El Farol. Periodico Semanario de la Puebla de Los Angeles en el Imperio Mejicano

Puebla: Imprenta Liberal de Moreno Hermanos, 1822. About very good.. Forty-one issues plus three supplements, 372pp. Minor, scattered worming, slightly affecting text. Scattered light dampstaining and faint foxing. Untrimmed. A complete run of this early and significant periodical, a "lantern" for the Mexican people, which began publication in Puebla just one month after the achievement of independence. The editor, Ignacio Mariano de Vasconcelos, was close to the monarchical project of Agustin Iturbide. The announced purpose of the paper was to explain the principals of the new constitution and laws of the country, support the cause of constitutional monarchy, and to warn about the dangers of a free press and more liberal revolutionary aspirations. El Farol combines political editorials, moral and religious reflections, national and international news, and literary sections. Each issue included doctrinal articles defending and promoting the concept of constitutional monarchy and emphasizing Catholicism as the foundation for moral and social order. The paper also contains relevant documents of contemporary events, such as communications from Iturbide to the army and missives from the provincial council of Puebla to the Constituent Congress. Its conservative and Catholic viewpoint made it a counterweight to more liberal publications of the time, and reflected the tensions during nascent Mexican independence between monarchists and republicans, and between defenders of religion as part of the backbone of the state and those seeking a more secular and liberal form of government. In all, an invaluable source to understand the political and social debate during the first months of Mexican independence. Rare institutionally and in commerce.
Andrade 3747. Garritz 4573. Sabin 23875.