La Pata de Cabra, Satire and Free Speech in Nineteenth-Century Mexico City

Author(s):  
Lance Ingwersen

Abstract The article examines how La Pata de Cabra (The Goat's Hoof ), an over-the-top fantastical Spanish comedia de magia (magic play), came to figure centrally in serious debates about Mexican politics and society between 1845 and 1857. The article explores the play's popularity and its resonance in the press – it spawned at least half a dozen satirical newspapers – to argue that satire became a critical political language and form of expression that broadened and sustained debates in an era marked by volatile and often heavily restricted press freedoms. The article's focus on the La Pata phenomenon brings two fields of study, theatre and the press, into productive and necessary conversation.

Author(s):  
Dalia Antonia Muller

This chapter situates Cuba’s long nineteenth-century independence struggle in a wider international context and makes a case for the central role of Cuban migrants in the development of transnational solidarities around the Cuban cause for independence. It argues that the Gulf World was the resonance chamber of the independence struggle and it makes a case for the importance of Latin America broadly, and Mexico specifically, in the evolution of the struggle, but also underscores the importance of the “Cuban Question” to politics in Latin America and Mexico specifically. The chapter ends with a focus on the importance of the press as a space of solidarity making and features a case study of a group of student journalist in Mexico City who adopted the Cuban independence cause as their own forging important and enduring transnational solidarities with Cuban migrants, while using the Cuban cause as a way to refocus their own local and national struggles.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-351
Author(s):  
Omar Velasco Herrera

Durante la primera mitad del siglo xix, las necesidades presupuestales del erario mexicano obligaron al gobierno a recurrir al endeudamiento y al arrendamiento de algunas de las casas de moneda más importantes del país. Este artículo examina las condiciones políticas y económicas que hicieron posible el relevo del capital británico por el estadounidense—en estricto sentido, californiano—como arrendatario de la Casa de Moneda de México en 1857. Asimismo, explora el desarrollo empresarial de Juan Temple para explicar la coyuntura política que hizo posible su llegada, y la de sus descendientes, a la administración de la ceca de la capital mexicana. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the budgetary needs of the Mexican treasury forced the government to resort to borrowing and leasing some of the most important mints in the country. This article examines the political and economic conditions that allowed for the replacement of British capital by United States capital—specifically, Californian—as the lessee of the Mexican National Mint in 1857. It also explores the development of Juan Temple’s entrepreneurship to explain the political circumstances that facilitated his admission, and that of his descendants, into the administration of the National Mint in Mexico City.


Author(s):  
Timothy Zick

This book examines the relational dynamics between the U.S. Constitution’s Free Speech Clause and other constitutional rights. The free speech guarantee has intersected with a variety of other constitutional rights. Those intersections have significantly influenced the recognition, scope, and meaning of rights ranging from freedom of the press to the Second Amendment right to bear arms. They have also influenced interpretation of the Free Speech Clause itself. Free speech principles and doctrines have facilitated the recognition and effective exercise of constitutional rights, including equal protection, the right to abortion, and the free exercise of religion. They have also provided mediating principles for constructive debates about constitutional rights. At the same time, in its interactions with other constitutional rights, the Free Speech Clause has also been a complicating force. It has dominated rights discourse and subordinated or supplanted free press, assembly, petition, and free exercise rights. Currently, courts and commentators are fashioning the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in the image of the Free Speech Clause. Borrowing the Free Speech Clause for this purpose may turn out to be detrimental for both rights. The book examines the common and distinctive dynamics that have brought free speech and other constitutional rights together. It assesses the products and consequences of these intersections, and draws important lessons from them about constitutional rights and constitutional liberty. Ultimately, the book defends a pluralistic conception of constitutional rights that seeks to leverage the power of the Free Speech Clause but also to tame its propensity to subordinate, supplant, and eclipse other constitutional rights.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-208
Author(s):  
Khalil M. Habib

AbstractAccording to Tocqueville, the freedom of the press, which he treats as an extension of the freedom of speech, is a primary constituent element of liberty. Tocqueville treats the freedom of the press in relation to and as an extension of the right to assemble and govern one’s own affairs, both of which he argues are essential to preserving liberty in a free society. Although scholars acknowledge the importance of civil associations to liberty in Tocqueville’s political thought, they routinely ignore the importance he places on the freedom of the press and speech. His reflections on the importance of the free press and speech may help to shed light on the dangers of recent attempts to censor the press and speech.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-461
Author(s):  
Ernest Caulfield

IN VIEW of the tremendous advance in pediatrics during the past half century, one might think that a full century ago no one could have known very much about the care of children. To read the newspapers of that day, one might also conclude that it was an age primarily of quacks and patent medicines—of worm cures, hive syrups and of little liver pills. But to appreciate the true status of American pediatrics in 1855 one must judge it not only by the standards of our time but also by the standards of a century earlier, and when that is done it will be seen that American pediatrics in the mid-Nineteenth Century had also made considerable progress. In 1755 the care of the sick was generally in the hands of well-meaning yet untrained practical nurses whereas in 1855 people were turning to physicians who were usually medical school graduates, well acquainted with a vast number of new and important publications. More and more pediatric articles were appearing in the many American journals; and in the review of a new book, one writer mentioned "the numerous publications on the management of infants and children with which the press has been loaded." Indeed, the press was loaded, for the Philadelphia physician had at his command no less than 8 fairsized textbooks in English devoted exclusively to the care of children. The second quarter of the Nineteenth Century saw a definite trend toward pediatrics as a specialty. There is no need to discuss here the numerous elementary guides which were intended primarily for mothers and which were precursors of the textbooks, or the many systems of general medicine with their chapters on pediatric subjects, especially since this trend may be well illustrated by mentioning only the impressive list of textbooks published in Philadelphia.


1951 ◽  
Vol 10 (03) ◽  
pp. 204-212
Author(s):  
S. R. Searle

Although the subject of probability is of such vital importance to insurance, no great detailed study was given to it until the sixteenth century. This was nearly two thousand years after the world's first insurance venture, that of Antimenes on behalf of Greek slave-owners against loss of their slaves (the early Greeks had also a good system of marine insurance). As in many fields of study, the early students of probability met with a great deal of opposition, which must have extended well into the nineteenth century, judging from the evidence of de Morgan's book of 1838.


Author(s):  
Juan C. Olmeda

State governments have acquired a central role in Mexican politics and policy making during the last decades as a result of both democratization and decentralization. Nowadays state governments not only concentrate a significant portion of prerogatives and responsibilities in terms of service delivery but also control a substantial share of public spending. However, no systematic studies have been developed in order to understand how state governments function. This chapter provides an overview on how policies are crafted at the subnational (state) level in Mexico, the main actors taking place in the process and the way in which professional knowledge and advice influence policy makers. As it argues, the central role in the policy making process is played by the executive branch, being the governors the ones who have the final word in most important decisions. In addition, secretaries also concentrate power in particular policy areas. As a result of the lack of a professional civil service, however, a significant portion of policy analysis is performed by non-governmental actors (universities, NGOs and private firms). The chapter applies this framework to analyze a particular Mexican state, namely Mexico City.


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