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LIFE IN MEXICO
LIFE IN MEXICO FRANCES CALDERON DE LA BARCA INTRODUCTION BY MANUEL ROMERO DE TERREROS MARQUES DE SAN FRANCISCO
First published 1843
INTRODUCTION
In the year 1843 two new books took the American public by storm: one was
Prescott's _History of the Conquest of Mexico_ and the other _Life in
Mexico_ by Madame Calderon de la Barca. William Hickling Prescott was
already known as an able historian on account of his scholarly _Reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain_ which had appeared four years before and
elicited praise from all quarters; but his new work outran the former in
that the author had succeeded in depicting one of the most stirring
episodes of history with the grandeur of an epic and the interest of a
novel.
It was therefore natural that a book with Prescott's endorsement should be
favourably received by the general public; but _Life in Mexico_
immediately attained wide circulation on its own merits and was received
with unbounded enthusiasm. Soon the slight veil that pretended to hide the
author's name was drawn aside and Madame Calderon de la Barca became
famous in literary and social circles.
Frances Erskine Inglis was born in Edinburgh in the year 1804. Her father
William Inglis belonged to a distinguished Scottish family related to
the Earls of Buchan and was a grandson of a gallant Colonel Gardiner who
fell in the battle of Prestonpans while her mother a Miss Stern before
her marriage was a celebrated beauty of her time.
Fanny as Frances was familiarly called was still very young when her
father found himself in financial difficulties and decided to retire with
his family to Normandy where living was supposed to be cheaper. But
William Inglis died a few years later and his widow determined to settle
in America. In the United States Mrs. Inglis established a private school
first in Boston later in Staten Island and finally in Baltimore and her
daughter was a great help for she immediately revealed herself as an
excellent teacher. Besides Fanny became a great friend of Ticknor
Lowell Longfellow and especially of Prescott who thought her "ever
lively and _spirituelle_."
In 1836 a Special Diplomatic Mission from Spain arrived at Washington and
at its head came Don Angel Calderon de la Barca a gentleman of high
social standing and an accomplished man of letters who naturally enough
soon established literary relations with William Prescott then at work on
his _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella_. In this connection
he became acquainted with many of Prescott's friends the Inglis ladies
among others and the result was that he fell in love with the
accomplished Fanny and married her in 1838. Shortly afterwards Don Angel
was appointed Isabel II's Minister to Mexico the first Spanish Envoy to
the young Republic that had formerly been the Kingdom of New Spain. The
newly married couple accordingly started on their journey to Mexico
which was destined to be a long one even for those days for they left
New York on October 27th and did not reach their destination until the
26th of the following December.
Calderon's mission to Mexico lasted somewhat more than two years during
which time he and his wife says Prescott "lived much at their ease" and
"were regaled _en prince_." In spite of Don Angel's delicate diplomatic
duties and her own frequent social engagements and strenuous excursions
Fanny Inglis Calderon found time to write almost daily letters most of
them of considerable length to relatives and friends. These letters
constituted the basis of the present book when they were collected and
published--with certain necessary omissions--simultaneously in London and
Boston in 1843 under the title of _Life in Mexico during a Residence of
Two Years in that Country_. The book was provided with a short but
substantial Preface by Prescott.
That same year saw Don Angel Calderon de la Barca transferred to
Washington as Spanish Minister a post in which he not only discharged his
diplomatic duties with much ability but also frequented the literary
circles and even found time to translate several works into Spanish.
In 1853 Calderon was recalled to Spain by his government and arrived at
Madrid on September 17th with his wife who had recently become a
Catholic. A year later he was appointed Minister of State in the Cabinet
of the Conde de San Luis and thus became an actor in the troubled drama
of that period of Isabel II's reign. When finally the unpopularity of the
government culminated in a general rebellion Calderon managed to escape
the unjust fury of the rabble by hiding first in the Austrian and later
in the Danish Legation until he was able to cross the frontier and take
refuge in France. The events that Madame Calderon had witnessed in Spain
moved her to write that entertaining book _The Attache in Madrid_ which
pretending to be a translation from the German appeared in New York in
1856.
