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MEXICO MAGICO
TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people |
CHAPTER IV, The Forefathers (49th part continues...)
By Prof. German Estrada - January 2006 |
Population decline was linked to changes in work patterns. Before the Conquest, anthropologists insist, may have worked more, but he did so for himself and for his community. Later, he worked almost entirely for others. The concept of work had undergone a transformation: earlier, work and religious ritual were one and the same; afterward, work was solely for the economic benefit of the employer. While the friars attempted to camouflage this transformation under an elaborate Catholic ritual, they fooled no one. No matter what the church might pontificate, Indians labored for individual Spaniards, who, not uncommonly, took advantage of them.
IV
The death of millions of Indians turned upside down patterns of landownership. “I did not come,” Cortés once said, “to till the land like a peasant.” Without doubt, that opinion mirrored the aspirations of most of the Spanish adventurers, who expected to get rich of the labor of others. Yet tilling the land became the principal occupation of New Spain. Rural dwellers, the majority, tilled their own lands or, increasingly, those of others. For multiple reasons, more and more of the land fell into the hands of an elite of landlords. First and foremost, the death of millions of Indians had left unoccupied huge expanses of land. Until their death, Indians had tilled a part of it and used the rest to hunt game and to gather wood for their hearths. When entire villages disappeared, Spaniards and criollos, usually with the blessings of crown officials, claimed their lands. If the lands lay near water, or on the outskirts of towns, they were facile prey of Spaniards, who bought them for ridiculously low prices or simply occupied them.
With the demise of the Indian, farming became more profitable. The growth of mining towns required a steady supply of grains and other foods. When the towns were small, Indian farmers had supplied them; now others had to do it. With the rise in demand for food, farming paid better dividends. Similarly, the crown, which at first kept a close eye on the theft of Indian lands, relented, permitting Spaniards to acquire them. Profits from agriculture turned gold-hungry Spaniards into farmers but, it must not be overlooked, of a peculiar kind. Instead of tillers of the land, they became hacendados, the masters of vast states.
These Spaniards were of many types. Initially on the scene were the encomenderos, who found ways to get their hands on the lands of their Indians. More pernicious were the bureaucrats, mining moguls, merchants, and owners of obrajes who became hacendados. Public officials started early to gobble up the lands, whether held by Indians or not, although colonial legislation prohibited it. Viceroys, oidores, or judges of audiencias, visitadores (the spies sent to watch over public officials), corregidores, alcaldes, and regidores became landlords. Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy, set the pattern, affixing his name to haciendas and a sugar mill. Numerous oidores got rich off their lands. Bureaucrats, notoriously poorly paid, used public offices to acquire lands. When laws barred their way, they relied on hombres paja, front men.
From these early landlords emerged the colonial latifundia, grain haciendas and sugar plantations primarily. Hacendados, too, were mineowners and merchants. Whatever the relationship, small elite monopolized haciendas, mines, and commerce
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Indians being punished by the Spaniards (Códice Durán, Siglo XVI)
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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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