The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555 PDF
Preview The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555
Page iii The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521 – 1555 Robert Himmerich y Valencia Foreword by Joseph P. Sánchez University of Texas Press, Austin Page iv Copyright © 1991 by the University of Texas Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First paperback printing, 1996 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, University of Texas Press, Box 7819, Austin, Texas 787137819 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.481984. Publication of this work was assisted in part by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Culture as a part of their Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain's Ministry of Culture and United States Universities. Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Himmerich y Valencia, Robert, 1932– The encomenderos of New Spain, 1521–1555 / by Robert Himmerich y Valencia; foreword by Joseph P. Sánchez. —1st ed. p. cm. Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)—University of California, Los Angeles, 1984. "Publication of this work was assisted in part by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Culture as part of their Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain's Ministry of Culture and United States Universities"—T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0292731086 pbk. 1. Encomenderos—Mexico—History—16th century. 2. Encomiendas (Latin America)—History—16th century. 3. Mexico—History—Conquest, 1519–1540—Biography. 4. Mexico—History—Spanish Colony, 1540–1810— Biography. 5. Encomenderos—Mexico—Biography. I. Title. F1230.H56 1991 972'.02—dc20 9044785 Page v To Eva Valencia de Himmerich, and to Marc Page vii CONTENTS Foreword ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xv Part One: The Encomenderos as a Group 1. Introduction 3 2. The Encomenderos' Backgrounds: Regional Origins, Social Standing, and 18 Experience 3. Cities and Encomiendas 35 4. The Integration of the Encomenderos into Local Society: Patterns of 63 Association through Marriage, Officeholding, and Encomienda Sharing 5. Comparisons and Conclusions 86 Part Two: The Individual Encomenderos Introduction 109 The Biographies 113 Appendixes A. Roster of First Conqueror Encomenderos 267 B. Roster of Conqueror Encomenderos 271 C. Roster of Poblador Antiguo Encomenderos 276 D. Roster of Poblador Encomenderos 278 E. Roster of Indian Encomenderos 282 F. Citizenship of the Encomenderos 283 G. Methodological Essay 298 Notes 305 Glossary 316 Bibliography 318 Index 323 Page viii Tables 1. Governments of New Spain, October 1524 to November 1535 14 2. Overall Emigration from Spain to the Indies before and after 1520 20 3. Origins of the Encomenderos of New Spain 21 4. Encomenderos from Extremadura 25 5. Callings of the Encomenderos 28 6. Experience of the Encomenderos in the Indies to 1521 32 7. Time of Arrival of the Encomenderos in New Spain 33 8. Chronology of Spanish Settlement 38 9. Residence and Origins of Encomenderos 40 10. Origins of Encomendero Vecinos of Mexico City 44 11. Hidalgo Encomenderos 45 12. Distances between Encomiendas and Residences 54 13. Encomiendas per Encomendero 55 14. Distribution of Encomiendas According to Seniority 55 15. Encomienda Succession 56 16. Family Representation in Government 73 17. Marriages between Encomendero Families 75 18. Remarriage of Widows of Encomenderos by Region 80 19. Marriages of Daughters of Encomenderos by Region 81 20. Encomienda Sharing by Region of Origin 82 21. Comparative Chronology of the Two Thrusts of Spanish Conquest 90 22. Comparison of the Regional Origins of the Conquerors of Mexico and Peru 93 23. Comparison of Social Standing and Occupation of Conquerors of Peru and 95 Mexico 24. Comparison of New World Experience of Conquerors of Mexico and Peru 96 Maps 1. Iberian Regions and Provinces 19 2. Extremadura 23 3. Settlements in New Spain 37 4. Encomienda Concentration 53 5. Encomiendas of the Cervantes Family 66 6. Conquest Routes 88 Page ix FOREWORD The present study fills an important and somewhat empty niche in the history of colonial Mexico for the period 1521 to 1555. Unlike colonial Peru, the encomienda in Mexican history has received limited attention from historians. Further, the present study is much more biographically comprehensive than the nowclassic works on the encomienda in Mexico, principally those by Silvio Zavala, Charles Gibson, Leslie Byrd Simpson, and José Miranda. Indeed, the aforementioned authors, especially Simpson in The Encomienda in New Spain: The Beginnings of Spanish Mexico (1950) and Zavala's La Encomienda Indiana (1935), tended to concentrate, almost exclusively, on the legal aspects of the encomienda in Mexico. Similarly, Miranda's La función económica del encomendero de los orígenes del regimen colonial de Nueva España, 1525–1531 (1965) featured the legal and economic aspects of the encomienda. In Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century (1952) and Aztecs under Spanish Rule (1964), Gibson presented important and new social patterns as they developed relative to the conquest of Tenochtitlan and its aftermath. These works, however, did not focus on synthesizing the lives of encomenderos as does the present study. Robert Himmerich y Valencia has painstakingly culled through most of the secondary, and some of the available primary sources, resulting in a pioneering effort to identify the first encomenderos (recipients of encomienda grants) of New Spain. More needs to be done in this area of research to complete other biographical sources as well as the genealogical implications of the encomienda in colonial Mexican history and culture. Himmerich y Valencia's prosopographical study examines the founding 506 encomenderos in Mexico following the conquest of Tenochtitlan. The work attempts to show patterns of encomienda ownership and distribution by tying biographical data about the encomenderos to the encomiendas they held. The only other study in which a similar approach has been Page x taken is Lockhart's Men of Cajamarca (1972). Although Lockhart dealt with a smaller group than the present study, he emphasized biographical data about the early founders of Peru rather than analysis of the encomiendas in their possession. Unlike Himmerich y