This article combines history, biography, and the translation of a nineteenth-century primary source to consider the role of Manuel Payno, a Mexican government official and noted writer, in establishing his country's national library. Profiles of Mexican library history and of Manuel Payno provide context for the appended English translation of Payno's 1869 article, "Las bibliotecas de Mexico: La gran biblioteca y la pequen biblioteca de Mexico," in which he requests continued government funding to complete the Biblioteca Nacional.