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Celestial
City (1620-1692)
New world's cavalry
At the begining of the XVII Century, Mexico City life was full of activity:
new buildings, religous manifestations, elegant women who loved to play
cards, arrogant african slaves, rich spanish merchants eager to discharge
their sins by donating high amounts to churches and convents and peculiar
religous mystical experiences. But the most outstanding feature was
the splendid and luxurious way of life of the noblety, just arrived
few decades ago.
Theatre performances and promenades at the Alameda were common beside
mask balls and bullfight feasts. The viceroy and the archibishop were
the twin head of the State, sometimes in political opposition.
The year 1629 brought heavy rain which eventually floded the city.
Thousands of people lost their properties and by 1634 30 000 indians
had died of fame and sadness. Both Guadalupe and Los Remedios Shrines
were invocated in order to save the sunken city. Those entreprenurs
with wealth started new business in the vast North following the path
of silver mines.
Baroque echoes
Once recovered, after four years the city needed total restoration.
In 1645, with a formal ceremony, the first dome in the city was innaugurated
at the Concepción Convent. University courses were reestablished
and the sounds of silver, leather and iron workers competed with the
cry of herb and fruit indian vendors.
The new Cathedral showed attractive chapels,
vaults, domes, altars and a tower. The building became the hub of the
social life. The contributions of religous and civil associations made
posible to enrich it with magnificent altar pieces, sculptures, paintings
and original musical compositions played during the services.
The Vicerigal Palace was occupied not only by the viceroy, but by hundreds
of lawyers and even merchants. This micocosmos also gave home to an
oustanding poet: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
Prays and gifts
The city was divided into four main quarters and neighborhoods, which
followed the racial division of the city, spaniards had their churches,
schools, and hospitals. Some of these charitative institutions couldn't
compete with the gigantic monasteries of San Francisco and Santo
Domingo.
Daily life inside this complex buildings went beyond the morning an
evening prayers: intellectual and economic life in the city was closely
linked with convents and monasteries and the admition ceremonies were
embelished by selected assistants whose contributions converted facades
and altars into artistic highlights.
New Spain was the wealthiest territory in America and Mexico City was
the hub of commerce between China and Spain, the starting point for
the conquest of California but also witnessed the oppresive measures
of the Spanish crown through the Inquisition. Social and economic presures
broked into riot in 1692. The consecuence was fire of the Vicerigal
Palace, the City Hall and the Central Market,
all of them symbols of colonial ruling. But during the XVIII
Century the city will witness a remarkable development.
Suggested books:
Jonathan I. Israel
Race, Class and Politics in Colonial Mexico
Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1975.
Paz, Octavio
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: The Traps of Faith
Cambridge, Mass. and London. Harvard University Press, 1988
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