Joaquín García Icazbalceta (August 21, 1824 – November 26, 1894) was a Mexican

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. He edited writings by Mexican writers who preceded him, wrote a biography of

Juan de Zumárraga Juan de Zumárraga, OFM (1468 – June 3, 1548) was a Spanish Basque Franciscan prelate and the first Bishop of Mexico. He was also the region's first inquisitor. He wrote ''Doctrina breve'', the first book published in the Western Hemisph ...

, and translated William H. Prescott's ''Conquest of Mexico''. His works on

Colonial Mexico Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 ...

continue to be cited today.

Life

García Icazbalceta was born in Mexico City to a wealthy Spanish family. The family was exiled to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

in 1829, shortly after the recognition of Mexican independence, by an act of Congress, and was not able to return until seven years later. He was educated by tutors and through independent reading. He learned several Continental languages and delved into the study of Iberoamerica. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the ...

, in which he took part. After the war he returned to scholarly pursuits. He married Filomena Pimentel (who died in childbirth), granddaughter of Count of Heras. He spent the better part of his life amassing a large collection of books, documents, and manuscripts from the colonial era, which he used in his work.

Work

García Icazbalceta wrote his biography of

, the first

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...

of Mexico, during a time when Mexican history was being reevaluated, resulting in criticism of the Archbishop and the mendicant orders who converted the natives. In it, he countered Liberal and Protestant charges that the Archbishop was "ignorant and fanatical" by casting him and other Franciscans in the role of the saviors of the Indians, from the brutality of the civil authority. He also highlighted the Archbishop's role in fostering early educational institutions such as the Colegio Santa Cruz and credits him with bringing the first

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

to the

Western hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...

. He especially objected to charges—levelled by Mier, Bustamante, and Prescott—that Zumárraga had played any role in the destruction of native Aztec codices, arguing that most of the destruction had occurred before Zumárraga's arrival, that no Spanish chroniclers mention any book burnings, and that the one mentioned by Alva de Ixtlilxochitl was committed by

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is ...

ns in 1520. He also used the book to criticize the hypocrisy he viewed in Liberal legislators, who, while attacking the Archbishop for cruelty to the Indians, betrayed the indigenous heritage of the nation by lifting limitations on the export of ancient works of art and artifacts. The book was sufficient to restore the credibility of the Archbishop and the place of the Franciscans as founders of the Mexican society in the Mexican consciousness, but it raised other questions. Many people were uncomfortable with the lack of any mention of the apparition of the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe or Zumárraga's construction of a chapel in her honor. In fact, García Icazbalceta had written a chapter on the subject, which he elected not to include in the final draft at the behest of Francisco Paula de Verea, bishop of

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

. In it, he divulged that he had not found any contemporary documents referring to the apparition, identifying Miguel Sánchez's 1648 ''Imagen de la Virgen'' as the first to appear. Despite his prestige as Mexico's pre-eminent historian of the time, his political conservatism and his devout Catholicism, attacks were made against his reputation by defenders of the historicity of the apparition. In response to a demand made by

Pelagio Antonio de Labastida Pelagio is a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos (1816–1891), Mexican Roman Catholic prelate * Pelagio Galvani (c. 1165 – 1230), Spanish cardinal * Pelagio Luna (1867–1919), A ...

, Archbishop of Mexico, he wrote a detailed account of "what history tells us about the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to

Juan Diego Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, also known as Juan Diego (; 1474–1548), was a Chichimec peasant and Marian visionary. He is said to have been granted apparitions of the Virgin Mary on four occasions in December 1531: three at the hill of Tepeyac an ...

". In it, he detailed all of the historical problems with the traditional legend of the apparition. These included the silence of historical documents on the phenomenon, especially that of Zumárraga, the lack of any of the Nahuatl documents mentioned by previous historians, the unremarkability of the blossoming of flowers during the month of December (an important aspect of the traditional narrative), and the improbability that "Guadalupe" was a Nahuatl name. He further cited inconsistencies between the studies of the icon as reasons to doubt the apparition's historicity. He started work on a dictionary of Mexican Spanish, ''Vocabulario de Mexicanismos'', which was only finished up to the letter "G" and was published posthumously. Icazbalceta was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...

in 1881.American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
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Death and legacy

García Icazbalceta died of "cerebral apoplexy" at the age of 70. His writings on the work of the

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

Order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

influenced the work of

Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Basilio (; 13 November 1834 – 13 February 1893) was a Mexican radical liberal writer, journalist, teacher and politician. He wrote ''Clemencia'' (1869), which is often considered to be the first modern Mexican novel. ...

, a contemporary historian.

Bibliography

*''Apuntes para un catálogo de escritores en lenguas indígenas de América''. México, 1866. *''Don fray Juan de Zumárraga, primer obispo y arzobispo de México''. (Rafael Aguayo Spencer y Antonio Castro Leal, editors). Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa, 1947 (originally published 1881). *''Investigación histórica y documental sobre la aparición de la virgen de Guadalupe de México'' (with Alonso de Montúfar and

Primo Feliciano Velázquez Primo Feliciano Velázquez Rodríguez (6 June 1860 – 19 June 1953) was a Mexican journalist, attorney and historian who specialized in regional history. He was a translator of Nahuatl and Latin and a connoisseur of local literature. In 1 ...

). México: Ediciones Fuente Cultural : distribuidores exclusivos Librería Navarro, 1952. *'' Carlos María de Bustamante (colaborador de la independencia)''. México: Talleres tipográficos de el Nacional, 1948. *''Indice alfabético de la Bibliografía mexicana del siglo XVI''. México: Porrúa, 1938.

References

External links