Writing on the Run: Travel in Nineteenth-Century Mexico by Ty

Writing on the Run: Travel in Nineteenth-Century Mexico By Ty Hill West Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Spanish December, 2014 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Benigno Trigo, Ph.D. Cathy L. Jrade, Ph.D. Earl Fitz, Ph.D. Edward Wright-Rios, Ph.D. For Courtney and Bis, mis compañeras en la escritura ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of faculty, staff, friends, and colleagues at Vanderbilt University. I will always be indebted to my dissertation advisor, Benigno Trigo, for his close reading of my work, insightful commentary, and guidance through the profession. I am also grateful to Eddie Wright-Rios for all the pláticas on Mexican history and culture. Many of the topics of those impromptu conversations appear in this dissertation. I also thank Carlos Jáuregui. The three graduate seminars I took with Carlos at Vanderbilt University were foundational in my development as a Latin Americanist and in fostering my interest in interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship. I also thank my dissertation committee, Benigno, Eddie, Cathy Jrade, and Earl Fitz for their support. During the early stages of my dissertation research I benefitted greatly from the vibrant Latin Americanist community at Vanderbilt University. The events organized by the Center for Latin American Studies were wonderful opportunities to keep apace of new scholarship and to meet with colleagues. I am especially grateful to Ted Fischer, Frank Robinson, Paula Covington, Helena Simonett, and Norma Antillon for their advice, support, and generosity. I am also grateful to Vanderbilt University for funding to present my dissertation research at professional conferences, and a Dissertation Enhancement Grant I was awarded by the Graduate School to conduct research in Mexico City. I would also like to thank Lilliana Rodríguez, Cindy Martinez in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Brenda Hummel, Jane Anderson in the Department of History for their help and support. Finally, I would like to thank the staff of the Jean and Alexander Heard Library and especially Marilyn Pilley and Jim Toplon, the staff at Interlibrary Loan. iii I would also like to thank additional friends and scholars who have given me their encouragement during the completion of this dissertation. At Vanderbilt University I thank Pablo Goméz, David and Tara LaFevor, David Wheat, Caree Banton, Santiago Quintero, Alonso Varo Varo, Marlon Escamilla, Gerson Levi-Lazzaris, Denise Callejas, Camille Sutton, Francisco Flores-Cuautle, Lance Ingwersen, Sandra Alvarado, Kathrin Seidl, Robert Kelz, Elena Deanda, Felipe “El Pelucas” Girón, Cory Duclos, Tim Maddux, Michael and Kimberly Bess, Marshall Eakin, Jane Landers, and Celso Castilho. At the University of Notre Dame I thank María Rosa Olivera-Williams, Tom Anderson, Encarnación Juárez-Almendros, Tatiana Botero-Jáuregui, Shauna Williams, Linda Rule, Julie Logue, Leonardo Francalanci, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, Anne Leone, Ricky Herbst, Sidney D’Mello, and Alan Lindsay. I give special thanks to friends and family: Tyler Whitehouse and Laura Arandes, Oscar Preciado, and my parents Larry and Cody West. I am most indebted to my partner Courtney Campbell, my dearest friend and most dedicated proof reader. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 Travel and Textual Circulation in Nineteenth-Century Mexico ................................................5 Letrados ...................................................................................................................................13 Nation, Nation-State ................................................................................................................16 Moving Beyond Imagined Communities .................................................................................19 Press, the Public Sphere, and Communities.............................................................................21 The Chapters of the Dissertation..............................................................................................24 Chapter 1: Mr. Sierra O’Reilly Goes to Washington ..................................................................................28 The Written Race to Represent Mexico: Mexican Travelers and Foreign Travel Accounts ...32 A Writer in a Region of Unrest ................................................................................................37 Indians and Creole Identity ......................................................................................................43 The Texts .................................................................................................................................47 The Diary .................................................................................................................................50 The Ecstasy of Oratory and English in a Toothless Mouth .....................................................61 The Modern Tradition of Revision ..........................................................................................72 Mr. Norman..............................................................................................................................78 Translating Stephens ................................................................................................................85 Conclusions ..............................................................................................................................90 2: The Internal Exile ......................................................................................................................93 The Writer ................................................................................................................................97 Critical Approaches to the National Man of Letters ..............................................................101 The Domestic Traveler ..........................................................................................................107 Censorship and Internal Exile ................................................................................................113 The Text .................................................................................................................................115 Writing the Internal Exile ......................................................................................................118 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................126 v 3: An Illness in the Family ...........................................................................................................129 Origins of the Sick Family .....................................................................................................135 Liberal Dogmatism in Public Discourse ................................................................................137 Family, Illness, and Vagrancy: Vocabulary of the Nineteenth Century ................................143 Visualizing Difference ...........................................................................................................150 Visualizing Stability and Displacement .................................................................................152 Illness and Families in the Press and Popular Literature .......................................................159 The Mexican Family in the Conservative Press ....................................................................161 Ideological Illness and Sick Families ....................................................................................164 Invoking the Sick Liberal.......................................................................................................171 Curing the Liberal Illness.......................................................................................................175 Conclusion: The Persistent Metaphor of the Familia Enferma in the Twentieth Century .....182 4: Itineraries of Friendship ...........................................................................................................185 Masculinity in the Public Forum...........................................................................................188 The Function of Friendship ...................................................................................................193 The Letter ..............................................................................................................................196 Masculine Friendship in the Cultural Press ..........................................................................199 Crónica or Correspondence? .................................................................................................212 Travel Letters: Payno and Prieto...........................................................................................215

Load more