Between the Gazette and the «spectator»: transformations of the early press in Central America

Abstract

During the Eighteenth Century, the periodical press in the Captaincy General or Kingdom of Guatemala demonstrated a dynamism that could hardly have been anticipated from the marginal situation of the region and the scarcity of its material ressources within the Spanish Empire. A single title, Gazeta de Guatemala, encompasses different projects which explore the potential of this new mode of public expression. The present study examines the specific themes and strategies which define the four series of the colonial period (1729-1731, 1793-1796, 1797-1807, 1808-1816).