THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI BULLETIN VOLUME 29, NUMBER 4 JOURNALISM SERIES, NO. 49 Edited by Robert S. Mann The History of Mexican Journalism BY HENRY LEPIDUS ISSUED FOUR TIMES MONTHLY; ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POSTOFFICE AT COLUMBIA, MISSOURl-2,500 JANUARY 21, 1928 2 UNIVERSfTY oF Mrssouru BULLETIN Contents I. Introduction of Printing into Mexico and the Forerunners of Journalism ______ 5 II. Colonial Journalism -------------------------------------------------------12 III. Revolutionary Journalism --------------------------------------------------25 IV. From Iturbide to Maximilian -----------------------------------------------34 V. From the Second Empire to "El lmparcial" --------------------------------47 VI. The Modern Period -------------------------------------------------------64 Conclusion ---------------------------___________________________________________ 81 Bibliography --------__ -------------__________ -----______________________________ 83 THE HISTORY OF MEXICAN JOURNALISM 3 Preface No continuous history of Mexican journalism from the earliest times to the present has ever been written. Much information on the subject exists, but nobody, so far as I know, has taken the trouble to assemble the material and present it as a whole. To do this within the limits necessarily imposed upon me in the present study is my principal object. The subject of Mexican journalism is one concerning which little has been written in the United States, but that fact need not seem su;prising. With compara­ tively few exceptions, Americans of international interests have busied themselves with studies of European or even Oriental themes; they have had l;ttle time for. the study of the nations south of the Rio Grande. More recently, however, the im­ portance of the Latin American republics, particularly Mexico, to us, has been in­ creasingly recognized, and the necessity of obtaining a clearer understanding of our southern neighbor has come to be more widely appreciated in the United States than it formerly was. On the theory that a history of the journalism of any nation is, in a sense, the reflection of its contemporary life and its development through various epochs, the present writer hope$ that his study may help American readers to obtain a more complete idea of what Mexico has accomplished in the past and what are the condi­ tions under which she is struggling at the present time. The history of journalism in Mexico fails to offer more than three definite dates on which the nature of journalistic theory and practice has undergone a general change. The earliest forerunners of the periodical press were news pamphlets issued at irregular intervals during the first two centur:es of the Spanish regime. The first change in the form of journalism came in 1722, with the establishment of Castorena' s official gazette devoted chiefly to news and issued at regular intervals, which was the forerunner of a series of similar publications. Shortly before the outbreak of the Mexican revolution of 1810, the polemical element gained some importance in journalism; and when in that year the rebel Hidalgo established at Guadalajara "El Despertador Americano," he St!t a fashion in the Mexican press, which continued to be predominantly political and polemical until the triumph of modern journalistic theories about 1896. Thus the second change came with the adoption of polemical journalism in 1810, and the third with that of modern practices in 1896. The respective periods of the news pamphlets and of the official gazettes divide themselves conveniently into material suitable for separate chapters, but that of the polemical press is too long for a single one. Because of the large amount of signifi­ cant material available on it, the present writer has thought it advisable to divide it arbitrarily into three chapters, the first dealing with the journalism during the wars for independence from Spain; the second, with the first period of independent Mexico; and the third, with the time from the establishment of Maximilian's ephemeral empire to the triumph of Sp!ndola's theory that the press should be pri­ marily a source of news and should relegate opinionated articles to a place of second­ ary importance. Since 1896, the principal newspapers of Mexico ha~e gener.ally followed his lead, and their activities and achievements are discussed m the S!Xth and final chapter, entitled, "Modern Journalism." . Appreciation for help in the collection of material for this study is gratefull_r acknowledged to Rafael Heliodoro Valle, journalist, poet, and educator, ~ho is chief of the department of bibliography and reviews for t~e fe~eral ~retanat of education of Mexico; Jose de J. N u5.ez y Dominguez, Mexican Journalist, poet and 4 UNIVERSITY OF Mrssouru BULLETIN historian, the secretary of the Na ti on al Museum of Archeology, History and Eth­ nography at Mexico