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Home , 1860s, Chapultepec Castle, Ignacio Zaragoza, Lake Xochimilco, La Reforma, Leopold II of Belgium

MEXICO: FROM TO REVOLUTION HISTORY By Charles Merewether, Collections Curator, Getty Research Institute

EMPIRE & NATION Legacy of

Since its invention, photography has played a key role as a scientific instrument in archaeological and anthropological expeditions, and in colonial conquest. In 1841, only two years after the invention of the daguerreotype, the American archaeologist John Lloyd Stephens and the English illustrator and architect Frederick Catherwood publish Incidents of Travel in Central America, , and Yucatan. In it appear daguerreotypes of the ancient Mayan site . The book inspires French explorer, archaeologist and photographer Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay, as it will inspire others after him, to come to . In 1857 he travels there on a scholarship from the French Ministry of Public Instruction to photograph the monuments and of pre-Hispanic . These scholarships are part of the Commission des Monuments Historiques, established in in 1837 to catalog and preserve all monuments of significant artistic or historic value. Lithographs of the ruins, based on daguerreotypes, inspire many to travel to the Middle East and the to document them with more modern photographic methods. Charnay arrives in Mexico during a period of intense turmoil. Benito Juárez has just been sworn in as acting president, only to find himself opposed by conservative army forces led by General Miguel Miramón. In what becomes known as the War of Reform, 1858-1860, Miramón gains control of the country, briefly assuming the presidency in 1859. (In January 1861 Juárez is able to return to Mexico and is constitutionally elected president.) Charnay arrives in with 1800 kilograms of baggage. From there he takes a horse-drawn stage to . Judging from what he later publishes and what original prints remain, Charnay’s first photographs of the city are of the principal historic sites and buildings. What is remarkable is that, perhaps inadvertently, Charnay chooses to photograph sites whose histories tell not only how one empire replaced another, but how such sites became symbolic of the assumption of power: he photographs Alameda Park, the former site of an Aztec market; the Church of Santo Domingo, constructed as the center of the Inquisition in Mexico over the of the last Aztec ; the Metropolitan Cathedral, built in 1573 over the remains of the Aztec (Central Temple); the , formerly occupied by a huge rambling structure known as La Nueva Casa de Montezuma (The New Residence of Montezuma) and occupied by the Spaniard Hernán Cortés after 1529. Charnay also photographs the Basilica of Guadalupe, erected by order of Bishop Zumárraga in 1531 after reports that an apparition of Mary had appeared on the site; , which during the colonial period housed a branch of the Escuela Militar (Military Academy) and later became the imperial residence of Maximilian; and San Cosme, one of the wealthiest suburbs of Mexico City, through whose streets General led the Army during the Mexican-American War. Before departing for the Yucatán, Charnay travels to the outskirts of Mexico City to photograph the pre- Hispanic and colonial ruins at Texcoco and Tlamanalco. The latter site was one of a number of locations where the famous missionary and Aztec archeologist and chronicler Bernardino de Sahagún worked. (His ministry began in 1529, only eight years after the arrival of Hernán Cortés.) Tlamanalco, its decorative Christian symbols carved by indigenous craftsmen, was an open-air of a type invented by the first friars to accommodate the large numbers of newly baptized Indians. Charnay wants to go further afield and document the magnificent pre-Hispanic ruins he read about in Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, many of which authors Stephens and Catherwood had “discovered” while exploring the land on horseback between 1839 and 1841. In September 1858 Charnay decides to travel to , located in the eastern part of the valley. Dating from 900-1200 A.D, the city was built by the and contains masterpieces of architecture and ornamental design. However, it will take him more than five months to reach his destination, and even then he will be without his baggage and some of his equipment. The region of Oaxaca is engaged in the War of Reform (1858-1860), and the political upheaval means that roads are closed, transportation limited, and local labor scarce—often delaying Charnay’s work for weeks on end. While photographing at Mitla, he is threatened by rebels, who detain him for fifteen days. His supplies finally arrive, but even then the working conditions are extremely difficult. By the end of April he leaves for Mérida. The difficulty of travel can be conveyed by describing his journey: first crossing the mountain range to Tuxtepec by mule, then taking a canoe down the river to Alvarado, then a schooner to Veracruz, a steamer to Sisal and finally a stagecoach to Mérida. Over the next several months Charnay criss-crosses the country, seeking to avoid the continuing war between factions in the Yucatán. He visits , Mitla and Mexico City, but loses many of his negatives in a robbery. In April 1860 he travels to Mérida and plans for further travel. With twenty-five soldiers and Indians to accompany and protect him he begins more than a month’s work in Uxmal, Izamal, Chichén Itzá and Palenque. As the photographs show, the sites they visit are engulfed by jungle vegetation that has grown unchecked over the centuries. Charnay remarks, “One could pass by (a palace) ten meters away and not see it at all.” Days are spent carefully clearing the thick vegetation so as not to destroy the underlying ruins before he can either take photographs or make molds of the stone carvings. Uxmal, lying about fifty miles south of Mérida, was a Mayan city that flourished between 600-900 A.D., and consisted of structures elaborately decorated with carved stone inlays typical of pre-Hispanic sites in the Puuc region of . Izamal, originally an early Mayan religious center, lies a short distance from the ruins of Chichén Itzá, a Mayan center that was conquered and inhabited by the from the north. Like the Toltecs, who incorporated extant Mayan structures into their own construction, when the Spanish conquered Izamal in the sixteenth century they forced the native population to flatten the top of one of the city’s and in its place erect a church (1553) and convent (1561). These are among the earliest surviving Spanish structures in the country. In 1860 Charnay returns to Mexico City, where he works with his associate, the photographer Julio Michaud, to publish some of his findings. The result, entitled Álbum fotográfico Mexicano, is composed of 25 photographs and depicts many of the principal colonial buildings and sites in Mexico City and its environs. While Charnay is busy preparing his publication, European creditors are demanding that the government of Juárez repay the debt incurred by the previous regime. Juárez’s refusal to do so leads the Spanish, English and French governments to send a European expeditionary force to Mexico at the end of 1861 to coerce the administration into payment. The Spanish and English troops leave in 1862, but Napoléon III of France, seeing that the Americans are immersed in their own civil war, seizes the opportunity to advance his power in the region. The incursion marks the beginning of a seven-year period during which two governments, that of Juárez and that of the French Empire, duel for domination. The French coin the term “” as a way to distinguish the region from the United States and place its people under the mantle of a Latin heritage. Charnay supports the European intervention in Mexico’s affairs, believing that the ruins he has seen symbolize the country’s inability to transform itself into a modern nation independently. He states: “It was France’s duty to rouse Mexico from its numbness . . . America will not protest . . . she will only be able to watch with a jealous eye the rebirth of the magnificent empire which escapes her.” However, the impending war with Napoléon and the advance of the French army signal to Charnay the end of his mission. By late December 1860 he has packed up and headed for Veracruz, arriving back in on February 2, 1861. In 1863 he publishes Cités et ruines américaines. Extremely popular, it represents the most extensive of the earliest photographic documentation of Mayan ruins in Mexico, presented along with an extensive text by the eminent architectural historian Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. Charnay’s photographs represent the vestiges of two empires, Spanish and pre-Hispanic, the legacies of which will continue to be a subject around which political leaders and parties wage an ideological war.

