CONTESTING CONQUEST

Indigenous Perspectives on the Spanish Occupation of Nueva G.

Ida Altman

The Pennsylvania State University Press

University Park, Pennsylvania
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Altman, Ida, author.

Title: Contesting conquest: indigenous perspectives
on the Spanish occupation of Nueva Galicia / Ida
Altman.
Other titles: Latin American originals ; 12.
Description: University Park, Pennsylvania :
The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2017] |
Series: Latin American originals; 12 [ Includes bib­
liographical references and index.
Summary: "An English translation of accounts of
the experiences and responses of the indigenous
peoples of western Mexico in the first half of the This book is dedicated to the memory of
sixteenth century to Spanish efforts to establish
control over the region that they would call Nueva
Galicia"—Provided by publisher. Richmond F. Brown and James Lockhart.
Identifiers: lccn 2017025908 | isbn 9780271078564
(pbk.: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Nueva Galicia—History—16th cen­
tury—Sources, j Mexico—History—Conquest,
1519-1540—Sources. | Indians of Mexico—Mex­
ico—Nueva Galicia—History—16th century—
Sources. | Indians, Treatment of—Mexico—Nueva
Galicia—History—16th century—Sources.
| Spaniards—Mexico—Nueva Galicia—His­
tory—16th century—Sources. | Mixton War,
1541-1542—Sources.
Classification: icc F1296 .A65 2017 | ddc 972/
.02—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017025908

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Ten am aztle's Lament

This letter from don Francisco Tenamaztle was written in 1555, while
he was living in exile in the important north-central Spanish city of
Valladolid, where he very possibly was held in a Dominican monas­
tery.1 The letter probably was the result of a collaboration between
Tenamaztle and a Spanish clergyman, very likely the renowned
defender of the Indians, fray Bartolome de Las Casas, who was living
in Spain during that time.
Tenamaztle was from Nochistlan, a Cazcan province in western
Mexico. The Cazcan language was similar to Nahuatl, the language
of central Mexico, perhaps sufficiently so that the two languages
were mutually intelligible. Tenamaztle held an important position
in Nochistlan; he was the brother of the lord and had his own fol­
lowing.2 He was baptized by the Spaniards, receiving the Christian
name Francisco. He served the Franciscans in Nochistlan as a reli­
gious aide in their church and monastery. Indeed, he was recognized
by the Spaniards as the leader of the community and given the staff
of office, which may suggest that his brother failed to come to terms
with the newcomers. By the time of the uprising in late 1540, how­
ever, their roles seem to have reversed. Tenamaztle had become so
alienated from the Spaniards that he left Nochistlan with his people
to take refuge in one of the strongholds some Cazcanes had estab­
lished in league with the still-independent Zacatecas to the north.

1. See Leon-Portilla, Flecha en el bianco. Leon-Portilla concludes that Bartolome

de Las Casas participated in the writing of the letter. The original dates from July 1555.
2. Tenamaztle may have been considered a secondary ruler. It was not unusual
for communities in western Mexico to have more than one ruler.
24 ] CONTESTING CONQUEST
TENAMAZTLE'S LAMENT