City; Lufs Gonzalez Obreg6n, an officer of the General Arch­ ives of the Nation, and a noted author; Joaquin Mendez Rivas, director of the National Library; Dr. Alfonso Pruneda, president of the National University of Mexico; Jose G6mez Ugarte, director of, and Antonio Vargas, a writer for, "El Universal"; Rodrigo de Llano, director, and .Eduardo I. Aguilar, manager of "Excelsior"; Angel Pola, who founded and published one of the first penny dailie~ in Mexico City at the end of the past century, and was one of the nation's first great reporters; Carlos Diaz Duf6o, dean of practicing newspapermen in Mexico; Gonzalo Espinosa, director of "J ueves de Excelsior"; Julio Jimenez Rueda, writer and edu­ cator; the composer and musician Marcos Jimenez, in charge of the archives of "Excelsior"; Manuel Le6n Sanchez, who after a notable journalistic career is now one of Mexico's leading publishers; Tomas Montano, director of the International Summer School of the National University of Mexico; Victoriano Salado Alvarez, editorial writer and historian; J. Garcfa Pimentel, a scholar who owns one of Mexico's finest private libraries; Eduardo G6mez-Haro, whose newspaper and magazine articles have furnished a valuable source of information for this study; Dr. L. S. Rowe, director-general of the Pan-American Union; and my friends Ram6n Alex­ ander and Francisco Lomelf of the staff of the National Library. Editor's Note: This history was written in partial fulfillment of the require­ ments for the degree of Master of Arts while Mr. Lepidus was a graduate student in the University of Missouri. The History of Mexican Journalism I. Introduction of Printing into Mexico and the Forerunners of Journalism Although Mexico was conquered by the Spaniard Cortes in 1521, it was not until 1722 that the country had a periodical published at a fixed place and at regular intervals. In a country in which, as one historian puts it, "the days ran serene as the crystalline waters of a tranquil brook under a sky without clouds and upon a bed without sinuosity; where exuberant nature delighted itself in prodigally providing man with its rich fruits; where the benign climate sweetens the character of the people; w:her~, in effect, civil discords had not established themselves,"1 the periodical press which lives of exciting scenes and events, of the agitation of the passions in strife, could not have any objective nor awaken interest. For this reason there did not exist in this epoch in New Spain (as Mexico was called until 1821), periodicals of a political nature. A periodical of news would have died, because it would not have had any to communicate. Everybody knew what happened from one end of the country to the other; that is, that nothing strange happened. The younger gen­ eration, instead of devoting itself to the reading of newspapers, occupied itself in the study of good authors. But it is: not to be thought that in Mexico the profession of journalism was entirely neglected during the first 201 years of Spanish rule. Although no news­ papers were published at fixed places at regular intervals, news pamphlets known as "hoj as vol antes" or flying sheets, each giving details of some one extraordinary event, did appear from time to time. I.n two or four pages, in quarto or folio, edited or written by the printers of that day, these publications contained news of unusual happenings in all parts of the world, now brought by the galleons and fleets which from time to time or periodi­ cally came from the Iberian Peninsula; now by the "avisos" or maritime mails from the same place; or by the "naos de China", boats that came from the Philippine Islands.2 In these flying sheets, which date from the sixteenth century, Mexico made the first attempts at journalism in the Western Hemisphere. The United States made its -first attempt in 1690 with the "Boston Gazette," but it was immediately suppressed by the colonial authorities. The same year and by order of Governor Fletcher, in New York was reprinted a copy of the "London Gazzette," giving news of a victory .of British troops over the French.3 That Mexico was the pioneer in New World journalism is probably due to the fact that the first printing press in this hemisphere was established at Me:Oco City 'in the first half of the sixteenth century. Writers agree that the first prmter was Juan Paoli, or Pablos, an agent of the house of Cromberge~ of Seville, _Spain, _but ·they differ as to the year in which he first set up his. press m. the colonial capita_!. Writing in 1819, Isai~h Thomas, ~learned ~mencan ~f his da~, e:rressed his 'belief that the art of printmg was first mtroduced mto Sp_amsh A~erica as early_ as ·the sixteenth century," and that the first press erected m ~mer1ca was at Mexico .City. He was able to "state with a tolerable degree of certamty that the press was 1. Zamacois, Historia de Mexico, V, p. 547. 2. Gonz6.lez Obreg6n, Mexico Viejo y AnectMtico, P· 112.