FROM MRS. CORNELIA TOWNSEND.
THIRTEEN YEARS A RESIDENT IN THE MEXICAN CAPITAL, AND KNOWN
AS THE "MOTHER OF THE AMERICAN COLONY."
Dear Mrs. Gooch: I have read with pleasure and deep interest the MS. of your work entitled "Face to Face with the Mexicans," and congratulate the neighboring republic upon the acquisition of a faithful and impartial chronicler, for certainly no nation on earth has been more thoroughly misrepresented by tourists and newspaper correspondents than Mexico.
During the past decade I have observed that travellers and certain knights of the quill usually considered a sojourn of a few weeks in the Federal Capital ample time for obtaining data sufficient to "write up Mexico," politically, socially and commercially. The fact that they could not speak Spanish, and had not the entrée to that exclusive circle termed "La Alta Sociedad," did not deter them from writing freely of "domestic life in Mexico." They obtained their information on all subjects from prejudiced and disappointed American speculators, or discouraged English and French colonists. Writing, of course, in accordance with the views of these foreigners, the result has usually been a tissue of absurdities or false statements.
I remember well how courteously you were received by President Diaz and his charming wife, and how royally you were entertained by Gen. Riva Palacio and family. I recollect, too, your interviews with the distinguished philosopher and littérateur Ramon Manterola; the venerable Prieto—Mexico's Beranger—and the charming poet, Juan de Dios Peza. As to the brilliant men who are members of El Liceo Hidalgo, they may well be termed "the intellectual nobility of Mexico," and you must have deemed it a glorious privilege each time you attended a "Velada Literaria"—I certainly did.
Fortunately you met representative women of the highest class; therefore you have, I observe, paid just tribute to their virtues and accomplishments.
I am particularly glad you have faithfully described those civilized Indians who form the "Servidumbre" or working-class, for they are honest, faithful and most excellent people.
No doubt your book will serve to correct many errors, and to eradicate the prejudices of Americans, who are too generally inclined to regard the Mexicans as cowardly, inefficient and deceitful simply because flippant and irresponsible writers have maligned a brave, intelligent race, which, until recently, has been victimized by foreign tyrants and unprincipled revolutionists.
You have been truthful, and have done justice to Mexico.
- Adios.
