Guillermo Tovar y de Teresa
Guillermo Tovar de Teresa was a Mexican historian and an art collector, bibliographer, philanthropist, cultural promoter, and scholar. He was a constant defender of the historical and artistic Mexican heritage, mainly from his hometown, of which he was chronicler, an appointment that was originally in charge of the Presidency and to which he resigned to propose the creation of the Council of the Chronicle of the City of Mexico. He was a specialist in the New Spain/Mexican colonial period art, history and literature. He published several books about Colonial Mexican art and collaborated, among others, for the newspaper La Jornada. He stood out for his early intelligence: he learned to read long before entering school, and at age 13 he was advisor to colonial art of the then president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. At 23, he published his first book, Renaissance painting and sculpture in Mexico. He was a member of the Historical Center Executive Committee, corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, in Madrid, and honorary member of the Hispanic Society of America, the latter based in New York City. He was considered a candidate for the Aesthetic Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, but never wanted to hold a public office or receive any salary. One of his brothers, Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, was since 2012 the head of National Council for Culture and the Arts and first secretary of Culture. His house became, in December 2018, a museum, and is part of the Soumaya Museum.
Early years
He learned to appreciate history and art books from a very young age, thanks to his grandfather, Guillermo de Teresa y Teresa, and his father, Dr. Rafael Tovar y Villa Gordoa, his "guardian figures". He said, that his grandfather had taught him to read in the pages of the newspaper... Self-taught by choice, lived away from universities. At the age of seven he received, from then President Adolfo López Mateos, "a medal in recognition of his dedication to the study of Mexican history and art." At age 11 he was invited by the historian Jorge Gurría Lacroix to collaborate in the National Institute of Anthropology and History. At age 12 he was appointed advisor to President Díaz Ordaz in matters of colonial art. At 14, he had already given his first lectures at the Institute of Aesthetic Research of the UNAM, and at a very young age he received a distinction from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. At 16 he concluded his formal investigation into the history of Tacubaya, years later published as Historical news of the Miguel Hidalgo Delegation.Genealogy
He was interested in investigating all the branches of his ancestry, passing through some of the largest and oldest families in the New Spain. In 2012, he submitted a request to succeed in the title of count of Gustarredondo, which litigated in Spain asking rights of possession. On the death of Guillermo Tovar, his nephew, Rafael Tovar y López-Portillo, son of Rafael Tovar y Teresa, director of Conaculta and grandson of the president José López-Portillo, requested the subrogation of the rights of his uncle in that title, because he is the firstborn. Guillermo Tovar was a great-grandson of Margarita López-Portillo y Rojas, in turn the sister of the lawyer, governor of the state of Jalisco, novelist, poet, playwright, journalist and language scholar José López Portillo y Rojas. Guillermo Tovar was also the maternal nephew of the writer José Bernardo Couto and maternal great-great-grandson of the writer José Joaquín Pesado.Topics addressed in his works
He wrote, among others, about the following topics:- Baroque art
- Art of Mexico
- Culture of Mexico
- Viceregal art
- Architecture and carpentry Mudejar in the New Spain
- Gerónimo de Balbás
- Miguel Cabrera
- Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City
- Historic Center of Mexico City
- Photographer's, he was a deep connoisseur of the works by Julio Michaud, Désiré Charnay and Alfred Briquet
- History of Mexico
- Luis Lagarto
- New Spanish nuns
- Viceroyalty of New Spain utopia
The Council of the Chronicle of Mexico City
Chronicle Council Publications
The publisher Editorial Trama, of Madrid, is formally the publisher of the Chronicle Council of Mexico City. Some of his publications are the following:- In 2007, he published, together with the Secretariat of Education of the Federal District, the book . It includes a presentation by Guillermo Tovar de Teresa and, at the end, an article by Carlos Monsiváis, one of the council members, along with Jesús Ramírez Cuevas. The climax is from Salvador Flores.
- In 2009, he published , by the authorship of Guillermo Tovar de Teresa and the doctor in history and specialist in nineteenth-century Mexico Cristina Gómez Álvarez. This is an edition by the Windward collection.
Collecting and other interests
- He had, within his vast collection of books, "first editions of Sr. Juana Inés de la Cruz", and also "the founding book of the Mexico City", an incunable: the treaty of architecture of Leon Battista Alberti, with annotations by the Viceroy himself Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco.
- He worked as an advisor, before 1983, of Juan José Bremer in the Undersecretariat of Culture, after having also worked with Pedro Ramírez Vázquez.
- He headed, next to the restaurateur Lucía Ruanova Abedrop, the citizen group "El Caballito, Conservación", a restoration plan, which he defended, for the damages suffered during his restoration, of the Equestrian statue of Charles IV of Spain in Mexico city knowns as El Caballito, by Manuel Tolsá..
