Valentín Gómez Farías (1781-1858) was a prominent figure in the history of Mexico from the time of independence to that of La Reforma. During his lengthy public career—as deputy, secretary of state, vice-president, and president—he was an influential and dedicated spokesperson for the Liberal camp. A number of important initiatives destined to transform the country’s sociopolitical structure resulted from his efforts—the suppression of laws restricting freedom of the press, abolition of clerical and military privileges, the improvement of public education, and the creation of the Dirección General de la Instrucción Pública, among others. It is only fitting that don Valentín should be considered a precursor of La Reforma, headed by Benito Juárez, that laid the foundation for modern Mexico.
The author tells us little in the first half of the volume about Gómez Farias or his reform program. Instead, Mejía Zúñiga reflects upon the history of the West, from Roman times to the nineteenth century, with special attention to the perfidy of the ecclesiastical state. When he arrives at the Mexico in which Gómez Farías functioned as a political actor, the author is excessively concerned with defending his hero from any charge leveled by detractors and in defending the dubious thesis that only Gómez Farías understood what was best and right for Mexico. The story is an old and a familiar one. The church is thoroughly excoriated. The imparciales, of which Gómez Farias was a founder, were the genuine nationalists, whereas the escoceses and yorkinos were extremists manipulated by foreign interests. The generalizations concerning political groupings border on the stereotypical.
The volume might be appropriate for a popular Mexican audience, but it fails to make a scholarly contribution. We still lack a sound, well-documented study of Gómez Farías. Mejía Zúñiga has provided, instead, one more narrative history of the period, shaped by his undisguised admiration for the Liberals and disdain for their adversaries. For the most part, he declines to use footnotes, relying exclusively on secondary sources and the writers of the era. No documents or manuscripts were consulted, and the essay is exceedingly repetitious.
The book’s goals are only partly achieved and the work fails to advance the subject in any way. The writing is flawed by excessively lengthy quotations and frequent disgressions. The single useful portion of the volume is an appendix (pp. 304-331), which summarizes, together with an explanation of their antecedents and significance, the thirty-eight reform laws. In short, we must rely on the 1948 work of Vicente Fuente Díaz for biographical insights into the career of Gómez Farías. A formidable task awaits the historian who will accept the challenge of producing Gómez Farias’s biography.
