Syncretistic Fiction as Counter-Historiography

Fray Servando Teresa de Mier und die Wieder-Entdeckung Amerikas

Abstract

Oeuvre and biography of the Mexican author Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, an early protagonist of Mexican independence, are of twofold interest for an analysis of the relationship between fiction and historiography. On the one hand, Fray Servando's historiographical oeuvre (especially his Historia de la Revolución de Nueva España, 1813) constituted a radical counter concept to colonial historiography based on its syncretistic historical myths. De Mier's rediscovery of a - basically culturally and religiously motivated - autochthonous history of the Latin-American continent - which originally met with the fiercest opposition from the Spanish inquisition - on the other hand acquired an unbelievably explosive political moment and grew into one of the fundamental legitimizations of the Mexican independence movement.