The chief function of the colonies in the eyes of the Spanish Hapsburg kings — who ruled until 1700 — was to make Spain stronger, richer and more self-sufficient. Raw materials brought home from the New World were turned into finished goods, which were then exported to other European nations or sent back to the […]
Continue ReadingAsked to name the Allies in World War II, very few people would include Mexico in the list. Largely ignored by historians, it is time that Mexico’s aid to the U. S. and the Allies is brought to the attention of both Mexicans and the world. Although their participation in actual combat was minimal, those […]
Continue Reading(Reproduced with permission from December 1997 “El Ojo del Lago” Guadalajara-Lakeside Volume 14, Number 4) “La Malinche.” Slave, interpreter, secretary, mistress, mother of the first “Mexican.” her very name still stirs up controversy. Many Mexicans continue to revile the woman called Doña Marina by the Spaniards and La Malinche by the Aztecs, labeling her a […]
Continue Reading
Jews have lived in Mexico since the fourteenth century. In 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain ordered the conversion or exile of all Muslim and Jewish subjects. Jews who had converted to Catholicism were called New Christians, or Conversos. Also known as marranos, they often continued practicing Judaism in secret after they had […]
Continue ReadingFor five centuries, North Americans have been fascinated and intrigued by stories of the magnificent Aztec Empire. This extensive Mesoamerican Empire was in its ascendancy during the late Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Centuries. The Aztec Empire of 1519 was the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time. This multi-ethnic, multi-lingual realm stretched for more than […]
Continue Reading
Among the fertile volcanoes of Michoacan Lumholtz came across the Purepecha people, who were called Tarascan by the Spanish. Enemies of the Aztecs, the Tarascans flourished from 1100 A.D. to 1530 A.D. Their origins are still a puzzle, along with their stirrup-shaped, long-necked bottles and round temples called Yacatas. The center of the Tarascan Empire […]
Continue ReadingBecause I volunteer a few days each month as a Mexican genealogical consultant at the Los Angeles Family History Center, many people have asked me for assistance in tracing their indigenous roots in Mexico. For three hundred years, Mexico was blessed with an exceptional record-keeping system. For the most part, Spanish padres in the small […]
Continue ReadingMexican History As you may know, there are Brujas Blancas (white witches) and Brujas Negras (black witches). The white witches do good and the black witches cast spells for which mean or envious people pay them. Most witches also practice as curanderas, or practitioners of herbal medicine and home remedies. During the Inquisition witches […]
Continue Reading
According to the reports of the first Europeans to visit the New World, slavery was almost universal in what is now Mexico and Central America. Theoretically, with the arrival of Europeans, that should have changed. In 1493 Pope Alexander VI, while granting Spain the right to colonize the New World, mandated that the indigenous people […]
Continue ReadingThe Mexican national emblem, an eagle standing on top of a blooming cactus, in a tiny barren island in the middle of a lagoon, has its origin in a legendary event in the foundation of Mexico. The story of the founding of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, on a island in the middle of a […]
Continue Reading