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 2 French Intervention and New Empire

Fresh from colonial wars in , the French military governor of Mexico, General François-Achille Bazaine, leads an army of European soldiers and Algerian and American mercenaries from the port of Veracruz towards the capital. To keep supply lines open they advance on the of Orizaba and , besieging the latter city only to lose it to General ’s forces on May 5th, 1862. From this time on Puebla is known as ‘Puebla de Zaragoza’ and the day is celebrated as the national holiday of (Fifth of May). The Mexican generals involved include Ignacio Cuellar and Porfirio Díaz, who will become sixteen years later. However, French general Élie-Frédéric Forey’s forces later lay siege to the city, forcing the Mexican defenders, led by Gonzáles Ortega, to surrender on May 17th, 1863. Puebla is to remain under French control until 1867. The French officers, who soon find that the terrain, climate, and unfamiliar enemy pose greater than expected difficulties, often keep personal albums documenting their experiences. Two such officers are Louis Falconnet and André-Toussaint Petitjean, both on tour of duty in Mexico sometime between 1863 and 1866. Their albums constitute souvenir books of memorabilia from their experience, things either collected or created by themselves: water-color drawings, cloth samples, wood engravings, hand-written letters, carte-de-visite portraits and photographs of the terrain and towns through which they passed. Petitjean, a captain of the first artillery regiment of the Corps Expeditionnaire Français, becomes absorbed in experimental photographic processes, taking the Mexican countryside as his subject. The officers’ drawings and letters reveal both a fascination with the land and its people, and their boredom with long marches. The geological cross section from the Falconnet album depicts the rugged terrain the soldiers traversed between Veracruz and Mexico City, and marks the distances between towns. On May 31st, 1863 the president of the Mexican republic Benito Juárez abandons Mexico City, retiring to the north. By June 11th the French generals Bazaine and Forey have entered and officially occupied the city. Bazaine indicates to Napoléon III the need for a leader who can inspire the troops, as well as preside over a Catholic nation, and the French emperor negotiates with his Austro-Hungarian counterpart, Franz Josef, to select Franz Josef’s brother, Archduke Maximilian, as emperor of Mexico. At this time, Maximilian is living in Trieste with his wife Carlota, daughter of Leopold I of . There they entertain visiting nobility, among them members of the Mexican aristocracy who have fled the Juárez regime. Persuaded that the Mexican people have voted for Maximilian to be their king the couple arrives in Veracruz in the first days of June 1864, traveling to Puebla on June 5th, proceeding to the Basilica Guadalupe on June 11th, and making their triumphal entry into Mexico City on the morning of the 12th. It is at this time that the French photographer François Aubert arrives in Mexico. In a two-volume album attributed to him, we find photographs of the entry into the port of Veracruz and photographs of French troops in the outlying district of La Soledad as well as Orizaba, a city on the route to Mexico City. At the end of the in 1865 Carlota’s interest in humanitarian issues leads her to set up four colonies in Mexico for Confederate soldiers. One of these is on the railway line between Orizaba and Córdoba. In the brief period between 1864-1867 there are many other photographers who establish studios in Mexico City. Some are Mexican; many are European, especially French. However, Aubert becomes the most important chronicler of Mexico under the Emperor Maximilian. He produces a portrait of the new empire and its protagonists. He makes formal portraits of Maximilian and Carlota and members of their government, and he records the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) and the palace of Chapultepec, which becomes their . Aubert does not only photograph the French military leaders and officers and Mexican and French sympathizers in their official roles; he also captures informal moments such as General Bazaine with his family or Maximilian’s court playing cricket - a fashionable recreation of the time. Many of Aubert’s photos are a conscious attempt on his part to promote the empire among the local populace and in . Aubert photographs many of the architectural monuments and historic sites of Mexico City. The images displayed here depict the Escuela de Mineria (School of Mining) in Mexico City. Designed by the Spanish sculptor Manuel Tolsá, who worked on some of the final details for the Metropolitan Cathedral, the school

