Bibliografías como apologías: Agustín Millares Carlo y los repertorios bibliográficos de Pinelo, Eguiara y Beristáin

Bibliographies as apologies: Agustín Millares Carlo and the bibliographic repertoires of Pinelo, Eguiara and Beristáin

Abstract

The cultural level of the New World and its dwellers has been questioned in countless occasions, especially by Europeans, on the basis of different arguments (miscegenation, climate, etc.), but always with the same common grounds: the ignorance and prejudices it generates. In comparison with this ignorance and these prejudices, and as a reply to them, many authors have produced responses in the form of self-defense throughout the centuries. Among these writings, we find many bibliographical catalogues through which a sample of the cultural development of those lands and their inhabitants’ abilities was intended to be provided. In this context, the studies and editions of the works carried out by Agustín Millares Carlo allow the access to many of these bibliographies and the role they were meant to play and actually played over the time, whose interest is still prevailing for us, not only as an argumentative weapon but also as culture containers themselves.