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DID YOU KNOW?
FACTS & FICTION WITH A MEXICAN TWIST
OCTOBER 2006Did you know that...
...Father Alonso Ponce and Friar Antonio de Ciudad Real were probably Mexico's first ever tourists?
Father Alonso Ponce de León arrived in Veracruz in September 1584 and spent the next five years traveling to every corner of New Spain as Visitor of the Franciscan Provinces. In this time, he visited all 166 Franciscan monasteries in the colony, as well as several monasteries run by Dominicans, Augustinians and Jesuits.
His "grueling inspection tour" came at a time when the missions were mired in conflicts, both internal and external. Fortunately for us, Ponce's secretary, Antonio de Ciudad Real traveled everywhere with him, and left us an amazingly detailed account of their trips.
Born in Spain, Ciudad Real entered the Franciscan monastery of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo in 1566 at the age of 15. In 1572, he was sent as a chorister to the Yucatan to accompany Diego de Landa, who was consecrated as Bishop of Yucatan the following year. He rapidly became fluent in spoken Maya and exhibited considerable curiosity about the life and customs of the region. By 1584, Ciudad Real was back in Texcoco, near Mexico City, convalescing from fevers that had plagued him for several years.
When Ponce arrived, he appointed Ciudad Real as his secretary for his inspection tour of the missions throughout New Spain. Five years later, they returned to Europe. Ciudad Real's account of Ponce's travels was undoubtedly written while in Europe. After Ponce's death, Ciudad Real crossed the Atlantic once more in 1592, and spent most of the remainder of his life in the Yucatan. He passed away on June 5, 1617, in the monastery at Mérida.
The account of their travels bears the title Tratado curioso y docto de las grandezas de la Nueva Espana: Relacion breve y verdadera de algunas cosas de las muchas que sucedieron al padre fray Alonso Ponce en las provincias de la Nueva España, siendo comisario general de aquellas partes. (Curious and learned treatise on the splendors of New Spain: Brief and true account of some of the many things that happened to Father Alonso Ponce in the provinces of New Spain, when he was General Commissary of those parts). It was first published in Madrid in 1872.
While the Yucatan section of this work has been previously translated into English, it appears that no translations of other regions have ever been published.
Ciudad Real's detailed account of Ponce's visits is an outstanding source for the history and geography of the colony in the second half of the sixteenth century. It includes information about the basic geography, climate, resources and human settlement of the area from as far north as present-day Nayarit to as far south as Nicaragua...
Read the complete article . . .
Did You Know Index
Text © Copyright 2006 by Tony Burton. All rights reserved.
- - - Sombrero Books Page
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