Many Years in Mexico
Dawley, Thomas Robinson Jr.
August 18, r926 THE COMMONWEAL 361 MANY YEARS IN...
...I have asso- best is the smartest, the one for whom there is appreciation, ciated with the people, those in high places, and with consideration, esteem, and honor...
...those who preserved the "family spirit" adhered to the It was the policy of Cortes at the very beginning of Church and religion, and from the early days of the the conquest to allow the Indians to continue their conquest it was the Church and religion that stood by respective governments under their own chiefs...
...directed the building of defenses, helped in the overthrow of at least one tyrant, and as an observer when MY ATTENTION was diverted to Mexico at not an actual participant, I have been in close touch the age of nineteen when I narrowly missed with wars and revolutions under eight flags...
...can get their hands on...
...All the weak, the unfortunate and the lowly, as against the he asked of them was to give up their idol worship, "wild adventurers-gold seekers and traders," or their their human sacrifices, and practice of eating each descendants who were for the most part lacking in other...
...neither am I subjected to the ediIndians, such information as this whetted my desire torial autocracy of a newspaper or other publication...
...along the Rio Grande, or the Apache raids, which One may take his choice of these views...
...part-gold-thirsty traders, often less civilized in their The officials sent from Spain, the officers of the notions of truth and in the refinement of their manners Royal Chancelleries, justices of the audiencies, viceand mode of life than the races whose lands they in- roys and captains-general, or other executives for the vaded...
...it is our moral cowardice, of Yucatan...
...362 THE COMMONWEAL August i8, 1926 This is a strong indictment...
...well-defined policy of the Church to educate natives They did not bring their wives with them...
...The entire party was massacred by the Indians, "hunk...
...That was so long ago I hardly dare count was their mendacity...
...And thus the conquest of a mighty emfor its truth as particularly applicable to the political pire was accomplished by the Indians themselves...
...It is Indians took for a god...
...selected for their probity, and were far from being This is a fair example of how history is written...
...were regarded by the latter in almost the same category This seeming anomaly is explained by the fact that as the native Indians...
...I belong to on the alert along the border and contributed to our no church...
...Concerning the present conflict between the governThis naturally interested me in the affairs of Mexico, ment of Mexico and the Catholic Church, nearly all and I forthwith began devouring everything I could articles being printed now are the special pleadings of find relating to that marvelous land, its discovery, its interested parties, written, to use a Spanish proverb, conquest, its people, and their social conditions...
...Perhaps this was due to my the years lest I should begin to feel that I am old...
...In the next paragraph the new world they took their families with them and the writer states: "In the opposite social scale were preserved the family spirit...
...element in power in both Central America and Mexico, As for either the Indian or the white Creole being calling itself "liberal," then I ask how are we to be- barred from public office, or not having the same rights lieve anything they write or tell us...
...but it was written by a of the Tlascalans and convince them of the same thing, native who knows his people, who is a "liberal," and it and these, on their conviction, in turn furnished Cortes was printed in a paper the editor and publishers of with more warriors than he could handle to invade the which are "liberals...
...Measures were also taken to induce the new- whether born in the new world or not, whether Creole comers to bring their wives and families with them, or Indian, the same rights of citizenship as those born and the crown issued various decrees to the same effect...
...As a matter of fact, it was a the new world for the sole purpose of making money...
...If this is true, and I can vouch next domain...
...They for the priesthood, and as for the political offices, I took Indian women for mistresses, and to manage such myself have handled from the colonial archives a household affairs as they might have...
...to accept the Christian religion and acknowl- the family spirit...
...These, al- of independence, as aristocrats, and on the definite though the possessors of wealth, and arrogating to formation of the so-called "liberal" party, they were themselves positions of equality with the Spaniards, called serviles...
...On convincing the that their interests lay with the religious or so-called Totonacs that the Christian God was better than any aristocratic element, and consequently, as in the course of the gods by destroying their idols, cleansing their of time the poorer and more humble element became blood-stained temples, and setting up an image of the identified with this element in which their safety lay, Holy Mother in a bower of flowers, Cortes was furn- the "liberals" called the political party which was its ished with 3,000 of their warriors to invade the domain outgrowth, the "conservative" or "servile...
...have never subscribed to any religious creed, war with Mexico in 1846...
...the "lame ducks" as represented by our historians who The doors of "preferment" were not open to this class view these things from the political methods which freof adventurers, which was one of the causes of dissen- quently occur with ourselves...
...The question I was constantly asking myself experience and research work, and, I may add, is in as I pursued my inquiries, was: Why all this political conflict with many of my early teachings...
...opportunities to see events as an eye-witness...