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 3 is considered one of the finest examples of Neoclassical architecture in the city. One of the statues Aubert photographs is the Fuente de la Independencia or Fuente de la Libertad, about which there is very little to be found in the historical records. What is known is that it was dedicated in 1829 and stood at what is now the corner of Bucareli and Atenas streets. At some point, after 1867, it is demolished to make space for a monument to Benito Juárez that is never built. Later the clock tower Reloj de los Chinos is placed there. It is inaugurated in 1910, only to be destroyed in 1913 during the Revolution, and restored for the 1921 celebration of the centenary of the Consumación de la Independencia (Consummation of Independence). Maximilian is interested in beautifying Mexico City and begins with an avenue that stretches from Chapultepec across the city. He names it La Calzada de Maximiliano. (It later becomes known as the Paseo de .) He also supports the preservation of pre-Hispanic artifacts, and in 1865 moves the Museo Nacional (National Museum) from the University of Mexico to new quarters in the Palacio Nacional (National Palace), where it remains until 1964. Aubert takes many portraits of both dignitaries and the local community of traders and townsfolk. His portraits of women are remarkable for their expressiveness and for the fine details of the style and character of clothing they capture. Also remarkable is his photograph of a group of indigenous people identified as a delegation of Pacific Coast Kikapoos to Maximilian, a meeting of which little documentation appears in the historical record. Aubert photographs some of this group individually, placing them in front of a pre- Hispanic stone wall as if to symbolize the connection between the indigenous Mexican people and the distant past to which he feels they belong. Internal affairs in France and pressure from the United States, which is hostile to the European incursion on its border, soon force Napoléon to begin withdrawing both his troops and financial support. In the face of this abandonment the fledgling empire immediately begins to falter in its grip over Mexico. Maximilian is left to wage an unwinnable war with a patchwork army of various European soldiers and American and African mercenaries, led by French generals who are more beholden to Napoléon than to him. In July 1866 Carlota returns to Europe to seek additional financial support from Napoléon III for her husband. Napoléon rejects her request. Desperate, Carlota pleads with Pope Pius IX to intervene. Again she is unsuccessful. Stress leads to numerous breakdowns, and by 1867 her mental health has completely deteriorated. The famous French photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri takes a photograph of her in Paris during this period. Compared to photographs taken only a few years earlier, the hardship she has endured shows. Her brother, King Leopold II of Belgium, arranges for her to be confined to a château near . She is to stay there until her death in 1927, outliving her husband by sixty years. Shortly after Carlota’s departure from Veracruz in March 1867, the French maritime photographer Paul Émile Miot, on board the Magellan, arrives. It is Miot’s third visit to the port city; he previously passed through in 1863 and 1865, during the height of the French intervention. Miot creates some rare, early images of Veracruz, photographing the city from on board the Magellan. His images show signs of French and European military presence: he photographs the French consulate and the market place, and also visits the district of La Soledad (where Aubert has been before him) and photographs the French and European troops still stationed there.

Death of an Empire

In 1867 François Aubert produces cartes-de-visite of the opposing Mexican and Imperial leaders, each shown with their generals. One depicts Maximilian together with Miguel Miramón, Tomás Mejía and Ramón Méndez. (Miramón was the leader of the conservative forces against Benito Juárez during the War of Reform of 1858-1860. Mejía and Méndez are mestizos and represent an important cross- section of support for Maximilian.) The other carte-de-visite shows Juárez and his staff, including Porfirio Díaz. Throughout Europe and Latin America the carte-de-visite is in much demand. It has become a form of calling card and a memento as much as an indicator that the sitter has achieved a degree of social status. A number of photographers seem to have established portrait studios in Mexico City during the Maximilian years, including Prevot (no other name is known) and Auguste Péraire. One example of this genre is the portrait of Ignacio Manuel Altimirano (1834-93), a writer and liberal activist, who urged his countrymen to

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 4 push for independence and the creation of a national literature attuned to the true and environment of Mexico. Maximilian chooses to remain in Mexico, despite being abandoned both militarily and financially by his supporters in Europe. The Republican Army besieges Mexico City until the emperor's disintegrating forces finally surrender on February 13th. Maximilian immediately retreats north to Querétaro and a three-month siege ensues. On April 2, 1867, the Republican Army, under the command of Porfirio Diaz, recaptures Puebla. The siege in Querétaro ends on May 15th when Colonel Miguel López (portrayed in an anonymous carte-de-visite) betrays Maximilian, although the emperor is godfather to one of his children, by opening the gates to the Mexican forces. Maximilian and his generals are captured and imprisoned shortly thereafter. Aubert travels to Querétaro during the three-month siege to photograph events. He photographs the protagonists, their sympathizers and the damage done to the city. A singular image documents his witnessing of an execution beside the walls of a church. After a five-day trial that Maximilian refuses to attend, a Republican military tribunal sentences the erstwhile emperor and Generals Mejía and Miramón to death. Maximilian and the generals are executed on the Cerro de Campanas (Hill of Bells) near the outskirts of Querétaro in the early morning of June 19th, 1867. Maximilian’s reported last words are: “Persons of my rank and birth are brought into the either to ensure the welfare of the people, or to die as martyrs. I pray that my blood may be the last to be shed for our unhappy country, and may ensure the happiness of the nation.” Aubert takes a formal portrait of the firing squad, but neither he nor anyone else photographs the execution of the emperor and his generals, which will be left to the great French painter Edouard Manet to depict: after seeing the photographs surrounding the event published in Paris he imagines the scene, and over the next two years paints one of his major works, The Execution of Maximilian III (1868-69). Aubert returns after the deaths to photograph the execution site, where crosses have been placed to mark the spot where Maximilian supposedly fell. They are later replaced by a makeshift memorial and imperial cross (visible in the fourth photograph, next to the mound of rocks). Maximilian’s sympathizers soon build a permanent monument. Maximilian is not buried on the Hill of Bells or anywhere in Mexico. Rather, his body is embalmed and sent back to Vienna immediately after his execution. Two black glass eyes are inserted into the corpse to give it a more lifelike appearance. His shirt and other possessions become relics that are photographed, displayed, bought and sold. Aubert’s photographs of the dead emperor are reproduced throughout Europe, and regarded as symbols of betrayal.

