The Missions

By David Fitzpatrick from the May 2011 Edition The Founding of the Franciscan Missions Fray Junipero Serra One of the most influential religious figures in the history of Mexico was Fray Junipero Serra who contributed greatly to the development of the Catholic Church in New Spain and personally founded a number of missions in Central […]

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The Missions

By David Fitzpatrick from the April 2011 Edition The Catholic Missions in Mexico and other parts of Latin America The early Spanish colonizers of Latin America considered it important to establish a permanent, functioning, European style community as quickly as possible. Since the introduction of European Spaniards in sufficient numbers seemed difficult, if not impossible, […]

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Moving the Borders

By David Fitzpatrick from the December 2010 Edition Part 2: The Count-Down to War In the mid 1840s, Mexico was experiencing a period of political turbulence. At one point, the bitter rivalries between factions verged on civil war. In a series of revolving-chair government changes, there were four presidents in a period of one year. […]

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Moctezuma

By David Fitzpatrick from the October 2010 Edition The last Emperor of the Aztecs There is relatively little information available concerning the last Aztec Emperor, and what particulars there are appear sketchy and contradictory. Most of the sources that have come down to us had agendas of their own to forward: the Aztecs saw him first […]

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