The Calderons were able to return to Spain after an absence of two years
but in 1861 Don Angel died at San Sebastian just when he was expecting to
move to a small villa which was being built for him nearby in picturesque
Zarauz. Hard upon this event Madame Calderon retired to a convent across
the Pyrenees but shortly afterwards Queen Isabel asked her to come back
and take charge of the education of her eldest daughter the Infanta
Isabel a request which though at first respectfully declined was
finally accepted by her. From that time on Madame Calderon became the
constant companion of the Infanta Isabel until the latter's marriage to
the Count of Girgenti in 1868. She then returned to the United States but
only for a comparatively short time for as soon as Alfonso XII came to
the throne Madame Calderon went back to Spain and was created by him
Marquesa de Calderon de la Barca. Thenceforward she led a very quiet life
until her death in the Royal Palace of Madrid on February 3rd 1882.
Any radical change in the form of government is liable to be accompanied
by disorders and this is even more likely to be true in a country like
Mexico which has become famous for its frequent political troubles and
has been aptly called "a land of unrest." In the eighteen-forties the
country witnessed many plans "pronunciamientos" and revolutions which
could not escape the vigilant mind of Madame Calderon who often refers to
them with a spice of delicate satire and irony which is not unkindly.
After the long period of peaceful if unexciting viceregal rule the
government of the new republic had become the prey of political groups
headed by men who coveted the presidency chiefly impelled by a "vaulting
ambition" which in most cases "overleapt itself." Madame Calderon drew
faithful portraits of many of the politicians of those days not stinting
her praise to such men of honour as Bustamante nor hiding her sympathy
towards the much reviled Santa Anna.
Naturally as the wife of the Spanish Minister she feels occasionally
bound to dwell somewhat disparagingly upon the existing state of things
as compared with the excellences of the former viceregal regime. Thus on
visiting the older cities and establishments she lays stress on the great
benefits that the Mother Country had bestowed on her Colonies an opinion
that she states was shared by the most distinguished persons in Mexico
who missed the advantages of the days of yore: "I fear we live in a
Paradise Lost" she exclaims "which will not be regained in our days!"
But this does not mean to say that she withholds praise where praise is
due. On more than one occasion she extols the valour of a soldier the
talent of a Minister like Cuevas or the honesty and clearsightedness of a
politician like Gutierrez de Estrada; and when she refers to the rivalry
that arose between the different parties she has unbounded praises for
the cadets of the Military School for their patriotic conduct and their
loyalty to the legally established government.
In Madame Calderon's time the Mexican upper classes were an extension so
to speak of the old viceregal society. Only the very young had not seen
the Spanish flag flying over the public buildings or had not been more or
less acquainted with the last viceroys. The presidential receptions of a
Bustamante or a Santa Anna in the National Palace just as during the
short reign of Augustin I de Iturbide were ablaze with brilliant
uniforms glittering decorations fine dresses and rich jewels while at
private parties the old family names and titles continued to be borne with
the prestige of former colonial days.
On the other hand the relations between lord and servant are faithfully
portrayed by Madame Calderon de la Barca. Speaking of life in a
_hacienda_ she describes how the lady of the house sat at the piano
while the employees and servants performed the typical dances of the
country for the benefit of guests and relatives without suggesting any
idea of equality or disrespect more or less in the fashion of the Middle
Ages when the lord and the lady of the manor sat at table with their
servants though the latter remained rigorously below the salt. With
regard to the lower classes Madame Calderon always sees the picturesque
side of things which she describes vividly and colourfully.
It is to be regretted (particularly from a Mexican point of view) that
Fanny Inglis or her editor should have thought it expedient only to give
the first and last letters of the names of the more prominent persons of
whom she speaks a system which makes it difficult for a reader of later
days to identify them except in one or two cases. Many were the intimate
friends of the Calderons but especially the Conde de la Cortina a well-
known figure in society and in literary and scientific circles the
Marques and Marquesa de Vivanco and the "Guera Rodriguez" (the "Fair
Rodriguez") a celebrated beauty of her time who is said to have been
greatly admired by no less a person than Alexander von Humboldt himself!
