Exploring Colonial Mexico©Exploring Colonial Mexico©Richard & Rosalind at Monte Alban 2005
The ESPADANA PRESS Story * For years Richard and Rosalind Perry have traveled along the highways and back roads of Mexico exploring its vast and varied colonial heritage. Although at times frustrating, these journeys are more often exhilarating and always rewarding. Time after time we have experienced the satisfaction of finally arriving at some long awaited church or monastery, or the thrill of discovering some country chapel, gilded altarpiece or painting and sharing it with our readers and friends.
We first visited Mexico in 1966. After attending the University of the Americas, we spent several weeks traveling around the country by car, not an easy journey in those days of poor roads. We especially enjoyed exploring the southern states of Oaxaca and Yucatán, exploring the ancient Maya, Zapotec and other sites in the region. But as we journeyed, we became more and more intrigued by the Spanish churches, chapels and monasteries that we found standing in almost every town and village that we passed through.
On later trips we continued to investigate these old colonial buildings but were unable to find much information about them, especially for the English speaking visitor. Following a subsequent tour of Yucatán in 1982, we decided to produce our own traveler's guide to the colonial churches of that area. After much research and several more field trips we published our first illustrated book, Maya Missions, in 1988, with drawings by Richard.
We then began work on our second guide, Mexico's Fortress Monasteries, which describes and illustrates the numerous 16th century missions and monasteries of the central Mexican heartland and Oaxaca. Its appearance coincided with the Columbus Quincentennial and the renewed focus on the European discovery and exploration of the New World and its momentous consequences.
Soon after, we turned our attention to Chiapas, the other major Maya region of southern Mexico. Like Yucatán, Chiapas was a poor colonial province far from the centers of Spanish power. A unique regional style of architecture developed there, vernacular in flavor but heavily influenced by artistic currents from Guatemala and southern Spain. In 1994 we published our Chiapas guidebook, More Maya Missions, as a companion volume to the book onYucatán.
We next undertook several fascinating field trips to different areas of west central Mexico, and in 1997 published a descriptive guide to the extraordinary variety of colonial arts and architecture to be found there -- the first book of its kind in English to cover this extensive region. Entitled Blue Lakes and Silver Cities, it focusses on the colonial arts and architecture of Michoacán and its neighbors.
In a departure from our usual guides, in 2001 we published a collection of classic travel writings on Yucatan - one of our favorite regions - entitled Exploring Yucatan, A Travelers' Anthology.
In 2002, we published the second edition of Maya Missions, updated with new information and additions to our original itineraries.
Beginning in 2005 we embarked on a series of visits to Oaxaca, with a view to bringing out a guidebook to the region, in collaboration with the photographer Felipe Falcón. Our new guidebook, Exploring Colonial Oaxaca was published in late 2006 and is now available online through this web site.
Rosalind has other interests apart from Mexican missions. She is also a quilt writer and lecturer, publishing several books on her celebrated grandmother, Marie Webster. She is currently involved in restoring the Webster house in Indiana, newly reopened as the Quilters Hall of Fame.
In addition to writing, painting and drawing, Richard spends time updating his web site with regular features on Mexican colonial buildings and artworks of note.