- He opened in Facebook a group that made a proactive space where he continuously difussed his musical, artistic, historical interests.
- He was an advisor, since its inception, on the project for the foundation of Casa Lamm.
- He gave a keynote speech on the occasion of the LXXXV anniversary of the foundation of the Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library.
Other acknowledgments
- Citizen Merit Medal, awarded by the Assembly of Representatives of the Federal District.
- Commander's Cross of the Royal Order of Saints Mauritius and Lazarus, of Royal House of Savoy.
Post Mortem
- A tribute to him was held in the Auditorium "Jaime Torres Bodet", of the National Museum of Anthropology, conducted by the Mexican government on February 13, 2014, and headed by Emilio Chuayffet Chemor, Secretary of Public Education.
- His brothers decided to create the Guillermo Tovar de Teresa Award, which will recognize, every two years, the trajectory of a Mexican whose work seeks to preserve the heritage of Mexico.
- On August 6, 2014 a tribute was held in his memory at the Museum of Mexico City. The event, which included the inauguration of the bookstore number 24th of the Economic Culture Fund, which will bear its name in its memory, was held in the Museum of Mexico City, and was organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Federal District Government. Among others were: the president of the National Council for Culture and the Arts, Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, the director of the Economic Culture Fund, José Carreño Carlón, the writer Homero Aridjis.
- On December 20, 2018, it was announced that the home of Guillermo Tovar de Teresa would be the Guillermo Tovar de Teresa House in the street Valladolid 52, Colonia Roma Norte), a cultural site where the Soumaya Museum is located, sponsored by the Slim Foundation.
Authorship
- Pintura y escultura del Renacimiento en México
- Noticias históricas de la Delegación Miguel Hidalgo
- Apuntes y fotografías de México a mediados del siglo XIX – Álbum fotográfico mexicano – 1858– fotografías de Désiré Charnay
- Renacimiento en México: artistas y retablos
- La ciudad de México y la utopía en el siglo XVI
- El arte de los Lagarto, iluminadores novohispanos de los siglos XVI y XVII
- Bibliografía novohispana de arte
- Miguel Cabrera, pintor de cámara de la reina celestial
- Gerónimo de Balbás en la Catedral de México
- Los escultores mestizos del Barroco novohispano
- Pintura y escultura en Nueva España
- La ciudad de los palacios Publisher: Vuelta, ; prologue by Enrique Krauze
- Arte novohispano
- La utopía novohispana del siglo XVI: lo bello, lo verdadero y lo bueno
- Repertorio de artistas en México: artes plásticas y decorativas
- Cartas a Mariano Otero: 1829–1845
- Catálogo de la colección de ex libris de Guillermo Tovar de Teresa
- La ciudad de los palacios: crónica de un patrimonio perdido
- La ciudad: un palimpsesto
- El Pegaso o el mundo barroco novohispano en el siglo XVII
- Crónica de una familia entre dos mundos: los Ribadeneira en México y España
- Diccionario de artistas del siglo XX
Editions of the Council of the Chronicle of Mexico City
- Coedition Council of the Chronicle of Mexico City – National Council for Culture and the Arts – National Institute of Fine Arts – National Conservatory of Music of facsimile of Memories of Mexico, piano scores composed by Luis Hahn with the original lithographys of the covers of the pieces. It includes a compact disc with the interpretation of the pieces by Silvia Navarrete. Introductory text "The lithographs of Rivera in the scores of Luis Hahn", by Guillermo Tovar and Teresa. Proem of María Teresa Franco. Memories of 'an appreciable pianist', or Mexico City seen from the piano, by Ricardo Miranda. Mexico. 2008.
Other collaborations
- Prologue of the book Luis G. Jordá. A Catalan musician in Porfirian Mexico, by Cristian Canton Ferrer
- Text in the volume of photographs Mexico 1910–1921: an imaginary of the Mexican Revolution . Process. 2010.
- Prologue of the book: Kahlo, G., and Greenwood Peabody, H.. "Two views of the monumental architecture of Mexico." Mexico: Salinas Group.
- "La portada principal de la primitiva Catedral de México" In Collection of studies in tribute to Mariano Fernández Daza, IX Marquis de la Encomienda. Modesto Miguel Rangel Mayoral. Santa Ana de Almendralejo University Center, 2009.
- Presentation of Manual de la gente bien, by Guadalupe Loaeza.
- Compilation of Bordados y bordadores, by Virginia Armella de Aspe.
About Guillermo Tovar de Teresa
- Guzmán Urbiola, Xavier. Guillermo Tovar de Teresa: biobibliographic sketch . Mexico: DGE / Equilibrista.
Unpublished
- History of Mexico