Aztec Land — Background and Themes

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Authors: Ballou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray), 1820-1895 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2009 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Mexico -- Description and travel Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 98,539

Reading time 429 min

Text sections 11

The source record for Aztec Land — Background and Themes measures this digital text at 98,539 words, 7 hr 9 min estimated reading time, and 11 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 23.8 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Mexico -- Description and travel,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #29747

Ballou's 1890 travelogue recounts a guided rail tour from Boston to Mexico, blending observations of Aztec ruins, colonial cities, and contemporary Mexican society with frank assessments of hotels, food, and customs.

Editorial Edition Score 4.8/5

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

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File: pg29747

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Locality and Political Divisions of Aztec Land.--Spanish Historians.--Boundaries.--Climate.--Egyptian Resemblances. --Products of the Country.--Antiquities.--Origin of Races. --Early Civilization.--Pictorial Writings.--Aboriginal Money. --Aztec Religious Sacrifices.--A Voluptuous Court.--Mexican Independence.--European Civilization introduced by Cortez.-- Civil Wars.--The Maximilian Fiasco.--Revival of Mexican Progress.--A Country facing on Two Oceans.--A Native Writer's Statement.--Divorce of Church and State 1

Remarkably Fertile Soil.--Valuable Native Woods.--Mexican Flora.-- Coffee and Tobacco.--Mineral Products.--Silver Mines.--Sugar Lands.--Manufactories.--Cortez's Presents to Charles V.--Water Power.--Coal Measures.--Railroads.--Historic Locality.--Social Characteristics.--People divided into Castes.--Peonage.-- Radical Progress.--Education and the Priesthood.--A Threshing Machine.--Social Etiquette.--Political Organization of the Government.--Mexico the Synonym of Barbarism.--Production and Business Handicapped by an Excessive Tariff 23

The Route to Mexico.--Via the Mammoth Cave.--Across the Rio Grande.--A Large River.--Piedras Negras.--Characteristic Scene. --A Barren Prairie Land.--Castaño, a Native Village.--Adobe Cabins.--Indian Irrigation.--Sparsely Populated Country.-- Interior Haciendas.--Immigration.--City of Saltillo.--Battle of Buena Vista.--City of Monterey.--The Cacti and Yucca-Palm. --Capture by General Taylor.--Mexican Central Railroad.-- Jack-Rabbits.--A Dreary Region.--The Mesquite Bushes.--Lonely Graves 43

Zacatecas.--Sand-Spouts.--Fertile Lands.--A Silver Mining Region. --Alpine Scenery.--Table-Land of Mexico.--An Aged Miner.-- Zacatecas Cathedral.--Church and People.--A Mountain Climb.-- Ownership of the Mines.--Want of Drainage.--A Battlefield.-- Civil War.--Local Market.--Peculiar Scenes.--Native Beauties. --City Tramway Experience.--Town of Guadalupe.--Organized Beggars.--A Noble and Successful Institution.--Market of Guadalupe.--Attractive Señoritas.--Private Gardens 62

A Mexican Watering Place.--Delightful Climate.--Aguas Calientes. --Young Señoritas.--Local City Scenes.--Convicts.--Churches. --A Mummified Monk.--Punishment is Swift and Sure.--Hot Springs.--Bathing in Public.--Caged Songsters.--"Antiquities." --Delicious Fruits.--Market Scenes.--San Luis Potosi.--The Public Buildings.--City of Leon.--A Beautiful Plaza.--Local Manufactories.--Home Industries of Leon.--The City of Silao. --Defective Agriculture.--Objection to Machinery.--Fierce Sand Storm 76

Guanajuato.--An Ex-President.--Richest Silver Mine in Mexico.-- Reducing the Ores.--Plenty of Silver.--Open Sewers.--A Venal Priesthood.--A Big Prison.--The Catholic Church.--Getting Rid of a Prisoner.--The Frog-Rock.--Idolaters.--A Strawberry Festival at Irapuato.--Salamanca.--City of Queretaro.--A Fine Old Capital.--Maximilian and His Fate.--A Charming Plaza.-- Mammoth Cotton Factory.--The Maguey Plant.--Pulque and Other Stimulants.--Beautiful Opals.--Honey Water.--Ancient Tula.-- A Freak of Tropical Weather 97

City of Mexico.--Private Dwellings.--Thieves.--Old Mexico.-- Climate.--Tramways.--The Plaza Mayor.--City Streets.--The Grand Paseo.--Public Statues.--Scenes upon the Paseo.--The Paseo de la Viga.--Out-of-door Concerts.--A Mexican Caballero. --Lottery Ticket Venders.--High Noon.--Mexican Soldiers.-- Musicians.--Criminals as Soldiers.--The Grand Cathedral.--The Ancient Aztec Temple.--Magnificent View from the Towers of the Cathedral.--Cost of the Edifice.--Valley of Anahuac 126

An Extinct Volcano.--Mexican Mountains.--The Public Institutions of the Capital.--The Government Palace.--The Museum.-- Maximilian's State Carriage.--A Peculiar Plant.--The Academy of Fine Arts.--Choice Paintings.--Art School.--Picture Writing.--Native Artists.--Exquisite Pottery.--Cortez's Presents to Charles V.--A Special Aztec Art.--The Sacrificial Stone.--Spanish Historical Authorities.--Public Library.--The Plaza.--Flower Market.--A Morning Visit.--Public Market.-- Concealed Weapons 150

