humboldt's mexican landscapes

8/11/2019 Humboldt's Mexican Landscapes

1/22

merican Geographical Society

Humboldt's Mexican Texts and LandscapesAuthor(s): Andrew SluyterSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 96, No. 3, Humboldt in the Americas (Jul., 2006), pp. 361-381Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30034513.

Accessed: 03/09/2014 12:52

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Geographical Societyis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Geographical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Wed, 3 Sep 2014 12:52:10 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=agshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/30034513?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/30034513?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ags


2/22

HUMBOLDT'S MEXICAN

TEXTS

AND

LANDSCAPES*

ANDREW SLUYTER

ABSTRACT. While n New

pain

from

803

to

1804,

Alexandervon Humboldt

interactedwith

some f ts

andscapes

nd

he extshat

epresented

hem.

nalysis

f

thosenteractions

regarding

heBasin fMexico nd heGulfowlandsemonstrateshat

urely

ext-based

studiesf he

roduction

f

laces

annot: he

ontrastingandscape

lementsnd

atterns

that ad

merged

vermillennia

uringrecolonial

imesn

those wo

laces,

heirelative

degrees

f

depopulation

uring

he olonial

ra,

nd he elative

egrees

f

igor

umboldt

applied

o

nteracting

ithhe

esulting

andscapes

nd he extshat

epresented

hem

reatly

affected

is

representations

f

hose

laces

n

his

1811

ssai

olitique

ur e

royaume

e a

Nouvelle-Espagne.

is

representations

f

the

recolonial

asin

fMexico s

productively

developed

nd f he

recolonial

ulfowlandss

pristine

ave nfluencedhe ransforma-

tionsf hoselacesn he woenturiesfterew painecameheMexicanepublichrough

its

wars of

independence

1810-1821).

Keywords:

conomic

evelopment,

lexander

onHum-

boldt,

andscape,

exico,

ristine yth.

Notwithstanding

he

xtreme

arewhich bestowedn

verifying

he

esults,

I

have odoubt

fhaving

ommitted

anyplusieurs]ery

erious

rrors,

whichwillbe

pointed

ut

n

proportion

s

my

work hall xcite he

nhabit-

ants

f

New

pain

o

tudy

he tate

f

heir

ountry.

-Alexanderon

Humboldt,811

The bicentennialfAlexanderonHumboldt's

ear-longojourn

n

Mexico,

rom

March1803 o March1804,provides he stimulus o analyze

his

role

n

the relation-

ship

between

ong-term andscape

transformationnd the cultural

bias that

con-

tinues to be such a central

rthodoxy

n modern economic

development Sluyter

1999).

That

orthodoxy,

he

"Pristine

Myth"

n

William Denevan's

(1992)

terms,

maintains

hatthe

precolonial andscapes

of the Americaswere

undeveloped

and,

therefore,

hatnon-Westernersre

unproductive

nd economic

development

must

equate

to culturalwesternization

Sluyter

001).

James laut

1993)

coined a

slightly

differentermto label that same

orthodoxy:

he

"myth

f

emptiness,"

hich dic-

tatesthat

development

must diffuse rom he West to the

non-Wests.

espite

this

article's

historical ocus on

Humboldt's

visitto late colonial

Mexico,

the

following

analysisdirectly

oncerns

present-day

conomic

development

Sluyter

002).

Mary

Louise Pratt

1992)

has

already

cast Humboldt

in a central

role

in that

phenomenon.

he

concluded

hatHumboldt

reinvigorated

he olonial

pristinemyth

on the eve of the

ndependence

f

many

of the Latin

American

epublics.

His char-

acterization

f

the

Americas

s

"primordial

nature"

urned colonial

belief

nto a

*

Although

he iews

xpressed

nthis

ssay

o not

necessarily

eflecthose

f

he

eople cknowledged,

thank

Ulrikeeitneror

haring

nsights

n

Humboldt's

npublished

ield

otebooks,

he taffs

f

he atin merican

Rare ooks oom fTulane

niversity

nd f he

pecial

ollections

oom f he ouisianatate

niversity,

nd

the

nonymous

eviewers.

DR. LUYTER

s

an assistant

rofessor

f

geography

t Louisianatate

niversity,

aton

ouge,

Louisiana

70803.

The

Geographical

Review

96

(3):

361-381,

July 006

Copyright

2007

y

heAmerican

eographicalociety

fNewYork

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/22

362

THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

modern cientificact: Even he abel'NewContinent'

s

revived,

s if hree

entu-

riesof

European

colonizationhad never

happened

or made a difference. hat held

for

Columbus

held

again

forHumboldt: the state

of

primal

nature s

brought

nto

being

as

a

state

n

relation o the

prospect

of

transformative

ntervention rom

u-

rope"

(Pratt

1992,126-127).

That conclusion derives from textual

analysis

of

Humboldt's

writings

n the context

f his

influence

n the

modern sciences s

well

as on the

political

elite and

foreign

nvestors n the Latin American

republics

hat

became

independent

from

Spain

over the three

decades

following

his

1799-1804

expedition

Miranda 1962,

106-107,

205-210;

Livingstone

992, 33-138;

Pratt

1992,

111-113, 175-182;

Florescano

1994, 203-204;

Mendoza

Vargas

nd Bernal

200oo3).

Although

hework f Pratt nd others uch s Edward

aid

1979)

spawned

boom

n

textual

nalysis

f scientificraveliteraturehat

enerally

onfirmednd

elaborated er onclusions,hehas also had critics. he mostmeaninglessfferhe

cliche hat ecauseHumboldt

as,

ike

verybody,product

fhistimehe cannot

be held o

themoral tandardsfours.

hey hereby

isrepresent

ratt's

oal,

which

is to

understand,

ot o

udge,

Humboldt'sole

n

a

process

hat as o

greatly

rans-

formedheworld

recisely

ecausehe wasnot

only product

fhis ime ut lso

major producer"

fhis

time-and

ours.The more

meaningful

ritiques

eanalyze

his texts

sing

lternative

ssumptions

nd

thereby

ome

to somewhat

ifferent

conclusionsbouthisrole n that

rocess

Sachs

200oo3).

Yet,

rrespective

f he onclusionsf uch extual

nalyses,

hey

lonewillnever

resolve umboldt's ole nthe post)colonialeinvigorationfthepristinemyth

because

they

verge

n idealism

Sluyter

997).

Nobody,

not even someone of

Humboldt's

tature,

an

mpose

n

idea about

place

on

a

place

imply ywriting

aboutthat

lace.

Even

ccepting

ratt's onclusion hatHumboldt's

ritings

ere

centrally

nvolved

n

the modern

reinvigoration

f the colonial dea that he

precolonialandscapes

f LatinAmerica ere

ristine,

e based hose extsn

part

on

preexisting

exts nd on his observationsf

andscapes.

ll of those

exts-the

ones on whichHumboldt

rew,

s well s thosehe

wrote-partially

erived rom

the olonial

ransformation

f

those

andscapes

nd

subsequently

ecame nvolved

in

their urtherransformation.

To understandumboldt'sole nthat rocess equiresnalysis otonly f he

texts e wrote nd drew n

but

also

of

his

nteractions

ith

andscapes

hat

had

undergone

ramatic

ransformations

uring

olonial imes. his

tudy

ocuses n

the

nteractions

etween

umboldt's811

Essai

olitique

ur e

royaume

e a Nouvelle-

Espagne

hereafter

the

Political

ssay")

nd two

andscapes

hathe

directly

b-

served nd describedn that ext: heBasinofMexico nd the owlands

long

he

Gulfof

Mexico.' The

textual

ole

of the

analysis,

he Political

ssay,

s one of

Humboldt's

majorpublications

nd the

only

ne

to

derive rom

heMexican

eg-

ment f the

xpedition.

he

following

ections ketch hat ext's

enesis

nd con-

tent nd addressn turn achofthe wo andscapesy stablishinghat either as

pristine

n

precolonial

imes

nd

by

assessing

ow Humboldt

epresented

hem:

one

as

pristine;

heother s not.The

subsequent

ections ontrast

umboldt'sn-



4/22

HUMBOLDT'S

MEXICAN LANDSCAPES

363

102 98 94

160 0 10 200km

Pacific

Ocean

QAcapulco

GulfLowlands

Gulf

of

Mexico

eracruz

Bsin of

Mexico

Puebla

Jalapa

MEXICO

CITY

Toluca

/Pachuca

Morelia

'Guanajuato

.20

Humboldt's oute

Through

ew

pain

-

route

PAIN

New

FIG.

