Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Indigenous Leadership and Religion, and the Spanish Conquest
Postclassic Yanhuitlan and Mixteca Alta (A.D. 1000–1521)
Santo Domingo Yanhuitlan is a Mixtec town located in the northwest extremity of the Nochixtlan Valley in the Mixteca Alta, in the state of Oaxaca. Its current name betrays a history of foreign conquests the town endured in the late pre-Hispanic and early colonial periods. Dominican friars, visiting the area around 1527–1528, imposed the name Santo Domingo. A prominent settlement in the valley, Yanhuitlan was christened with the name of the founder of the Dominican order. Prior to the Spanish invasion, the Mexica (Aztec) had subjugated a large part of the Mixteca, leading eventually to the current name of Yanhuitlan, a Nahuatl term meaning "new place." Yodzocahi, the original Mixtec name of the town, means "wide plain." The Nahuatl glyph for Yanhuitlan is a white square, possibly a rectangular piece of cloth, and is well known (see, for example, figs. 1.1, 1.2, 1.9, and 1.10), but the Mixtec one is less known. Alfonso Caso proposed that a feathered mat with a bird beak and an arrow stemming from it (Codex Bodley, 19-III) was the glyph for Yanhuitlan, based on colonial documents relating local genealogy. There is no apparent relation between the linguistic term in either Nahuatl or Mixtec, its meaning, and its pictographic depiction.
While no major excavation has ever been conducted in Yanhuitlan, information derived from historical sources corroborates the idea that the current church is located on top of an ancient temple (see fig. 5.3). The royal residence was found nearby, if not on the ceremonial platform itself. Intensive agricultural terracing and settlements on the hill slopes surrounding the main center characterized the late Postclassic period, when the Nochixtlan Valley in Oaxaca had a greater population density than in any previous era. In the case of Yanhuitlan, a particularly important settlement is Loma de Ayuxi, also referred to as Pueblo Viejo (old town), to the northeast of the main town. According to Spores, several looted pit tombs are found in this area, as well as ceremonial objects such as braziers. In 1903, the so-called chimalli (shield) of Yanhuitlan (plate 1) was found in a tomb from this area. This gold brooch measures approximately eight by eight centimeters and represents a typical pre-Hispanic shield. The internal geometric design is made of inlaid turquoise. While today only eleven bells hang from the jewel, thirteen were initially there. Four darts are applied horizontally on the back of the piece. The chimalli was part of a funeral apparel together with a few more gold disks and plates, which covered the mouth and eyes of the deceased, while the chimalli itself was found on the chest. This finding, albeit isolated from its archaeological context, confirms the idea that surrounding settlements on hilltops were important social and economic centers. Furthermore, the chimalli provides material evidence not only of the gold work that was a major industry in the Postclassic Mixteca Alta (see fig. 1.7), but also of the bells and jewels often mentioned as part of the heirlooms Yanhuitecos inherited and used during public ceremonies, as we will see in the following chapters.
Several historical sources indicate that Yanhuitlan was a tributary of the Mexica ruler Motecuhzoma II at the time of the Spanish conquest. The town was part of the province of Coyxtlahuacan (Yodzocoo in Mixtec), located north of Yanhuitlan in the Mixteca. Together with other prominent towns of the region, such as Tamazulapan (Tiquehui), Teposcolula (Yucundaa), Jaltepec (Añute), and Nochixtlan (Atoco), Yanhuitlan paid tribute to the Aztec empire in the form of cloth, chalchihuitl (precious greenstones), quetzal feathers, cochineal (carmine insect dye), gold, and elaborate warrior costumes made of bird feathers. The Mexica entered the Mixteca Alta with the intention of imposing tribute payment, first under Tizoc (1481–1486) and eventually under Motecuhzoma II. In the latter case, the people from Yanhuitlan and Sosola mistreated Aztec merchants while they were passing through the region. The upcoming annual feast of Tlacaxipehualiztli (The Flaying of Men) offered a good occasion for punitive action against the two Mixtec towns. The Mexica army looted and destroyed Yanhuitlan with almost no opposition. Captives were taken to Tenochtitlan, where they were eventually sacrificed during the culminating ceremony of Xipe Totec, possibly around 1506–1507. Jansen has proposed that this may have been the last of a series of punitive expeditions on the part of the Mexica in the region, beginning possibly with Motecuhzoma I (1440–1469). In colonial times, there was still knowledge of a heroic Mixtec yya from Yanhuitlan, known as Lord 3 Monkey, who resisted Motecuhzoma I. In Mixtec codices, an yya by the name of 3 Monkey ruled over Andúa (later a subject town of colonial Yanhuitlan) and fought against the Aztec in 1449.
