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MEXICO MAGICO
TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people |
CHAPTER IV, The Forefathers (47th part…continues)
MIRACLES OF SILVER
By Prof. German Estrada - December 2005 |
European disease, unknown to the Indian, explains much of this loss of human life. Plagues, which during the fourteenth century devastated cities in the Old World, killed millions in the lands of Anahuac who, because of a lack of immunity and the high density of population, resisted feebly. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, population growth had already reduced much of Indian society to a subsistence economy. From 1454 to 1457 and again from 1504 to 1506, hunger killed off hundreds of thousands. Smallpox, the first of the European maladies, struck with devastating fury, especially from 1532 to 1538. In the town of Usila, to illustrate , the disease left only four hundred alive out of a population of sixteen thousand. Measles, a nuisance for Europeans, claimed the lives of millions, particularly in 1563 and 1564, as did a strange disease the natives baptized cocolixtli between 1543 and 1548. The “great pestilence,” which lasted from 1578 to 1581, snuffed out thousands of others. To exacerbate the Indians’ plight, famines swept the countryside in 1538, 1543-44, again in 1550-52, 1563-65, 1573, and once more in 1579-81. Entire towns lost half or more of their inhabitants, and some disappeared from the face of the earth. When the young and able died, the land lay untilled and there was less food to feed the living.
Illness along did not kill the Indians. The black legend of a ruthless Spain was not a myth. The Spaniard was directly responsible for the death of millions of native peoples. The Spaniards, after all, came to get rich, if not with gold and silver, off the labor of the Indian. Spaniards, it seemed, could do almost nothing for themselves, testified Francisco Carletti, and Italian visitor of the late sixteen century who traveled with Spaniards from Acapulco to Mexico City. The “bad treatment” given the Indians, he emphasized, was “the cause of their dying off.” His Spanish companions used Indian like a beast of burden. When “they reached some hamlet…they wanted every one of their needs served and taken care of, summoning “the chief Indian of the village to wait on them hand and foot.” And he appears with great speed and submissiveness, and punctually does whatever is commanded, which is to bring food for the men and their mounts.” Frightened of the Spaniards, the chief “sees that this is done, ordering from among his Indians here one thing and there another---that is, you or someone bring the bread, the wine, you the meat, you the straw, and you the oats.” But, “when the accounts are figured, instead of giving the Indians money in payment,” the Spaniards “give evil words and worse deeds.”
The conquistadores, writes a historian, “were undoubtedly harsh and very greedy,” demanding frequently work beyond the Indian’s physical capacity. For the first decades of the Conquest, it was forced labor, and then harsh paid labor in the mines and the planting and harvesting of sugarcane. Always, there was a tribute to pay, initially in labor and then in money, so the Indian had to wok no matter how long the hours, how poor the pay, or how atrocious the conditions of the job. The ravages of disease cannot be appreciated unless one takes into account the appalling conditions introduced by the Conquest. Economic exploitation lay the base of the demographic disaster, so terrible for some of the subjugated that, unable to cope with the shock, testified a Spaniards, they preferred to die.
The culprits, however, were not simply European diseases and the cruelty of the conquistadores. Not exempt from blame were the missionaries, often the same friars who defended the Indian. Determined to erect temples, convents and monasteries, they demanded labor of the neophytes and settle them in mission lands, where European maladies spread like wildfires. Every one of the Catholic shrines, usually edifices for the use of a few friars and staffed with a raft of Indian servants, arose at the expense of the Indian’s way of life.
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Dendritic native silver from Batopilas, Chihuahua, Mexico. (height of the specimen: 6 cm)
Batopilas is considered the "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" because of it's historic past and present beauty.
Founded in 1709 as San Pedro de Batopilas when the Batopilas mines were discovered, the small pueblo
slowly, but steadily flourished due to this mining activity.
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Mine La Valenciana in Guanajuato.
Produce 20% of the Silver in the world |
In the next issue we’ll continue with Chapter IV of this fascinating book: A NEW SPAIN
Prof. Germán Estrada
E-mail: 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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