1--Humboldt's

oute n New

Spain

with

ocations ftheBasin fMexico

see

Figures

and

3)

and theGulf owlands

see

Figures

and

5).

Source: odified rom

rand,

959,

ig.

.

Cartographyy

the author nd Clifforduplechin, epartmentfGeographyndAnthropology,ouisiana tate

University)

teractionswiththe Basin of

Mexico and the Gulf

owlands,

n terms

f both their

landscapes

and the

texts hat

represent

hem,

o reveal ome of the

factors hat

re-

sulted n

his

representing

hem so

differently.

THE POLITICAL ESSAY

Humboldt arrived n

Acapulco

on

22

March

1803

nd

departednearly year

ater,

on 7 March 1804,fromVeracruz Figure1). With the supportofViceroyJosede

Iturrigaray,

e

traveled

hroughout

entralNew

Spain,

made firsthand

bservations,

and collected

unpublished

statistics nd

maps (Sluyter

006).

Before

sailing

for

Philadelphiaby way

of

Cuba,

he

presented

he

viceroy

with

a

synthesis

f

the re-

sults,

Tablas

geogrficas

olticas

elReinode Nueva

Espaa, que

manifiestan

u

super-

ficie,

oblacin, gricultura,bricas,

omercio,

minas,

entas

fuerzas

militares

AGN,

Historia,

vol.

72,

part

2,

ff.

71-294;

Humboldt

[1799-18591 980, 125-126; 1803-

1804]

1970).

On

returning

o

Europe,

Humboldt took

up

residence

n

Paris and

began

to

prepare

his notes for

publication

n

multiple

olumes underthe uniform itle

Voy-

ageaux rgionsquinoxiales u NouveauContinent,aiten1799, 800, 801, 802, 803

et

1804

par

Alexandre e

Humboldt tAim

Bonpland

1810-1838;

eitner

00ooo).

ev-



5/22

364

THE GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

eral

volumes

treatMexico

to some

degree,

but

only

the

Political

Essay

does so di-

rectly

nd

systematically.

ts three

olumes,

wo of text

nd

one

an

atlas,

ppeared

n

fascicles

beginning

n

1808

and

in

complete

form under the

uniformtitle Essai

politique

ur e

royaume

e la

Nouvelle-Espagne

vec un atlas

physique

t

gographique

in

1811,

he

year

afterMexico's

wars

of

independencebegan

and

a

decade before

final

ictory

ver

Spanish

sovereign ower

Humboldt

1811,

812;

Sluyter

00oo6).

he

work

became

immensely opular,

so

Longman

of London

published

a four-vol-

ume

English

translation hat ame

year

Humboldt

[1811] 966;

Leitner

000).

The

Political

ssay ncorporated

he Tablas

geogrdcificas

oliticas

ut

greatly

xpanded

the

nontabular ectionswithmaterial romhis field

notebooks,

r

Tagebiichersingular

Tagebuch),

most of which

have been

published

Humboldt

[1801-1804]

986-1990,

1:

389-392).

Humboldt so

thoroughly

mined those

Tagebuicher

or

publishable

ext

thattheygenerally o notcontain andscape descriptions eyondthose n the Po-

litical

Essay

Leitner

2004).

The

1,833

ages

of the Political

ssay,

xcluding

he

engthy

ndex,

divide nto a

"Geographical

ntroduction" nd fourteen

hapters,

hemselves

ivided

among

six

books

(Sluyter

2006,

99).

The

"Geographical

Introduction"

details Humboldt's

sources for

maps

and other

figures.

Book

I"

treats he

and of

New

Spain;

"Book

II,"

the

people;

"Book

III,"

each of New

Spain's

fifteen

olitical

territories;

Book

IV,"

the

prospects

for

agricultural

nd

mining development;

Book

V,"

the

pros-

pects

for

manufacturing

nd

commerce;

nd "Book VI" state revenues nd mili-

tary

efense.

ut,

beside

being uniquecompilation

f detaileddata on late

colonial

New

Spain,

the Political

Essay

constitutes

n

early

economic

developmentreport

(Sluyter

006,

100).

Humboldt's

explicitpurpose,

echoed in his

correspondence

with

Viceroy turrigaray,resages

imilar

tatements

n

current

ountry-level

co-

nomic

development

eports,

uch as the World Bank's 2001

prospectus

for

Mexico

(Humboldt

[1799-18591

980,

125-126;

[1803-1804]1970,

142; [1811]

1966,

1:

xvii,

1;

Giugale

001,

).

The form f

the

Political

ssay

oreshadowshe

onceptual

rame-

work

nderlying

odern

conomic

evelopment,ausing

onaldBrand

1959,123)

to

characterizet as "the irst

odern

egional

conomic

eography...,

oncerned

primarily

ith he

ources fwealth nd their istributionnd

utilization."

THE

BASIN

OF

MEXICO

By

the time

Humboldt saw the

landscapes

of the Basin

of Mexico in

1803,

nearly

three

enturies f

colonizationhad caused much desettlementnd

dedevelopment

(Figure

2).

The late

precolonial

population

of

theAztec

capital

of

Tenochtitlkin

ad

been some

300,000,

a

metropolis top

a settlement

ierarchy

ith a

total

popula-

tion

of around

1.5

million n a

basin

withan

area of

some

7,000

square

kilometers

(Ezcurra

1990o).

n relative

erms,

opulation

had fallen

by

about

90

percent

be-

tween

1520

nd

1620,

he first

entury

f

colonization,

nd

recovered o

only

bout a

thirdof the ateprecolonialpopulation bythe time of Humboldt'svisit Ezcurra

1990o).

he

dense

precolonial population

had

alteredbasin

hydrology

with such

engineering

worksas the

Albarrad6nof

Nezahuac6yotl,

dike more than

o10

ilo-



6/22

HUMBOLDT'S

MEXICAN LANDSCAPES

365

meters

ong

that

prevented

ake Texcoco's aline waters rom

enetrating

he

chinampa

onethat

artiallyinged

enochtitlin.

he

chinampas

ere

gricultural

fields uilt n the akebed and

separated y

networkf

canals,

he

resultingys-

tem

ncorporating

uch unctionssfrost

mitigation,

utrient

ecycling,

nd,

possi-

bly, ubirrigation

o

produce sustainably igh yields Sluyter

994;

Crossley

004).

The freshwatern the outhern alf f he nterconnectedacustrine

ystem

erived

from

prings

hat lowed

rom hebasalt

lopesrimming

he wo southern

akes,

Xochimilco nd

Chalco,

which n turnfed nto Lake Texcoco

n

the

vicinity

f

Tenochtitkin.

uring

the late

precolonial period,

some

10o,ooo000-20,00ooo

ectares

f

chinampas

xisted,

bout

half

ringing enochtitlin

nd theother alf

tretching

southeastward

hrough

akesXochimilcond Chalco.

By

Humboldt's isit

nly

he

latter

hinampa

one survived

Armillas

971).

Yet, ven houghhose ettlementndagriculturalystemsad sufferedearly

three enturiesf olonial

egradation

y

803,

Humboldt id

not,

s content

nalysis

of thePolitical

ssay

demonstrates,

haracterizehe

precolonial

asin as

pristine

(Figure

).

He describedhe

estiges

f

precolonial

ydraulic

ngineering

orks-the

focus f this

nalysis

ecause

hey

ormed

uch

significant

spect

f thebasin's

infrastructural

evelopment-in

omedetail

nd

ingled

ut

he

hinampas

s

highly

productive

Humboldt [1811]1966,

: 29,

96-97,

101,

117-119).

And he did acknowl-

edge

hat

he

recolonialopulation

f he asinwasmuch

reater

han

t

was

n

1803.

