Juan Bautista Alberdi is a name not often heard in the United States, even among students of Hispanic-American affairs. Many of his Argentine compatriots and contemporaries are well known to us; we repeat their names as easily as we do those of our own national heroes: Sarmiento, Mitre, Echeverría. Yet the position of Alberdi in the historical development of the Argentine Republic is one of high honor and extreme importance. He is called “The Father of the Argentine Constitution,” and, indeed, such he was. Yet, even more important than this, Alberdi’s arguments in favor of a vast, all-encompassing program of immigration, was the impetus that stimulated his native country and made Argentina the most forward-moving and politically successful nation in Latin America.

In the Year 1584, the Minister General of the Franciscan Order, Father Francisco Gonzaga, enjoined on Frei Melquior de Santa Catarina, a Portuguese Franciscan, the task of founding in the “Land of the Holy Cross,” the Custody of St. Anthony. Frei Melquior and his companions arrived in Brazil the following year, 1585, and the first friary established by them was that of Nossa Senhora das Neves in the city of Olinda, the capital of the Captaincy of Pernambuco.

The Little Pueblo of Tiripetío lies at the foot of a mountain near Morelia in the state of Michoacán. Its Indian name means “place of gold”, but the adobe houses with their straw roofs plus a general appearance of shabbiness belie such a title. Tiripetío, however, was not always a ghost town. In the sixteenth century it pulsed with life and activity. The life of the place centered about a convent of Augustinian friars, with its adjoining church, hospital and school. The name Vera Cruz is closely linked with this convent and school as with many other educational activities in sixteenth century Mexico. But like Tiripetío itself, which marked the scene of his early labours, the name of Alonso de la Vera Cruz has fallen into obscurity and today counts little, even with historians of his own Order. The recent work of Oswaldo Robles, a translation of one of Vera Cruz’s philosophic treatises, the Physica Speculano, (vd. The Americas, October 1944, under article: “Fray Alonso de la Vera Cruz and the Beginnings of Philosophic Speculation in the Americas”.) is truly a step in the right direction. It can only be hoped that the relatively settled political set-up in Mexico will open the way for a more thorough search for historical data on outstanding figures like Alonso de la Vera Cruz. The present article attempts, from the sources now at hand, to synthesize the many and varied activities in the field of education in which Vera Cruz engaged and to give an interpretation of the influence he exerted in the field of learning and in the development of the philosophic thought of his day in Mexico.

The Year 1949 is the two hundredth anniversary of the leave-taking from their native land for American missionary endeavors, of the Mallorquin Franciscans, Junípero Serra, Francisco Palóu, and Juan Crespí. They were, however, but a threesome among the thirty-three who comprised the entire group or “mission” that sailed from Cádiz in the latter part of 1749. The coming anniversary, therefore, suggests the proper occasion to study from the original sources, the methods, chronology, and personalities involved in that great missionary enterprize that meant so much for the Americas. The greater part of the material of this article is based on the expediente, No. 5546, of Contratación, located in the Archivo de Indias, Sevilla, Spain. It is entitled: “Mission de Sn. Franco, para el Collegio de Sn. Fernando de Mexico. Año de 1749.” The writer found it at Sevilla in the fall of 1946.

The Late 1860’s and early 1870’s marked for Mexico the end of an era, for Benito Juárez was serving his last years in the presidency. At the same time there were the stirrings of a new personal order; Porfirio Díaz was making his first overt attempt to gain control. In this period some of the greatest liberals turned against Juárez and toward Díaz. The charges which they hurled against the former during the year 1871 resemble those used against Díaz during the later years of his reign. To many of the liberals Juárez was the bureaucratic leader of a personal party and Díaz was the rising dynamic liberal. Their views are well reflected in the newspaper El Mensajero, published in Mexico City from January 2 to September 30, 1871.

It was into the great unknown that the Spanish expedition of Mendaña sailed in search of the Southern Continent, the Terra Australis. Sharing the perils of this remarkable voyage of discovery were four Franciscan friars. They acted in a dual capacity: as chaplains to the Spaniards and as missionaries to the natives in the newly found lands. Although their missionary work was of necessity restricted because of the hostility of the natives, nevertheless they may claim the honor of being the first missionaries in the South Pacific. Fortunately the missionary experiences of these friars have been preserved in records and narratives, the reading of which, centuries after the events have taken place, is not unlike witnessing the unreeling of some religious drama in a modern picture-theatre. In graphic detail, the writers of these narratives draw picturesque and lifelike portraits of the officers, men and friars, sketching in events that run the whole gamut of human interest. As we read their vivid descriptions the centuries seem to roll back so that we are able to lay hold of, as it were, the elusive past with its throbbing Franciscanism; to catch glimpses of the life and work of these missionary friars, and to recapture for a brief moment the heroic spirit that animated them and inspired others whom they sought to influence for good.