ABSTRACT
The figure of the colonial viceroy, who ruled New Spain in the name of the Spanish Crown, has made a lasting impression on the Mexican historical imagination. Generally portrayed as an absolute and despotic ruler, the specter of the viceroy continues to shape contemporary political culture. Perhaps one of the most familiar images of viceregal authority is Diego Rivera's famous mural in the National Palace in Mexico City that depicts the Spanish conquest and colonial rule. In this painting, the figure of a dour viceroy, standing under a canopy and surrounded by other members of the colonial ruling elite, is juxtaposed against the terrifying depiction of the burning at the stake of two victims of the Inquisition to reinforce the connection between Spanish despotism and cruelty and viceregal authority (see Figure 1). More recently, the haunting image of the viceroy has appeared in the writings of Subcomandante Marcos, the internationally known leader of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberatión National (EZLN). A few weeks after the outbreak of the indigenous uprising in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on New Year's day, 1994, the "Department of Press and Propaganda" of the EZLN released a document written by Marcos in 1992 intended "to awaken the consciousness of several comrades" who were starting to sympathize with the Zapatista cause. The document, filled with irony and bitter sarcasm, was a damning indictment of the poverty and dire living conditions of the indigenous population of Chiapas, one of the poorest and most neglected areas of the entire country. Marcos, nevertheless, reserved his most corrosive criticisms for the main representative of the Mexican state in Chiapas — that is, the Governor of the state, who, according to Marcos, was an utterly greedy and corrupt politician. Interestingly enough, Marcos always refers to the Governor as the "viceroy" or, in an even more derogatory way, the "apprentice of viceroy." He explains how the Indians had to walk over 1000 kilometers to the nation's capital just to ask for the central government Diego Rivera, <italic>The History of Mexico,</italic> 1929-1935, National Palace, Mexico City. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203326930/9aff77b0-179d-413d-a0ad-671f141ce630/content/fig00002_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
