Cinco de Mayo, 2013

As many people celebrate Cinco de Mayo this weekend, here is a list of free eBooks about Mexico. These books come from the Internet Archive and include a treasure trove of 18th, 19th and 20th Century writings about Mexico.

See the country through the eyes of explorers, archaeologists, travelers, writers and colonizers in these books. History Channel described the holiday:

It commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867) … Cinco de Mayo traditions include parades, mariachi music performances and street festivals in cities and towns across Mexico and the United States.

Free Books About Mexico:

Anahuac: or, Mexico and the Mexicans, ancient and modern by Edward Burnett Tylor

Travels of Anna Bishop in Mexico by Anna Rivière Bishop
Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (Volume 1) (Volume 2) by John Lloyd Stephens (image embedded above via volume 2)

Border states of Mexico: Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Durango. With a general sketch of the republic of Mexico, and Lower California, Coahuila, New Leonand Tamaulipas. A complete description of the best regions for the settler, miner and the advance guard of American civilization by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton

Down that Pan American Highway by Roger Stephens
Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and republican : a historical, geographical, political, statistical and social account (Volume 1) (Volume 2)

A gringo in manana-land by Harry L. Foster

The Mexican guide by Janvier Thomas Allibone
Through southern Mexico : being an account of the travels of a naturalist by Hans Friedrich Gadow

A Mexican journey by Emil Harry Blichfeldt

Our sister republic: a gala trip through tropical Mexico in 1869-70 … and reminiscences of the empire and its downfall by Albert S Evans

The Mexican guide by Thomas Allibone Janvier

Unknown Mexico, a record of five years’ exploration among the tribes of the western Sierra Madre, in the Tierra Caliente of Tepic and Jalisco, and among the Tarascos of Michoacan by Carl Lumholtz

Enjoy the books and the weekend!