144

REVIEWS

17501850: La independencia de Mxico a la luz de cien aos. Problemticas y desenlaces

de una larga transicin. Edited by Brian Connaughton. Mexico City: Universidad
Autnoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa/Ediciones del Lirio, 2010. Pp. 604. Notes.
Index.
Numerous books and articles were published in 2010 to mark the occasion of the
bicentennial of Mexicos struggle for independence. Most of these works focused on
Spanish liberalism and the insurgent war, which triggered the revolution in New Spain
between 1808 and 1810. The book Brian Connaughton has coordinated is presented
as an exception. Here, the goal is not to explain the independence process but to
explain the longer progression of the Spanish monarchys collapse and the difficult
course of Mexican state-building. For this reason, the books chapters deal with topics
different from those just mentioned and different from each other, from conflict
between royalist authorities and the clergy in the 1790s to the popular mobilization in
Mexico City in 1840. The result is a book rich in themes and interpretations, useful for
understanding the periods various aspects.
Unfortunately, the book also evidences some of the serious problems of edited volumes. For example, I do not think that a scholar interested in the question of limpieza
de sangre would decide to read this book if it were found in a library catalog, even
though the chapter by Norma Anglica Castillo Palma on the subject is one of the most
remarkable. Equally, Ana Lidia Garca Peas important study on relations between the
state and families (particularly women) in early nineteenth-century Mexico might be
linked with the essay written by Ivana Frasquet on the constitutional project of 1822
or with Reynaldo Sordo Cedeos work on the ecclesiastical congressmen, but neither
the editor nor any single author tries to make this relationship explicit.
Despite Connaughtons aim of paying testimony to the 100-year-long transformation,
half the chapters address very specific issues relating to the period 18081822. Going
against current historical wisdom, Ana Carolina Ibarra demonstrates that in 1809 there
were signs of disloyalty to the Spanish monarchy. Jaime E. Rodrguez O. corrects data
offered by other historians on the 1809 elections and offers his interpretation of
autonomism. Marta Tern shows the importance of interethnic relations in the conspiracy of Valladolid of that same year. The chapter written by Luis Fernando Granados represents one of the most original approaches to neoclassical policies during the
independence period. Alicia Tecuanhueys account of Juan Nepomuceno Troncosos
political life in Puebla concludes, along with the aforementioned chapters by Frasquet
and Garca Pea, the case studies on the 18081822 period. The remaining chapters
focus on a varied set of topics, though still with relatively narrow chronological focus:
the relation between Church and state in the late viceroyalty, as studied by Connaughton; the survival of cacicazgo in the nineteenth century, addressed by Margarita
Menegus; Castillo Palmas essay on the proofs of pureza de sangre; Prez Toledos
examination of the popular mobilizations in Mexico City; and Sordo Cedeos study
of the ecclesiastical congressmen. Only Jorge Silva Riquer in his comprehensive analysis of the historiography of economy and Brian Connaughton in the introduction study
the period 17501850 in its entirety.
Alfredo Avila. "17501850: La independencia de Mxico a la luz de cien aos.
Problemticas y desenlaces de una larga transicin (review)." The Americas 68, no. 1 (July
2011): 144-145.

REVIEWS 145
It has been asserted in recent years that the historiography on Independence has reached
consensus on a number of issues. Most evidently, it seems to have been determined that
the Latin American nations were the result of the dissolution of the Spanish monarchy
but not its cause. Connaughtons introduction finds some cracks: while he recognizes
that the cultural wealth of New Spain did not translate easily into an ethnic identity,
much less in a (proto) national [one] (pp. 1516), he assures us that some kind of
national identity was forged in New Spain between 1521 and 1808. Furthermore, he
contends that in the late seventeenth century various realms or proto-States (see
Horst Pietschmann, pp. 1415) were consolidated in Spanish America. Hierarchical networks of cities, villages, and pueblos, religion, and guadalupanismo were among the key
elements of New Spains identity, although these would not necessarily lead to independence, since a shared political culture in Spain and America still favored unity with
the metropolis, even after 1808. According to Connaughton, the 1812 Constitution of
Cdiz allowed consolidated autonomous realms under the monarchy (p. 28). Nevertheless, war and other transformations propelled by liberalism caused the provinces to
claim their own rights. This was the start of state-building, an exercise that would not
end until decades after independence was obtained. Connaughtons interpretation is
debatable. For example, the Constitution of Cadiz did not give rights, as he suggests, to
the American realms. In fact, it recognized the Spanish nation as one, indivisible kingdom. Even so, his contribution serves to question the alleged consensus and keep these
issues open for debate. This can only be a good thing.
Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico
Mexico City, Mexico

ALFREDO AVILA

Funerals, Festivals, and Cultural Politics in Porfirian Mexico. By Matthew D. Esposito.

Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2010. Pp. xvi, 332. Appendices.
Notes. Bibliography. Index.
Cemeteries, death ceremonials, and rituals of remembrance during the Porfirio Daz
regime (18761911) are examined in this carefully researched book. Esposito draws
upon numerous primary and secondary sources to study the importance of commemoration, invocation, memory, and imagination in the forging of national history, identity, and modernity during this era.. According to the author, the ceremonials and rituals that surrounded deatha constant and pervasive reminder of the precarious daily
struggle for survival of most Mexicansbecame increasingly modernized, professionalized, and monopolized in tandem with the centralization and complex cultural
processes of legitimization also characteristic of the period. Esposito also examines the
ways in which national holidays, funerals, and other commemorations led to the appropriation of religious and cultural traditions surrounding the rituals of death by the secular state. He also looks at how the exhumation, reburial, and incorporation of a
steadily increasing number of national heroes (above all, male national heroes) promoted a shared sense of the past and ultimately shaped it, thereby permitting Daz to
remain in power for as long as he did.