Students of the Mission History of colonial Spanish America are aware of the importance played by the Apostolic Colleges in the expansion and development of the Indian mission field. The labors of the Fernandinos, Zacatecans and Queretarans, for example, have been heralded in the chronicles of the Colleges, in the extant documents pertaining to the respective mission fields, and in the histories, both Spanish and English, which describe the endeavors of the friars in behalf of Christianity and civilization on the frontier.

Between 1683 and 1814, seven of these Colleges were founded in New Spain alone: Santa Cruz, Querétaro; Cristo Crucificado, Guatemala; Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Zacatecas; San Fernando, Mexico City; San Francisco, Pachuca; San José, Orizaba; and Nuestra Señora de Zapopan, Guadalajara. Querétaro, Zacatecas and San Fernando are the best-known to American students, because of their influence on the Borderlands from Texas to California. San Fernando was responsible for the great development between 1769 and 1833 in the entire territory of Alta California, and in the southern portion between 1833 and 1853. Studies on this mission field are numerous and detailed, but there is a gap which should be filled with a study on the College itself. For such a study, we are dependent on the official documents of the regime, once—before the confiscation period in Mexican history—very numerous. Though various students have declared that most of the documents have been lost, the present writer may announce, with confidence, that while certain ones evidently have been lost, a great body of them does still exist; and from these it is possible to study various aspects of the College’s life. San Fernando has been chosen for study in this article, both because it was the mother house of the California missions, and because a considerable number of pertinent documents have been brought to light in recent years.

Positivism in educational thought in 1867 was the rational expression of a liberating philosophy which had been operating upon the Mexican scene from the turn of the century. Under the aegis of liberalism educational theory had moved slowly forward, but application had lagged far behind. This situation was not an unnatural consequence of the chaotic conditions which obtained after the achievement of independence. Independence had brought political freedom, but the masses, economically and culturally, had gained little.

As early as 1823 educators had clamored for popular education, and although public education was given some consideration during succeeding administrations, hopes of realizing changes in education were lost within the maelstrom of social and political intrigues. The control of education was thus left in the hands of individuals, many of whom were not fit to be teachers, or to the Church, whose attention to education was greatly lessened by the growing Church-State question.

The History of nineteenth-century Mexico presents a strange succession of violent changes, political and social upheavals, bitter struggles among rival factions whose aims and ideals were often ill-defined and illusory. The infant republic found that the gaining of its independence was only the beginning of its troubles. The bane of personalism was never to abandon the Mexican political stage, and the ambitions of individuals, to a large extent, were to guide the destinies of the entire nation. José María Roa Bárcena, whose life embraced the last three quarters of the century, was one of the most prominent figures of those troubled times. A man of action, integrity of character, and no small intellectual gifts, he entered resolutely into the struggle between liberals and conservatives, leaving the stamp of his personality on the history of the period.

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.

Veracity, Cupidity and Amity were important factors in the dispute between the United States and Venezuela over the guano on little Aves Island. Less than a mile long and only a few hundred yards wide, the islet caused a war of words out of all proportion to its size. The United States wanted to protect its citizens in their right to gather the residue of bird droppings on that bit of land in the tropic Caribbean which apparently belonged to nobody, while Venezuela considered the same mite of oceanic desert, which is located some three hundred miles north of Margarita Island, as a part of its patrimony inherited from Spain.

Currently there is nation-wide interest in the plight of the Navaho Indians. These sheep-raisers in the northwestern corner of New Mexico, the northeastern corner of Arizona and southeastern Utah, at present number more than 60,000. Historically, the Navaho belonged to that Spanish colony, north of Mexico, which was known as New Mexico. Though the colony was chiefly around the Pueblo Indian settlements, the Spanish Crown laid claim to all territory north of Mexico, which included our present New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah, perhaps more than that.