Valentín Gómez Farías Collection
Scope and Contents Note
The Valentín Gómez Farías Collection is comprised of two categories: I. Materials on Mexico, 1770-1909, and II. Papers about Texas, 1833-1848. The documents are described to the item level in the Catálogo de los Manuscritos del Archivo de Don Valentín Gómez Farías and arranged numerically by item number.
The first category, Materials on Mexico, constitutes over 95 percent of the collection. It includes correspondence, proclamations, notes, financial documents, reports, proposals, official documents, and assorted items relating to the history, politics, and government of Mexico during the nineteenth century and to the public and private life and beliefs of Valentín Gómez Farías. Also included are an item dated 1770-1786 about taxes belonging to the Pious Fund of the Californias, and newspaper clippings from 1909 about the constituent congress.
Correspondents include members of the Gómez Farías family and many prominent persons including Antonio López de Santa Anna, Lucas Alamán, Mariano Arista, Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, Juan Álvarez, Nicolás Bravo, Anastasio Bustamante, Manuel González Cosio, Manuel Gómez Pedraza, José María Luis Mora, Francisco Modesto de Olaguibel, Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga, Manuel Crescencio Rejón, Jose Mariano Salas, and others. Typescripts made from some of the letters and official documents are present in the collection. Most of the notes, many of which are copied from the Old Testament, pertain to religion, ethics, and morality.
Category two, dated 1833-1848, contains correspondence, reports, official documents, notes, and assorted items pertaining to the history of Texas and the U.S.-Mexico War. Included are copies of the 1833 and 1836 constitutions of Texas.
Dates
- Creation: 1770-1909
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1822-1879
Language of Materials
Spanish or Castilian
Access Restrictions
Unrestricted.
Use Restrictions
Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Biographical Sketch
Political leader and interim president of Mexico. Born 1781 in Guadalajara; died 1858 in Mexico City. Gómez Farías practiced medicine in Aguascalientes where he was magistrate of the municipal government. Other offices he held include: deputy to the congress of Cádiz (1812), deputy to the first constituent congress (1821), senator for Jalisco (1825-1830), and minister of Treasury (Feb.-March 1833). In 1833 Gómez Farías was elected vice-president under Antonio López de Santa Anna. In 1833, 1834, 1846, and 1847, he served intermittently as interim president in Santa Anna's absence. Gómez Farías led the movement known as the First Reform, which attempted to diminish the power of the church in civil affairs and to establish public education and other reforms. In 1850 he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Mexico. In 1855 he was president of the junta of representatives of the Plan of Ayutla. In 1856, as deputy for Jalisco, he presided over the national constituent congress.
Full Extent
5 linear feet
Abstract
Documents, papers, and correspondence relating to the history, politics, and government of Mexico during the nineteenth century and relating to the history of Texas from 1833-1848, collected by Mexican statesman Valentín Gómez Farías.
Organization and Arrangement
The Gómez Farías collection is described calendar-style in this guide, with documents listed chronologically. On the shelf the documents are arranged according to the Item Number which includes the designation "GF" (for Gómez Farías) and document number followed by the original wallet (or folder) number. For example Item No. "GF, 4545, F 62" refers to Gómez Farías document number 4545 from wallet number 62. Listed chronologically, the documents should be requested by Item No.
- Grupo A – Manuscritos con data, ordenados cronológicamente, 1770-1837
- Grupo A – Manuscritos con data, ordenados cronológicamente, 1838-1842
- Grupo A – Manuscritos con data, ordenados cronológicamente, 1843-1845
- Grupo A– Manuscritos con data, ordenados cronológicamente, 1846
- Grupo A – Manuscritos con data, ordenados cronológicamente, 1847
- Grupo A– Manuscritos con data, ordenados cronológicamente, 1848-1852
- Grupo A – Manuscritos con data, ordenados cronológicamente, 1853-1892
- Grupo B – Manuscritos autógrafos de D. Valentín Gómez Farías, sin data
- Grupo C – Manuscritos no originarios de Gómez Farías, sin data
The collection is described in three groups of documents, as explained by catalog author Pablo Max Ynsfran:
Si bien la gran mayoría de los manuscritos son oficios, expedientes, cartas o esquelas que llevan data y firma, hay otros que no las llevan. Y como estos últimos no se pueden ordenar cronológicamente, el Catálogo los agrupa en sección aparte. Además, un buen número de manuscritos son borradores o apuntes autógrafos de D. Valentín Gómez Farías, y tampoco expresan lugar ni fecha, por cuya razón se los reúne en otro groupo, subdividido en tres categorías, según se verá más abajo. El Catálogo, por consiquiente, distribuye los documentos en lost siguientes grupos:
| Grupo (A) | |
| Manuscritos con data, | |
| ordenados cronológicamente | |
| 1770 | 3 |
| 1812 | 3 |
| 1817 | 3 |
| 1821 | 3 |
| 1822 | 3 |
| 1823 | 4 |
| 1824 | 4 |
| 1825 | 5 |
| 1826 | 5 |
| 1827 | 6 |
| 1828 | 6 |
| 1829 | 7 |
| 1830 | 7 |
| 1831 | 8 |
| 1832 | 8 |
| 1833 | 11 |
| 1834 | 31 |
| 1835 | 44 |
| 1836 | 48 |
| 1837 | 52 |
| 1838 | 55 |
| 1839 | 74 |
| 1840 | 79 |
| 1841 | 102 |
| 1842 | 110 |
| 1843 | 116 |
| 1844 | 124 |
| 1845 | 133 |
| 1846 | 156 |
| 1847 | 223 |
| 1848 | 279 |
| 1849 | 297 |
| 1850 | 313 |
| 1851 | 323 |
| 1852 | 331 |
| 1853 | 341 |
| 1854 | 346 |
| 1855 | 355 |
| 1856 | 388 |
| 1857 | 392 |
| 1859 | 396 |
| 1861 | 396 |
| 1864 | 397 |
| 1865 | 397 |
| 1867 | 397 |
| 1879 | 398 |
| 1882 | 399 |
| 1892 | 399 |
| Grupo (B) | |
| Manuscritos autógrafos de | |
| Don Valentín Gómez Farías, | |
| sin data. | |
| 1) Sobre temas generales | 403 |
| 2) Sobre el general Santa Anna | 420 |
| 3) Copias de las Sagradas Escrituras | 422 |
| Grupo (C) | |
| Manuscritos no originarios de Don | |
| Valentín Gómez Farías, sin data. | |
| 1) Firmados o con encabezamiento | 425 |
| 2) Sin firma ni encabezamiento | 440 |
Other Finding Aids
The following guides are available in the Benson Collection Rare Books Reference:
Ynsfrán, Pablo Max, 1894-1972 Catálogo de los manuscritos del archivo de don Valentín Gómez Farías. México: Editorial Jus, 1968.
Castañeda, Carlos Eduardo, 1896-1958 Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1939.
Acquisition Information
The Valentín Gómez Farías Collection, which forms part of the Genaro García Collection, was purchased by the University of Texas in 1921 from the heirs of Genaro García.
Alternate Form Available
The papers are also available on microfilm.
Processing Information
The collection was described by the Benson's Mexican Archives Project in December 1994.
Prepared by the Mexican Archives Project, January 23, 1995.
- Title
- Valentín Gómez Farías Collection
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection
- Date
- 2001
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- April 17, 2003: Edited with XMetal3 by Bob Stewart following <title>TARO EAD V.1 Editing for BLAC Finding Aids. </title>
- Tue Jul 22 14:58:55 CDT 2003: urn:taro:utexas.blac.00068 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (20030505).
- 20030924: Original file 00068 divided by Christian Kelleher into 9 component parts to meet the TARO size limit of 500 Kb or less.
- September 2020: Finding aid combined via script and manually edited by Rachel E. Winston to remove mentions of other parts because file size limitation is no longer a concern.
- 2020 October: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez to fix compliance check errors to prepare for the migration to new TARO website.
- 2021 November: Edited by Devon Murphy to update control access terms and formatting based on the TARO Control Access List.
- 2025 July: Revised by Ryan Sullivant to fix validation errors prior to ingestion into ArchivesSpace.
Repository Details
Part of the Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Repository
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578
bensonspecialcollections@austin.utexas.edu