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| TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people (part 34th). |
| By Prof. German Estrada - May 2005 |
III - A NEW SPAIN
Pacification of northwest Mexico began under Beltrán Nuño de Guzmán, a corrupt and sanctimonious
lawyer of noble family with friends in high places. Head of the first audiencia in New Spain, a court of appeals,
Guzmán set off for Michoacán in 1529, acquiring almost immediately a reputation for cruelty. The natives knew him as
the señor de la horca cuchillo, the man who relied on noose and knife to kill. Among his wanton acts one stood out:
the hanging of six Indian chieftains simply because they failed to sweep the path over which he would walk. For six years,
the sadistic Spaniard pillaged Michoacán, southern Zacatecas, Jalisco, and Culiacán, a region baptized Nueva Galicia.
One of Guzman's lieutenants, Cristobal de Oñate, founded Guadalajara in 1542. An ally of Governor Velázquez of Cuba and an enemy of Cortés,
Guzmán to the delight of his sundry foes, ultimately paid for his dastardly deeds. Tried in México for his misbehavior,
he was shipped back to Spain in 1538, spending the last decades of his life as a prisoner of the royal court.
In 1540, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado marched off to explore the far north, the present -day southwest of the United States.
Stories of the Seven Cities of Cíbola lured him. Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, and his African slave, Esteban, who survived the shipwrecked expedition
of Pánfilo de Narváez, were responsible for Coronado¿s expedition. For years, Cabeza de Vaca, Esteban, and two other Spaniards had wandered
over the southwest traveling from Texas to Culiacán, where they heard of the fable Seven Cities, reportedly rich in gold. Marcos de Niza,
a Franciscan friar and head of a subsequent expedition, confirmed the news but saw the "cities" only from afar. With a force of over
three hundred Spaniards and Indian allies, Coronado retraced Marcos de Niza's footsteps, traveled north as far as Kansas,
but found no cities or gold. His travels had taken Coronado into New Mexico, where in 1600 Juan Oñate, son of the founder of Guadalajara,
laid foundation for Santa Fe.
The hunt for labor and tribute, which the Spaniards exacted from the
Indian, helps explains the never-ending expeditions to explore, pacify, and enlarge the
boundaries of New Spain. Even before the dust had settled on Tenochtitlan, Cortés dispatched
expeditions to the four winds. Before long, Spanish soldiers had seized all of Mexico, marched
into Central America and braved the arid region lying between the Californias and New Mexico.
In this adventure, Spaniards faced untold dangers, beginning with the vast expanses of uncharted
lands.
Else where, Juan Rodríguez de Cabrillo charted the California coast in 1542. Four years later, the Spaniards reached Zacatecas,
while Diego de Ibarra spent twenty years marching up and down Nueva Viscaya, the territories of Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Durango.
In the flatlands of Chihuahua and Durango, the Spaniards established cattle ranches stocked with offspring from animals brought north by Coronado.
During the middle of the sixteenth century, Luis de Carbajal undertook the settlement of Nuevo León, establishing the town of Monterrey in 1548.
This tide of Spanish expansion did not always flow evenly. At times, it foundered in the shoals of Indian hostility.
Unlike the Aztecs in Central México, who seemingly became docile once their hierarchical order collapsed, their neighbors on the periphery
danced the war dance time and time again. Without a tradition of obedience to one emperor, they could not be conquered simply by killing their leader.
The Spaniard had to stamp out resistance, not just in one city or by defeating one tribe.
The Indian, even so, did not always stay conquered. The biggest of his battles to remain free broke out in 1541. The Mixtón War,
as it was labeled, set aflame the territory lying between Jalisco and Zacatecas. A few years before, Nuño de Guzmán had inflicted his brand of
civilization on it, killing and enslaving at will. His legacy of cruelty was kept alive by Spanish encomenderos. The war, which lasted two years,
erupted on the edges of Zacatecas, where the Caxcanes, a sedentary farming people, blocked the northward Spanish march. Its leaders, native priest mostly,
gave the war a profoundly religious, anti-Christian character. The Indians burned churches, destroyed monasteries, and cut down crosses,
If they triumphed, so their banners proclaimed, they would extirpate all Christian vestiges, restore the ancient religions, revive old customs,
and rid the land of Spaniards. The defeat of the Indians in the Mixtón War opened the way for the Spanish occupation of Zacatecas.
The way brought death to Pedro de Alvarado, who, fleeing from the Indians, had a horse fell upon him.
Vasco de Quiroga, Protector of the Indians. Patzcuaro, Michoacan In the next issue we'll continue with Chapter III of this fascinating book: A NEW SPAIN
** Source: From the book Triumphs and Tragedy, a History of the Mexican People by his author Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, and with his authorization. (. (W.W. Norton & Company. New York-London).
Prof. Germán Estrada
estradanav@yahoo.com
Prof. Germán
Estrada is the author of the best selling book,
"México
Mágico: Everything You Wanted To Know
About... But Nobody Told You..." available in Puerto
Vallarta at The Net House, Mail Boxes, Etc., Books,
Books as well as directly from the author by internet.
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