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MEXICO MAGICO
TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people |
CHAPTER IV, The Forefathers (57th part continues...)
By Prof. German Estrada - May 2006 |
Life for Africans and mulattoes was harsh. Like the Indians and most mestizos, they filled the ranks of the destitute. In the mining camps, Africans did the hard labor, though they rarely worked underground. So highly prized were they as workers that the sale of Africans slaves in Zacatecas provided the principal revenue of its ayuntamiento. Africans labored long hours in the obrajes, whose owners, like the planters, relied on the whip. Africans did not take kindly to this mistreatment, more than once rebelling; one of their protests, in the Córdoba region of Veracruz in 1753, had to be put down with rifles. A handful of African and mulattoes fared better. Physically strong and
usually adaptable, they were employed occasionally as the labor bosses of Indian workers in mines, obrajes, and haciendas. In this role, they were as cruel as their Spanish masters. Some Africans found their way into crafts and trades. Africans also enriched the culture of New Spain, especially its music and dance. The marimba, a musical instrument so much a part of Veracruz and Chiapas, was African, as were the jarabe and the sones, now traditional Mexican dances.
VII
To govern its colony, the crown established an elaborate political structure. At its top was the viceroy. Don Antonio de Mendoza ruled until 155o, when the crown sent him to Peru to repair matters there. His successor, Don Luis de Velasco, a splendid proconsul of His Majesty, served with distinction, “combining sagacity and humanity with a rigid sense of duty and dignity.” More than anyone, he set the tone for the political edifice. Like his king, Phillip II, Velasco ruled with an iron fist and an eye out for corruption, already becoming a nasty sore on society. Although a stern disciplinarian, he believed paternalism the proper formula for handling the Indians, even attempting to enforce the New Laws of 1542. For this effort, he earned the sobriquet Father of the Indians. In exemplary fashion, Velasco died poor and in debt, unlike Mendoza who made private gain synonymous with public office.
In New Spain, Don Antonio and Don Luis wore robes of the king. Their successors, sixty of them, more or less able public servants, did the same. At first, they enjoyed a considerable degree of independence, being empowered to make decisions on their own. Fleets from Spain bound to Veracruz sailed once a year; royal orders arrived tardily; consultation on every detail would have halted the daily operations of government. However, the Hapsburg kings slowly transformed the viceroys into puppet rulers, bureaucrats who served on bended knee. The king and the Council of the Indies demanded subservience. Not a few of these bureaucrats placed pocketbook ahead of personal integrity; a number of them spent time and money on frivolous things. Fray García Guerra, archbishop and viceroy in 1611, loved bullfights
So much that he had a bullring built on the palace grounds and found time to visit a nearby Dominican convent, where he spent hours with a nun.
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Cortes landing in Veracruz
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The Hernán Cortéz house in la Antigua Veracruz
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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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