The Bibliotheca Mexicana Controversy and Creole Patriotism in Early Modern Mexico

Abstract

This article offers a reassessment of the Bibliotheca Mexicana controversy (ca. 1745-1755), a key moment in the development of "creole patriotism" as most famously articulated by David A. Brading in The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State 1492-1867 (1991). Through a rereading of the original sources and a reconstruction of the historiographical origins of creole patriotism in German existentialism, the article argues that the identity of the New World protagonists in the controversy had little to do with either creolism or protonationalist patriotism. These creole and peninsular "Mexicans" (Mexicani) certainly felt pride in their flourishing urban center of Mexico City and its dependent territories. However, this patria was analogous to early modern city-states, like the Duchy of Milan, rather than to modern nation-states, like Mexico. This local identity was also entirely compatible with a strong loyalty to the Hispanic Monarchy, a larger pan-Hispanic caste identity, and a sense of membership in the Catholic Republic of Letters. I n 1718, Manuel Martí (1663-1737), the dean of Alicante and Spain's leading late humanist scholar, wrote a letter to a young Spaniard named Antonio Carrillo, who was considering crossing the Atlantic. Martí, who saw in the young man some talent for study, was horrified by this idea and displayed his disdain in a letter that would become infamous: To whom among the Indians will you turn in such a vast desert of letters? I won't ask to which teacher will you go, from whom you might learn something, but will you find anyone at all to listen to you? I won't ask whether you will find anyone who knows anything, but anyone who wants to know anything at all, or, put simply, anyone who does not despise letters. Indeed, which books will you leaf through and which libraries will you peruse. .. ? So ponder this: What does it matter if you are in Rome or Mexico City, if you just want to haunt the avenues and street corners, to I want to acknowledge and extend my gratitude to the following individuals, who offered careful feedback at various stages of the research and writing of this article: