of most statements and deductions, he believes he finds ample warrant in the published diplomatic and consular correspondence of the United States during the last decade, and in an extensive personal correspondence with railroad and commercial men, who, from continuous residence, have become well acquainted with Mexico.[1] Making every allowance, however, for differences of opinion respecting minor details, the main facts and deductions that have been presented (which can not well be questioned or disputed) are all that are essential for an intelligent discussion of the possible or desirable relations of the United States to Mexico in the future; and it is to a consideration of this matter that the attention of the reader is next invited.
- ↑ From one of these latter the following warning against publishing anything in the way of observations or conclusions was received by the writer: "The papers are filled with the letters of travelers about Mexico. If you do not conform to what many people here want you to say, you are put down as having taken a hasty or dyspeptic observation of the country, and had no opportunity to know anything. If you pass one week in an hotel, and should write conformably to what various interests would have you, you are at once quoted as a 'most intelligent and experienced traveler.' A thorough investigation scrapes off all the varnish, and will often expose the motives of not a few people in Mexico, who would have American capital plant itself there under conditions which afford no protection by their Government or ours."
"City of Mexico, April 13, 1886.
creation of his own. Again, visit with me the village of Amatlan de los Reyes, near Córdoba, and observe the exquisitely embroidered huipilla of some native woman, surpassing in many respects the designs of the art-needlework societies of New York or Boston; not to mention the fine filigree-work, figures in clay and wax as executed by the natives in or near the city of Mexico, the art pottery of Guadalajara, the gourds, calabashes, and wooden trays highly embellished by native artists, whose sense or acceptation of art is not acquired by tedious study at some academy of design, but is inborn and spontaneously expressed in such creations. Only yesterday in my walks about town I entered the National Monte de Piedad, where I heard the sweetest and most melodious strains from a grand piano of American make, and beheld, to my astonishment, that the artist was a native, a cargador, or public porter, clad in cheap sombrero, blouse, white cotton trousers, and sandals, with his brass plate and rope across his shoulders, ready to carry this very instrument on his back to the residence of some better-favored brother from a foreign land. If this is not innate genius, I know not what else to call it." To this it may be replied that the facts as above stated are probably not in the least exaggerated. There is undoubtedly in the Mexican people, inherited from their Spanish ancestry, much of aesthetic taste and an "innate genius" for music, painting, sculpture, embroidery, dress, decoration, and the fine arts generally. But this very fact, in view of the hard, rough work that Mexico has got to do to overcome the natural obstacles in the way of her material development, is not a matter of encouragement. For it is not genius to carve crucifixes, embroider huipillas, or compose and execute music that her people need; but rather the ability to make and maintain good roads, invent and use machinery, and reform a system of laws that would neutralize all her natural advantages, even though they were many times greater than the most patriotic citizen of the country could claim for it.