Ruins of the Pre-Hispanic Empires

Some of the European soldiers sent to Mexico remain behind to begin a new life when imperial rule collapses. One of these is the young foot soldier Teobert Maler, who had come at the age of 22 to fight for his countryman Maximilian. During his years as part of Maximilian’s Austrian guard he becomes enamored of the country, and fascinated by pre-Hispanic culture and its persistent remnants. At some time in the late 1860s Maler obtains a camera and begins to photograph indigenous people. He then turns to documenting the pre-Hispanic ruins and travels around Mexico City between 1874 and 1878. Early on he visits Teopanzalco, near . The original inhabitants of the area were the Tlahuicas, who settled the area around the eleventh century. When the conquered them in the fifteenth century, the Aztec king married the daughter of the Tlahuica king. Their son was the famous emperor Montezuma. Both Montezuma and Maximilian were to build private retreats near the of Teopanzalco. Following in the footsteps of seminal photographer Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay, Maler visits Mitla in 1874. Three years later he also visits Palenque, before departing for Europe in 1878. He returns to Mexico in 1885 and takes up permanent residence in Mérida. Early photographs by Maler are scarce, but this period marks the beginning of an interest that lasts until his death in 1917.

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 5 While Maler is making his first exploration of the pre-Hispanic world, the American couple and Alice Le Plongeon land at Progreso on the Yucatán peninsula on August 3, 1873. The two have previously worked in Peru, opening a portrait studio in Lima in 1862 and experimenting with the new glass plate negative processes, and in the interim exploring a number of archaeological sites. Settling in Mérida, they find themselves in the middle of a war between local and federal forces that restricts their movements. They are only able to travel to sites that are nearby, such as Izamal, about 40 miles to the east, and Uxmal, about the same distance to the south. Uxmal is the most accessible of the larger Maya ruins at this time because it is safely within government- held territory, and has become part of a that employs some five hundred poor Mayans, who are usually in debt to the company store. Alice, who appears standing next to the ruins in many of the couple’s photographs, becomes concerned with their plight and writes sympathetic articles upon it that are published in the American press. The couple immerse themselves in Mayan culture and history, learning a Mayan dialect in an effort to better understand the hieroglyphs they see on the ruins. Augustus develops a theory that the civilizations of the New World originated with the Maya. More than anywhere else in the Yucatán the Le Plongeons dream of reaching Chichén Itzá, a city that had been the region’s political and religious center. It was founded in the sixth century A.D. by the Mayans and conquered by the Toltecs in the tenth. The couple is convinced that studying the site could validate their theories. In the spring of 1875, the Le Plongeons can wait no longer and decide that they must leave Mérida and travel across land to reach Chichén Itzá. With the Chan Santa Cruz Maya carrying out a guerrilla war against the government the couple need a military escort. It takes them six months to finally arrive at the village of Piste, situated close to the ruins. Over the course of their explorations of Chichén Itzá the Le Plongeons take over five hundred negatives of the site and its environs. In some of these we can see Alice, as in the image of the so-called Nunnery, where she can be seen behind the workers who are clearing away trees from the ruins. While their theories as to the sources and meaning of Mayan are never regarded with any great seriousness, their photographic documentation is extensive and important. Both appreciate the value of photography; Augustus had in fact begun to write a manual on photography during his years in Peru, and their work constitutes the most comprehensive photographic documentation of the Chichén Itzá site. In the process of their excavation work in 1876 the Le Plongeons stumble across a now famous “” statue buried about 20 feet deep amid loose stones. (Such figures, with basins on their laps for offerings, may represent captive nobles rather than being related to the Maya rain god Chac or . They are usually found at the entrance to temples where human sacrifices were made.) The couple moves the statue to Piste on a covered wheeled platform, with the small group of armed men who accompanied them on their journey through the Yucatán. They then write a letter to Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, who had succeeded to the presidency following the death of Benito Juárez in 1872, seeking permission to exhibit it at the American Centennial Exhibition. The government refuses, citing an 1827 law banning the export of artifacts, thereby claiming the statue as part of the Mexican national patrimony. (Many pre-Hispanic ruins are given Spanish names that do not match the original functions of the buildings. At Uxmal and Chichén Itzá there are ancient structures called Casa de las Monjas, or Nunnery, because they reminded sixteenth-century Spaniards of convents in their own country. The “Church” at Chichén Itzá was so-named simply because of its proximity to the Nunnery. Both rectangular structures are covered in a rich ornamentation of overall carvings, many of them representations of Chaac. The “Temple of the Inscriptions” forms part of the Nunnery complex.)

Construction of a Nation

In the period following the 1867 defeat of the European forces Benito Juárez reasserts his plan to modernize the country, a project curtailed by his death on July 18th, 1872. His successor, provisional president and former chief justice of the Supreme Court Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, seeks to continue Juárez’s program of opening up Mexico to foreign investments and trade, as well as the modernization of its various industries and the construction of railways and roads. However, former general Porfirio Díaz immediately begins to agitate against Tejada’s government and policies.