Alfonso Caso identified a ruling couple, appearing in Codex Bodley (p. 19-III) with the names Lady 1 Flower and Lord 8 Death, as Lady Cahuaco and Lord Namahu, who were mentioned in a sixteenth-century legal proceeding as the rulers of Yanhuitlan around 1525–1530. In Codex Bodley, the ruling couple sits atop a place-sign that Caso identified as the pre-Hispanic glyph of Yanhuitlan, as mentioned above. According to the genealogy, Lord 8 Death was a descendant of Lord 8 Deer of Tilantongo (1063–1115), the most powerful and charismatic military leader in Mixtec history. Lord 8 Death's relation to Tilantongo further indicates that the direct heir of the yuhui tayu of Yanhuitlan was his wife, Lady 1 Flower. The matrilineal pattern continued upon Lady 1 Flower's death, when her daughter María Coquahu (Lady 2 House) inherited the title. The legal proceedings also state that Coquahu married Diego Nuqh (Lord 6 Movement) and that the couple resided primarily in Tamazola, the husband's town of origin. María was the mother of don Gabriel de Guzmán, who was chosen to inherit the yuhui tayu of Yanhuitlan. Nevertheless, at his mother's death, don Gabriel was too young to rule and leadership was handed over to a brother of María, don Domingo. Don Gabriel would eventually assume the title in 1558. The proceedings analyzed by Caso were the legal proof of don Gabriel's possession of the yuhui tayu, produced by the ruler himself in 1580.
Dynastic history is nevertheless complicated by a character that appears prominently in a pictographic document from Yanhuitlan and is also mentioned in different colonial written sources. On folio 5r of Codex Yanhuitlan (fig. 1.1), a man sits on a throne in front of a royal residence, addressing a male crowd. He is identified with the calendrical name 9 House, an identification that appears again in the manuscript connected to the place-name Yanhuitlan. The date on the page is year 2 Flint (1520), indicating that he was yya of Yanhuitlan before Lady 1 Flower and Lord 8 Death, who were ruling around 1525–1530. A ruler named Calci (containing the root of the Nahuatl word for "house") is frequently mentioned in the Inquisition trials against Yanhuitlan rulers in 1544–1546, where it is stated that don Domingo de Guzmán used to honor Calci's death during specific ceremonies. Another document, produced in 1563, states that a ruler named Francisco Calci was succeeded directly by don Domingo, who governed Yanhuitlan at the time of the Spanish conquest. Given that the same information is found in three unrelated sources, it seems quite believable that a person named Francisco Calci, Lord 9 House, did in fact possess the yuhui tayu at some point. It is not clear, however, exactly when he was the town's ruler, whether before or after Lord 8 Death and Lady 1 Flower. The fact that he is not mentioned in the document discussed above relating Yanhuitlan's genealogy is not surprising because Calci's rulership interrupted the direct line of descent from preHispanic times that don Gabriel intended to prove in the lawsuit.
Abrupt changes in local government may have had something to do with Spanish incursions, which began in the region as early as 1520, when Hernán Cortés sent some envoys to the southern stretches of Mesoamerica, where most of the Mexica gold was acquired. By 1522, the Spaniards had already conquered the Mixteca, encountering military resistance only in Tecomastlahuaca (or Tecomavaca), Quiotepec, and Coixtlahuaca. In 1523, Yanhuitlan became an encomienda (land and tribute grant) when Cortés granted the privilege to his cousin Francisco de las Casas, a Trujillo native. As numerous Spanish and Mixtec witnesses declared in the 1540s, the encomienda of Yanhuitlan was considered one of the richest in New Spain because of the abundance of natural and human resources.
Native Resistance and Adaptation: Two Early Sources
The Mixteca did not pay the price of a military conquest, with the consequent barbaric and vindictive destruction, but two closely related sources from the decades immediately preceding the beginning of church construction give a nuanced and complicated picture of the sociopolitical climate in the region at the time of the Spanish invasion. The lack of military subjugation meant that power had to be negotiated on a local level over a period of several decades before reaching even a temporary adjustment. First, there are the well-known proceedings from an Inquisitorial trial probing the hereditary ruler and governors of Yanhuitlan over illegal religious practices more than a decade after these leaders had been baptized (between 1544 and 1546). Second, a pictographic manuscript, known as Codex Yanhuitlan (ca. 1550), details Mixtec, Spanish, and Dominican activities in the town over a twenty-year period. These two sources are in many respects complementary.
In terms of format, the Inquisition trials are the product of the Spanish legal system and reflect the agenda and concerns of the Crown and church in the conquered territory. The written proceedings consist of testimonies and interrogations of Mixtec peoples, Spanish residents, and Dominican friars from Yanhuitlan and nearby towns who were directly questioned about specific religious practices that had allegedly persisted uninterrupted in Yanhuitlan and surrounding subject towns since before the arrival of the evangelizing friars. Idolatría (idolatry), diablo (devil), and hechicería (witchcraft) are recurrent terms throughout the text of the proceedings.
The pictographic manuscript, in contrast, still functions within the pre-Hispanic tradition. Although it was drafted on paper and bound as a European book, alphabetic (Mixtec) glosses are scarce in the document and were evidently added later, without substantially altering the narrative, which is conveyed pictorially. All events depicted are postconquest, but dates are recorded according to the Mixtec calendar, indicating not only local manufacture but also an intended Mixtec and local audience.
