b. Jesus is about to ascend into heaven
Whither His beloved Father is calling Him;
But no! His sacred love kindly wills, not again
To leave on earth, frail humanity an orphan.
He calls for a council, then, His burning desire,
His power and His wisdom, they all then conspire
That He remain with men in a simple Wafer,
To sustain him; within a white veil to retire.
c. O my own Lord
This pow’r afford
My liberty,
Proficiency …
d. Now pitiful Mono’s finished.
Cruelly, violently lashed
By a blood-thirsty night guard’s vim,
Inclcmently murdered by him.
Tender victim, no more will I
Have beloved Mono ineye!
But my heart is sure offendeth,
Not so much by his simple death;
But rather, the depressing way
In which the poor thing passed away.
These four (elections are from Pimentel, op. cit., 470, 474–475.
16 Pimentel, op. cit., 476–477; also González Peña, op. cit., 131–132.
17 From Leal’s, Antonio Castro Las Cien Mejores Poesías (líricas) Mexicanas (México, 1935). 43–46.Google Scholar Translation:
It would be well after my lesson,
To take warning, incautious man,
For you have been manifestly shown
The supremely enamoured woman
Turns out to be, in her fickle span,
An Ivy, Flower, Lark and Fountain.
18 Pimentel, op. cit., devotes Chapter XI (501–536) to Ochoa y Acuña. See also González Peña, op. cit., 130–131.
19 These two selections are from Pimentel, op. cit., 509, 512. Translations:
20 The three epigrams selected are from Pimentel, op. cit., 525–526. Translations:
(a) While trying to cure Lucia
A Doctor was taking great pains
Though he gave many medicines
Not one of them helped to heal her.
Whilst still engaged in his labour
Seeing the care he took, said I;
Put John as treatment for her, aye,
And you will achieve a quick cure.
(b) Can you discern why John does not
Correct his ponderous verses,
Of the various blemishes,
That a worthy taste would delete?
’Tis because if he crossed out all
The defects, therein to be found,
So many would be erased, the fund
Would be less than nothing at all.
(c) To an alert page-boy runner
A particular lady said,
Giving a note: take it ahead
And present it to my lover.
This was not the initial time
The page-boy had performed this task,
For he took the missive and asked:
Lady, which of the ten, this time?
21 Pimentel, op. cit., 492. See also Sosa, Francisco, Biografías de Mexicanos Distinguidos (México, 1884), 421–423.Google Scholar
22 Pimentel, op. cit., 491–492; Cubas, Antonio García, Diccionario Geográfico, Histórico y Biográfico de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos (México, 1899), I, 371–375.Google Scholar
23 García Cubas, op. cit., 372.
24 From Antologia del Centenario, 232–233. Translation:
His smile is like unto day,
And brilliant stars of the frigid night, away
From His splendid eyes shine bright
Twinkling segments of His light.
Beneath the shadow of His arm, He supports,
From east to west, every thing that exists.
In all things there shines the palm
Of His immensity, sovereign wisdom
And with beauty stupendous:
And every creature thus,
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
His omnipotent name are glorifying.
25 Cuevas, op. cit., V. 96.
26 González Peña, op. cit., 134. Pimentel devotes Chapter XII (537–595), to Ortega.
27 Pimentel, op. cit., 549, 553, 593.
28 Ibidem, 593, 554.
29 Pimentel, op. cit., 550–553. Translation:
The Mother country, meanwhile, by a bitter sorrow
And by innumerable troubles oppressed,
At thy hands seeks anxiously
The holiest of banners with which you pledged
Her most precious liberty;
Which for an unhappy scepter, you exchanged.
And finding it not she falls wearily low.
Feeling in her maternal bosom divorced
By evil parties striving;
Full of bitter anguish and desolations.
She clearly views the forging
Of the new links for her lacerating chains.
Oh how many repinings and misfortunes,
How much of timidity and misgiving,
What lamenting and sorrow …
How much ignominy and disfiguring,
What horror and fatal woe
Has this crown, that seems to you so allurins.