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 6 In 1876 he launches a successful coup d'état and is raised to the presidency. He assumes almost dictatorial control of the country, remaining in power for the next thirty-four years. (In 1880 Díaz is to decide not to run for another term, but he will handpick his successor, General Manuel González. Dissatisfied with his instrument’s performance, Díaz will run for and win the presidency in 1884.) It is at this time that another foreign photographer, a Frenchman by the name of Abel Briquet, arrives in Veracruz. The year is 1876 and Briquet has been commissioned by the railways to photograph the new railroad line connecting the port of Veracruz to Mexico City. In 1880 the steamship line Compagnie générale transatlantique (the French Transatlantic Maritime Company) commissions him to photograph the port itself. Briquet’s photos reveal no vestiges of the French military presence Miot documented only nine years before. Rather, Veracruz appears to be a vibrant commercial center bathing in the bright coastal light and warm air of the tropics. Briquet also photographs the bridge over the Metlac Ravine between Orizaba and Córdoba, recognized as a significant feat of railway engineering when it opened in 1872. In what is to be one of his greatest legacies, Díaz supports the expansion of the national railroad system, understanding that efficient transportation is critical to developing the country’s resources and trade. In 1876, at the beginning of Díaz’s reign, only 640 kilometers of track exist; by 1910, there are 28,000. To achieve this he offers extremely generous incentives to foreign investment and to the local elite, especially the large landowners. The extension of the railway to Veracruz facilitates the export of cash crops, such as coffee and sugar. However, the profits from the new ventures are not distributed throughout the country; most stay abroad or in the hands of the wealthy elite. These photographs by Briquet capture a sense of Veracruz’s picturesque landscape, captured as he passes on the railway line across the bridges of Chiquihuite and Atoyac to the city of Córdoba, across the newly constructed Metlac Bridge, and on to Orizaba. Along the way, he photographs the plantation workers and small villages, revealing the growing divergence between their way of life and that of the fast-growing modern cities in the throes of industrial modernization.

Returning to the Ruins of Empire

In the spring of 1880, on the last day of April and almost twenty years after his last visit, archaeologist and photographer Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay returns to Mexico to resume his work in the Yucatán. He will spend the next six years in and out of Mexico, producing an important body of photographic documentation of all the major archaeological sites known at the time. Charnay was the first photographer to publish images of the ruins of Palenque in the hilly state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, having visited there in 1858. He returns to the site, which remains almost unreachable for the dense forest of tall trees and vegetation growing wild in the humid climate, around 1881. Palenque, vividly described by archaeologist John Lloyd Stephens some forty years earlier, was constructed in the seventh century A.D. during the reigns of Pacal (Shield) and his eldest son Chan-Bahlum (Snake-Jaguar). It stands apart from other Mayan sites for its unique architectural style of structures with decorative roof combs atop very steeply stepped platform pyramids, and its beautiful bas-relief in stone and stucco. Charnay also returns to Uxmal, Izamal, and Chichén Itzá. His photographs of the latter, built by the Mayans and taken over by the Toltecs in the tenth century, include images of the Ball Court, Observatory, and Temple of the Warriors, which are all thought to show some influence. Some archaeologists have suggested that the game played in the Ball Court was a way of settling disputes between cities in the Yucatán. The Observatory, built to track the movements of the stars, attests to the Mayans’ advanced understanding of astronomy. These photographs convey a sense of the grandeur of these extraordinary architectural monuments and structures. However, it is possible to see, in comparing them, that a number of the sites show signs of deterioration over the course of only a few years: compared to Augustus Le Plongeon’s photograph of 1875, Charnay’s photograph of the ‘Church and Nunnery at Chichén Itzá’ from 1882 shows that much debris has been cleared, but also that the upper right corner of the building’s facade is now missing. In March 1882 Charnay, while traveling on his second expedition through , meets the young British scientist Lord Alfred Percival Maudslay. The latter is just beginning an illustrious career as an

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 7 archaeologist and biologist, during which he will produce a remarkably precise account of the architecture and planning of the Mayan sites, as well as study the fauna and flora of the region. On his return to England Maudslay will publish the outcome of his studies in the monumental five-volume Archaeology: Biología Centrali-Americana (1889–1902). At the end of 1888 Maudslay arrives at the port of Progreso in the state of Yucatán. Like his prede-cessors, he travels first to Mérida and from there to Izamal and Uxmal, passing through the village of Piste. He then goes on to Chichén Itzá, assisted photographically by a young American from Boston named H.N. Sweet, who has worked for the American Vice-Consul Edward Thompson. Maudslay begins an intensive five- month exploration of Chichén Itzá. Like his contemporaries, he augments two-dimensional, photographic documentation with painstakingly made plaster casts and molds of many of the objects and architectural friezes that he finds. These expeditions take months on the road, traveling by boat, mule and on foot through impenetrable forests and rivers, and often through regions where rebellion and war is being waged between different ethnic groups, or against the central government, or against the French forces. Labor is necessary to carry the heavy photographic equipment and food, but is often scarce, and having an armed group of men for protection is almost obligatory. Maudslay, having read the work of both Charnay and Stephens, wants also to visit and study Palenque. In late 1891, after having traveled to Mexico City, he returns to Progreso, where he takes a small steamer down the coast past Capeche to the port of Laguna del Carmen in the Laguna de Términos. It is a long way round, but there is neither a direct route by land nor a boat that can take him more directly from Veracruz. He travels inland for three days down the River Usumacinta on another steamer, arriving at Monte Cristo in January 1892. Maudslay works in Palenque for four months, living in the nearby village of Santo Domingo de Palenque. The work done here becomes the foundation for future studies of the city and is published in his Archaeology: Biología Centrali-Americana, which contains detailed drawings of inscriptions, and elevations of various buildings and photographs taken by Maudslay himself.

The New Order

As studies of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic past continue, Mexico is changing under Porfirio Díaz. During his reign, known as the , foreign photographers steer away from political controversy, preferring to capture images of quiet streets in small towns, as if there is no conflict between progress and tradition, or rich and poor, playing itself out in the nation. Abel Briquet’s photographs of the (Rural police force) give no hint of their increasingly repressive role in Díaz’s regime and the repressive land reform policies that deprive campesinos of their land and favor the already wealthy large landowners. In fact, the images are labeled and sold under the benign rubric of “Tipos Mexicanos.” The Rurales ride trains and man railroad depots to ensure order and security and to convince travelers and businessmen that Mexico is safe for tourism and investment. However, they also participate in violent crackdowns against striking workers. This occurs in Orizaba, where Briquet returns more than once, repeatedly photographing from the same vantage point in order to capture the changes in the city. By the end of the nineteenth century the city has become a center for textile production, but poor working conditions lead workers to go on strike in December 1906. Hundreds are killed by the Rurales, fueling already widespread discontent with Díaz’s economic and social policies. Briquet portrays his photographic subjects as “types” according to their class, ethnicity, and form of labor; in fact his documentation of mostly agricultural workers constitutes a virtual inventory of the contemporary forms of manual labor. Briquet’s photos are unusual in that they are taken on the street rather than in the studio, but the naturalism of the setting is undermined by the long poses his subjects have to hold. The soiled clothes and pervading sense of poverty belie the tranquil, almost still-life quality of the images, in which there is no sense of labor being performed, nor that the subjects have most likely been dispossessed of their land, becoming itinerant laborers in their own country. The expanded railway system is seen as a means of reviving Mexico’s mining industry by providing a cheap way to transport ore, but it is also viewed as the cornerstone of a burgeoning tourist industry.

