Mexican Inquisition & Facebook
as much a political role as a religious one
The President of Mexico, López Obrador, has denounced Facebook censorship as like the "Holy Inquisition." It is not well-known in the United States, but Mexico was subject to the Inquisition for over 250 years (1571 to 1820).
In reality, the Inquisition served just as much of a political role in Mexico as it did a religious one.
The Mexican Inquisition was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition to New Spain. In 1569, the Spanish monarchy created a tribunal of the Inquisition in Mexico City that oversaw all of the viceroyalty of New Spain based at the Holy Office of the Inquisition.1
Torture and public execution were rare in occurrence and served the purpose of reminding the people of the consequences for severe crimes… the most common punishment was participation in an auto-da-fé, in which the convicted would parade through Mexico City in a penitential garb, called a sanbenito showing the public that the Inquisition was serious about prosecuting offenders, but also showing the public the benevolence of the crown by offering a relatively light punishment.. 2
Ideology and Inquisition: The World of Censors in Early Mexico is the first comprehensive treatment in English the Inquisitional censors, focusing on Mexico from the 1520's to the 1630's.3 Censorship was not only about the regulation of books but was a means to regulate Catholic dogma and the content of religious thought.
In addition to censorship there were censorship cordons around Colonial Mexico and the transatlantic book trade. On the gulf coast, Veracruz was the officially approved port of entry for ships entering New Spain. The inquisitors appointed a comisario to review incoming ships for potential intellectual contraband and prohibited books. John Hawkins, British naval commander, slave trader and privateer was tried for bringing in Lutheran books as well as the Gospels in English.4
When the first printing press was brought to Mexico (1539) a complex bureaucracy evolved that determined and regulated the output of New Spain's early printers—a preventative censorship 5
Mexican President López Obrador has denounced Facebook censorship as like the "Holy Inquisition."
This history of the Mexican Inquisition and its preventative censorship remains in the psyche of the Mexican people.
Chuchiak, John F. The Inquisition in New Spain, 1536-1820: A Documentary History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.
Messerschmidt, Colin. “The Inquisition in Mexico City.” Colonial Mexico City.
Nesvig, Martin (2009). Ideology and Inquisition: The World of Censors in Early Mexico. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Nesvig, Martin Austin. “‘Heretical Plagues’ and Censorship Cordons: Colonial Mexico and the Transatlantic Book Trade.” Church History 11, no. 1 (2006): 1–24.
Palacios, Albert A. 2014. “Preventing ‘Heresy’: Censorship and Privilege in Mexican Publishing, 1590-1612.” Book History (Johns Hopkins University Press) 17 (January): 117–64.
It is fascinating that the Catholic Inquisition lasted up to the 1800's in Mexico. The censors dit agood job of suppressing that history.
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And another blast of much-needed education. I was aware of Mexico's rich history of literature and science because I read Spanish; I have never read about the censorship, so it was evidently most effective.