As such, it would seem easy to assume that the latter, pictorial source better represents the Mixtec point of view, while the former texts express chiefly colonialist Spanish biases. This is only partly true, however. Although personal rivalries and factionalism, evident throughout the trial, may undermine the factual reliability of the source, accusations by Mixtec peoples were nevertheless articulated according to a direct Native experience of traditional religion. If questions by Spanish judges were framed according to a Western Christian mentality, the answers from the Mixtec, raised in precolonial times, reflect fully their understanding and knowledge of precontact culture. On the other hand, the pictographic document, despite the use of the Mesoamerican writing system, betrays the changing attitude of Yanhuitlan leaders toward the conquest, both political and spiritual. The document can be better understood as a testimony to the acculturative strategy of the Mixtec elite, who, instead of fighting and resisting conquering forces, took full advantage of their role as mediators between conquered and conquerors to secure economic and social privileges within the new order. In this document, Mixtec leaders ostentatiously wear Spanish clothes and subserviently pay tribute in both staple and luxury goods to the Spaniards. Indigenous agency is more clearly visible in this conscious adaptive strategy, even though important Mixtec institutions are also portrayed.
The substantial differences between the two sources derive from the dramatic changes that occurred in Yanhuitlan in the few years separating the Inquisition trials from the production of the pictographic manuscript. After having successfully rejected the demands and impositions of the friars for a few decades, thanks to the alliance with the Spanish encomendero, Yanhuitlan leaders finally had to succumb under the pressure of the friars, who were supported politically and militarily by the Crown. The Inquisition trials were instrumental in the return of the Dominicans after their initial expulsion in the early 1530s. Consequently, the pictographic manuscript, produced ten years later, reflects the post-Inquisition political and spiritual status quo in Yanhuitlan.
The Inquisition Trials
The Yanhuitlan Inquisition trials, documented by more than three hundred handwritten pages, are among the most important and well-known cases of New Spain's Inquisitorial persecution in the sixteenth century. Excerpts were first published by Jiménez Moreno and Mateos Higuera as a documentary appendix to the commentary on Codex Yanhuitlan. They have been more recently transcribed and published by Sepúlveda y Herrera. My analysis is based on the transcription made by the late France V. Scholes, which is today at the University of New Mexico. The trial spans two and a half years, from August 1544 to January 1547. Three prominent members of local political leadership were brought before the Inquisitor Tello de Sandoval: the regent ruler don Domingo de Guzmán, don Francisco de las Casas, and don Juan (no last name), principales (nonruling nobles). The naming patterns of the three nobles reflect to a certain extent the Mixtec perceived value of Christian conversion. As stated in the proceedings, don Domingo, don Francisco, and don Juan changed the Catholic names they had been given at baptism when they were confirmed by the bishop of Oaxaca years later. In the pre-Hispanic tradition, people were given a date name at birth, later in life adding personal names that reflected their character and achievements. Don Domingo de Guzmán adopted the namesake of the founder of the Dominican order, also the patron of the town and church. This decision shows that he considered himself not only a political leader but also a moral and spiritual guide to his people, in spite of the friars' attempts to usurp the religious role of traditional rulership.
The case of don Francisco de las Casas is also worth noting. He adopted the name of the first encomendero of Yanhuitlan and gave his son the name Gonzalo, the same as the encomendero's son. The Extremaduran Francisco de las Casas played a prominent role in the town in the first decades after the conquest. He is often mentioned in the proceedings as a supporter of local leaders, acting with them against the friars. Many witnesses testified that the alliance between the encomendero and the yya had been the major obstacle to the successful evangelization of the area. It is said that the encomendero Francisco de las Casas urged the Mixtec not to pay tribute to the friars and to refuse to work for them. When the yya and principales were forced to bring their sacred images to the friars, don Francisco suggested they give up only the old ones, secretly keeping the new and precious ones.
The alliance between local rulers and Spanish encomenderos against the Spanish Crown and clergy was a widespread phenomenon in New Spain in the sixteenth century. Encomenderos, led by Hernán Cortés, fought to maintain the right to pass on to their descendants the land grants they initially received as payment for their military duties during the conquest. By this strategy, conquistadors were ultimately seeking to establish politically independent kingdoms on the continent. Besides the obvious economic advantages, this plan often took on religious overtones. In central Mexico, some Franciscan friars embraced the conquistadors' quest, adding a utopian and messianic spirit to the encomenderos' political plan. Clues that Francisco de las Casas may have shared these ideas are found in passages in the trial proceedings, where witnesses testified that the encomendero had been instructing local Mixtec on matters of faith and had married them according to the Catholic church, in all taking on the role of the Dominicans in the evangelization. Also, members of the Las Casas family (either Francisco or his son Gonzalo) paid the bail of two thousand pesos that freed don Domingo. The yya ruled in Yanhuitlan for another fifteen years after the trials, which were likely settled without any conviction.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Building Yanhuitlan"
by .
Copyright © 2017 University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
