Ignacio Manuel Altamirano y los trenes: literatura y progreso en El Renacimiento (1869)

Abstract

El Renacimiento, a magazine founded by Ignacio Manuel Altamirano together with Gonzalo A. Esteva at the beginning of 1869, has as its objective, according to the explicit will of its founder, to promote the progress of Literature in Mexico after the interruption caused by the Reform War and the French Intervention in the middle of the 19th century. For this reason, throughout the year, this magazine published articles on subjects as diverse as Mexican prehistory, indigenous languages or the works and lives of established European authors, but also translations of German, French and English poems, as well as unpublished novels by young Mexican authors. At the same time, and in accordance with the discourse on civilization that European literatures are simultaneously elaborating and propagating, the chronicles published by Altamirano in El Renacimiento are indebted to the author’s great interest in the modernization of the country. As he is convinced that the invention with the greatest impact on the life of modern man is the railroad, he dedicates many chronicles to the continuous expansion of the railroad network that is taking place in Mexico during these years. In the present article, these chronicles are analyzed with a view to the question of the role of literature in the progress that Altamirano wishes for Mexico: in fact, by including his own person in many of the railroad chronicles, he not only reports on how travel in Mexico is accelerating and how distances are shortening thanks to the new means of transportation, but also personally accompanies the Nation in its difficult journey towards modernity.