Lealtad en el exilio: afiliaciones concéntricas y enunciación hispanista en la Historia antigua de México (1780) de Francisco Javier Clavijero (1731-1787)

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the identity links as enunciated in the Historia antigua de México (1780), written by the Novohispano Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero (1731-1787). Facing the degrading European theses which, during the mid-18th century, had tried to justify the inferiority of the population of the Americas, Clavijero built his defense for the people of the valley of Anahuac not only from a strictly criollo and Americanist position, but also from a Hispanic one, born from a sense of belonging to an imperial reality and a Catholic intellectual tradition. Triggered by the Enlightenment’s attacks toward Catolicism and Hispanice culture, Clavijero strengthened his identification with the Spanish imperial reality in order to build his defense.