Naturally enough Madame Calderon was a competent judge of her own sex and
was alert to the good qualities as well as to the foibles of the ladies of
Mexico whose excessive fondness for diamonds and in some cases too
showy dresses elicit her mild criticism.
Monastic life was one of the features of Mexico at that time. Most cities
large and small were full of churches monasteries and convents; and
Madame Calderon (who became a Catholic three years later) was not then
well acquainted with the ceremonies and liturgy of the Church and
consequently falls into many errors on the subject; but when she describes
her visit to a convent and the ceremony of the veiling of a nun she
writes some of her most picturesque and touching pages.
Madame Calderon does not stint her admiration for the great buildings of
the country both civil and religious though her descriptions betray only
too often the influence of the romantic age in which she lived.
Beautiful indeed as is her description of a garden in Tulancingo she
rises to real eloquence before some of "Nature's pageants" admiring a
sunset over the Monastery of San Fernando walking under the shade of the
centennial trees of Chapultepec or wandering within the gigantic Caverns
of Cacahuamilpa the recollection of which she says "rests upon the
mind like a marble dream" and where an unfortunate traveller years
before had lost his way and met a tragic death.
Prescott's statement that Madame Calderon's letters were not intended
originally for publication seems hardly credible; but on the other hand
there is no proof for the suggestion that she had the letters of Madame
D'Aulnoy in mind. Be that as it may the fact is that just as the French
Countess has left us a living picture of Spain in the late seventeenth
century in the same way the wife of the Spanish Minister drew a most
faithful pen-portrait of the social political and even economic order
in Mexico in the early nineteenth.
As to Madame Calderon de la Barca's personal appearance since a portrait
of her which is said to exist in the possession of a relative has never
been published the reader is free to imagine that lively lady as it may
best suit his or her individual fancy. That she was clever well-read and
an excellent judge of character as well as a true lover of nature and a
keen observer of manners and customs is evident in her letters which
constitute by common consent a most entertaining and truly delectable
narrative which even the lapse of more than a century has not been able
to mar.
MANUEL ROMERO DE TERREROS Marques de San Francisco.
REFERENCES
_History of the Conquest of Mexico with the Life of the Conqueror Hernando
Cortes and a view of the Ancient Mexican Civilization_. New York Harper
& Bros. 1843.
_Life in Mexico During a Residence of Two Years in That Country_ by
Madame Calderon de la Barca with a Preface by W. H. Prescott author of
The History of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain 1843.
_The Attache in Madrid; or Sketches of the Court of Isabella II_
translated from the German New York 1856.
_Prescott Unpublished Letters to Gayangos in the Library of the Hispanic
Society of America_ edited with notes by Clara Louisa Penney New York
1927.
CONTENTS
GLOSSARY
LETTER THE FIRST
Departure of the "Norma"--Last look of New York Bay--Fellow passengers--
Contrary Winds--Deceitful Appearances--Sunset in Southern Latitudes--Seas
passed over by Columbus--Varied Occupations on Shipboard--Berry Islands--
Bahama Banks--Evening in a Tropical Sea--L. E. L.--Pan of Matanzas--Morro
Castle--Bay of Havana--Arrival--Handsome House in Havana--Sights and
Sounds
LETTER THE SECOND
