Daily Life in Colonial Mexico: The Journey of Friar Ilarione da Bergamo 17611768 (Volume 78) (American Exploration and Travel Series)
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About this book
In 1761 Ilarione da Bergamo a Capuchin friar journeyed to Mexico to gather alms for foreign missions. After harrowing voyages across the Mediterranean and Atlantic he reached Mexico City in 1763. His account reveals the squalor crime and other perils in the viceregal capital and details daily life: food public hygiene sexual morality medical practices and popular diversions. His observations about religious life are particularly valuable. Ilarione also describes mining and refining techniques recounts a bitter and bloody miners strike and recalls traveling across bandit-infested wilderness to Guadalajara. After his return to Italy Ilarione wrote an account of his journey published here for the first time in English. The editors have liberally annotated the text written an introduction about Ilariones life and the historical context of his journey and included more than a dozen of Fra Ilariones original drawings including maps and sketches of Mexican flora. Daily Life in Colonial Mexico is a welcome addition to the firsthand literature of New Spain.
