Cempoala2011

This book tells of the journey that Francisco del Paso y Troncoso (Veracruz 1842 - Florence, Italy 1916) made in 1890 to the Totonac region in Veracruz, with a team of engineers, archaeologists and artists that became known as the Scientific Commission of Cempola, named after by the Junta Colombina de México, established to organize the country's participation in the Historic-American Exposition carried out by the Spanish government in 1892. This event was held in the Palacio de los Recoletos in Madrid to commemorate the fourth centenary of the discovery of America. This was the pretext to try to gather what was lacking at that time: pieces of pre-Hispanic origin. The Junta Colombina de México, made up of distinguished intellectuals of the time, set up commissions to travel to different regions of the country and collect the objects and information that would help in the organization of this great exhibition. Already conformed, the Scientific Commission of Cempoala, the purpose of Del Paso y Troncoso was to explore the Villa Rica, founded by Hernán Cortés in the lands of the Pre-Hispanic city of Quiahuiztlán and from there to Cempoala. The documentary archive (photographs, drawings and writings) that the Cempoala Scientific Commission gathered is perhaps one of the few collections that documents, next to the explorers, what was hidden in the lush vegetation of the state of Veracruz. The book "Cempoala. Place of twenty waters", a co-edition between the UV and INAH, was coordinated by Alberto Tovalín Ahumada, the images are from the Cempoala Expedition Fund and the National Photo Library of INAH. Photographs taken by Rafael García with caption texts by Francisco del Paso y Troncoso.