Francisco Céntola Conducted Dissertation Research in Spain and Mexico
With the support of the Georgetown Americas Institute, Francisco Céntola traveled to Spain and Mexico in September 2023 and January 2024 to conduct research on the economic and environmental effects of the development California’s transportation system in the 1700s.
Céntola utilized the funds granted by the Georgetown Americas Institute to conduct archival research in Spain (Archivo General de Indias, Seville) and Mexico (Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City) in Mexico examining colonial records dealing with the economic and environmental effects of the transportation regime implanted across California at the end of the eighteenth century.
Céntola is currently in California, where I will continue my research in various archival repositories, including the Bancroft Library (Berkeley), Santa Clara University (Santa Clara), and the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library (Santa Barbara).
He has submitted a paper focusing on the colonial transportation revolution in Spanish California to the California State Library Bulletin.
The results of this project will be eventually incorporated into his doctoral dissertation, a broader research effort that examines how the adoption of new forms of transportation shaped the material life of human societies in California between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.