His estimatehat ome

400,000 people

ived

n

Tenochtitkin,

n

fact,

xceeds

thecurrent stimate

y

a third

Humboldt

[1811]

1966,

:

80-81;

Ezcurra

990o).

Based

on his constant

ssumption

hat

opulation

ensity

orrelates ith

development

success nd

potential,

umboldt

herefore

oncludedhat

eople

admore

ffectively

developed

he

basin

n

precolonial

han n colonial imes

Humboldt1811]

1966,

:

91,94-95,

99).

Humboldt eems

o have

ecognized

hat

uropean

olonization

ad

negatively

impacted

hebasin's

hydrology

nd

thereby

ts

gricultural

evelopment.

e does

not seemto haveunderstood

hefunctional

elationship

etween he

ystems

f

chinampas

nd

dikes,

he ole

ntentionfwhich ebelieved o be to

prevent

lood-

ing

of

Tenochtitlin.

e

entirely

gnored

he

relationship

etween hedikes nd

the

creationf a freshwatermbaymentndchinampaone n LakeTexcoco. ut he

did

mplicate

olonial

rainage

f he akes n thedestruction

f he asin's

gricul-

ture

[1811]

1966,1:

xxvi-xxvii;

:

10o,

4,

31-34,120-123,147-148).

Drainage,

umboldt

lamented,

ad

"destroyed

he

germ

of

fertility

n a

greatpart

of

the

plain

of

Tenochtitlan

sic].

fflorescencesf carbonate f soda

tequesquite)

ave

ncreased

in

proportion

s themasses

f

running

ater

l'humiditi

e

'atmosphare

t a masse

de eaux

courantes]

avediminished.ine avannas ave

gradually

ssumed he

p-

pearance

f arid

steppes.

or

great paces

he soil of

the

valley

ppears

merely

crust f hardened

lay tepetate),

estitute

f

vegetation,

nd cracked

y

contact

withtheair" pp. 2:

170-171).

Humboldt

cknowledged

hat

he

recolonial

asinwas

densely

ettled

nd

pros-

perously

eveloped-not

ristine y any

tretch. e

evaluated

ative nd Western



7/22

366


99015'

Principal

auseways

nd

dikes

Probable

hinampa

ones

0

5 10

km

19030'.

ake

Chalco

XochiJiii

Lk

Albarrad6nf

Nezahuac6yotl

Lake

Texcoco

Lakek

Xaltoc49

The

Late Precolonial asin fMexico

Probable Pleistocene lakeshore

99015'

Lake

Zumpango

Tenochtitlan

190301

FIG.2-The late

precolonial

asinof

Mexico,

howing

he

ocations f

Tenochtitlin,

rincipal y-

draulic

ngineering

orks,

nd

ones

f

hinampa

griculture.

ources: odified

rom

West nd

Augelli

1966,

ig.

.13;

oolittle

990o,

ig.

.8.

Cartographyy

he uthor nd Clifford

uplechin, epartment

of

Geography

nd

Anthropology,

ouisiana tate

University)



8/22

HUMBOLDT'S

MEXICAN

LANDSCAPES

367

FIG.

3-Excerpt

rom

Humboldt's

map

of

the Basin

of Mexico.

ource:

Humboldt

812,

l.

5.

(Reproduced

ourtesy

f

LouisianaState

University

ibraries'

pecial

Collections,

aton

Rouge,

Louisiana)



9/22

368

THE GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

technologiesccording

othe ame tandards.hose tandards ere

nherently

hose

of

he

West,

nd

his

position

oes ometimesecome omewhat

quivocal,

s when

he

appears

o favor

rainage

f the wofreshwater

akes,

halco nd

Xochimilco,

that

arbored he

surviving hinampas

[1811]

966,

2:

177).

But he

did

not

gnore

r

minimize he

precolonial

evelopment

f

the

Basin

of

Mexico.

THE GULF LOWLANDS

By

1804,

nearly

hree

enturies

f

colonizationhad also

greatly

esettled nd

dedeveloped

heGulf owlands hat

Humboldt rossed

n

ate

February,uring

he

depths

fthe

dry

eason,

n his

way

rom

alapa

o the

port

f

Veracruz

Figure

).

In

contrast,

hen

HerninCort6s

rrivedtVeracruz

n

1519,

he and theother on-

quistadores

ncountered

densely

ettled nd

productivelyeveloped andscape

(Siemens

1990).

Zempoala, city fapproximatelyoo,ooo, ccupied he opofa

settlement

ierarchy

n

a

region

f bout

,000

square

ilometers

ith

total

opu-

lation of

some

500,000

(Sluyter

002,

35-60).

The nhabitantsad

developed

everal

ystems

f

ntensive

griculture

ttuned

to

the

highly

easonal

recipitation

egime

f he

ubhumid

limate,

ncludinglop-

ing-fielderracing

nd ntensive

etland

griculture

Sluyter

002,

48-60).

Theter-

races

ccupied

he

iedmont

lopes, ccurring

n

complexes

f

hundredsfhectares.

The

precise hronology

nd extent fthose ields emain

lusive,

ut

farmerseem

to

have onstructedhem

y

learing

ieldstones

nto

ines

arallel

o

slope

ontour

inorder omanage oilmoistureor roppingmaize, otton,ndagave. he nten-

sivewetland

griculture

overedeveral housand ectaresf he elt

f

backswamps

just

nland rom he ordon f dunes

hat

arallels

he

oast.

Although

he

precise

extentnd

chronology

f

he

wetland ields emain

ncertain,

armers

eem o have

constructedhem

y ditching

nto nd

mounding

bove surfaces

hat

easonally

intersectedhe

water able.The most

general

unction f the

water-land

ystem

involved

egulation

f oilmoisturen the

ooting

one.

Butunlike

he

hinampas,

where ikes ontrolled

ater

evels nd the urfacesf he

arge

ectilinear

lanting

platforms

id not

ntentionally

ecome

ubmerged,

he

abyrinthineomplexes

f

small

latforms

nd narrow anals f

the owlands

ccurred

n

seasonalwetlands.

Theplatformsnd canals nabled armersomanage rainageoallow roppings

early

n he

ry

eason s

possible et

etain

nough

ater or

plash

nd

ubirrigation

well nto he

dry

eason.

With

apid

nd near otal

epopulation

uring

he

early

colonial

eriod,

n

the

caleof

99

percent

y

the nd

of

the ixteenth

entury,

he

piedmont

nd

wetlands ecame

poles

n a

system

f

regional

ranshumance.ens

of thousands f cattle

razed

hewetlands

uring

he

dry

eason,

etreating

o the

higher

nd drier

iedmont

ith heonset f therains.

eople

began

o

reoccupy

theGulf owlands n

number

nly

fter herevolutionf the

arly

wentiethen-

tury

esultedn the

breakup

nd redistribution

f

some

of the

haciendas

Sluyter

2002,

189-201).

Yet,

n

contrastotheBasin

f

Mexico,

umboldt id

not

cknowledge

he ense

settlementnd

productive evelopment

f the

precolonial

ulf

owlands.

e

did



10/22

HUMBOLDT'S

MEXICAN

LANDSCAPES

369

acknowledge

hat

recolonial opulation

was

higher

nd and use more ntensive

than n

1804 ([1811]

1966,

:

254).

But,

relative

o

the

highlands,

e characterized he

precolonial

owland

population

as minimal

pp.

1:

89-90;

2:

254).

Even

though

he

followed heroyalhighwayhatpassed througheveral estigial omplexes f

precolonial

ields,

e

acknowledgedothing

f

that ntecedent

andscape

f

nten-

sive

griculture.

ndhe

did

not

visit ven he uins f

Zempoala, nly

15-kilome-

ter

xcursion

ff

he

royal ighway.

Humboldt

as,

n

fact,

enerally

essimistic

bout he

gricultural

otential

f

theGulf owlands. he eaflessndwitheredtate fmuch fthe

vegetation

uring

the

dry

eason nd the

hreat

f

yellow

evereem

o

have

negatively

nfluencedis

judgment

Humboldt

[1811]

966,

4:

154-156).

