Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/160

158 note that almost every popular Mexican romancist is also a popular poet. Among famous religious writers are Sister Juana de la Cruz, Señor Carpio-Pesado, Arango, Bishop Montesdeoca, and others. As dramatists, Gorostiza and Alarcon rank well among Spanish classics; while Calderon, Rodriguez-Galvan, Chavero, Mateos, Contreras, Acuña, and others have produced much skilful and remarkable work. Señors Juan de Dios, Pesa, and De las Rosas hold an enviable place as poets of the home and domestic life. As linguists, Señors Altamirano, Yscalbalceta, and Pimentel are best known, the latter having made important studies upon the Indian dialects of the country; while Orozco y Berra, in his "History of Ancient Mexico," has excelled all previous writers upon the same subject. The best author upon constitutional subjects, or those relating to political economy, is probably Señor Vallarta; but each of these lists of authors could be re-enforced by number-less names. These given are, perhaps, enough to disabuse the American mind of any feeling that Mexico lacks the expression of literary tastes, or suffers in comparison with other lands from want of scholarly interpretation.