Monday, April 8, 2013

The Memoir of Maximilian's Gardener, Wilhelm Knechtel



An important and very handsome book has just been published by Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropolía e Historia: Las Memorias del Jardinero de Maximiliano, the personal memoirs of Maximilian's gardener, the botanist Wilhelm Knechtel, of his years in Mexico, 1864-1867. The text, originally published in German a century ago, has been translated for the first time  by noted scholar Susanne Igler (author of Carlota de México) and introduced by one of Mexico's leading experts on Maximilian and the Second Empire, Ampáro Gómez Tepexicuapan. The edition also includes a cornucopia of rare photographs, cartes-de-visites, full color illustrations, maps, and an extensive bibliography.

As Tepexicuapan writes in her introduction (my translation into English here), "to be the Gardner to the Court was, and surely will continue to be, an enviable title. The garden is the recreation of Eden and, at the same time, an expression of power." Maximilian, an avid botanist himself, considered his gardens a public display of elegance, order, and learning, and in almost all his many residences, he worked closely with Knechtel: herein lies the importance of this wonderful, anecdote-filled book.

Knechtel was first employed by Maximilian as gardener for his and Carlota's rustic retreat on Lacroma, a small island in the Adriatic. Later, for some five years Knechtel worked under the head gardner, Antón Jelinek, at Miramar, Maximilian's main residence in Trieste. Upon Maximilian's acceptance of the throne of Mexico, Knechtel was named Maximilian's chief gardner, and as such, accompanied the imperial party on their voyage to Veracruz. 

Knechtel's memoir provides a bouquet of detail about the imperial voyage to Mexico, an odyssey of over 50 days that included sailing near Stromboli, a visit to Rome, and stops in Madeira, Martinique, and Jamaica. Of the many episodes of the voyage, he records a vividly peculiar one: the crew's ceremony to "baptize" those crossing the line of the Tropics for the first time (my translation from the Spanish translation):

The carnival began at about 2 in the afternoon. The voice of Neptune, which boomed from the front of the boat, requested permission to board, which the official guard granted, and the boat stopped. The curtain fell and the god's entourage slowly marched toward the aftercastle. The line was headed by the Master of Ceremonies, a sailor of Hurculean stature, wearing a tricorne with gold decorations, furthermore, with an impressive beard and a wig of cigar butts painted black, and wearing only a red loincloth. His entire body was painted very artistically with a mixture of soot and vinegar so that it was impossible to distinguish him from a true Negro. In his hand he carried a long rod. Following after came three fantastically dressed musicians playing happy melodies. Then came the triumphal carriage which consisted of a gunstock of a cannon festooned with banners and baubles, pulled by eight devils who were also painted black and with golden horns and dressed in loincloths. The climax was the divine family: the god Neptune, his wife and child. Neptune, who was fantastically dressed as a sailor, was a short and fat crew member who wore a golden crown, a white beard, long and wavy and made of hemp, with a fishing harpoon as his trident in his right hand and in his left, a thunderous horn. Neptune's consort, the beautiful Amphitrite, was represented by a very tall and thin waiter, a sailor from the Dalmatian coast dressed in tresses of hemp, a tiny crown on his head, and bare chested and bare shouldered as god made him, but dressed in an enormous crinoline. In his arms he carried the child: it was the smallest cabin boy, dressed in diapers, with a tiny crown on his head and purple cape on his shoulders. Frequent pinches produced the desired baby cries.   

Throughout the book Knechtel treats the reader to vivid anecdotes-- I was astonished to find so many scenes and personalities and episodes well known yet rendered fresh and surprising through his point of view. One more example: the visit of the Kickapoos in March of 1865:

...five men and four women, one of them with a child. They were wrapped in red and blue serapes, fantastic head ornaments of feathers, leather, ribbons and glass, and they walked with solemnity through Chapultepec Park, the women with their heads bare. The chief was an old man. From his neck hung a symbol of his authority: a great silver medallion with an engraving of a jaguar and a commemorative coin of Louis XV of France. .. They brought with them three black men from Texas as their translators. These spoke the Kickapoo language, but no Spanish nor French, only English, a language which the emperor and empress spoke perfectly. The emperor received them very kindly and then had them served a meal in the park, at the entrance to the grand boulevard; the plates were put directly on the ground. In a circle, the Kickapoos knelt down and ate with their hands.
Though this memoir is one any armchair reader might savor for its wealth of colorful detail,  its author takes his place among the rare company of those who have left us invaluable eyewitness testimony to this strange, violent, theatrical, and fleeting episode in Mexican history: Dr Samuel Basch, Charles Blanchot, José Luis Blasio, Marie de la Fere, Henry R. Magruder, Prince von Khevenhuller, Prince and Princess Salm-Salm, Sara Yorke Stevenson, Countless Paula von Kollonitz, journalist William Wells, and the reports of Baron Magnus to Bismarck. In short, Knechtel's memoir is both enjoyable and essential reading for anyone interested in Mexico's Second Empire / Maximilian / French Intervention.