He

singled

out cattle

anching

s

par-

ticularly

nimical

o

developmentpp.

2:

255-256; :

101).

he

onlyhope

he

offered

for evelopmentnvolvedgriculturalntensificationy mmigrantshodidnot, s

he

believed,

uffer

rom

he assitude aused

by

he

ropical

limate

pp. 2:

253-255).

Humboldt haracterizedhe

precolonial

Gulf

owlands

s

populated,

lbeit

sparsely

elativeo the

highlands,

nd

undeveloped

elativeo their

otential.

e

characterizedhe olonialGulf owlands s evenmore

parsely opulated

han n

the

precolonial

ra and

undeveloped

elative o their

otential.

e

implied

hat

sincenative

eoples

nd

Spanish

olonizers ad failed o

develop

he owlands e-

yond

xtensiveattle

anching,

n hisview waste f heir

otential,

ther

urope-

ans would

have

o do

so.

HUMBOLDT'S

TEXTS

Comparative nalysis

f Humboldt's nteractions ith

the

texts nd

landscapes

of

the Basin of Mexico and the Gulf owlands reveals ome

of

the factors

nvolved

n

his

differing

epresentations

f those two

places despite

both

having

been

densely

settled nd

productively

eveloped

during

precolonial

times. Given that some of

the textsHumboldt drew

on to write he Political

Essay clearly

tate

thatthe

pre-

colonial Gulf owlandswere

densely

ettled nd

productively eveloped,

his failure

to

represent

hem s such at first eems

nexplicable.

After

ll,

he

spent

much of his

year

n New

Spain

"in

the intellectual nd scientific ommunities f

Mexico

City,

wherehe studied xisting orpuseson naturalhistory,inguistics,nd archaeology"

(Pratt 992, 36).

he reasons or is haracterizationf owland

andscapes

s

pris-

tinebecome clearer

hrough nalysis

f his interaction ith he texts

f those

"corpuses,"

hich all nto hree

major ategories:recolonial

odices;

yewitness

accounts f ate

precolonialandscapes

written

y

conquistadores;

nd

compila-

tionsof

precolonial

nd

early

olonial

historieshatmembers

f the

clergy

ad

collected

nd

codified

uring

he ixteenth

entury,

hen

greater

roportion

f

the

precolonial

odices nd oralhistories ere

till

xtant.

By

ate olonial

imes,

olonizationad

destroyed

he ast

majority

f

precolonial

screen-foldictorialexts,ypicallyeferredo s "codices." heconquistadorernal

Diaz del Castillo

[1632]

1986, 75),

for

xample,

aw

"many

ooks

of their

aper,

folded,

ike he loth f Castile"when

he first econnoitered

empoala

n

1519,

but



11/22

370

THE

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

96045

91~60301 96P'15'

Rio

Jamapa

Veracruz

Gulf

of

Mexico

La

Antigua$

The Gulf owlands

A

Ruins f

Zempoala

DII Wetland ield ones

Terrace ones

Lul

Dunes

Jalapahighway

S

Orizaba

highway

--,,

Humboldt'soute

0

10 20 km

19'15

000m

Antigua

Rio

de

la

Rio

Actopan

Lencero

930'

J.alapa\

1,000m

FIG.

4-The

Gulf owlandswith

ocations f

places,

oads,

Humboldt's

oute,

nd

field

ystem

e-

mains. ources:fteriemens

990,

fig.

;

Sluyter

002,

ig.

.6.

Cartographyy

he

uthor nd Clifford

Duplechin, epartmentfGeographyndAnthropology,ouisiana tateUniversity)

they

disappeared

during

he

ensuing onquest.

Most of the extant odices

probably

reached

Spain

early

n the

conquest

and were

subsequently

istributed

mong

Eu-

ropean

archives

Glass

1975,

1-13).

By

the time the Political

Essay

was

published,

Humboldt

[1811] 966,

:

160)

had seen

originals

f some of those texts nd

copies

of

others,

nd he

possessed

some

"fragments

f

them;',"

ublishing

everal

xamples

in Vuesdes cordillcres

181ob).

But,

lthough

he

clearly

worked

directly

ith t least

some of those

texts,

ot

one

of them

pertains

o either he Gulf owlands or the

Basin of Mexico.

Among

the accounts of

late


written

y conquistadores,

the most

pertinent

re

the Historiaverdadera e la

conquista

e la Nueva

Espaia by

Diaz del

Castillo

(1632;

[1632]

1986),

the

Cartas

de

relaci6nby Cortds

1519-1526]

1988),

and La

conquista

e

Mdxico

yCortds's iographer,

rancisco

6pez

de G6mara

([1552]

1987]).

The Historia

verdadera, well-known, etailed,

yewitness

ccount

of

the

conquest

that a

conquistador

wrote n his retirement

uring

the

1550s

nd

1560s,

ontains

some

descriptions

f late


of the Gulf ow-

lands and Basin of Mexico

(Diaz

del

Castillo [1632]

1800,

1632]1927,

1632]

1982).

Humboldt cited hework

everal imes

hroughout

hePolitical

ssay

[1811] 966,

:

91,157; :19, 8-59, 3-74, 46; 3: 427, 73).Yethe did not remark n Diaz delCastillo's

reaction o

riding

nto

Zempoala

for he first ime:

[Entering] mong

the

houses,



12/22

HUMBOLDT'S

MEXICAN LANDSCAPES

371

FIG.5-Humboldt'smapof theGulfowlands,s excerptedrom ismapofcentral ewSpain.

Source:Humboldt

812,

l.

9.

(Reproduced

ourtesy

f Louisiana tate

University

ibraries'

pecial

Collections,

aton

Rouge,

ouisiana)

on seeing

such a

large city,

nd

having

een no other

arger,

we

greatly

dmired

t,

andhow twas o

uxuriant

nd ike

garden,

nd o

populous

withmen nd

women,

the treetsull fthosewho

had comeout to see us"

Diaz

del

Castillo

1632]

1986,

76).2

Given

hat he

paniards

rrivedn

April,

oward he ndof he

dry

eason,

he

description

mplies

rrigation,et

he

conquistador's

dmiration f thearchitec-

ture,

he dense

population,

nd the ush

vegetation

id not seem

mportant

o

Humboldt.r, erhaps,s his ranslationf notheruotationrom iaz delCastillo

suggests,

e

did

not

really

ead heHistoria erdadera.

umboldt,

resumably

n an

attempt

o

give

he

Political

ssay redibilityydrawing

n an

eyewitness

ccount,

claimed

([1811] 966,

2:

58)

thatDiaz del

Castillo

wrote,

'The death of the

young

king, ays

ernal iaz

[sic]

del

Castillo

an

old soldier ull fhonour ndof

naivety

of

expression),

was a

very njust hing.

nd t was

accordingly

lamed

by

us all

[Aussi

ut-elle

lamde

de

nous

ous],

o

long

s we were

n

the uite fthe

aptain,

in

his

march o

Comajahua.'

Yet hat

uotation

ittle esembles iaz del

Castillo's

words s rendered

n

either

he

632

Spanish

dition f heHistoria erdaderar ts

1800oo

nglish

translation

(1632; [1632]

1800;

[1632]

1927, 450; 1982

[1962],

523).

Hum-

boldt hus eems itherohave een xtremelyarelessnhis ranslationr to have

copied

the

quotation

rom n unreliable

econdar;y

ource. rancisco

lavigero's



13/22

372

THE

GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

Storia ntica del

Messico,

published

n

Italy,

eems the most

ikely

uch textbecause

it

attributes

1780-1781, : 233),

ust

as

erroneously,

similar tatement

o

Diaz

del

Castillo:" This

execution,

aid Bernal

Diaz,'was

very njust,

nd censured

by

all of

us who

went

on

that

ourney.' Seemingly,

umboldt did not

really

eruse

at least

one of the

eyewitness

ccountsthathe

represented

o readershe had read.

nstead,

he relied on a

secondary

ource that

misrepresented

iaz.