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 8 Mexico’s growth has brought with it an increasing visibility, both demonstrated and created by the photographers commissioned to travel along its railway lines and take promotional photos. In one example of this, in 1883 the young American photographer William Henry Jackson, famous for his photographs of the , s hired by the Mexican Central Railway to photograph the opening of rail lines. It is hoped his photographs of Mexico will provide a dramatic and appealing view of the country’s exotic wilderness for the potential tourist and adventurer. While many of his photographs succeed in this, others suggest his keen eye for the poverty of the countryside and the inequity of living conditions between the campesinos and landowners. One of the cities Jackson stops to photograph is the mining town of , promoted as a destination for American tourists because of its mineral spas and health resorts. Jackson also photographs San Luis Potosí, and from there he travels down to Mexico City.

Preservation and Tourism

In 1883 Augustus and Alice Le Plongeon leave the Yucatán for the last time. By 1886 Claude-Joseph- Désiré Charnay has also decided to leave. In contrast, upon returning to Mexico from Europe in 1885, Maler settles in Mérida and dedicates himself to the creation of a complete photographic record of the ruins in Central Mexico and the Yucatán. In 1889 he visits the Puuc Hills region, to be found south of Mérida and straddling the states of Campeche and Yucatán. In the mid- he begins to work for Harvard University’s Peabody Museum, studying the pre-Hispanic sites he has come to know so well. The biographies of the archaeological photographers of this period, including Alfred Percival Maudslay and Teobert Maler, reveal an intense competitiveness, in terms of both photographic method and making archaeological discoveries. Maler is the first to meticulously document the ruins in the remote Puuc Hills, and he goes on to explore other remote sites that other archaeologists do not visit. In some cases, his photographs are the only reference for objects that have since been lost or destroyed. In many of them there is a pervasive sense of remoteness, isolation and emptiness, despite the presence of strong Mayan communities in the vicinities where they are taken. Maler also works hard to prevent the rampant looting that is destroying pre-Hispanic sites, and is one of the first to call attention to the plundering of ancient monuments. He openly criticizes the Peabody for supporting the American archaeologist Edward Thompson, who has also been conducting excavations, especially of Chichén Itzá, for Professor F. Putnam, director of the Peabody. (Thompson was later named Vice-Consul to Mérida for his successful work in the field.) Maler accuses Thompson of removing objects from various sites to prevent other scholars from competing with his studies. Such actions are common practice at this time: Charnay, too, with the permission of the Mexican government, has collected objects from his expeditions that will end up in the Musée de l’Homme in France. Maler’s papers and photography are published by the Peabody Museum, but his criticism of Thompson will eventually backfire, leading to the loss of his work with the Peabody and the end of his museum career. The objects found during the excavation by Thompson appear in the 1893 Columbian World Fair in Chicago, thanks to Putnam’s appointment as the head of the Anthropology Department at the fair. The display shows a Social Darwinian bias: old and new artifacts from both North and are placed together to demonstrate an evolutionary process made possible by Western civilization through colonization. Amidst a recreation of ruins from the Yucatán and Thompson’s collection, Putnam reconstructs Indian villages and an Indian school, implying that progress could be made from the ruins, if sufficient guidance is given. The artifacts shown will become part of the collection of the Field Museum in Chicago. With archaeological expeditions and research yielding more and more pre-Hispanic sites and artifacts, the collection and display of such artifacts becomes increasingly popular. It is regarded as evidence of the enlightened views of the collector. This is especially true of tourists, but also of those members of the elite who see themselves as descendants of the Aztecs. These developments are documented by the photographs of the period, such as those taken around the Zócalo (the central square on which both the National Palace and Metropolitan Cathedral are situated). Briquet’s photograph of the National Palace shows a statue dedicated to Enrico Martínez on the northwest corner of the Palace and Cathedral. Martínez arrived from Europe in 1589. He was a cosmographer, printer,

