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This critical edition introduces an unpublished travelogue by Czech-American traveller and polyglot Alois Richard Nykl, detailing his experiences in Mexico during the 1920s. The introductory studies provide insights into Nykl’s life, the circumstances surrounding the manuscript's creation, and his failed attempts at publication. Additionally, Nykl’s observations are framed within the broader context of how Czech society engaged with this region during the 19th and 20th centuries. In his narrative, Nykl reflects on the significant changes Mexico experienced in the early 20th century, comparing his first visit from 1907 to 1909 with his return from 1924 to 1926. He keenly observes the effects of the Mexican Revolution on both society and the landscape. This multi-layered text, enriched with Nykl’s photographs and a contemporary bibliography, offers the perspective of a well-educated individual with a distinctive life experience during a complex historical period. As such, it serves as a valuable resource for understanding this pivotal era.

The theme of Christian missions in America, Asia, or Africa belongs to those relatively amply studied within the frame of early modern history, especially with regard to the history of European overseas expansion. However, the questions that historians have posed to the plentiful and diverse sources have for a long time been simple and monotonous. Research has focused on biographic details, on the exotic settings of mission regions and their descriptions by missionaries, or on the fact that missions opened the path for the explorations and colonization of the newly discovered continents.§Only in the second half of the 20th century, as a result of new approaches in historical studies, have historians begun to pose new questions to these notoriously known sources. Within the frame of such methodological innovations as transnational history or Atlantic history, the Catholic and Protestant missionary societies have been presented as examples of transnational communities, that is, communities composed of members of various origins, spread over the globe, creating and reinforcing their identities through specific discourse and rituals.§The present text deals with a specific group of missionaries: members of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, from a specific region - Central Europe, more specifically from lands of the Bohemian Crown - and in a specific location - the possessions of Spain in America, in particular the northern frontier of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (contemporary Mexico) where many of those missionaries from Central Europe were engaged in the period 1680-1767.