30 Ibidem, 589–590. Translation:
But now the time is urgent that we enter
Into war: the enemy
Perseveres in his obsequious prayer:
’Neath the protection of the shield so mighty,
He in triumph will wear, if we’re not careful
To hasten. For what do we wait? to battle,
This mansion of desolation and sadness
Let us leave: let the world feel
The weight of the power of furious hell;
And in our very invincible fierceness,
Let Jehovah realize that to His laws
Enemies we’ll be, and not vile servitors.
So spoke pretentious Satan, who was thrice damned,
The purest, most adorable, he blasphemed
The Holy Name of God; his evil army
Echoed his horrible curses chantingly;
And with impious cheering and laughter
Followed by shocking gestures,
They applauded their chief’s deceiving speeches
Which he recited amid the hellish-fire.
Discontinue, Oh Muse! thy refrain divine
To perpetuate such wonderfully fine
Harmony, and so sublime,
That my breadth I must recover and confine.
31 Ibidem, 590. Translation:
What’s become of Satan? Confused and hopeless
He has buried himself in his deep abyss.
And his turbulent followers, what of them?
Where are those fierce ones hidden?
They, too, dropped into the chasm,
And despondent, in Hell they are sunk with him,
And now the entire world’s form
Belongs wholly to the Lord omnipotent;
Preceded by His right arm
So powerful, all-flaming and refulgent,
He has sent forth His Spirit …
See the imposing, triumphant procession
As it enters the Rome of wealth and merit;
Behold God’s Spirit, whose durable mansion
Henceforth is here, with His lasting subvention;
Their false-prophets have fallen;
Pagan gods fell back to their hellish region;
And on this spot of earth, with a firm footing,
Religion, facing Heaven, is answering.
32 Ibidem, 607. Chapter XIII (596–627) of this work is devoted entirely to Sánchez de Tagle.
33
The poem is printed in Antología de Poetas Mexicanos, 2nd ed. (México, 1894), 79–82. Translation of selected strophes:
34 The entire poem is printed in Antología del Centenario, 602–606. Translation of portion selected:
What a desolate future they build for thee,
And so contrary to thy dawning beauty … !
Must her head bow servily
Who has the world beneath her proud regency.
Peace, O sweet peace, you have fled from our sad land:
Shall you have taken flight never to return?
And the ardent desire fanned
In the patriot’s heart—shall it be o’erthrown?
Will there be justice upon the earth no more;
Or none to vindicate one’s trampled freedom?
For all time shall threats of war
Keep emptying our beloved beds at home.
If so it must be, O moon! resign thy place,
And make the sunset master of thy lustre:
Let the end come quick to life;
May mine eyes close in unending slumber.
35 Quoted by González Peña, op. cit., 132.
36 Pimentel, op. cit., 810. See also Sosa, op. cit., 843–848; see also the excellent “Estudio Preliminar” by Luis G. Urbina to the Antología del Centenario, pp. CXI-CXIX.
37 In Castro Leal’s Los Cien Mejores Poesías, 63–68, and in Antologia de Poetas Mexicanos, 83–87.
38 Quoted from Castrol Leal, op. cit., 63, 68. Translation of selected portions:
Revivify, O Musel breath of victory
With which, true loyal love of mother country,
In lines of feeling, I told so daringly
The glorious end of her sharp misery:
When with bursting dignity
And with likely triumph, boasted seemingly,
The Spaniard raged angrily,
And, with hard hands, oppressed us increasingly,
For Mexico, the conquered,
He considered his dominion forever joined.
Illustrious shades, who watered with your blood
The plant of Liberty and fostered its growth,
And all its delicious fruits you then bequeath
To the Fatherland, the sacred fire that glowed!
Benignly received this day
The sincere gratitude that her gifts betray,
Lauding hymns that you merit so well,
And more endurable than bronze and marble,
She places your memory
In keeping, within the stronghold of glory.