When the City of Merida anchored off Veracruz on May 15, 1879, David Hunter Strother, also known by his pen name, Porte Crayon, did not know that he was going to stay in the Mexican Republic for more than six years as general consul in its capital. This book offers us his meticulous and very large diary in which, day by day, he wrote what he saw and lived through. His artistic talent as a writer as well as a draftsman contributes to the quality of his observations; through his eyes and his pencil, he created a complete portrait of Mexico in the early Porfirian era, with all kinds of political, economic, social, and cultural elements.
This archive will be extremely useful to Strother’s biographers. Although two good accounts of Porte Crayon’s artistic and literary life exist, his personal life and his diplomatic career are worth deeper investigation, from his...
