History or destiny? Mexico - In Pursuit of the Past: the Making of History

HISTORY OR DESTINY?

MEXICANS have always exhibited an obstinate determination to safeguard the memory of the major events that have marked their society and this has coloured the way in which they view their identity and destiny. From pre-Columbian times they have been engaged in a continuous battle to save their history from oblivion. Knowledge of the past was the foundation on which their priests and diviners based their astronomic calculations and their predictions of the future. Countless archaeological remains from the two thousand years before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519 bear witness to the Mexican desire to interpret and record the history of gods and man. The stelae known as danzantes ("dancers") at Monte Alban in the Oaxaca valley, on which are inscribed a record of the passing days and years, place-names and the names of kings and other notables, constitute the oldest known chronicle (600 to 300 BC) of the New World.

The people, or rather peoples, who succeeded one another on Mexican soil met with mixed fortunes. Bursts of creativity were punctuated by times of crisis and war which even led to the abrupt disappearance of entire populations and civilizations. The memory of these events lives on in the thousands of inscriptions and the legends of oral tradition.

The greatest and most tragic clash of cultures in pre-Columbian civilization was recorded by some of those who took part in the conquest of Mexico. Hernan Cortes himself sent five remarkable letters (Cartas de Relacion) back to Spain between 1519 and 1526; and the soldier-chronicler Bernal Diaz del Castillo (c. 1492-1580), who served under Cortes, fifty years after the event wrote his Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espana ("True History of the Conquest of New Spain"). The vanquished peoples also left written records. A manuscript dated 1528, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, recounts in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, the traumatic fate of the Indians:

All this happened literally before our eyes; we were aghast and filled with anguish at the piteous fate which was ours. Broken spears lay strewn about the ground, men on horseback were everywhere, our houses were roofless and their walls were red [with blood]. The water was red also, as if it had been dyed, and when we drank it, it had a brackish taste. We beat our fists against the mud walls at the sight of our heritage lying in tatters. We sought protection behind our shields but no shield could protect us in our isolation...

The beginning of a new history

This evocation of the tragic fall of the ancient capital of Mexico contrasts with Bernal Diaz' equally astonishing description of the city as it appeared to the conquistadors on their arrival:

We saw the three causeways that led into Mexico... We saw the fresh water which came from Chapultepec to supply the city.... We saw too that one could not pass from one house to another of that great city and the other cities that were built on the water except over wooden drawbridges.... We saw cues and shrines in these cities that looked like gleaming white towers and castles: a marvellous sight.... We turned back to the great market and the swarm of people buying and selling.... Some of our soldiers who had been in many parts of the world, in Constantinople, in Rome, and all over Italy, said that they had never seen a market so well laid out, so large, so orderly, and so full of people.(*)

These accounts, from the vanquished and the victorious, record the passing of ancient splendours and herald the emergence of a new destiny. How then can Mexicans, as they search for their identity, ignore the shcok of this encounter between two peoples, which gave rise to so much discord yet from which their mixed culture was born?

There are hundreds of chronicles of "New Spain", covering three centuries of history. Their authors wished to record the upheavals they were witnessing. In the sixteenth century an extraordinary man, the Spanish Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagun, assisted by Indians old enough to have lived through the Spanish conquest or young enough to be his disciples, gathered invaluable, first-hand information on the pre-Columbian era. Meanwhile, indigenous chroniclers such as Tezozomoc and Chimalpahin were writing in their own languages--Nahuatl, Aztec, Yucatan Maya--in order to preserve their history.

A Mexican identity was gradually emerging, but those who were trying to define it were faced with a mass of contradictions. Some felt that the ancient pre-Columbian heritage was dead and gone. Others foresaw a glorious destiny for "New Spain". At the same time, more and more newcomers--African slaves, Spaniards from all walks of life, adventurers from other countries of the Old World--were mingling with the descendants of the Aztec, Olmec, Maya, Zapotec and other peoples.

Reasserting Mexican identity

As time went by, the feeling grew that traditional chronicles should be replaced by a more rigorous historiography which would help the Mexicans grasp their identity and learn from the past in order to prepare for the future. An outstanding example of the new methodology was the Historia antigua de Mexico ("History of Ancient Mexico") by a Mexican Jesuit, Francisco Xavier Clavijero (1731-1787), which was so popular that it was immediately translated into several languages. This was the first cultural history of the country before the Spanish conquest. The author emphasized the importance of accepting their ancient heritage as the only means by which Mexicans could come to terms with themselves in order to face the great changes in store.

Clavijero's foresight was soon borne out by events. Mexico gained its independence in 1821. Some of those who fought for independence recorded their views on what the revolution meant to them as a harbinger of major political, social, economic and religious change.

The contradictions in Mexican historiography thus reflect the different aims of historians. Liberals fought to strengthen republican institutions, while traditionalists, looking to the past, dreamed of a monarchical system. Historians studying the struggles of the new nation attempted to resolve the great issues at stake and to explain the more tragic episodes.

In 1847-1848 Mexico went to war with the United States and lost half of its territory. Internal conflicts in the following years conjured up the fleeting dream of a new empire, culminating in the dramatic confrontation between Maximilian, crowned emperor of Mexico with the support of France, and Benito Juarez, backed by the Mexican people. The history of this era, sometimes written in blood, again raised the tormenting questions: who were we, who are we now, and what will become of us?

Historiography in modern Mexico

The most recent convulsion in Mexican history was the revolution of 1910. The names of its leading figures have become legendary: Francisco Madero, Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano Carranza, Pancho Villa.... The revolution heightened the Mexican sense of identity and purpose, and was expressed not only in politics but in the visual arts, literature and music, as well as in history and anthropology. From the 1920s onwards the great muralist painters--Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros--took inspiration for their frescos from both past and present. At the same time a new generation of historians, sociologists and anthropologists, better educated and professionally trained, were concentrating on the obsessive theme of the identity and destiny of Mexico.

Historical research on Mexico today, whether carried out by Mexicans or others, represents a variety of schools of thought and ideologies. Even if nationalist tendencies are, at times, apparent, the highly professional quality of the work of these historians has to be recognized. The three main stages in the history of Mexico--its pre-Columbian roots, the mixing of cultures and its existence as an independent country--are currently being studied in depth. Although the main research centres are in the capital, work is also being carried out in the most remote regions of the country. The expansion of historiography is part of a general movement in which historians have extended their interest beyond the specifically Mexican field.

Faithful to the spirit of their Indian ancestors, modern Mexicans feel that a people which reflects on its historical identity comes to understand the meaning of the present and is better equipped to face the future.

PHOTO : Two of the danzantes ("dancers") stelae carved in Olmec style, c. 300 BC. Pre-Columbian

PHOTO : city of Monte Alban, Mexico.

PHOTO : Zapatistas (1931; "Followers of Zapata"), a painting by the Mexican muralist Jose Clemente

PHOTO : Orozco (1883-1949).

PHOTO : Detail from "Cortes arriving at Vera Cruz in 1519", one of a series of frescos by the

PHOTO : Mexican painter Diego Rivera (1886-1957) illustrating the Spanish conquest of the New

PHOTO : World. National Palace, Mexico City.

(*)Quotation from The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz, translated by J.M. Cohen. Penguin Classics, 1963.

MIGUEL LEON-PORTILLA, of Mexico, is currently serving as his country's ambassador and permanent delegate to Unesco. Professor emeritus at the Autonomous National University of Mexico, he is the author of a number of books, articles and papers on pre-Columbian cultures, which have been translated into several languages.

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