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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
The Southern Portion of the United States is greatly indebted to the Franciscan friars who planted there the seed of what was, in the course of time, to become the mighty tree of Christian culture that flourishes in the land today. Fray Juan de Zumárraga, first Bishop and Archbishop of Mexico, was instrumental in bringing Franciscans to New Spain from where, as pioneers, they were to take Christian culture and religion to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Zumárraga was born in Durango, Province of Vizcaya, Spain, near the close of 1468 or the beginning of 1469. He was the son of Juan López de Zumárraga and Teresa de Lares, both of noble lineage.
Address delivered by author at the University of Texas under the auspices of the Institute of Latin American Studies, July 16, 1948.
1 Chauvet, Fidel de J. O.F.M., Zumárraga (Mexico, 1948), 8-9.Google Scholar
2 Relación de los padres dominicos in Relaciones Históricas de Santo Domingo. Colección y notas de Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi (Ciudad Trujillo, 1942), I, 98.
3 Mendieta, Gerónimo de, Historia Eclesiástica Indiana (Mexico, 1876), 246.Google Scholar
4 The Mexican historian, Federico Gómez de Orozco, believes that the Indians suggested to the friars the use of figures.
5 Op. cit., 403-414.
6 The original is in the National Library of Madrid; photostatic copy in my possession. Cf. Cartas de Indias (Madrid, 1877), 165-175; Icazbalceta, Don Fray Juan de Zumárraga (Mexico, 1947), III, 130.
7 Zumárraga to Fr. Juan de Osegúera and Fr. Cristóbal de Almazán in Cuevas, Documentos Inéditos del siglo XVI para la Historia de México (Mexico, 1914), 487-497.
8 Icazbalceta, Zumárraga, IV, 144, 236-237.
9 Carreño, “La Primera Biblioteca del Continente Americano,” in Divulgación Histórica (Mexico, 1943), IV, 8-9.
10 Icazbalceta, op. cit., IV, 165.
11 Cristóbal Bernardo de la Plaza y Jaén, Crónica de la Real y Pontificia Universidad de México (Edited by Nicolás Rangel, Mexico, 1931), I, 10.
12 Carreño, Un desconocido Cedulario del siglo XVI perteneciente a la Catedral Metropolitana de México (Mexico, 1944), Doc. 35, p. 106; Carreño, El Colegio de Tlaltelolco y la Cultura Indígena en el Siglo XVI. In Divulgación Histórica (Mexico, 1940), I, 3.
13 Mendieta, Historia Eclesiástica Indiana, 415; Torquemada Monarquía Indiana, III, 113-114.
14 Icazbalceta, Don Fray Juan de Zumárraga (Mexico, 1947), IV, 167.
15 Ibid.
16 Rangel not only denied the credit due the great Franciscan pioneer, but failed to acknowledge that the original Crónica is in the University of Texas, whose librarian generously furnished him a copy for the edition.
17 Cuevas, op. cit., 66; Carreño, Don Fray Juan de Zumárraga, primer Obispo y Arzobispo de México. Documentos Inéditos (Mexico, 1941), 10-11.
18 Published in Excelsior, June 9, 1948.
19 Cavo, Andrés, Los tres siglos de Mexico durante el Gobierno Español (Mexico, 1836), I, 202.Google Scholar
20 Compendium Privilegiorum fratrum minorum. Salo Hale, of Mexico City, has a copy of the second edition of 1530.
21 Icazbalceta, Don Fray Juan de Zumárraga (ed. Mexico, 1881), 224-22Í.
22 Medina, José Toribio, La Imprenta en Mexico (Santiago de Chile, 1909), I, xxxvi. Google ScholarCarreño, La Invención más valiosa del siglo XV in IV Centenario de la Imprenta en Mexico, la primera en América (Mexico, 1940), 565-590.
23 Ibid.
24 Carreño, Don Fray Juan de Zumárraga primer Obispo y Arzobispo de México. Documentos Inéditos, 83.
25 Medina, op. cit., I, xxxvi.
26 Icazbalceta, Apéndice a los Concilios l y Il; Don Fray Juan de Zumárraga (Mexico, 1947), Appendix 88; III, 96 ff.