Humboldt cited G6mara's La

conquista

but,

apparently,

ever read the entire

text.G6mara did not witness ate


firsthand,

ut

he

did write

La

conquista,

irst

ublished

n

1552,

n the basis of the etters nd confidences f

Cortes

Warren1973).

Despite

quoting

G6mara at

length

o

support

otherconclu-

sions

with

the

credibility

f

Cortis's

personal

biographer,

umboldt

[1811] 966,

:

li;

2:

322,

500oo;

3:

4,

80, 427, 473,

477)

electivelygnored

other

evidence,

uch as the

claimthatCortescharacterized empoala as "completelyoveredwithgardens nd

freshness,

nd with

fine

rrigated ardens"

G6mara

[1552] 987,

7).

Cortis's Cartas de

relaci6n

eem,

on the basis of

a count of

citations,

o have

been a

major

textual ource forHumboldt

([1811]

966,

:

xxxi,

xxiv,

1-13,

91,157,

173, 39-240;

2:

10-15,

9,27-29,32, 46, 48, 54-60, 77-78,

201-202,

20-321, 48, 456,

509;

3:

25-26,

111-112,

17,

425-426, 473-476;

4:

17-19, 2-28).

The

Cartas detail the

conquest

n a seriesof five

dispatches

Cortis wrote o

Emperor

Charles

V

between

1519

and

1526.

Humboldt's source forthose

dispatches

was Francisco Lorenzana's

1770

Historiade Nueva

Espaila,

which

ncludes

only

he

second,third,

nd

fourth

f

the five

dispatches Lorenzana [1770] 1980;

Humboldt

[1811] 966,

:

xxxi).

As one

example

of Humboldt's selective se of the

Cartas,

he

quoted

at

length

from the

dispatch

of

3o

October

1520

to

demonstrate that

late

precolonial

Tenochtitlin

was

comparable

to

Spanish

citiesof the

time,

yet

he

ignored

the de-

scription

f

the Gulf owlands n that ame

dispatch.

n

it,

Cortis

attributes o

the

district f

Zempoala

some

50

towns and fortresses

hat

could

muster

o,oo000

ar-

riors and

implies

that the

city

tself

was

comparable

to Seville:

"I

left

he

city

of

Zempoala,

which named Seville"

Lorenzana [1770] 1980,39-40).

Humboldt's

ex-

tremely

oor

translation

f

Cortis's

description

f

Tenochtitlin

uggests

he same

sortof carelessnesswith he Cartas s with he Historia

verdadera. ither

n

copying

ortranslatinghepassagefrom orenzana,Humboldt ntroduced ignificantrrors

of omission and

commission,

uch as

characterizing enochtitlin's

main market

square

as

"twice s

large

s thatof Seville" nsteadof Cortis's

original

two times s

large

as the

city

of

Salamanca"

(Lorenzana

[1770]

1980,

02-103;

Humboldt

[1811]

1966,

:

10-13).

Such errors

uggest

lack

of

rigor

more

than

willful

manipulation

f

data but are nonetheless

evealing

onsidering

hat

Humboldt's

[1811]1966,

2: lo-

13)

authority

s a scientist

ested

n

part

on

his

claim to

represent laces

such as

"Tenochtitlan

sic]

n

1520,

ccording

o the

description

f

Cortez

[sic]

himself."

Also available to Humboldtwere

compilations

f

precolonial

nd

early

olonial

histories, oth oral and textual, ollected nd codifiedduring hesixteenthentury.

Precolonial exts nd oral histories uffered

estruction

nd

truncation

hroughout

New

Spain

during

the

catastrophic

iolence and

depopulation

that characterized



14/22

HUMBOLDT'S

MEXICAN LANDSCAPES

373

the

early

olonial

eriod,

ut the

Gulf owlands uffered ore

rapid

nd

greater

depopulation

han idtheBasin

fMexico.

empoala

nd other

major

ettlements

underwent

opulation

declinesof about

99

percent

etween

1519

nd

1580

Sluyter

2002,

153-159).

In

contrast,

he Basin of Mexico

underwent

only"

90

percent

de-

population

ver hefirst

entury

f

colonization,

o sometexts nd oralhistories

survived. he

paucity

f nformationn such

compilations

hat elate o the

Gulf

lowlands elative

o theBasinof Mexico

uggests partial

eason orHumboldt's

differingepresentations

f those

places.

Yet uch

compilations

o

contain uffi-

cient

nformationbout he

precolonial

ulf owlands

o conclude hat

hey

were

densely

ettled nd

productively

eveloped,

nformationhatHumboldt

gnored.

Humboldt as

familiar,

or

xample,

ith he

Codex

Mendoza,

copy

f

reg-

ister f tribute

evied

n

the

provinces

f theAztec

mpire,ncluding

hose

n

the

Basinof Mexico nd theGulf owlandsGlass

1975).

The firsticeroy,ntonio e

Mendoza,

rdered he

opy

nd the

panish losses

hat

xplain

he

Nahuatl

icto-

graphs.

romNew

Spain,

he Codex Mendozawent

o

Europe

nd ended

up

in

London

by

the

early

eventeenth

entury.

here,

amuel Purchas

[16251

1905-1907,

15:

417-504)

published

version

n

his

1625

PurchasHis

Pilgrimes.

ven

though

the

Political

ssay

eferredo theCodexMendoza s the Raccolta i

Mendoza,'

eem-

ingly

ollowinglavigero's

talian

sage

n theStoria

ntica,

urchas is

Pilgrimes

seems

o havebeen the ource f at least ome of the

pictographseproduced

n

Vues es ordillcres

1810b,

84-291,

pl.

58-59; 1811] 966,

:

18).

Humboldt

may

lso

have seen the

Matricula e

Tributos,

nother

opy

of the

Aztec ribute

ist, ery

similar o theCodex

Mendoza,

hat

iceregal

fficialsetainedn New

Spain

Glass

1975).

f

not,

e

certainly

aw he ersion f heMatricula e Tributoshat orenzana

( [1770] 980)

published

n

hisHistoria e Nueva

Espadia

ogether

ithCortis'sCartas.

Although

eitherhePurchas or he

Lorenzana ersions

f heAztec ributeist

is remarkableor

ccuracy

r

completeness,

othdemonstratehedense

opulation

and

agriculturalroductivity

f theGulf owlands. he

province

f

Cuetlaxtlan,

which

ncompassed

he

port

fVeracruznd

environs,

rovided

n annual ribute

of

6,720

oads f otton

mantles,

00oo

oads f

acao,

ndvarious

uxury

tems. urchas

([16251

905-1907,

5:

470-472)

includedthe

page describing

he Cuetlaxtlan ribute.

Lorenzana

[1770] 1980)

included he amepage.And Humboldt

[1811]

1966,

: 250)

was ware f he

quivalence

f

precolonial

uetlaxtlanndcolonial

otastla,

town

45

kilometersouthwest

fVeracruzhat e abeled n his

map

of he owlands

Fig-

ure

5). Although

onvoluted

ttempts

o

quantifyopulation

n thebasisof such

tributeists emain ar rom

onvincing,,720

oadsofcottonmantles

er

year

er-

tainly

houldhave

uggested

o Humboldt hat he

precolonial

ulf owlands ere

intensively

ultivatednd

densely

ettled

Sluyter

00oo2,

1-43).

Humboldt lso drew n themore

omprehensiveompilations

f native ral

and textual istorieshatmembers

f the

Spanish lergy

ad collected

uring

he

second alf f he ixteenthenturyeforehey estroyedhe riginalextsGibson

and Glass

1975).

He seems o haveknown bout

many

f the exts

alling

nto his

category

ven

hough hey

emained

n

manuscript

orm ntilwell fter

ublica-



15/22

374

THE

GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

tion fthePolitical

ssay;

n

example

eing

henotable istoria

eneral

e as

cosas

de

Nueva

Espafia

y

Bernardino e

Sahagtin,

esearchednd writtenver he ec-

ond halfof the ixteenth

entury

ca.

1550-1580]

950-1982;

umboldt

[1811]

966,

:

74;D'Olwer ndCline 973). utHumboldteems

mainly

ohave rawn n Juan e

Torquemada'sMonarquia

ndiana,

written etween

592

and

1613,

ncorporating

many

arlier

ompilations,

nd first

ublished

n

1615

Torquemada

1615]

969;

Alcina

Franch

973).

