Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
... The author was claiming that someone might direct him to references which might tell him about these notable Spanish colonial short swords as he could find nothing in Mexican or Spanish sources. Perhaps he was situated in Mexico as his surname was Mexican ...
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Dear Jim, do we have here one more 'sequel' of the espada ancha topic, which new episode features a guy that does not manage to find written stuff on this sword, assuming he is Mexican, as i try to infer from your words, which is rather curious.
Risking to do nothing but repeat parts of this topic already presented in various prior approaches, i will here roughly translate from the Spanish an entry by blogger "Legendary Jarl" in 2011 ...
... I feel happy at this moment. I feel like i've finally resolved the question that many on this forum have asked (at least for me). Many have said that the "typical knife of Mexico" should be an Aztec one. Others say it should be the machete. I agree that it must be the Guanajuato, others the bowie and so on. Those who said that it could be the machete seem to be right and i will explain the underlying question below.
These days i have been researching the origins of the Mexican army in colonial times. One thing led to another and i found the theme of the presidial soldiers or soldados de cuera. These were soldiers from the colonial era, elite corps. They were generally selected from people who had been born and raised in the border areas and who were used to the harsh conditions of those territories. Made up, therefore, mostly by mestizos, although Creoles and peninsulars also participated. Always accompanied by Indian explorers (i.e. Tlaxcaltécas), these soldiers, despite being made up of castes, were considered equal to the other bodies of the Spanish and even carried more equipment for their campaigns.
For them the main weapon, and the weapon with which they would conquer what is now northern Mexico and the southern United States and the various borders of the Spanish empire was known as the Espada Ancha.This sword design was originally commissioned in Toledo and designed especially for leather soldiers, over time it continued to be produced and evolved in different Mexican armories and its use spread to more members of society. It evolved over the centuries, but can generally be classified into two styles of cutting edge, and generally had the following dimensions:
Edge Thickness: 4 -4.5 cm measured next to the guard
Edge: from 50 to 90 cm
Materials: Wrought Iron/Steel for the edge
Wood, bone, bronze, iron for the handle
The blade was usually engraved with images of the sun, the moon and a star and had typical inscriptions such as: "Don't unsheath without reason, don't sheath me without honor". Same inscriptions that are currently read on knives and machetes produced in the Oaxaca region.
The broadsword design evolved to become indistinguishable from the machete design. But i maintain that the existence and use of the espada ancha is the reason why the use of the machete spread in modern Mexico, the same Mexico that owes its existence as such to the brave soldados de cuera and their espadas anchas. The saddest thing of all is that these soldiers have been almost forgotten and therefore the weapons they used as well. It is very sad that groups of re-enactors and historians of the United States of Anglo-Saxon origin who have nothing to do the leather soldiers know more about them than we do ourselves. There are groups of Spaniards who also want to attribute the leather soldiers as something very Spanish, but these Mexican soldiers were made up mostly of mestizos and some Creoles and commanded by people who had been born here, as was the case of the brave Juan Bautista de Anza, born in Sonora.
Rather than trying to introduce new data on this subject, an improbable win, this is more to show that, the person who said he finds no material in his (Spanish spealing) language ... well, he surely is not searching hard.
Yours ... Fernando
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