Opening the Door to Vallarta

Please Rate Vote 1 Vote 2 Vote 3 Vote 4 Vote 5

Historic Record of 19th-century Mexico Has New Home

For avid sun worshipers, the oceanside resort town of Puerto Vallarta is prized for its inviting beaches and its Mexican charm. For movie buffs, Puerto Vallarta is famed as the setting of the 1960s John Huston film "The Night of the Iguana." And for connoisseurs of history, Puerto Vallarta
is significant because it was named after one of the most important Mexican statesmen of the 19th century.

Ignacio Vallarta served as governor of the state of Jalisco (Puerto Vallarta's home state) and chief justice of Mexico's Supreme Court during a lifetime of distinguished public service. He helped write the nation's constitution in 1857 and was minister of foreign relations under President
Porfirio D¡az.

"Ignacio Vallarta's life and career is a microcosm of Mexico's political history in the 19th century," says Dr. Susan Deans-Smith, an associate professor in University of Texas's Department of History. It was because of the enthusiastic support of experts like Deans-Smith and the generosity of the Laredo National Bank that Vallarta's papers now reside at the University's Benson Latin American Collection. The bank purchased the papers from an antiquities dealer and placed them on permanent loan with the Benson Collection.

Originally, the papers had been in the hands of Vallarta's
two grandsons, who brought them to the United States in the mid-20th century.
The Vallarta Papers consist of about 18,000 documents, including letters, reports and messages, mostly dated between 1868 and 1893. Among the more significant items are signed letters from Benito Ju rez, Mexico's president from 1861 to 1872. The papers provide a rich source of information on
U.S.-Mexican relations, including reports on Mexico's foreign debt, recognition, investments, and political and military activities along the Texas-Mexico border.

"They give us a much more detailed look at the political and economic atmosphere of the times than anything we've seen so far," says Dr. Donald Gibbs, bibliographer at the Benson Collection. "They're going to fill in a lot of gaps in our knowledge" of 19th-century Mexican history.

Benson exhibit curator Ad n Benavides said the papers are a welcome addition to the existing collection, which contains some of Vallarta's speeches and writings.
"He was a highly regarded and truly brilliant man," Benavides said. "He could read English, Italian, French, and Latin, and he knew a great deal about U.S. and German law, Roman law, and western European law. His views set a high standard in the formation of Mexican law at the end of the
19th century."

Gary Jacobs, president of Laredo National Bank and a UT Austin alumnus, said the collection is important because it provides an important historical perspective on the bicultural history between the United States
and Mexico.

"Our bank, which was founded in 1892, has always had an American home and a Mexican heart," says Jacobs, who is a member of the Mexican Center Advisory Committee at the University.

The papers will be a valuable resource for scholars and students interested in 19th-century Mexican history. Their new home, the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, is one of the world's premier research libraries for the study of Latin America and Spanish-speaking peoples in the United
States. With holdings dating back to the 15th century, the Benson Collection maintains important materials for all countries of Latin America with special concentrations on the countries of the R¡o de la Plata, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Central America.

Sheila Allee
Office of the Vice President for Resource Development - P.O. Box 7458 - Austin Texas 78713; 512/471-5424
Updated 2003 October 10

- Thanks to Galeria Vallarta's Barbara Peters for bringing this to our attention.