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 9 editor, interpreter for the Inquisition, and in charge of the project to prevent floods by draining the . His statue marked the point from which highways starting from Mexico City were measured. Sometime after Briquet’s photograph was taken the statue was moved to the southwest of the Cathedral. Another photograph, taken prior to 1885, shows the Cathedral as viewed from the southwest corner, with the Stone installed against an exterior wall. Dedicated to the four cosmic that existed prior to the , the stone, along with the Stone of Tizoc, was found beneath the Zócalo. It was moved to the National Museum in August of 1885. The photograph also shows the trolley cars, the Ferrocarril de , which started from this corner. While the regime of Porfirio Díaz has, on the one hand, dispossessed the indigenous people of their lands, it is, on the other, vigorously pro-Aztec. Díaz considers progress to be preserving the past but changing the present. To this end, he financially supports archaeological research and the building of monuments and museums by establishing the office of Inspector y Conservador de Monumentos Arqueologicos in 1885. At the same time he advances what Maximilian began with Mexico City’s (formerly La Calzada de Maximilian). Comparable to the great of Paris, la Reforma is to be lined with trees and monuments dedicated to indigenous and colonial leaders. The first glorieta of la Reforma, unveiled in August 1877, is a statue of the European “discoverer” of the “New World,” Christopher Columbus. It is the work of the French sculptor, Charles Cordier, and it is presented to the city by Manual Escandon, the younger brother of Antonio Escandon, a famous railroad investor who actively promoted the railway between Mexico City and Veracruz in the . The gift is intended to commemorate the future opening of the railroad connecting Mexico City with Veracruz. The second glorieta is a statue of Cuauhtémoc, the last warrior king of the Aztec empire, defeated by Hernán Cortés in the 1521 conquest of Mexico. It is the work of the sculptor Miguel Noreña, after a design by the artist Francisco Jiménez. Upon its unveiling on August 21, 1887 a local newspaper declared it to be “one of the noblest works of art on this continent. Thus in many ways the wise rulers of the municipality are adding to the attractions of the capital. The money expended in these notable works of municipal embellishment has been most sagaciously invested, for by beautifying the city, travelers will be brought here to sojourn during the winter months and the spirit of civic pride and enthusiasm evoked...” Throughout this period, France continues to invest in Mexico both commercially and culturally. The French government supports the archaeological and ethno-graphic studies of the young Auguste Genin, as it had with Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay. Genin travels widely across the country collecting pre-Hispanic antiquities while simultaneously working as an industrialist and helping to organize Mexico’s participation in the 1899 Exposition Universelle in Paris, where his collection of artifacts is exhibited. Genin postulates that the ceramic figurines he finds in the caves in the Sierra Madre Mountains, in the state of , were originally multicolored and made in the likeness of their owners. The Trocadero (now the Musée de l’homme) publishes much of his research. Prior to the construction of the rail system travel in Mexico was hazardous and uncomfortable, and bandits and poor accommodations plagued stagecoach routes. With the advent of the railroads, is flourishing. The Boston travel firm of Raymond and Whitcomb hires Charles Burlingame Waite to photograph the trips it sponsors. The company is the premier American tour company operating in Mexico during the Porfiriato. It offers grand tours lasting seventy-five days through the American south, southwest, and Mexico for $460 per person. The price includes food, lodging, and transportation in a double-berth Pullman sleeping car. The company produces guidebooks and commemorative albums for their guests, indicating what they will see on the journey. The album from which the images on display here are selected contains over two hundred photographs, taken during an 1895 trip along a rail line that passes through the United States and into Mexico. Waite’s photographs show the travelers stopping along the way, crossing the high Central Mexican Plateau to Torreón, where they visit the market and indigenous dwellings, and then moving onto , Aguascalientes and , where they make an obligatory stop at the local bullfight. One of the places the travelers pass through is Querétaro, where Maximilan and his European forces were finally defeated in 1867. The group visits the “Hill of Bells,” the site of Maximilian’s execution, one of the few occasions on which the group assembles together to have their group portrait made. The photographs

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 10 of Abel Briquet and William Henry Jackson of the execution site show how its condition has changed over time. From Querétaro the tourists travel to Mexico City, where they spend several days visiting tourist sites: the castle of Chapultepec, formerly the residence of Maximilian and Carlota; the National Museum, which housed many of the city’s pre-Hispanic and colonial treasures, as well as such relics as the carriage of the Emperor; the Paseo de la Reforma to see the pyramid of , the newly built museum nearby, and the statue of Charles IV created by the Spanish architect and sculptor Manuel Tolsá, later to design the Neoclassical School of Mining (1797-1813). It may be assumed they also see some of the last of the canals that at this time characterize the city, such as the Canal Nacional (National Canal, also called the Viga Canal), an important waterway intersected by a number of smaller canals. (By 1900 the Mexican government will have begun to completely drain the Valley of Mexico.) The train travels on across the Valley of Mexico. Seen from a distance is the hill of Cholula, known for the famous pre-Aztec pyramid over which the Spanish built a church. The train then moves through the state of Veracruz, stopping in Orizaba and Córdoba and crossing the famed Metlac Bridge. Waite takes photographs throughout the region, sometimes as part of the tour and at other times to be used or published elsewhere, such as an image of men (and their dog) who, like prospective buyers or landowners, proudly overlook the valley of Jalapa. Like Jackson and Briquet, Waite also works for the Central , and the proceeds from this, together with his commissioned work for Raymond and Whitcomb and the sale of photographs to the American press, make him a wealthy landowner as well as a prolific photographer. Unlike his contemporaries, he recognizes the commercial value of the pre-Hispanic and indigenous subject, especially for the American public, thirsty to know who their exotic neighbors are and whether it is safe to take a vacation in a land that is not only south of the border, but also, perhaps, outside civilization as they know it. By the archaeological sites have become important stops on the tourist trail. It is no longer an issue of archaeological sites but tourist sights. On his way to the ruins of Mitla, Waite passes through Oaxaca, photographing the Plaza de Armas and the extraordinary ceiling in the seventeenth-century Dominican church of Santo Domingo. Guillermo Kahlo comes to Mexico from in 1891 and works as a photographer for the magazine El Mundo Ilustrado. In 1904, in advance of the planned 1910 national centennial celebrations, he is commissioned by the state to document the nation’s colonial architecture, as well as the buildings constructed during the Porfiriato. Later, he is asked to direct the publication of a monumental study of Mexican churches. Some of his photographs are reproduced in the six-volume work, Churches of Mexico (1924-1927). This is an extraordinary inventory that documents all aspects of Mexican colonial churches and public buildings, including the Palacio de Iturbide and the Church of Santo Domingo in Puebla. The Palace, constructed out of ornate stone with huge, hand-carved wooden doors, was built in 1780 and later became the residence of Emperor Agustín de Iturbide, who ruled Mexico from 1822–1823. The Chapel in the Church of Santo Domingo, Puebla, was famous as an example of and for its intricate gold leaf details. By 1906 there has been a marked influx of foreigners and foreign capital into Mexico. T. Philip Terry, writing the next edition of Terry’s Mexico, the authoritative English-language guide to Mexico, proclaims Díaz as “the greatest Mexican, the United Mexican States join the rank of great nations ...The Díaz government inspires confidence, revolutions are a thing of the past.” However, economic prosperity is enjoyed only by the urban elite and foreign investors, and there is growing discontent across the country. The Partido Liberal Mexicano (Mexican , or PLM) is formed with Ricardo Flores Magnon as its leader. After thirty years in power, Porfirio Díaz makes his first trip to the Yucatán peninsula, where there has long been opposition to his land-use policies and where a war had been fought four years earlier. He goes to inaugurate a new hospital, asylum, and penitentiary. The Yucatán trip is heralded with great fanfare, including the publication of a souvenir album containing images of new buildings in Mérida. The city’s Spanish, Italian, Cuban, and American communities construct in honor of Díaz’s arrival. Foreign and local photographers and photographic agencies, such as Mérida’s Fotografia Guerra, cover the festivities, which include fireworks, parades of floats, banquets, balls, and a visit to a local hacienda. In preparation of Díaz’s visit, the Minister of Public