A City of Vistas.--Want of Proper Drainage.--Unfortunate Site.-- Insecure Foundations.--A Boom in Building Lots.--Pleasant Suburbs.--Night Watchmen.--The Iturbide Hotel--A Would-be Emperor.--Domestic Arrangements.--A New Hotel wanted.-- Places of Public Entertainment.--The Bull Ring.--Repulsive Performance.--Monte de Piedad.--An English Syndicate purchase it.--The Alameda.--The Inquisition.--Festal Days.--Pulque Shops.--The Church Party.--Gilded Bar-Rooms.--Mexican Marriages.--Mothers and Infants.--A Family Group 170

Benito Juarez's Grandest Monument.--Hotel del Jardin.--General José Morelos.--Mexican Ex-Convents.--City Restaurants.--Lady Smokers.--Domestic Courtyards.--A Beautiful Bird.--The Grand Cathedral Interior.--A Devout Lottery Ticket Vender.-- Porcelain-Ornamented Houses.--Rogues in Church.--Expensive Justice.--Cemetery of San Fernando.--Juarez's Monument.-- Coffins to Let.--American and English Cemetery.--A Doleful Street and Trade 194

The Shrine of Guadalupe.--Priestly Miracles.--A Remarkable Spring.--The Chapels about the Hill.--A Singular Votive Offering.--Church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.--Costly Decorations.--A Campo Santo.--Tomb of Santa Anna.--Strange Contrasts.--Guadalupe-Hidalgo.--The Twelve Shrines on the Causeway.--The Viga Canal.--The Floating Islands.--Indian Gamblers.--Vegetable Market.--Flower Girls.--The "Noche- Triste" Tree.--Ridiculous Signs.--Queer Titles.--Floral Festival 205

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Ballou opens his account with a practical detail: he purchased a round-trip ticket from Raymond & Whitcomb in Boston, boarded a Pullman car, and did not change seats until his return ten thousand miles later. This framing—a prepaid, all-inclusive excursion with a select party—shapes the entire narrative. The author is a paying tourist, not an explorer, and his observations are filtered through the comforts and constraints of organized travel. He notes that the train includes a dining car and reading rooms, and that he can “dons Fortunatus's cap” and let events unfold. The preface thus establishes a tone of leisurely, managed discovery, which colors every subsequent description of Mexico.

The Iturbide Hotel as a Microcosm

Ballou devotes several paragraphs to the Iturbide Hotel in Mexico City, using it to illustrate broader cultural contrasts. He declares that “the best hotels in the world are kept by Americans,” then ranks Swiss second, English third, and Mexicans “simply nowhere.” This blunt hierarchy reveals his expectation of American standards. He describes the hotel’s lack of parlors, fireplaces, and reliable heat, and notes that the steam elevator was initially deemed “a serious innovation.” The ice, brought from the mountains on the backs of peons, costs ten cents a pound and is used mainly in bar-rooms. Ballou’s bedroom overlooks the patio, where billiard balls and drinking glasses create noise until dawn. He admits that a “thoroughly tired person can sleep under almost any circumstances,” but the passage conveys his discomfort with Mexican hospitality practices.

Daily Life and Local Customs

The author records meal hours “as in France and continental Europe”: coffee and bread upon rising, breakfast at noon, dinner at six. He notes that drinking water is cooled in porous earthen jars made by native Indians, relying on evaporation in the dry atmosphere. Ice is rarely seen outside bar-rooms. These details, drawn from his stay at the Iturbide, serve as evidence of everyday Mexican life as encountered by a foreign traveler. Ballou does not romanticize; he reports what he sees, including the “ceaseless noises” from the billiard-saloon and bar-room that operate on Sundays. His tone is matter-of-fact, occasionally wry, as when he compares the elevator’s restricted hours to “the ballet-girl’s costume” that begins too late and leaves off too early.

Entertainment and Public Spaces

Ballou notes that Mexico City contains several theatres and a permanent circus, but only the Teatro Nacional, built in 1844 and seating three thousand, is patronized by “the best people.” He mentions that the military school of Chapultepec holds its annual commencement exercises there, and that at least one good opera company is engaged. These observations are brief but specific, grounding the reader in the city’s cultural landscape as it appeared to a late-nineteenth-century American tourist. The author does not elaborate on performances or audiences; instead, he treats the theatre as one more stop on a sightseeing itinerary. The passage reinforces the book’s character as a record of what a well-organized traveler would encounter, rather than a deep analysis of Mexican society.

Readers should approach Aztec Land as a period piece of American travel writing, valuable for its candid, often unflattering snapshots of Mexico in 1890. Ballou’s judgments—on hotels, food, punctuality, and cleanliness—reflect his own cultural assumptions and the expectations of his audience. The excerpts show a writer more concerned with practical comforts than with historical depth. Those interested in the mechanics of late-nineteenth-century tourism, or in the contrast between American and Mexican customs as seen through a tourist’s eyes, will find this account revealing.

Reading about Ballou’s train windows framing Mexico’s layered past, I remembered a sun-bleached afternoon in Sevilla, where the Alhambra’s shadows felt oddly similar. Both books let me travel without moving, their quiet observations settling like dust on old stones. That same gentle ache of time passing is in The Land of The Blessed Virgin; Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia — Key Ideas to Explore, a kindred spirit of travel worn soft by memory.