Taken captive following one of the battles of the war, Tenamaztle ness and appear before this Royal Council of the Indies.
escaped during a daring rescue carried out by his supporters and I have been sent to these kingdoms of Castile by the viceroy of
retreated north to the mountains. After nearly ten years he turned New Spain, don Luis de Velasco,5 a prisoner and exile, alone,
himself over to Franciscans, apparently hoping for reconciliation and dispossessed of my rank and lordship and of my wife and chil­
amnesty. The bishop of Nueva Galicia, however, sent him to Mexico dren, in all poverty, thirst and hunger and extreme necessity,
City, and from there he was sent into exile in Spain. What impact his by. sea and by land, suffering many injuries and insults and
letter and deposition had, if any, is unknown. He died in Spain soon persecutions from many people and with other many serious
after it was written.3 toils and dangers to my life. And for this cause I have been dis­
The language in which the letter was written (Spanish) raises placed, by which I have been greatly harmed, against all reason
questions as to its authorship. Possibly Tenamaztle spoke Nahuatl as and justice. ...
a second language and in addition might have learned Spanish, either Because it has not been enough that the Spaniards have done
from the Franciscans in Nueva Galicia or during his time in Mexico to me so very many and irreparable outrages [that are] unbe­
City and years of exile in Spain. Did he collaborate on the letter with lievable for men of this world, making unjust and extremely
someone in Spain who knew Nahuatl, or had he become sufficiently cruel wars on me, killing many of my vassals and people and
proficient in Spanish that he was able to dictate or write parts of it my relatives and kin, and running me off, forcing me to go
himself? Some of the language closely resembles that of Las Casas fleeing and in exile from my home and country and wife and
and other religious figures who protested against and condemned children through the mountains for many years for fear of
Spanish treatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. At the those that plot against and persecute my life. Later, in the time
same time the syntax and vocabulary in at least parts of the letter of peace, if indeed it could be called peace and not actually cruel
are very awkward, seemingly not the language of an educated cler­ war, [they] wickedly and shamefully hanged many great lords,
gyman. It is clear that Tenamaztle participated in some fashion in my vassals as well as relatives and friends.
writing the letter, describing with great bitterness what he and his The beginning and means of these losses and injuries [we]
relatives and compatriots experienced at the hands of the Spaniards. received was Nuno de Guzman, who first came to my coun­
These details appear in the letter. try, I being their ruler, not recognizing any other ruler in this
world as superior, as the public enemy of my lordship and
Very powerful lords, republic, violent oppressor of me and my subjects against all
Don Francisco Tenamaztle, chief or ruler of the province of laws of nature and of peoples, being in my country and they
' Nochistlan and Xalisco,41 kiss the feet and hands of Your High- secure and peaceful, [acting] as if it were against enemies [who
were] already declared and defying the Christian people, or of
the kings of Castile, that the universal church or his kingdoms
3. A series of payments authorized by the Council of the Indies in 1556 (Indife-
rente General 425 L. 23, AGI) shows that Tenamaztle was treated for an illness and would have gravely offended with great arrogance. To which I
died by October of that year. A payment of six ducados was made to Inocencio Nunez, would justifiably have resisted with arms, with whatever force,
criado of "don Francisco Tenamaztle" (fol. 245 recto), and other funds were designated as a man infamous as a tyrant, destroyer, and oppressor of the
for items he needed. In September 1556 twelve ducados were paid for his medical
treatment (fol. 249 recto). A Dr. Peharanda received four ducados "for his work in vis­
Mexican peoples and those of Panuco6 and Michoacan for the
iting don Francisco Tenamaztle, deceased, during his illness, which was from twenty-
five of September until the fifth of this present month of October [1556F (fol. 253 5. Don Luis de Velasco succeeded don Antonio de Mendoza as viceroy of New
verso). Spain in 1552.
4. Xalisco was an important community in central Nueva Galicia and is the focus 6. Nuno de Guzman became governor of Panuco, the region to the northeast
of chapter 4. Spaniards began to use the name to refer to a larger region, which is the of central Mexico, in 1527. He undertook extensive slaving campaigns, sending many
sense in which it is used here. captives to the large islands of the Caribbean. See Chipman, Nuno de Guzman.
26 | CONTESTING CONQUEST TENAMAZTLE'S LAMENT n

