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MEXICO MAGICO
TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people |
CHAPTER IV, The Forefathers (54th part continues...)
By Prof. German Estrada - April 2006 |
Offspring born in the New World, no matter how pure of blood, did not sit well with Spaniards. To their way of thinking, place of birth mattered deeply. The criollo, simply by being born away from home, was inferior. Climate and the shape of things in New Spain debilitated human beings, rendering lazy, irresponsible, and morally degenerate. To cite López de Velazco, in the physical and climatic conditions of the New World, brain and mind went to pot, making the criollo “progressively more barbarous and stupid.” Born an ocean apart, the criollo could not be trusted to carry out the duties of crown, nor “to run”, one famous Jesuit proclaimed, “even a hen-pen.” The Spanish clergy –Jerónimo de Mendieta, for one—believed that criollo priests sided with the interest of the colonist, thus betraying the goals of the patria.
The criollo, for his part, resented this attitude, especially when it cost him appointments in the bureaucracy or elevated above him peninsulares. It galled criollos, at times descendants of conquistadores, to see Spaniards discriminate against them. Gage believed that both groups “hated” each other. Fortunately for the criollo, this attitude, if it did not undergo a metamorphosis, began to change in the seventeenth century, when some Spaniards even came to think well of him. Altruism, however, was not always the spark plug. The growing criollo population, larger and often far richer that that of the Spaniards, had to be reckoned with. In his Política Indiana, Juan de Solórzano, to demonstrate, saw criollos as “genuine and authentic Spaniards.” Despite that, the prejudice against criollos survived in the souls of many Spaniards.
The epoch of silver was also the stage for a more powerful drama. Numerically, the mestizo, some 150,000 strong by 1650, was making his bow. Initially, the Spaniards did not know what to do with him. For a while, unbelievably, they failed to count him a distinct category. When offspring of wealthy Spaniards, mestizos were classified as criollos; if not, they were labeled mulattoes. The better labor guilds, the sword makers, for instance, barred them; lesser ones accepted them. Mestizo sons and daughters, initially of Spanish and Indian parents, were sired increasingly by mestizo fathers and mothers. The mixture of native and European blood produced a bewildering array of physical types, from very Indian to very Spanish. Skin color ranged from fair to dark, frequently in the same family. Such was the ethnic universe of the mestizo.
Mestizaje, the blending of two races, began early, probably on the days the Spaniards landed. They came to get rich, said Cortés, but they also had sex on their minds. One of the first mestizos, mentioned earlier, was Martín, the son of Cortés and Doña Marina, the Indian translator. Taken to Spain by his father, Martín, a Knight of the Order of Santiago, battled Spain’s enemies in Algeria and Germany, dying at the hands of Moors in Granada. The daughter of Pedro de Alvarado, born of n Indian woman, had the good fortune to marry the cousin of the duke of Albuquerque. On occasion, mestizo offspring of other conquistadores were lucky too. Some mestizos, clearly, enjoyed illustrious birthrights; the fortunate, however, were a minority. The Spaniards, whatever their virtues, suffered from the common vices of Europeans. On questions of race and skin colors, they were more bigoted than tolerant. What they established in the New World was a pigmentocracy, a social order based, mall too often, on the color of one’s skin.
Racial prejudice to the contrary, Spaniards seduced Indian women. Only a handful of Spanish women accompanied Cortés, while during the early years they generally stayed home either out of preference or, equally likely, because their husbands, fathers, or brothers did not want them in New Spain. Before 1540, just 6 percent of the Spaniards in New Spain were women. But Spaniards, like males the world over, could not live without women, and so they fornicated with Indian females and sired mestizos. It was the Indian mother who raised the children, who nursed them and taught them language, culture, and beliefs. More often than not, the mestizo grew up in the home of an absentee father who symbolized the defeated, and less able. Spanish women rarely if ever went to bed with Indians, and only a few married mestizos, and then only if they were wealthy or powerful.
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The Cathedral in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas C1528-1693
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Santo Domingo Church, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas C1547-1560
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In the next issue we’ll continue with Chapter IV of this fascinating book: A NEW SPAIN (Miracles of Silver).
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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