Humboldt ited

Monarquia

ndiana

nly

wice,

ut the

secondary

source e drew n

more han

ny

ther,

lavigero's

toria

ntica,

eiterates

uch

f

Torquemada (Clavigero

1780-1781;

umboldt

[1811]

966,

1:

cxxiv, 1, 1, 95,

139;

2:

14,

16,

18,

4, 26,

45, 58,73-74,

81,

87,

211,

62-263,

348, 441,513; :

26,

39>45,

110,

26,

473;

4: 135;

Ronan

1973).

Although

Monarquia

ndiana nd

Storia

ntica

provide

more

nformationn

theBasinof Mexico han n theGulf owlands,othprovideome on the atter.

Monarquia

ndiana,

or

xample,

elates he

origins

f

Zempoala

nd describeshe

Gulf owlands s

densely opulated,

lbeit

uitevaguely:settling

n the

plains

f

Zempoala,

ear he

port

fVera

Cruz,

opulating

hatwhole

erritory

ith

great

many

people"

(Torquemada

[16151 969,

1:

278).

Torquemada (pp.

1:

251,

96)

also

claimed

hat

empoala

was

a

grand ity

with

population

n

the rder

f

twenty-

five o

thirty

housand

ecinos

heads

of

household],"arge uildings,

roadav-

enues,

nd

many

houses

with ush

gardens-"altogetherppearing delightful

paradise."

ecause vecinos" eferso heads

of

households,

he total

population

would

have

been

4.5

times s

great,

ome

112,500-135,ooo

(Sluyter

002,

44).

Re-

garding

he

Gulf

owlands

more

roadly,

hen heBasin fMexico ufferedamine

due to

drought

r

frost,

he

owlands

upplied

enochtitlin

ith

maize

by

trade

and

tribute

Torquemada [16151

969,

1:

158;

Sluyter

993).

Monarquia

indiana also

repeats

ortes's

stimate hat hedistrictf

Zempoala

ontained ome

5o

towns

and fortresseshat ouldmuster

0,0oo00

arriors ut nflateshedistrict's

opula-

tion to "more han hundred nd

twenty

housand

ecinos,"

uggesting

total

lowland

population

of

540,000

Torquemada

1615]

969,1:522).Yet

umboldt

[1811]

1966,

:

74)

ignored

hat

assage

n theGulf owlandswhile

iting

nother

egard-

ing

heBasinof

Mexico hat

ppears

n the

facing

age

n the

facsimiledition f

Monarquia indiana (Torquemada

[16151

1969,

:

522-523).

Clavigero 1780-1781) e-

peated,

ometimes

erbatim,

orquemada's

laims

bout he

population

nd urban

characterf

Zempoala

nd

the

Gulf owlands.

Other exts hat

Humboldt sed

imilarly

onfirm

he

precolonial evelopment

of

the

Gulf owlands. umboldt rew n Gonzalo

Fernandez

e Oviedo'sHistoria

general

natural e las

ndias,

or

xample,

ut

apparently

id not

read

carefully

enough

o note

hatOviedo

parroted

ortis's

laim

hat hedistrictf

Zempoala

contained

0

towns

nd forts

apable

f

providing

0,oo000

oldiers

Fernandez

e

Oviedo

[15351

1959,

5:

11;

Humboldt

[1811]1966, 2:

415,

431-434, 436,

439,

446,

501,

515;

3:3,55).Humboldt lso drew n Antonio e Herrera

[1601-16151

944-1947, 3:

374),

who

imilarly

epeated

ortis's

laim

ut,

ike

Torquemada,

onvertedoldiersnto

vecinos and inflated he number o

120o,ooo.



16/22

HUMBOLDT'S

MEXICAN LANDSCAPES

375

Clearly,

ll of

these exts

rebiased n

various

ways.

ortes

may

have stimated

the

population

ather

iberally

n

order o

exaggerate

is

ccomplishments

nd

the

potential

or

olonization,

ith

Torquemadanflating

venCortis's stimatesnd

Diaz delCastillo

xplicitlyttempting

o counteruch

xaggeration

n hisHistoria

verdadera. econstructionf

population

n thebasisof such ources hereforee-

quires

careful onsideration f and correction or uch biases

(Sluyter

002,

41-47).

Among

Humboldt's

econdary

ources,

ome,

uch s

Herrera,

learly

astardized

primary

exts,

hereas thers ere

xplicitly

ngaged

n

polemics.

orquemada,

or

example, xpressed

n

early

reole

patriotism,raising re-Columbianntiquity

and Mexican ature. uch

patriotism

ecame he

easoned,

nlightenment

ation-

alism

of the

eighteenth entury

Florescano 1994,187).

As

the

primary xample

of

that

uccession,

lavigero

rew n

Torquemada

o counter he

ighteenth-century

thesis hat heAmericas erenaturallynferioroEurope. hat o-called uerelle

d'Amdrique

temmed

rom

uffon's

laims boutthe

poverty

f

American

ature

and

society

elativeo

Europe

utbecame

popularized hrough

uch

publications

as Corneille e Pauw's

770

Recherches

hilosophiques

ur es miricainsndWilliam

Robertson's

778

History fAmerica

Glacken

1967,

680-685;

Pratt

992,

120o;

Flores-

cano

1994,

189-191).

Clavigero,

ike other

Enlightenment

ationalists,

homas

Jefferson

ncluded,

xplicitlyngaged

hat

olemic.

ot

only

id Humboldt

[1811]

1966,

1:

91)

recognize lavigero's

fforts,

e

supported

hem:

See

the

udicious

b-

servations f theAbbe

Clavigero

n the ancient

opulation

f

Mexico,

irected

against

Robertsonnd Pauw."

Although nderstanding

umboldt'snteractions

ith

he

biases fhistextual

sources

mayhelp

explain

he

popularity

nd

nfluence

f

the

Political

ssay

n re-

publican

Mexico,

he mmediatessue s hisbiaseduse ofthose

exts,

ottheir i-

ases

per

se.

Whether r not

any

of Humboldt's extual ourceswere

reliable,

e

drew n them o

support

is

representation

f theBasin of Mexicobut

gnored

themwhen

hey

ontradicted

is

representation

f

the

Gulf owlands.

Humboldt hus eified ather han evised he

pristinemyth

or he

Gulf ow-

lands

because,

n

part,

is use of textual ources acked

igor;

ut thereasons or

that ackof

rigor

emain

nclear.

ertainly

hose exts'

verwhelming

mphasis

n

theBasinofMexico nd theAztecs bscures he catterednd imitednformation

on the Gulf owlands.

erreting

ut the relevant

assages equiresong

hoursof

careful

eading. erhaps

umboldt

imply

acked ufficient

ime,

oth n the ibrar-

ies of Mexico

City

nd later

n Paris.

Possibly

e

reached

is conclusions

n the

basisofwhat ocal scholars old

him

nd

merelyelectively

kimmed he

primary

texts or

orroborating

ather han

contradictory

vidence.

onceivably

e

had

Carlos

Montlifar,travelingompanion

luent

n

Spanish,

o

that

kimming

or

him.

Perhaps

most

essential,

s textual

nalysts

uch

as Pratt

uggest,

ecause

Humboldt

pent

much fhis

ojourn

n New

Spain nteracting

ith ocal scholars

inMexicoCity,hePoliticalssay ncorporatesheir epresentationsfNewSpain

and

ntroduced

hem,

egitimated

y

Humboldt's

eputation

or cientific

bjectiv-

ity,

nto

xisting

uropean epresentations

Florescano994, 204-205).

AsPratt

1992,



17/22

376

THE GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

136-137;

talics

n

the

original)

put

t,

Following ndependence,

uroamerican

lites

would

re-import

hat

knowledge

as

European

knowledge

hose

authority

would

legitimate

uroamerican

rule" and continueto

disempower

native

peoples.