Havana Aristocracy--Lucia di Lammermoor--La Rossi and Montresor--Brig-of-
war--Countess de V---a--Dinner at H---a's--Southerly Winds--View from the
Balcony--_Quinta_ of Count V---a--San Cristobal--Mass at San Felipe--Erard
Harp--Dinner at General M---o's--A Dessert at Havana--Queen of Spain's
Birthday--Dinner at the Yntendencia--La Pantanelli--Theatre of Tacon--
Railroad--Cure by Lightning--Shops--Ball at the Countess F---a's Last
Visit--Souvenirs
LETTER THE THIRD
Departure in the Jason--Spanish Captain and Officers--Life on board a Man-
of-War--"_Balances_"--Fishing--"_Le Petit Tambour_"--Cocoa-nuts--A
_Norte_--Spanish Proverb--Peak of Orizava--Theory and Practice--_Norte
Chocolatero_--Contrary Winds--Chain of Mountains--Goleta
LETTER THE FOURTH
Distant View of Vera Cruz--Pilots--Boat from the City--Mutual Salutes--
Approach to Vera Cruz--Crowd on the Wharf--House of Don Dionisio V---o--
Guard of Honour--German Piano--Supper--Madonna--Aspect of the City--
_Sopilotes_--Deliberations--General Guadalupe Victoria--Two-headed Eagle--
Dilapidated Saint--Harp--Theatre--Dona Innocencia Martinez--Invitation
from General Santa Anna
LETTER THE FIFTH
Departure from Vera Cruz--Sandhills--Oriental Scene--Manga de Clavo--
General Santa Anna--Breakfast--Escort and Diligence--Santa Fe--Puente
Nacional--Bridge sketched by Mrs. Ward--Country in December--Don Miguel--
First Impressions--Fruit--Plan del Rio--German Musicians--Sleeping
Captain--Approach to Jalapa--Appearance of the City--Cofre de Perote--
Flowers--House and Rock--Last View of Jalapa--Change of Scenery--San
Miguel de los Soldados--Perote-Striking Scene before Day-break--Non-
arrival of Escort--Yankee Coachman Dispute--Departure--Company of Lancers
--Alcalde--Breakfast at La Ventilla--Pulque--Double Escort--Crosses--
Brigand-looking Tavern-keeper--Ojo de Agua-Arrival at Puebla-Dress of the
Peasants--Christmas-eve-Inn-"_Nacimiento_"
LETTER THE SIXTH
Departure from Puebla--Chirimoyas--Rio Frio--Indian Game--Black Forest--
Valley of Mexico--Recollections of Tenochtitlan--Mexican Officer--
Reception--Scenery--Variety of Dresses--Cheers--Storm of Rain--Entry to
Mexico--Buenavista--House by Daylight--Sights from the Windows--Visits--
Mexican Etiquette--Countess C---a--Flowers in December--Serenade--
Patriotic Hymn
LETTER THE SEVENTH
Debut in Mexico--Cathedral--Temple of the Aztecs--Congregation--Stone of
Sacrifices--Palace--Importunate Leperos--Visit to the President--Countess
C---a--Street-cries--Tortilleras--_Sartor Resartus_
LETTER THE EIGHTH
Ball in Preparation--Agreeable Family--Fine Voices--Theatre--Smoking-
Castle of Chapultepec--Viceroy Galvez--Montezuma's Cypress--Vice-Queen--
Valley of Mexico--New Year's Day--Opening of Congress--Visits from the
Diplomatic Corps--Poblana Dress--"Funcion extraordinaria"--Theatre--Visit
to the Cathedral of Guadalupe--Divine Painting--Bishop--Beggars--
Mosquitoes Eggs
LETTER THE NINTH
Visits from Spaniards--Visit from the President--Disquisition--Poblana
Dress--Bernardo the Matador--Bull-fight extraordinary--Plaza de Toros--
Fireworks--Portrait of C---n--Fancy Ball--Dress-Costume of the
Patronesses--Beauty in Mexico--Doctor's Visit--Cards of _faire part_--
Marquesa de San Roman--Toilet in Morning Visits of Ceremony--Attempt at
Robbery--Murder of a Consul--La Guera Rodriguez--Dr. Plan--M. de Humboldt
--Anecdote--Former Customs
LETTER THE TENTH
San Fernando--House of Perez de Galvez--A Removal--Size of the Houses--Old
Monastery--View by Sunset--Evening Visits--Mexican Etiquette--A Night--
view from the Azotea-Tacubaya--Magueys--Making of Pulque--Organos and
Nopal--Environs of Mexico--Miracle--Hacienda--View from the Countess C---