Valencia, Lockhart was able to derive biographical information from notarial records in Peru. In Mexico, unfortunately, a great fire in the seventeenth century destroyed most of the notarial records for the period 1521 to 1555, thus limiting Himmerich y Valencia's research efforts. Undaunted by the dearth of primary sources that the notarial documents could have provided, Himmerich y Valencia scoured every available source, primary and secondary, for the biographical data contained herein. An excellent detailed summary of the known surviving corpus of such documents was published by Agustín Millares Carlo and José I. Mantecon, "El Archivo de notarias del departamento del Distrito Federal," in Revista de Historia de América (vol. 17, 1944: 69–118). Likewise, certain archival sections of the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City are rich in information regarding encomiendas, but contain little that is not already known about the lives of encomenderos. Therein lies one of the distinctions between Lockhart's and Himmerich y Valencia's works. The former's work is biographical, in part by design, but also because of an emphasis on notarial documentation concerning encomenderos rather than historical documentation related to encomiendas; while the latter contains a greater amount of information about encomiendas in relation to their owners. The primary reason for this is the existence of lists of Mexican encomiendas made during the colonial period that have since been published in modern historical literature. Silvio Zavala, France V. Scholes, Charles Gibson, and Peter Gerhard are the most important scholars to have done so. As much as these scholars achieved, however, they did not consolidate and analyze the data, which would have been, indeed, an overwhelming task. The task of gathering the voluminous scattered, fragmentary, and seemingly disparate data and subjecting it to Clio's critical microscope, so to speak, has been left to Himmerich y Valencia. The present study follows the prosopographical methodology used by European historians and improved upon by researchers of colonial Latin American history, among them, Peter BoydBowman, James Lockhart, and David Brading. Indeed, Himmerich y Valencia, who began this study under the direction of James Lockhart at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), has emulated his mentor's work in both methodology and approach. Himmerich y Valencia has done for Mexico what Lockhart did for Peru; that is, Page xi produce for the first time an important reference tool for scholars working on the early colonial period of Mexico. Given its parallels, in terms of its pioneering results, with such standard works on Mexican colonial history as those by Agustín Millares Carlo, Ignacio Rubio Mané, Peter Gerhard, Francisco A. de Icaza, Peter Boyd Bowman, Arthur S. Aiton, Donald Chipman, Manuel Orozco y Berra, Francisco Fernández del Castillo, and others, the present study appears destined to become a classic. This study is essentially divided into two parts. Part One is an examination of the encomenderos of New Spain as a group. Himmerich y Valencia analyzes their places of origin, their social characteristics, their arrival and activities in the Indies, the number and location of their grants, their residence patterns, and, to an extent, the pattern of succession to their encomiendas under Spanish law and practice. Part Two contains biographical entries for each encomendero included in this study. The 506 biographical accounts not only identify the encomenderos of New Spain during the first generation following the fall of Tenochtitlan but also provide a compilation of much personal information about them otherwise scattered among a number of sources. The present study complements much of what has been written concerning the encomienda and encomenderos in Mexico and sheds considerable light on the origins of our PanAmerican heritage throughout the Americas. As an institution, the encomienda was instituted wherever feasible in the Spanish Empire, and encomenderos, as conquerors and investors, influenced the development of North and South America. Furthermore, the Christopher Columbus Quincentennial in 1992 will evermore serve to mark our PanAmerican heritage that began as an encounter between two worlds: Indian America and Europe. JOSEPH P. SÁNCHEZ DIRECTOR SPANISH COLONIAL RESEARCH CENTER NATIONAL PARK SERVICE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO Page xiii PREFACE This book is the result of an inquiry into the social history of Spanish Mexico, and especially the tenure of the first generation. It was during this period that the conventions of the society were established, the hinterland of Mexico City inventoried, and a portion of the wealth of this new Spanish kingdom distributed among those who risked life and fortune to enhance their respective estates. Spaniards in America during these early years were more pragmatic than idealistic; they fully realized that the true wealth of this recently uncovered part of the world was its native population and not necessarily the precious metals and gems that were nonetheless hoped for. The reward for their efforts was the much sought after encomienda—the right to the tribute of an indigenous polity. Not every polity was assigned to individual Spaniards, however, for a large portion of the native population was reserved for the crown and the ecclesiastics. The study is divided into two parts, with Part One based on data contained in Part Two. Whereas Part Two focuses on specific individual lives and attempts, to some degree, to show uniqueness, Part One combines those with like attributes to ascertain general characteristics and processes. This work deals with a group of individuals who crossed the Mexican scene over a period of thirty years or more, their main common characteristic being simply that they were encomenderos at some time during these three decades. There is a great deal of systematic information on encomenderos and encomiendas in this present study, going beyond the invaluable contributions of Charles Gibson and Peter Gerhard. It brings together, consolidates, and analyzes for the first time disparate and scattered material on the 506 individuals known to be encomenderos present during New Spain's founding generation.
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