...It was the preservation the Indians, the pure native races, who were scarcely of this family spirit that engendered the hatred of recognized as having any rights which the Spaniards that element of "gold seekers" who were without other were bound to respect," which is as big a falsehood as family ties than the offspring of their Indian mistresses...
...in old Spain...
...and privileges as Spaniards, titles of nobility as marks A word in respect to the political party that calls of special merit were conferred on both, and while the itself "liberal...
...Soldiers with fixed bayonets romantic novels hope to be, and is identified historically with have closed in on me, prison doors have clanked bethe progress of the Spanish-American War...
...to come in personal contact with the country and its What I write is based on knowledge gained through people...
...I hold no necessitated our keeping an armed force continually brief for either of the interested parties...
...disturbance, internecine strife, robbery, murder, and One of the things that impressed me most in my sacrifice of human lPfe...
...It need not be hind me, and in turn I have been in command, a power said that the truth of everything he writes here is attested to behind the throne, have faced artillery and rifle fire, by many of the ablest members of the journalistic profession and by his own record.-The Editors...
...The following is a literal transboard to the Pacific ocean, and from the Central Amer- lation of a paragraph from a series of articles appearican states of Honduras and El Salvador, to the Rio ing in a weekly paper while I was in Guatemala reGrande...
...August 18, r926 THE COMMONWEAL 361 MANY YEARS IN MEXICO By THOMAS ROBINSON DAWLEY, JR...
...This is exemplified in a symposium appeared to be a land of internecine strife, constant printed in the July issue of Current History, in which wars, revolutions, and murders, there having been as a distinguished Catholic layman presents the Catholic many as a hundred revolutionary movements and politi- viewpoint, a Methodist bishop presents the Protestant cal pronunciamentos of some sort or another, reported view, and the Mexican ambassador that of the governin the course of a single year, not counting any of the ment, backed by a lawyer for the Mexican consulate, individual hold-ups by robbers, pillagers and organized a Mexican educator, and the secretary of a labor federbands of outlaws, many of which infested our frontier ation...
...Among them the last mentioned captainA recent historian states with respect to these new- general of the "kingdom of Guatemala," Don Carlos comers that "they were wild adventurers for the most de Urrutia, was a native of Cuba born in Havana...
...It had its origin in the colonial Among them were captains-general, viceroys, bishops, days, and was made up of adventurers who came to priests, and prelates...
...early environment where lying was looked upon as Since then I have traveled from the Atlantic sea- worse than stealing...
...have listened on a starlit night in the jun- the education which we receive, and our inspiration to fame...
...The masses learned by experience edge the sovereignty of Spain...
...we are born with the venom in our blood...
...I have seen the work of despots and tyrants, matters written by a non-Catholic who has had exceptional their oppressions of the poor and weak...
...Dawley's As for acts of injustice, murder and rapine, I have career as a newspaper man has been more exciting than most had experiences a plenty...
...I have followed the route of Cortes through cently, and what the writer states is equally applicable the morasses of Tabasco, on his famous march to to Mexico Honduras, and for a time governed the Island City of As regards lying, we are liars from the time we are in the Itzas, where he left his wounded horse which the the cradle...
...The one who can lie the uplands, to the coyote's dismal howl...
...I have crossed the arid plains an atavic vice, a malediction on us...
...Cortes early Royal Cedula directed to the viceroys, captains-general recognized the evil consequence of this, and attempted and chief justices of the Spanish dominion, calling their to remedy it by ordinances requiring every settler to attention to the law which gave all Spanish subjects, marry...
...They were for the most tion in the colonies and eventually brought about the part men with homes and families, and in removing to creation of the "liberal" party...
...I was determined to go and early association with our neighbors across the border, find out...
...Yet to them only were the doors of preferment administration of the colonial governments, were men open in the Church, in the army, or at the bar...
...By its opponents the leaders are Indians were privileged to maintain their own governcalled libreunas, or free fingers, because of the allega- ments and governors, many of the royal appointees tion that their policy is to grab everything that they holding high offices, were born in the new world...
...ever written...
...With this being scalped by Apaches on the frontier, by experience extending over the many years that I do failing to join a party of engineers with whom I was not wish to count, I can say that much of that which is offered employment on a railway survey in that coun- reported, and subsequently written as history, is pure try...
...and as a matter of course their scalps were taken...
...The following paper is the first of two articles on Mexican the lowly...
...nor am I employed by any government, educational or Notwithstanding my narrow escape from the labor organization...
...gles of Guatemala, to the puma's moan, and on the our personal and social stimulus...
...according to the color of the glasses through which the What impressed me most at that time was that it writer looks...
...Another falsehood...
...and there follows this, "A third class This "gold seeking" element stigmatized those who was composed of Creoles, as they were called, the preserved the family spirit, up to the time of the wars white natives of pure European descent...
Vol. 4 • August 1926 • No. 15
