Between 1769 and 1853, one hundred and twenty-eight Fernandinos or Franciscan missionaries from the College of San Fernando in Mexico City founded in Upper California twenty-one missions, christianized close to 100,000 Indians, developed the agriculture, the arts and crafts of its earliest civilization, thus effecting the spiritual and in part the temporal conquest of the land. These Fernandinos, with very few exceptions, were natives of Spain. They represented a cross section of practically all the Spanish provinces from Galicia to Catalonia and from Cantabria to Andalucia. Not to be forgotten are the Balearic Islands. Sixteen of California’s missionaries came from Mallorca and thus formed eight percent of the total missionary personnel. Some of these sixteen were among California’s greatest.

Before touching on the spiritual and scientific contribution of the Mallorcan group, it will be well to insist on the fact that the very establishment of apostolic colleges in America antedating the California conquest, thus making possible the future Mallorcan contribution, was due to a Mallorcan, himself an outstanding missionary organizer both in Spain and the Indies, Fray Antonio de Jesús Llinás.

The liberals at the Mexican constitutional convention of 1856–1857 were fairly representative of any group trying to establish the authority of the state over the clerical groups. Moreover their political thought shows the stress on material affairs rather than that of the spiritual realm. The quarrel between state and church in Mexico of course was not new. It had its antecedents in the colonial period when the Spanish crown had been able, in general, to control the affairs of the church. Once Mexico obtained her independence, however, the question of state-church relationship arose. The early fight culminated in 1833–1834 when Gómez Farías put through his Reform Laws which deprived the church of control of education, secularized missions, abolished some of the special privileges of the clerical groups and relieved the state of responsibility for enforcing religious vows. These measures of course were never carried out because in 1834 Gómez Farías was ousted from office by Santa Anna.

“The most noble and most faithful city of St. Francis of Quito”, capital of the republic of Ecuador and formerly capital of the Audiencia of the same name, was founded upon the ruins of the capital of Atahualpa by the Spanish conqueror, D. Sebastián de Belalcázar y Medrano, on December 6, 1534. On January 25, 1535, the noble Flemish Franciscan, Fray Jodoco Ricke de Marselaer, assisted by two other Franciscans, placed the first stone of the building which was to become the first Franciscan monastery in South America. As was the custom, the patron of the new building was the saint of the day. In this case, the feast of the day was the Conversion of St. Paul and by this name was the new friary known.

Highlighting the Wars of Independence in Latin America are the personalities and exploits of the great patriot leaders who took up arms in the cause of freedom. Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín are known throughout the world, for they were outstanding liberators whose efforts were crowned with success. But there were other leaders in the Spanish colonies who are almost equally deserving of fame for their contributions to the revolution, and among such men was José Gervasio Artigas, leader of the rebels in the Banda Oriental. His biography is a story of adherence to ideals and tenacity of purpose in the face of dismaying opposition. Chroniclers of his life, however, are not in agreement as to his possible faults and virtues. As one observer has aptly said, “Perhaps never did the memory of a man meet with more honor in his own country and with less favor without it.”

Although the natives made a crude kind of coarse woolens prior to the time of the Conquest, the manufacturing of woolen goods did not begin in New Spain until the early fifteen forties. At that time the first viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, laid the base of this industry in the new colony. Mendoza considered such an enterprise essential to lasting prosperity. He imported the merino, or fine wool, breed of sheep from Castile, and did everything possible to foster their growth. The viceroy had wide powers over local administration, and all matters pertaining to wool manufacturing were under his jurisdiction. Legislation regarding wool mills emanated from the crown; it was reissued by the viceroy; and its immediate execution was a cabildo function.

Licenses to establish textile mills could be granted only by the King through the mediation of the viceroy and audiencia. “None shall be founded in any way, nor for any cause, nor in any place, without my express license, or that of the viceroys …”

In The year 1864, the Cuban-born poet Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, visited New York, Philadelphia, Niagara Falls, Mount Vernon, and other points of interest in the United States. The impressions she received at that time were crystallized in two poems: “A Washington” (soneto), “A vista del Niágara” (silva)

There are pertinent notes to be revealed in connection with the writing of the sonnet to Washington. The version composed in 1864 was not the poet’s first dedicatory poem to George Washington. La Avellaneda’s first composition on the subject (written long before she had the opportunity to visit the United States) appeared in her earliest collection of verse in 1841.