THE Spanish overseas empire was not won in a fit of absent-mindedness nor was it developed in a mood of salutary neglect. It was won with a conscience as well as with a sword.

Some disagreement has recently been expressed as to whether the ideas of Francisco de Vitoria, prima professor of theology at the University of Salamanca at the time of his death in 1546, exercised any appreciable influence on the actual development of events and ideas in the New World. One thing is beyond contention. Vitoria’s thought had a decisive impact on the Philippines. The ideological controversy precipitated by the conquest of the archipelago often assumed the character of a creative commentary on the lectures of that great Dominican theologian.

CENTRAL America owes its independence from Spain to a curiously inter-connected chain of events and people. The Captaincy-General of Guatemala, as it was known in the beginning of the nineteenth century, effected its transition from a colonial to a free status with a minimum of bloodshed. Also, its freedom was gained with atleast a semblance of legality rather than by a resort to violence. The key link in the chain of events and people that led to this outcome was a relatively unknown and discredited (in the eyes of Spanish official-dom) veteran officer of the Spanish Army named Gabino Gainza. By his attitude in a time of emergency, Gainza prevented violent measures from being taken to insure independence, and at the same time prevented similar measures from being taken that might have kept Central America loyal to Spain. Gainza is not an heroic figure, but Central America owes him a lasting debt of gratitude for not having tried to be one.

MOST colonial territories were claimed or acquired by the symbolical ritual of taking possession. Nevertheless, this ritual ceremony is a subject that has been largely neglected in the historical literature of our nation. Few people, aside from historians, realize or know what an act of possession or sovereignty is. Even among these, there are those who simply overlook or ignore the historical importance and significance of the ceremony by which explorers and colonizers laid claim to territory in the New World. Yet there were extremely few boundary disputes and even colonial wars which did not retrace their antecedents to the performance of an act of sovereignty by some explorer of the rival colonial powers of Spain, England, and France.

TO all Mexico’s visitors, as to the United States’ beverage industry, “Tehuacán” is a trade-mark, a synonym for superlative mineral water. This product of some dozen bottling works at Tehuacán is justly regarded as the traveler’s health insurance in the tropics; it is, for its excellence, purchased in trainload lots by American brewers and soft-drink manufacturers. To sufferers from some exceedingly painful physical disorders the same word spells the relief obtainable from the “water cure” they take there. In pursuit of health, rest, and a superb climate for both, thousands from many nations annually make their way to the little spa “city” they find glistening in the highland sun against that masterpiece of natural sculpture, the Cerro Colorado, the advance line of Puebla’s mountain rampart against the deep tropics. Such are the facts that have realized Tehuacán’s modern fame and, thereby, prosperity.