Magdalena Chocano Mena, "Colonial Printing and Metropolitan Books: Printed Texts and the Shaping of Scholarly Culture in New Spain, 1539-1700"
Historian Magdalena Chocano Mena provides a critical perspective on the primacy of print as a vehicle of knowledge within elite Creole culture in early Spanish America. Examining the political and social context of scholarly life in early Mexico, Chocano Mena highlights the circumscribed character of print culture, in which the primary ways of circulating ideas and information were either oral or by manuscript. This leads her to question the relevance of "printing revolution" approaches to the study of the book in the region during the first two centuries of Spanish rule. In order to illuminate the printing press’ role in the construction of an intellectual culture in New Spain between 1539 and 1700, Chocano Mena outlines 1) the different demands that shaped the evolution of the production of printed texts; 2) the characteristics of the local printing press that helped create conditions for the development of scholarly culture; 3) the contribution of the book trade in forming a world of references for colonial scholars that transcended their local context; and finally 4) the role of censorship and its ambiguous relation to colonial intellectuals (70).
In her concluding statements, Chocano Mena reinforces her central argument by stating that “Although the printing press in Mexico shaped colonial culture, it did not prompt a ‘printing revolution’ as such, since it did not play the same role in religious dissension as it did in contemporary Europe. Printing was certainly important for the development of New Spanish culture but it should not be overlooked that a vast field of written work was not transposed into printed texts. Many philosophical and theological treatises remained in manuscript form and circulated as such. Moreover, colonial intellectual culture gave utmost importance to oral expression, as is evident in the case of sermons, few of which were published. In the colonial era, as compared to later periods, the printed text did not preside so absolutely over gesture and spoken language.”(90-91)
Instead of perpetuating the dominant narrative within book history that presents the printing press as a force for revolutionary change, Chocano Mena counters this discourse by showing how colonial scholars who published their works in New Spain were agents of colonization and their intellectual drive emerged from their very efforts to transplant Spanish intellectual culture to the New World. The colonial press was a source of colonial domination as evidenced by its dual role: to help disseminate Christian doctrine among colonized native populations in their own language, and to preserve and expand Spanish culture in the New World. This work helps us to think about the complex cultural context of print culture in New Spain and to understand the role of the printing press and colonial scholars in this cultural environment.