cruelties that he had done in those provinces, killing and tortur­ there told us that they had come to teach us that we should
ing kings and great lords and many others without number so know the one and true God, the just and pious king of Castile
they would give him gold and silver, as was the terrible cruelty [and] and only for that reason.
he wreaked on the king, the cazonci of Michoacan7 and others At this time I was one of the first who, as a result of the
here and in other parts.... teaching and persuasion of the said friars, converted and
Because I, the said don Francisco, wanted only to go out in received the holy sacrament of baptism, along with many lords
peace, ordering my people to receive the Spaniards in a gracious and commoners. With all the pueblos being quiet and secure in
and friendly way, and they gave them in great abundance the these days, he [Guzman] sent by night people on foot and on
supplies they needed and giving them a very good welcome horseback to assault us, and all those whom they took—because
from a natural and excessive charity in which nothing more they took whom they wanted—they made into slaves and with
could be done for them, putting myself in great danger that I a brand that said they belonged to the king they ordered them
did from the very great evil and harm that later came to me branded. And in this fashion they made so many [slaves] that
and all that belonged to me they did. He [Guzman] later went they were innumerable, men and women, children of all ages,
on to the province of Culiacan8 to look for the gold and riches leaving husbands without wives and wives without husbands,
they sought. He devastated that province, which was one of the children without parents and parents without children; and
most beautiful and populous in the world, killing whomever thus they sent them to sell to the mines and in other parts of
they found without respect to sex or age or status, wrecking New Spain, wherever they would pay best.10
the houses of the people, children and old people, young and Besides that, the said Nuno de Guzman and his retainers,
elderly, setting them on fire and watching them burn alive. being more merciless than others, and all the other Spaniards
Having destroyed that province, very soon he returned to afflicted each of the pueblos and Indians whom they held with
Xalisco, and to repay the hospitality that I and my people and excessive work both in the mines and outside of them [and
all the other rulers provided, with the [same] payment and with] pitiless oppression, treating them with such severity in all
gratitude that they showed those of Panuco, he decided to settle manner of servitude and inhumanity, as if they were made of
there because our province seemed to be more in the territory iron or metal, no more taking into account their well-being and
of gold and silver. And he placed me, the said don Francisco, and lives than if they were wild beasts in the countryside.
my people and many other rulers and lords with their people in The injustices and cruelties that Juan de Onate and Cris­
the customary harsh captivity and servitude that the Spaniards tobal de Onate and Miguel de Ibarra,11 whom he made captains,
call encomiendas, distributing to each Spaniard the pueblos committed in that kingdom [of Nueva Galicia] could not be
and their residents, as if we were beasts in the field, however it imagined nor conceived. They hanged nine leading lords, oth­
seemed best to him and his captains. And I and my people and ers of my kinsmen, nobles, and principal vassals because as a
the other caciques9 and people suffering with patience the said result of the ill-treatment, whippings, and beatings and other
captivity. And also the friars of San Francisco who later came
10. Guzman and his captains undertook extensive slaving campaigns in Nueva
Galicia from 1535 t0 early 1537/ officially reporting the capture and enslavement of
7. See chapter 2. Guzman held the cazonci hostage and tortured him and others more than 4,600 men, women, and children.
in hopes of wresting treasure from him. He had him tried for treason and executed. 11. Juan and Cristobal de Onate were brothers. Juan left the region in 1536,
Michoacan was home to the Tarascan or Purepecha state, which was independent of the reportedly for Peru, but Cristobal remained. He was the encomendero of Xalisco and
Aztec Empire. See Warren, Conquest of Michoacan. became acting governor of Nueva Galicia when the third governor, Francisco Vazquez
8. Culiacan is in modern Sinaloa. de Coronado, departed for the expedition to New Mexico in 1540. Miguel de Ibarra was
9. Spaniards used the term cacique, which they learned in the Caribbean, to refer active throughout the Mixton War and played a role in the opening of silver mines in
to a native chief or ruler. Zacatecas, where Cristobal de Onate became one of the leading mine owners.
23 CONTESTING CONQUEST TENAM AZTLE'S LAMENT 29

different evil, merciless, and insufferable bad treatment that the dom one in one hundred, there being no justice nor means to
Indian commoners received, being unable to suffer any more obtain it, nor anyone to whom to complain or ask it, because all
such iniquity and wickedness, [they] fled to the mountains just were and are our sworn enemies because they all robbed and
as a gentle ox naturally will flee from the slaughterhouse. And afflicted and oppressed and tyrannized us, as to this day they
they would follow them as a hunting party [and should they do, I decided also to escape with the few people who remained
in] defending themselves hurt or kill some Spaniards, with the to me, to save them and myself, as by natural law one is obli­
rulers and lords secure in their houses serving the encomende- gated, because if I did not flee I too, with the same injustice
ros, they would hang them for what certain people had done. and cruelty, would be hanged. That flight and natural defense,
And in this fashion for these reasons they hanged many rulers very powerful lords, Spaniards, misusing their words in all
and nobles, increasing every day the injuries and irreparable the Indies,13 call and have always called rebelling against the
harm, calamities, harsh captivity, deaths, and depopulations we King. ...
suffered, then arriving by sea the adelantado Alvarado and five I was in flight and hidden for nine years, where if I did not
hundred men going to discover [the South Sea islands], who wish it, no Spaniard would ever see or find me. But remember­
were lodged in that province. And those discoveries were made ing that I was a Christian, and going through the mountains
by many Spaniards in territory whose people were afflicted by I could not continue to be a Christian or live or rest, believing
outrages after outrages, evil after evil, robbery after robbery, also that in coming from where I was safe to my own land and
and violation and rape of married women and daughters who lordship that I inherited from my parents and of which I had
were taken, and other uncountable [acts], that everyone in been despoiled and deprived, without just cause nor reason nor
those lands knows is true, which is the sole custom and habit was I acknowledged, I came alone and of my free will to offer
of the Spaniards wherever they go in these Indies. myself to the bishop of those provinces14 so that he could deal
And so, all the kingdom being afflicted, oppressed, weary, with the Spaniards, [thinking] that I would be received with
destroyed, and those who remained in such a beaten-down friendship and humanity and Christianity.. . .
and calamitous state that they did not doubt their utter end The bishop told me that he thought we should go to see the
and destruction, as so many innumerable thousands had been viceroy don Antonio de Mendoza as the person who would
destroyed, if the said servitude, contrary to all natural jus­ be served by my return. I told him that I agreed with good
tice to be free people commended to the Spaniards, as we are, will. And thus we came to Mexico City and found that he
continued, they resolved to flee to the mountains and fortify [Mendoza]15 already had left, and don Luis [de Velasco] had
themselves in order to defend their own lives and those of arrived as successor in his place.
their women and children, given that God and nature concede I was there one year with the bishop. At that time he died,
this natural defense even to the beasts and to things without and wishing to return with his priests to my home, the vice­
feelings, and all the laws, divine and human, favor and defend roy detained me, and without any reason or new justification
[them] and hold them as legitimate. beyond those which I have already described, had me arrested
And I, don Francisco, seeing how inhumanely and without and put in chains and taken to Veracruz to embark and bring
justice all the nine rulers, being secure in their homes and lands,
had been hanged, and many and innumerable vassals of mine 13. At this time the Spanish commonly referred to the Americas as Las Indias,
from Columbus's mistaken conviction that he had found a route to Asia.
had perished, not remaining of all the vecinos12 of that king­
14. The first bishop of Nueva Galicia was Pedro Gomez de Maraver, who arrived
in the province in 1547 and died several years later.
12. The term vecino has varied meanings. In the sixteenth century it usually 15. Don Antonio de Mendoza was the first and longest-serving viceroy of New
meant a citizen or head of household, but here he seems to be using the term more Spain, from 1535 to 1551. Although Mendoza was in poor health and exhausted, the
generally to refer to residents. It also, as today, could mean neighbor. king sent him to serve as viceroy to Peru, where he died in 1552.
30 | CONTESTING CONQUEST TENAMAZTLE'S LAMENT I 31

