Claudia Guarisco has given us a gem of a book by publishing the diary of the Spanish officer Modesto de la Torre, who accompanied the last Spanish governor, Captain General Juan O'Donojú, on his trip to New Spain in 1821. The diary covers one year, beginning with the long ocean voyage from Cádiz to Puerto Cabello and on to Veracruz, the five months he spent traveling in New Spain just as it became independent, and his return to the mother country, with a three-month stopover in Havana. This document fills a major gap because there are so few texts by foreign observers for this momentous period—the diary written by Spanish official Miguel de Beruete (published in 1974 as Elevación y caída del Emperador Iturbide) and the travel account by US envoy Joel Poinsett (published in 1824 as Notes on Mexico, Made in the Autumn of 1822) begin after...

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