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 11 Instruction, Méndez, and Leopoldo Batres, who heads the office of Inspector y Conservador de Monumentos Arqueologicos visit Chichén Itzá, inviting Teobert Maler to show them around. Sierra is to become a great liberal historian who will recognize the achievements and weaknesses of the Aztec civilization and the positive role that education could play for the contemporary indigenous people. His views stand in contrast to the of Díaz’s policies and defenders, and (alongside those of others) they become the basis of liberal reform during the Revolution.

Daily Life

Under Porfirio Díaz’s rule the living conditions of the campesinos deteriorate, leading to an increase in . The death of young children is commemorated with a ritual that marks their passage into another world: boys are commonly prepared for burial by being given a crown of thorns symbolizing the Sacred Heart of Christ, girls tend to be dressed as angels. The deceased children are popularly known as angelitos (little angels). Juan de Dios Machain, a photographer from , is often commissioned by families to document funerals. His images are unnerving formal portraits of families whose children are dead. Viewed collectively, they begin to suggest the devastating effect that the government of Díaz is having on the living conditions of ordinary people. Charles Burlingame Waite’s images also reveal a country where privation is very much a part of everyday reality and the gulf between rich and poor is rapidly increasing. His numerous study portraits of women and children show them in their traditional dress, at work, or in a state of destitution. His portraits of poor, naked children are criticized by the press as demeaning to both the children and the nation. The uproar, probably exacerbated by the fact that Waite is a foreigner, leads to his imprisonment for three days in 1901, after some of the photos are deemed pornographic by the Mexican postal code and become illegal to circulate. Many photographs follow the costumbrista style of portraying as "types" according to their class and labor. The photographs of the studio portrait photographer Lorenzo Becerril are an excellent example; the subjects are removed from their immediate context and photographed with artificial backdrops of wooded landscapes, as if to suggest a natural affinity between indigenous peoples and the land - an affinity that, it should be noted, cannot be captured in reality. Hence, while the intent may be to dignify the subject, the effect of such photographs is to romanticize indigenous people or turn them into objects of study. They become living artifacts, a characterization that masks their real living conditions. Photography is key to nineteenth-century scientific theories that relate physiognomy to character. comes to Mexico in 1896, and again in 1898, to study the physical features of indigenous people. He shares the commonly held and racist belief that native Indians are an inferior race and seeks evidence for this theory by measuring heads and bodily proportions. Appropriately, Starr dedicates his study to Díaz. Meanwhile, the leisured classes are enjoying the fruits of economic prosperity under Díaz, a prosperity that both Waite and the young Agustín Víctor Casasola capture. Working for the Porfiriato press, Casasola’s photographs offer a glimpse of how the ruling class lives. There are serene images of the wealthy boating on Lake , going to the newly opened Hippodrome racetrack in Mexico City, attending numerous parties, or simply strolling through the Alameda. These depictions of prosperity and stability give no hint of the growing popular discontent with the Díaz regime, especially marked in the Northern states. It is against this misleading backdrop that Díaz plans the Centenary celebrations of independence to be held in 1910.

A Nation Undone

In 1908 Porfirio Díaz announces his plan not to seek re-election and that he welcomes an opposition party. He then begins plans for the 1910 centennial festival marking the one-hundred-year anniversary of Mexico's war of independence, and his eightieth birthday, celebrations that for Díaz will also be a testament to the achievements of his long reign. In 1909, as plans for the post-Díaz election are being formalized, Díaz decides not to retire but to allow Francisco Madero, a moderate reformer, to run against him. Fearing

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 12 defeat Díaz then arrests Madero on charges of rebellion and claims victory in the elections held on June 21st, 1910. Commencing on September 14th, the centenary festivities are held over three days. They include the unveiling of new monuments, including one to Benito Juárez and a column with a golden "," unveiled on Paseo de la Reforma. They also include floats and processions of indigenous peoples, presented alongside ceremonies reenacting the Spanish conquest and the encounter between Montezuma and Hernán Cortés. The Italians send a statue of nationalist hero Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Americans one of George Washington. Díaz invites dignitaries from around the world, including Lord Alfred Percival Maudslay who, to Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay's great disappointment, represents the pioneers of archaeology in Mexico. The cost of the celebrations is exorbitant, exceeding the country’s yearly education budget. But beyond its financial extravagance the occasion turns Mexico, its violent history and its people, into a spectacle. It is a moment of triumph for Díaz: Mexico has been made worthy of display. However, it is also the beginning of the end. Even as the celebrations take place, Diaz’s Republic is facing severe internal crisis. Within months of the centenary the virtual dictatorship of Díaz, which has lasted over 30 years, is challenged, and Mexico explodes into an open revolution that will last a decade and transform the nation.

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 13