The first paper mill and printing press in the Americas were in Spanish occupied Mexico, 1570, more than 100 years before Rittenhouse near Philadelphia. Making most kinds of paper was soon illegal, and printing tightly controlled.

Did Guarani Nation Americans and Jesuit priests make “forbidden” paper in the Misiones in South America, 300 years ago? We know that they did print books, and many things to bring the best side of civilization and education to those that the government saw merely as slaves.

Meanwhile, printing, science, education flourished in North America, where many printing presses and paper mills were opening everywhere.

How did this influence things, then, later, even today?

AND, we get to make some paper like in 1724! as many participants as possible make their own “ancient” sheet of paper to take home

Paper Connections is a Papel Texano community outreach arts project supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department