"PRESENCIA AZTECA EN LA CIUDAD DE MEXICO" par Fernando PEREZNIETO CASTRO. Editions Joaquin Mortiz S.A., Mexico en collaboration avec Grupo Banobras. 1977. Edition originale. in-4, format oblong, couverture toilée beige sous emboîtage carton illustré. Non paginé (94p). Texte bilingue Espagnol / Anglais, avant-propos par Miguel Léon-Portilla, avec 36 illustrations deux-tons, pleine page, de Fernando Pereznieto Castro. Tiré à 2.550 exemplaires numérotés, celui-ci n°1.635.

 

"As so many others in the world, the Mexican people is clearly a mestizo one. For thousands of years this country has witnessed the mixing of races - a fact not sufficiently studied - between groups, those we call "Indians", often quite different, even if all came probably from the north and settled here. Much more recent, and thus more evident, is the mixing of Indians and Spaniards. Said mestizaje began in the XVIth Century and was soon so widespread that it is a truism to say that the face and the heart of modern Mexico are mainly built upon Indian and Spanish bloods and cultures. From several points of view Mexico may be considered a young country ; but it is also true that on account of its mestizo heritage bears to a long past. We are then quite right in considering, besides its period of independent life, the three centuries of its existence as New Spain and the thousands of years of native cultures, among the essential ingredients of Mexican history. Narratives, chronicles, documents, inscriptions and old manuscripts may tell us about the event that make up the chain of this long past; but perhaps the most easily detectable testimony of what has been the evolution of the national self, can be found on the different creations of its art, whether it is called Prehispanic, colonial or modern..." Miguel Léon-Portilla. 

 

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