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000758 Visit since September 1, 2005
| TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people (part 40th). |
| By Prof. German Estrada - September 2005 |
The crown, for all that, left partly intact the hierarchical pyramid of ancient Anahuac. During the first decades, the former nobility preserved its authority since the Spaniard, to rule its subjects, relied on it. (In Yucatán, this Indian nobility survived, more or less, until the early eighteenth century.) The Spaniards called them caciques, using an Arawak word they adopted during the days of the Antilles. The collapse of Aztec sovereignty, especially the downfall of the pagan priesthood and the military chieftains, shattered the old ruling elite. While Indian nobles held on to a bit of power and wealth, they were the exceptions. To establish their colonial bastion, the Spaniards, however, built a new ruling elite of Indians from what remained of the old, but joined by fresh adherents. A few former political power brokers stayed on while ambitious commoners elbowed their way into the circle of caciques. Whether old or new, these caciques, with the exception of those in Yucatán, did what they could to separate themselves from the Indian masses, adopting, writes one historian, "Spanish culture...and seeking to conform to the Spanish image of the gentlemen and hidalgo, "erecting elaborate houses for themselves that dwarfed the humble adobe huts of other natives. They put on airs, winning the right to wear clothing, to carry swords and muskets, to "ride horseback with saddle and spurs," and to appropriate Spanish names for themselves. The Indian caciques "who could trace their lineage back to pre-Conquest" aristocracy, according to this historian, "indulged in a taste for genealogy comparable to that of any Spanish hidalgo."
During the sixteenth century, some of these caciques, by Spanish fiat, became gobernadores, heads of Indian communities that, with the help of Indian alcaldes and regidores, who were in theory elected, ran the Indian pueblos, supervised their communal lands, kept order, managed the labor gangs of encomenderos and clergy, organized repartimientos (the labor system which replaced the encomienda), and saw to it that Indians paid the royal tribute. Their underlings often flogged wrongdoers and enforced church attendance. As a reward, the Indian caciques acquired land and vassals of their own.
Ordinary Indians had little use for this elite, making up perhaps one-tenth of the Indian population; they viewed it as corrupt, tyrannical, and a toady. Its day in the sun, outside of regions such as Yucatán and Oaxaca, barely survived the sixteenth century, its demise brought on by the sharp decline of the Indian population and because the bulk of Indian workers, through the appearance of the system of wage labor, passed into the employ of the Spaniards.
V
The church, in the meantime, reserved for itself a prime role in pacification and settlement. No other institution had more impact on the shaping of colonial society, because the church had the responsibility for converting the Indian into a good Christian and a loyal subject. The pope, moreover, had placed the church under royal tutelage. By the patronato real, Spanish kings, designated heads of the Catholic church, collected diezmo and appointed archbishops and bishops in their colonies, while the crown assumed responsibility for the welfare of the church , which henceforth obeyed the state. Linked arm and arm, the church and state set about molding New Spain into a Spanish and very Catholic colony.
The first man of the cloak stepped ashore with Cortés. Father Bartolomé de Olmedo, upon whom Cortés relied for advice, shared with the conquistadores the sorrow of the Noche Triste as well as the trill of victory. In 1523, the Franciscans, the initial missionary order and eventually the largest, arrived; Pedro de Gante, famous later for his schools, was one of three; in the following year, more came, not the least of them Toribio de Benavente, referred to as Motolinia by the Indians, and part of the "twelve apostles." Barefoot, they walked from Veracruz to Mexico City. Cortés, the consummate politician, made their entrance into Tenochtitlan a drama of the first order, kneeling, before the startled Indians to kiss the hands of the friars.
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The efects of alcohol over the Indians
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In the next issue we'll continue with Chapter III of this fascinating book: A NEW SPAIN
Prof. Germán Estrada
estradanav@yahoo.com
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 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 his website.
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