me prisoner here [Castile] with outrages and abuses, hunger not come to the service of God nor obedience to Your Majesty,
and thirst and debasement of myself, which I already have that for the great harm and evil that they have received from
begun to address. . . . the Spaniards, for those that have heard of [what] their neigh­
I ask and entreat Your Highness that, having before your bors and the provinces where the Spaniards have arrived have
eyes only God and the truth and justice, and [given that] I am suffered, and many other pueblos are hidden, fierce, and in
a Christian and that the hard persecutions and intolerable dam­ mortal hatred and enmity of them because of their horror of
ages, plunders, captivities, pursuits, and exile that I and mine what they have perpetrated wherever they arrived. All these I
have suffered and those of us still alive still suffer, and the offer to bring, without lances or swords, Your Majesty giving
misery and misfortune in which I am presently unjustly placed, me a bishop and some friars with whom I would go from here
you order remedied and have justice done in the following and there proclaim and preach as the priests [do] in other places
things. and make good the will of Your Majesty. And of the grant that
First, that because if I made a criminal complaint about those would be promised to do and will do for them the most impor­
who contrary to natural justice law have done against me so tant is and I put this first as a condition for my complying of
many deaths and arrests, offenses, insults, and harm, however what I would offer those nations—that Your Majesty give me
many, Your Highness, they would not order [them] killed; and a letter and royal provision and guarantee for them with all the
if I did or I made a civil accusation that they should pay and force of privilege and justice that one can place' [on it] that all
satisfy said harm and damage, neither they nor all their lin­ the pueblos and peoples that I bring to peace and who by my
eages would suffice, even if they had great incomes and rank to effort come, from that time will be incorporated into the royal
satisfy me and the other rulers and lords and all that kingdom Crown of Castile and that at no time and for no cause, reason,
and its vecinos who are the aggrieved and injured ones. or necessity, while they are true to their oath and devotion to
In order to spare my complaint and also the danger to my the kings of Castile, will they be removed or commended to
life and person that I suffer being in a country so different and Spaniards or any other individual nor given in fief nor by any
[more] extreme in cold and heat than mine where I was born other means that can be conceived. And that the rulers and nat­
and brought up... trusting in the rectitude and equality that ural lords will remain and be maintained and confirmed in their
this Royal Council of the Indies also uses in the prosecution rank and lordships, and their heirs will succeed them in con­
of justice ... Your Highness will hold that it is good to order formity with the just laws and customs that they have, always
that the vecinos and residents of the pueblos of Nochis tian recognizing as supreme and sovereign the lords and kings the
and Xuchipila and their subject communities be put at liberty, universal kings of Castile.
ordering that I be reinstated in their lordship as something
that is properly mine and that my parents left me and from Don Francisco Tenamaztle
which I have been dispossessed; and that Your Highness should
incorporate me and all of them in the royal Crown of Castile,
in whose devotion and service I wish always to live [and] those
who succeed me and under the royal banner each and every
time to serve as a vassal, for which I will do homage according
to the customs and laws of Castile.
And in fulfillment of that I will work to attract to the service
of the royal Crown the Acatlecas [Zacatecas] and Coachichiles
[Huachichiles], which are other nations that are wild and have