The opportunity for a fresh start in human institutions is something that has fascinated thinkers for a long time. Usually the fresh start has had to be taken in imagination only, as Plato did for his Republic. But the discovery of the New World provided man with an apparent opportunity to build his institutions anew and gave rise to Utopias as varied as those of John Elliot and of Joseph Smith.
Probably the first and certainly one of the most fascinating of these Utopias was put into practice by the sixteenth-century Spanish judge Vasco de Quiroga who, influenced by the dreams of Sir Thomas More, found among the Indians that “equality, simpilicty, goodness, obedience, humility …, and disregard and scorn for everything superfluous” (p. 105) which would make them apt for a Utopian rule free from the ugly tarnish that the centuries had put upon the Old World. In this book Silvio Zavala, the first to perceive and to demonstrate the connection between More and Quiroga, has gathered together six of his writings on the subject. They range in date from his study “La ‘Utopia’ de Tomás Moro en la Nueva España,” first published in 1937, to “Nuevas notas en torno de Vasco de Quiroga,” which appeared in 1965.
Zavala’s early studies demonstrated the origin of Quiroga’s ideas in More’s Utopia, and this demonstration has stood the test of time. But in thirty years American and European scholars have uncovered much information about Quiroga and his pueblo-hospitals. Hence the earlier essays are somewhat dated. Impatient readers are advised to begin with the last essay, which skillfully summarizes the state of Quiroga scholarship, and then turn to earlier contributions. Throughout Zavala remains primarily interested in the origins of Quiroga’s ideas and in his connections with the Spanish humanists. He has little to say on the actual operation and vicissitudes of Quiroga’s communities, and on these subjects the reader must consult the work of Father Fintan B. Warren.
The book contains interesting illustrations, additional bibliography, and appendices reproducing critical comment on the author’s essays. Here the reader can get some insight into the attempt by some Mexicans to appropriate Quiroga as a forerunner of Marx and the struggle of others to retain him for the Church. The volume is well produced and has a distinguished appearance. In sum, one may say that the book is a fitting memorial to Quiroga, commemorating the quater-centenary of his death, as well as a useful collection of Zavala’s distinguished contributions to the subject.
