Here Is Mexico

This sketchy, albeit sometimes vibrant panorama demands total commitment--having neither table of contents nor chapter headings--and paradoxically, proffers endless repetition, partly as a consequence of scattering information, partly, it would seem, through carelessness, and often contrary to reason. Thus, the Aztecs first appear vis a vis Cortes (p. 14), much later (p. 67) apropos of the consequences of the Spanish conquest, then in relation to life in past periods (p. 77)--and on each occasion equivalent mention is made of their "bloody religion requiring daily human sacrifice." Meanwhile the "reprehensible system called the encomieda" is introduced on p. 17, redefined in the same terms on p. 69, slightly extended on p. 93, and may reappear--the indexing is incomplete except for proper names. Political history and political figures suffer particularly: Juarez bows in as President--and as a Mason allied with other Masons in opposition to the Catholic Church (p. 71), then (on p. 94) "a new president had been elected, a tittle indian lawyer. . . Benito Juarez by name. One of his first acts was to promulgate the Reform Laws, which deprived the Church of its property. . . ." Where is the "heroic figure?" he is "that boy, illiterate and unprepossessing, (who) years later was to become the husband of the lovely young Margarita. His name was Benito Juarez." And he appears most sympathetically and fully (which is not very) as her devoted husband in the chapter on notable women. This sort of illogical dispersion is so endemic as to overshadow the book's merits, among them a recreation of the context of the times in extenuation of acts and attitudes that are today condemned. However, in the case of the Spanish Inquisition it would seem stretching to equate the state religion of 16th century Spain with that of modern Scandinavia, England and Israel. The author has a bias, also, in favor of Mexican womanliness--i.e. self-effacement, domesticity (though she has nothing good to say about machismo). These are arguable aspects; what's not is the inutility of the book except for absorbing color from the lore, the look and the feel of things.