HUMBOLDT'S

LANDSCAPES

Textual

nalysis

an

only

reveal

o much of the

process,

ecause Humboldt's and-

scape

observations

hould have

mitigated ny

tendency

o

incorporate

o

naively

the

representations

f local scholars

nd their exts

Sluyter

002,

38-59).

He cer-

tainly

oted

estiges

f

chinampas,

ikes,

nd monumentalrchitecturen the

Ba-

sin of Mexico

(Humboldt [1811] 966,

:

47-48, 61,

80,

119).

If he had likewisenoted

the

vestiges

f

precolonial

ettlement nd

agriculture long

the

royalhighway

hat

crossesthe Gulf

owlands,

he would have revised

rather han

reinvigorated

he co-

lonial pristine mythfor thatregion. Why a supposedlykeen observer such as

Humboldt should have failed o observethose

vestiges

ecomes somewhat

clearer

through nalysis

of the

differing

andscape

histories f the Gulf owlands and the

Basin of Mexico and of Humboldt's

differing

nteractions

iththose

andscapes.

The

precolonialpopulation density

f the Gulf owlands

may

simply

have been

too low to

leave behind as

many

andscape vestiges

s in the Basin of

Mexico,

thus

reducing

he

probability

hatHumboldt

would encounter hem

along

his route. n

the Basin of

Mexico,

some

1.5

million

people

lived

n an area of some

7,000

square

kilometers,

density

f

about

214;

but in the Gulf

owlands,

ome

500,000

people

lived n an area of some 5,oo000quarekilometers, density f about

100.

But even

people

half as

densely

ettled n

the and as in the Basin of Mexico created and-

scape vestiges

isiblefive enturies

ater,

lthough dmittedly

most

readily

pparent

from he air

(Sluyter

002,

51-59).

So

perhaps

the

types

of

vestiges

common to the Gulf lowlands were

not as

visible at

ground

evel as were

those n the Basin of Mexico. The intensivewetland

fields f the owlands were

certainly

maller han

chinampas,

nd their

estiges

re

now

only marginally

etectible t

ground

evel as subtle

ineations n

topography,

soil

moisture,

nd

vegetation

Siemens

1990o,

18-120;

luyter

994).

Therefore,

ven

though

the

royalhighway

rom

Jalapa

o Veracruzruns beside

complexes

of vesti-

gialwetlandfields, heydisappearedfrom he textual ecordbetween he sixteenth

and twentieth enturies.

n

1560

Lucas

Hernindez

noted "a small lake which

ap-

pears

in

the

rainy

eason ...

and marshesditched

traight

outhward"

AGN,

Mer-

cedes,

vol.15,

.

191v).

n the

1970s

Alfred iemens

1990o,

iv)

noted heir haracteristic

vegetational atterning

hile

flying

nto theVeracruz

irport.

Between

Hernfndez

and

Siemens,

hough,

no one noted

anything

elevant.

Moreover,

Humboldt

(1966,

4: 154)

seems

to have left he

royalhighway

where t crossesthe Rio de la

Antigua,

followed ts bank to the town of La

Antigua,

nd

proceeded

to Veracruz

by way

of

the coast. He

might

therefore ave never been within

sight

of

vestigial

wetland

fields.

The remains f

sloping-field

erraces

re

also

more evident rom he air than on

the

ground,yet

ome otherGermanvisitors o the Gulf owlands noted those

ves-



18/22

HUMBOLDT'S

MEXICAN LANDSCAPES

377

tiges

of

precolonial

development ust

a few

years

after

Humboldt failedto do so.

Carl artoriusrrived

n

Mexico

n

1824

nd

published

exico:

andscapes

nd

Popu-

lar ketches

n

1858, roviding

clear

escription

f

vestigial

erraces

ynoting

[1858]

1961,

o) that When he all

grass

s burnt own,we can see that hewhole

ountry

was formednto erraces ith he ssistance

f

masonry,verywhere

rovision

ad

been

made

gainst

he

ravages

fthe

ropical

ains;

hey

were arried ut on

every

slope'."

rantz

Mayer

nd

Hugo

Finck lso noted hosemoribund erraces

Mayer

1847,

11;

Finck

1871,

73;

Sluyter

002,

54-55).

Humboldt, however,

did

not-even

though

is route

assed

through

xtensive

omplexes

f ruined erracesnd

the

dry

easonwasfar

nough

dvanced or he

crubbyegetation

ohave ost ts eaves

and for ancherso be

burning

he xtensive

rasslands,

xposing

he haracteristic

rows

f stones

unning

long

lope

contours.

ossibly

umboldtmistook

heves-

tigial erracesor erracetts,he so-called owtours ormed henherds f cattle

graze

hill

slopes

(Trimble

nd Mendel

1995,

35-236;

Johnson

004).

Yet

Sartorius,

Finck,

nd

Mayer

resumably

ad cultural

ackgrounds

imilar

o

Humboldt's,

nd

they

ad no trouble

ecognizing

herows f stones s remnant

errace

alls.

In

addition

o the races f

past gricultural

se,

artorius

[1858]

961,

o10)

ec-

ognized

xtensive

recolonial

ettlement:On the

dry

flat

idges

he

remains f

large

ities re

found,

orming

ormiles

regular

oads."

ut Humboldt bserved

nothing-apparently.

ven heruins f

Zempoala

do

not seem o

have nterested

him.

They

rovided

n

opportunity

o see a

well-preserved,ajor

precolonial

ity

that, nlike enochtitlin,adfallen ntoruindue todepopulationather han

o

having

eendemolished

y

he

onquistadores

nd rebuilts a

Spanish ity.

ne of

Humboldt's

rincipal

extual

ources ven

roughly

dentifies

empoala's

ocation,

"twelve

eagues

67.2

kilometers]

rom a

Antigua"

nd stated

hat

t now emains

no more han rancho f that

name,

nd a

tower,

r ookout o

survey

he oast"

(Lorenzana

[1770]

1980,

i,

39n).

The distance

reference

may

be

wrong,

he

ruins

being

ess

than

0 kilometersrom a

Antigua,

ut

they

re

o

kilometers

irectly

inland

rom here he

watchtowert Point

empoalaguarded

he oast

during

he

eighteenth

entury

AGN,

General e

Parte,

ol.

7,

.

5).

Despite

hat

elativelyood

locational nformation

nd

short xcursion ff he

royal

ighway,

umboldt oes

not eem o havebeen nterestednough o ask ocals n LaAntigua ormore re-

cisedirectionso

the

uins,

ven

hough

e does ocate

oint

empoala

n his

map.

The location f

Zempoala

wouldfade

from he iteraturentil

ts

rediscoveryy

Estefaniaalas n about

1880

Strebel 883).

Humboldt hus

einvigorated

ather

han evised he

pristine yth

or

he

Gulf

lowlands

ecause,

n

part,

is field bservationsacked

igor,

he

principal

eason

probably eing

hehastewith

which

e traveledrom

alapa

o

Veracruz.

ccording

to his

etters,

e eft

alapa

n

17

February

804

n order o sailfrom

eracruz

n

23

February

[1811]

1966, 4:

166;

[1799-18591

1980,

130-132).

His

Tagebuch

for hat

eg-

ment f the ourney,otpublished utrecentlyelocated,pparentlyeveals hat

he arrivednVeracruzn 18

February,

aking

he

ourney

f ome

25

kilometersn

two

days

Leitner

002,

8;

2004).

The

Tagebuch

does

not contain

any

detailsof

his



19/22

378


interactions

with the

landscape,

however,

nd

the

precise tinerary

herefore e-

mains obscure.Humboldt's

1810a, :

334)

Recueil

d'observations

stronomiques

ro-

vides some additional

nsight

ecause it records nstrumentalbservations t

places

along

his

route,

he same

toponyms

hat

punctuate

themodern

highway.

ut the

Recueil

d'observations

stronomiques

oes not

record he

dates

of

Humboldt's ob-

servations

nd

does not

reveal

whether e

stopped

for

he

night

t an

inn or

what

time of

day

he

passed

through

he terrace

one.

