Life in Mexico | Page 3

the
talent of a Minister like Cuevas, or the honesty and clearsightedness of
a politician like Gutierrez de Estrada; and when she refers to the rivalry
that arose between the different parties, she has unbounded praises for
the cadets of the Military School, for their patriotic conduct and their
loyalty to the legally established government.
In Madame Calderon's time the Mexican upper classes were an

extension, so to speak, of the old viceregal society. Only the very
young had not seen the Spanish flag flying over the public buildings or
had not been more or less acquainted with the last viceroys. The
presidential receptions of a Bustamante or a Santa Anna in the National
Palace, just as during the short reign of Augustin I de Iturbide, were
ablaze with brilliant uniforms, glittering decorations, fine dresses, and
rich jewels, while at private parties the old family names and titles
continued to be borne with the prestige of former colonial days.
On the other hand, the relations between lord and servant are faithfully
portrayed by Madame Calderon de la Barca. Speaking of life in a
hacienda, she describes how the lady of the house sat at the piano,
while the employees and servants performed the typical dances of the
country for the benefit of guests and relatives, without suggesting any
idea of equality or disrespect, more or less in the fashion of the Middle
Ages, when the lord and the lady of the manor sat at table with their
servants, though the latter remained rigorously below the salt. With
regard to the lower classes, Madame Calderon always sees the
picturesque side of things which she describes vividly and colourfully.
It is to be regretted (particularly from a Mexican point of view) that
Fanny Inglis, or her editor, should have thought it expedient only to
give the first and last letters of the names of the more prominent
persons of whom she speaks, a system which makes it difficult for a
reader of later days to identify them, except in one or two cases. Many
were the intimate friends of the Calderons, but especially the Conde de
la Cortina, a well- known figure in society and in literary and scientific
circles, the Marques and Marquesa de Vivanco, and the "Guera
Rodriguez," (the "Fair Rodriguez"), a celebrated beauty of her time,
who is said to have been greatly admired by no less a person than
Alexander von Humboldt himself!
Naturally enough, Madame Calderon was a competent judge of her
own sex and was alert to the good qualities as well as to the foibles of
the ladies of Mexico, whose excessive fondness for diamonds and, in
some cases, too showy dresses elicit her mild criticism.
Monastic life was one of the features of Mexico at that time. Most
cities, large and small, were full of churches, monasteries, and convents;
and Madame Calderon (who became a Catholic three years later) was
not then well acquainted with the ceremonies and liturgy of the Church,

and consequently falls into many errors on the subject; but when she
describes her visit to a convent and the ceremony of the veiling of a
nun, she writes some of her most picturesque and touching pages.
Madame Calderon does not stint her admiration for the great buildings
of the country, both civil and religious, though her descriptions betray
only too often the influence of the romantic age in which she lived.
Beautiful indeed as is her description of a garden in Tulancingo, she
rises to real eloquence before some of "Nature's pageants," admiring a
sunset over the Monastery of San Fernando, walking under the shade of
the centennial trees of Chapultepec, or wandering within the gigantic
Caverns of Cacahuamilpa, the recollection of which, she says, "rests
upon the mind, like a marble dream," and where an unfortunate
traveller, years before, had lost his way and met a tragic death.
Prescott's statement that Madame Calderon's letters were not intended
originally for publication seems hardly credible; but, on the other hand,
there is no proof for the suggestion that she had the letters of Madame
D'Aulnoy in mind. Be that as it may, the fact is that just as the French
Countess has left us a living picture of Spain in the late seventeenth
century, in the same way the wife of the Spanish Minister drew a most
faithful pen-portrait of the social, political, and even economic order, in
Mexico in the early nineteenth.
As to Madame Calderon de la Barca's personal appearance, since a
portrait of her, which is said to exist in the possession of a relative, has
never been published, the reader is free to imagine that lively lady as it
may best suit his or her individual fancy. That she was clever, well-read,
and an excellent judge of character, as well