The Images of Eighteenth-Century Urban Reform in Mexico City and the Plan of José Antonio Alzate

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Acknowledgements

This article grew out of a paper, ‘La ciudad dividida: el plano de Alzate y la ideología urbana de la ciudad de México,’ presented at the Reunión de Historiadores de México, Estados Unidos y Canadáin Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro, October, 2010. The author thanks Dorothy Tanck de Estrada for inviting her to join her panel; Roberto Mayer offered invaluable help with research as did Linda Arnold; also of benefit were conversations with Jordana Dym, Jorge Gómez-Tejada, Luis Granados, Dorothy Tanck de Estrada and comments from two anonymous reviewers; any errors are the responsibility of the author. All translations are the author's, unless noted in the text.

Abbreviations:

AGI: Archivo General de Indias, Seville

AGN: Archivo General de la Nación, México.

Notes

1. The viceroy's demand for the plano is to be found in AGN Civil, vol. 1496, f. 166; more details on the commission are recorded on a manuscript map of 1750, now in the AGI, which states that it is a copy ‘del original que de orden del Excmo. Sr. Virrey de esta Nueva España demarcó Don José de Villaseñor y Sánchez, contador de los Reales Azogues’ (AGI, Mapas y Planos, México 178, listed as number 6 in Toussaint et al. 1990, 26). The original (which I have not found) was ‘remitido por la Sala de Crimen de México con expediente sobre la división de la Ciudad en cuarteles para las rondas.’ For more on Villaseñor's maps, see Carrera 2011, 50–56.

2. See Mapoteca Orozco y Berra, Joseph Antonio de Villaseñor, Mapa de la muy noble leal y imperial ciudad de México, 1753; 35×45 cm; they have another of the same author and date measuring 44×59. In the list Toussaint compiled, it is number 7 (Toussaint et al. 1990, 26).

3. AGN Historia, vol. 74, f. 13v, 14 March 1791. Copies of some of the correspondence between Alzate and the Conde de Revillagigedo about the creation of a new census for Mexico City are included in ‘Orden, Discursos y Providencias de Gobierno respectivos a ambas Américas,’ vol. 22, Biblioteca Nacional de México, Fondos Reservados, Indias, Cedulario, t. 22, Ms. [454], 1391. This volume also contains other works by Alzate: ‘Reflexiones a cerca de la limpieza de la cuidad’ (ff. 63–67), ‘Observaciones económicas sobre la limpia de las basuras en la ciudad de México’ (ff. 77–89), and ‘Releflexiones a cerca de la construción de las faroles …’ (ff. 91–98).

4. AGN Historia, vol. 74, exp. 1, f. 22r.

5. The Herrera map that Alzate cites may be related to the 1737 oil on canvas map of Mexico City by don Pedro de Arrieta, and among others, Josef Eduardo de Herrera, now held by Museo Nacional de la Historia (Maza and Ortiz Macedo 2008).

6. This may be either the finished Pedro de Arrieta map of 1737, or else a relative of the cuartel maps of the city, made in 1750–1752, now in the AGN which are on parchment.

7. This map, now in the collection of the Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico, is titled Plano de la Imperial corte de México excrupulosamente levantado a plancheta por el ingeniero ordinario, don Nicolás de Lafora y el capitán de Infantería Walona de Flandes, don Alejandro Dalcourt por mandato del Exmo. Sr. Virrey Marqués de Croix, el año de 1770.

8. The correspondence is contained in AGN Historia, vol. 74, exp. 1.

9. Ignacio Castera, Plano Geometrico de la Imperial, Noble y Leal Ciudad de Mexico teniendo por extremo la Zanja y Garitas de Resguardo de la Real Aduana, sacado del orden del Señor don Francisco Leandro de Viana, Conde de Tepa. This map was surveyed in 1776 but not engraved and published (in Madrid by López) until 1785. It measures 79×96 cm, and a copy is held by the Museo Franz Mayer. See Trabulse (in Mayer 1998, 73). The original, or one of the original manuscripts, is held in the Hispanic Society of America, entitled, Plano Ignografico de la noblissima Ciudad de Mexico of 1776–1778. It is reproduced in Burke (1998, 84).

10. In addition, Alzate, in 1792, drew up four ‘planos formados’ which were meant ‘para averiguar la población de México’ which he submitted to Viceroy Revillagigedo. I have not located these plans.