Because

the

sailing

was

delayed

until

7

March,

he could

have

made some excursions rom he

port

while

waiting,

but

the relevant

Tagebuch

ndicatesa

preoccupation

with

gathering

nformation

from

port

officials

nd

merchants,

s

confirmed

y

the extensive ata

on

imports

and

exports through

Veracruz

n the

Political

Essay

([1811]

1966,

4:

27-52;

[1801-

180411986-1990,

:

389-392).

In contrast, umboldtspent bout half year n the Basin ofMexico,using t as

a

centralbase

from

which to make excursions o

Pachuca,

Guanajuato,

and other

places

(Miranda 1962,

o100).

hose six

months-approximately

rom

mid-April

o

mid-May

1803,

June

nd

July

803,

nd

October

1803

through

ate

January

804-

allowed sufficient ime to

observe

the

basin's

varied

landscapes

at

length

and

in

differenteasons. The two

days

pent

raveling

etween

Jalapa

nd

Veracruz nd the

two

weeks stuck n

port

were

simply

nsufficiento make careful

bservations

f

Gulf owland

landscapes.

CONTINUING

CONSEQUENCES

Most

basically,

Humboldt

reinvigorated

ather han

revised

he

pristinemyth

for

the Gulf owlands

because those

places

had

undergone

different

andscape

histo-

ries,

nd his interactions

iththeir

andscapes

and the texts hat

represented

hem

lacked the

rigor required

to

counterhis

tendency

o

incorporate

he

representa-

tions of ocal

scholarship.

As New

Spain

became the

Republic

of

Mexico,

ts

politi-

cal and

scholarly

elites

reimported

the

myth

of

pristine

Gulf lowlands that

Humboldt's

growing

redibilityncreasinglyegitimated

s scientific act.The Po-

litical

Essay

became seminal

to Mexico's

development.

And the Gulf owlands de-

veloped,

as Humboldt had

recommended,

n the

basis of

commodity

griculture

involving xoticcropsand technologies,mainly ystems f concrete rrigation a-

nals for he

production

of

irrigated ugarcane.

The

indigenous

erraces nd inten-

sive

wetland

agriculture,

hich had sustained so

many

n

precolonial

times with

food

production

as well as

cotton,

ontinue moribund and

largely gnored

as

an

alternative hat

mightcomplement

unilateral

Westernization

Sluyter

2002,

204-

209).

In the Basin of

Mexico,

n

contrast,

t least some

chinampas

continue o

pro-

duce

crops (Sluyter

00oo6).

Pratt's onclusion therefore olds

true for he Gulf

owlands,

but

not the Basin

of

Mexico,

because her

emphasis

on

the

production

of

places

through

he

mposi-

tion of textual representations gnores such places' landscape histories and

Humboldt's nteractions ith those

andscapes.

As the

comparative

nalysis

dem-

onstrates,

he

types

f

andscape

elements nd

patterns

hat

developed

over millen-



20/22

HUMBOLDT'S

MEXICAN

LANDSCAPES

379

nia

during

precolonial

imes,

he

degree

of

depopulation

over centuries

uring

o-

lonial

times,

nd the

rigor

Humboldt

applied

to

interacting

ith he

resulting

exts

and

landscapes

greatly

ffected is

representations

f

places.

Similar

geographical

research n

long-term andscape

transformationlsewherewould further

omple-

ment the

textual

nalyses

of

literary

cholars nd

help

us to better nderstand he

emergence,

ersistence,

nd

continuing onsequences

for

economic

development

of

cultural

biases such as the

pristinemyth.

NOTES

1.

Throughout

his

rticle

uotations

rom umboldt'solitical

ssay

ome romhe

widely

vail-

able

1966

AMS ress acsimileditionf he

811

ongman

dition. umboldt roten

Frenchnd

published

is

riginal

ext

n

Parisn

1811

s the ssai

olitique

ur e

royaume

e a

Nouvelle-Espagne.

His

ranslator,

ohn

lack,

enerallyrovides

reliableenditionf he

rench,

ut have onetheless

checkedll uotationsromhe oliticalssaygainsthe 8n ssai olitiquend ndicatell ignificant

differencesn

brackets.

2.

This

ranslation,

nd llothers

n

his

rticle,

remine.

REFERENCES

AGN

Archivo

enerale a

Nacin,

exico

ity].

arious aterials.

Alcina

ranch,

.

1973.

Juan

e

Torquemada,

564-1624.

n Handbook

f

Middle merican

ndians,

ol.

13,

art

2,

Guide oEthnohistorical

ources,

dited

y

H. F.

Cline,

56-275.

ustin:

niversity

f

TexasPress.

Armillas,

P.

1971.

Gardens on

Swamps.

Science

174 4010): 653-661.

Blaut,

.

M.

1993.

The

Colonizer's odel

f

heWorld:

eographicaliffusionism

nd Eurocentricis-

tory.

ewYork: uilford ress.

Brand, . D. 1959.Humboldt'sssai

politique

ur e

royaume

ela

Nouvelle-Espagne.

n Alexander

von

Humboldt:

tudien

u seiner niversalen

eisteshaltung,

dited

y

J.

H.

Schultze,

23-141.

er-

lin:Walter e

Gruyter.

Clavigero,

.

S.

1780-1781.

toria

ntica

elMessico. vols.

Cesena,

taly:

G. Biasini.

Corts,

H.

[1519-1526]

988.

Cartas

de

relacin.Mexico

City:

Editorial

Porra.

Crossley,

.

2004. Sub-Irrigation

n

Wetland

griculture.griculture

nd Human

Values

1

2-3):

191-205.

Denevan,

.M.

1992.

ThePristine

yth:

he

Landscape

f heAmericasn

492.

Annals

f

he sso-

ciation

f

American

eographers

2

3):

369-385.

Daz del

Castillo,

.

1632.

istoriaerdaderae a

conquista

e

a

Nueva

spaa.

Madrid:

mprenta

del

Reyno.

[1632]

800.

TheTrue

istoryf

he

onquestf

Mexico. ranslated

y

M.

Keatinge.

vols.

London: .Wright,or . ean.

[1632]

927.

heTrue

istoryf

he

onquestf

Mexico. ranslated

y

M.

Keatinge.

vols.

New

ork: obert . McBride.

[1632]

982.

Historia

erdaderae a

conquista

e aNueva

spaa.

adrid:

nstituto

ernindez

de Oviedo.

[1632]

986.

Historia

erdaderae a

conquista

e a Nueva

spaa.

exico

ity:

ditorial

Porra.

D'Olwer,

.

N.,

ndH.

F.

Cline.

973.

Sahagn

ndHisWorks.n Handbook

f

Middle merican

Indians,

ol.

3,

art

,

Guide o

Ethnohistorical

ources,

dited

y

H.

F.

Cline,

86-239.

ustin:

University

fTexas ress.

Doolittle,

.E.

1990o.

anal

rrigation

nPrehistoric

exico:

he

equencef

Technologicalhange.

Austin:

niversity

f

Texas ress.

Ezcurra,

.

1990o.

e

las

hinampas

la

Megalpolis:

l medio mbiente

n a

Cuenca eMxico.Mexico

City: ondo e Culturaconmica.

Fernndez

e

Oviedo,

G.

[1535]

959.

Historia

eneral

natural e as ndias. vols.Madrid:

diciones

Atlas.



21/22

380


Finck,

.

1871.

Account f

Antiquities

n

the State

f

Vera

Cruz,

Mexico.

n

Annual

Report f

the

Board

fRegentsf

he mithsonian

nstitution...

or

he

Year

870, 73-376.

Washington,

.C.:

Government

rinting

ffice.

Florescano,

.

1994.Memory, yth,

nd Time n Mexico: rom heAztecs o

ndependence.

ustin:

University

fTexasPress.

Gibson,C.,

and

J.

B. Glass.

1975.

A

Census

of

MiddleAmerican rose

Manuscripts

n

the Native

Historicalradition.n Handbook

fMiddleAmerican

ndians,

ol.15,

art

,

Guide o thnohistorical

Sources,

dited

y

H.

F. Cline,

22-400oo.

ustin:

niversity

fTexas ress.

Giugale,

M.

M. 2001.

Synth

humboldt's mexican landscapes

Documents