Friday, February 22, 2013

Massimiliano e Carlotta, an Italian blog

Today a correspondent sent me to this link to a picture-rich Italian blog at facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Massimiliano-e-Carlotta-dAsburgo-Maximilian-und-Charlotte/154622681246808

As many Mexicans do not know, Maximilian and Carlota served as vicroy and vicereine of Lombardy Veneto-- as Massimiliano e Carlotta-- with their palace at Monza. That did not work out, as the Italians were none too happy with Austrian rule and the Kaiser, Maximilian's older brother, did not consider the youthful Maximilian sufficiently heavy-handed. Maximilian and Carlota then retired to Trieste, and from there, received Louis Napoleon and the Mexican monarchists' offer of the so-called "cactus throne."


Saturday, February 16, 2013

The Twin Mermaid Fountains in Veracruz, Mexico and Concepción, Chile

It turns out that the mermaid fountain in Concepción Chile is an exact copy of the one Carlota gave to the city of Veracruz (destroyed in 1915). Read all about it (in Spanish) and view pictures over at the Veracruz Antiguo blog. (Hat tip to Carmen Boone de Aguilar).

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Los viajes de Maximiliano en México by Konrad Ratz and Amparo Gómez Tepexicuapan (Comentarios de C.M. Mayo en la presentación)

Amparo Gómez Tepexicuapan
From the CONACULTA website
about the presentation
Herewith (below), my comments for the presentation of Konrad Ratz and Amparo Gómez Tepexicuapan's Los viajes de Maximiliano en México (Maximilian's Travels in Mexico) in Mexico City's Chapultepec Castle yesterday. A magnificent, meticulously researched and beautifully designed book, Los viajes de Maximiliano en México is a major contribution to our understanding of not only his government but the period, and as such it deserves to be in any and every collection of Maximiliana.


Presentación del libro
Martes 12 de febrero, 2013
Castillo de Chapultepec

Comentarios de C.M. Mayo
Querida Amparo; compañeros comentaristas; Señoras y Señores:

Antes que nada, quisiera agradecer la muy amable invitación para participar en la presentación de este magnífico libro, sin duda en un inmejorable escenario. Para mi tiene un doble significado este evento: primero, es un tributo a los autores, a quienes respeto profundamente en lo profesional y personal, y aprovecho este instante para mandarle mis mejores deseos al Dr Ratz , quien no ha podido estar presente aquí por motivos de salud; y segundo, por la profundidad con que se aborda el tema mismo del libro.

Como dice el refrán, nunca es tarde si la dicha es buena. Pero esto no quita que hubiera apreciado inmensamente haber tenido a mi disposición este libro, investigado meticulosamente y documentado e ilustrado maravillosamente, cuando estaba en el proceso de escribir mi novela.

Como saben todos quienes se meten a estudiar este periodo, el Segundo Imperio o Intervención francesa, fue un episodio de la historia mexicana verdaderamente transnacional: ahí tenemos al archidique austriaco, el ejército francés, tenemos empresarios y banqueros ingleses, norteamericanos, todo tipo de mexicanos, tanto condes como indígenas y belgas y húngaros y hasta la reina Victoria y el Papa... Para poder investigar a fondo, uno tiene que leer cartas, informes y libros no solamente en castellano, francés y alemán, sino también en inglés y en ocasiones sería deseable—y en mi casi no fue posible— en portugués, italiano o húngaro. Aparte de esta Torre de Babel, las costumbres, filosofias e incentivos de tan diversos protagonistas, tanto mexicanos como extranjeros, son muy dificil de tomar con seriedad. Nada más para dar un ejemplo entre cientos, para quizá cada uno nosotros, nacidos en el siglo XX, ciudadanos de una república, ya sea Mexico o en mi caso, los Estados Unidos, cuando leemos el tomo escrito por Maximiliano y Carlota durante su traslado a México, nuestra inclinación natural es de reír. Estoy hablando del Reglamento y ceremonial de la corte en el cuál se especifica hasta el color de los calcetines de los meseros, a quién le toca un cojín de terciopelo en tal ceremonia y a quién no. No obstante, en el contexto del mundo de esta pareja, es decir, el Europa de aquel entonces en donde los rituales monárquicos, con su énfasis en demostrar y hasta intimidar con su riqueza, orden y poder, dicho reglamento tiene un perfecto sentido.

A esta complejidad más que bizantina de este periodo añadimos el hecho de que Maximiliano y Carlota viajaban casi constantamente. . . .  CONTINUAR

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Los viajes de Maximilian (Maximilian's Travels)

UPDATE
Read my comments about this book, given for its presentation on Feb 12, 2013.




On Tuesday February 12, 2013 @ 6:30 pm
I will be on the panel presenting the new book by Konrad Ratz and Amparo Gómez Tepexicuapan,
Los viajes de Maximiliano en México
Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City
(In Spanish, entrada libre)




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