a's House--Arzobispado--Anecdote--Comparative View of Beauty--Indians--
Rancheritas--Mexican Cordiality--Masses for the Dead--San Agustin--Form of
Invitation--Death of a Senator--A Mistake
LETTER THE ELEVENTH
Calle de Tacuba--The Leap of Alvarado--The "Noche Triste"--Sale of a
Curate's Goods--Padre Leon--Leprosy--Pictures--The Annunciation--The
Alameda--Paseo de Bucarelli--The Viga--Indians in Canoes--A Murder--A
Country Fete--Visit to the Colegia Vizcaino--The Jota Arragonesa--Old
Soldiers
LETTER THE TWELFTH
The Viga during the Carnival--Variety of Equipages--The Millionaires--The
Monks--Masked Ball--An Alarming Sight--Medical Students--Dinner at the
Prussian Minister's--Rides on Horseback--Indian Love of Flowers--Santa
Anita--The Chinampas--Their Origin--Indians in Canoes--Song of "El
Palomo"--Fighting--The Great Lakes--The Drain of Huehuetoca--The Great
Market of Tlatelolco
LETTER THE THIRTEENTH
Convent of San Joaquin--Mexico in the Morning--Tacuba--Carmelite Prior--
Convent Garden--Hacienda of Los Morales--El Olivar--A _Huacamaya_--
Humming-birds--Correspondence--Expected Consecration--Visit to the
Mineria--Botanic Garden--Arbol de las Manitas--The Museum--Equestrian
Statue--Academy of Painting and Sculpture--Disappointment
LETTER THE FOURTEENTH
Palm Sunday--Holy Thursday--Variety of Costumes--San Francisco--Santa
Domingo--Santa Teresa--Nuns--Stone Bust--The Academy--Religious
Procession--Pilgrimage to the Churches--Santa Clara--Nun's Voice--Orange-
trees and Rose-bushes--The Cathedral Illuminated--Our Saviour in Chains--
Good Friday--The Great Square towards Evening--Dresses of Men Women and
Children--Approach of the Host--Judas--Great Procession--_Miserere_--The
Square by Moonlight--A Lonely Walk--_Sabado de Gloria_--Ball in
Contemplation--Weekly Soirees--Embroidered Muslins--A Tertulia at Home
LETTER THE FIFTEENTH
Letter from the Archbishop--Visit to the "_Encarnacion_"--Reception--
Description--The Novices--Convent Supper--Picturesque Scene--Sonata on the
Organ--Attempt at Robbery--Alarms of the Household--Visit to San Agustin--
Anonymous Letter--The Virgin _de los Remedios_--Visit to the Chapel--The
Padre--The Image--Anecdote of the Large Pearl--A Mine
LETTER THE SIXTEENTH
Mexico in May--Leave Mexico for Santiago--Coach of Charles X.--Mexican
Travelling--General Aspect of the Country--Village of Santa Clara--
Robbers' House--Temples of the Sun and Moon--San Juan--Mexican Posada--
School-house--Skulls--Hard Fare--Travelling Dress--Sopayuca--Military
Administrador--Santiago--Matadors and Picadors--Evenings in the Country--
Dances--Mexican Songs--Cempoala--Plaza de Toros--Skill of the Horsemen--
Omatusco--Accident--Tulansingo--Beautiful Garden--Mexican Dishes--Fruits--
Horses--Games of Forfeits--Ranchera's Dress--Young Girls and their
Admirers--Verses--Knowledge of Simple Medicine--Indian Baths--Hidden
Treasures--Anecdote
LETTER THE SEVENTEENTH
Arrival at Tepenacasco--Lake with Wild-ducks--Ruined Hacienda--Sunset on
the Plains--Troop of Asses--Ride by Moonlight--Leave Tepenacasco--San
Miguel--Description--Thunderstorm--Guasco--Journey to Real del Monte--
English Road--Scenery--Village of Real--Count de Regla--Director's House--
English Breakfast--Visit to the Mines--Mining Speculations--Grand Scenery
--Visit to Regla--The Cascade--The Storm--Loneliness--A Journey in Storm
and Darkness--Return to Tepenacasco--Journey to Sopacuya--Narrow Escape--
Famous Bull--Return to Mexico
LETTER THE EIGHTEENTH
English Ball--Dresses--Diamonds--Mineria--Arrival of the Pope's Bull--
Consecration of the Archbishop--Foreign Ministers--Splendour of the
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