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A Document Concerning the Franciscan Custody of Rio Verde, 1648: Historical Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Mathias C. Kiemen O.F.M.
Mathias C. Kiemen O.F.M.*
Affiliation:
Academy of American Franciscan History, Washington, D. C
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Extract

The franciscan custody, or Minor Province, of Rio Verde in Mexico occupied a comparatively small section of that large country. It lay between the present cities of San Luis Potosí and Tampico. We can say that its boomerang-shaped territory made up part of the southeastern part of the modern state of San Luis Potosí and extended northward to the southwestern section of the modern state of Tamaulipas, and possibly into the southernmost tip of the state of Nuevo León. Missionary endeavor soon encompassed this section of New Spain to the north of Mexico City. With a sort of holy emulation the Franciscan provinces vied with one another in staking claims—spiritual claims—to large sections of the “land of the Chichimecs” or marauding pagan Indians to the north of Aztec domination. The new section of which we will speak in this paper is called “Rio Verde” from a tributary river of the same name, which flows into the Río Panuco and thence to the Atlantic. It was called “verde” either because of its dark color, due to depth, or because of the green verdure along its banks.

Since it was the Franciscan Province of San Pedro y San Pablo of Michoacán that began the work of evangelizing Rio Verde and continued it throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is necessary to review in a few brief sentences the early history of this Franciscan province.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , October 1955 , pp. 296 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1955

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References

1 In the state of San Luis Potosí, the custody included the modern towns of Rio Verde, Lagunillas, Alaquines, and Maíz. In Tamaulipas, the custody included the present-day towns of Tula, Palmillas, and Jaumave. See Lejarza, Fidel de O.F.M., Conquista espiritual del Nuevo Santander (Madrid, 1947), map facing p. 186Google Scholar.

2 Velazquez, Primo Feliciano, Historia de San Luis Potosí, bajo el dominio español, II (Mexico, 1947), 93 Google Scholar. For an appreciation of Franciscan missionary efforts, see Cuevas, Mariano S.J., Historia de la Iglesia en México, IV (El Paso, 1928), 124 fGoogle Scholar.

3 de Espinosa, Isidro Félix, Crónica de la provincia franciscana de los apóstoles San Pedro y San Pablo de Michoacan (Mexico, 1945), pp. 111 ff. and 259–277 Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Espinosa, Crónica Michoacan. See also Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of Mexico, HI, 1521–1600 (San Francisco, 1886), 718 fGoogle Scholar. Espinosa mentions that the reason Fr. Martin, the “V. Fundador” was not the first custos was that he was still busy at the time with his journeys. He died in 1558. In 1567, when Michoacán-Jalisco became one Franciscan province, there were twenty-one convents in Michoacan, and twenty-six in Jalisco, with a combined total of 240 friars, not counting clerics, lay brothers, and novices.

4 Espinosa, Crónica Michoacan, pp. 376 f.

5 Bancroft, History of Mexico, II, 1521–1600, p. 395, is quoting Motilinia, who says: “In the year 1539 two friars [unidentified] passed through the province of Michuacán and visited some people who are called Chichimecas.… Here the two friars of whom I speak discovered about thirty little towns, the largest of which had not more than six hundred inhabitants.” See Steck, Francis Borgia O.F.M. (ed.), Motilinia’s History of the Indians of New Spain [Publications of the Academy of American Franciscan History. Documentary Series, Vol. I] (Washington, D. C, 1951), p. 257 Google Scholar. See ibid, for mention of possible earlier penetration into this territory.

6 Velazquez, op. cit., I, 356–359, 472. For added details on Fray Cossin, see ibid., pp. 407 f. For more on Fray Juan de San Miguel, see Bancroft, History of Mexico, 11, 1521–1600, p. 716, n. 42; p. 722; and Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, pp. 88, 141–151, 153–157. See also Eduardo Ríos, E., Fray Juan de San Miguel: Fundador de pueblos (Mexico, 1943)Google Scholar.

7 Velazquez, op. cit., I, 410–413. Fray Andrés de Olmos, O.F.M., was a friend of Juan de Zumárraga. He [Olmos] labored all told some forty-three years in various parts of New Spain. He died about the year 1571, being over eighty years old. Many miracles are attributed to him. See Bancroft, History of Mexico, 11, 1521–1600, pp. 558 f. According to F. B. Steck, op. cit., p. 257, n. 25, Father Andrés de Olmos “is known to have been active among them [the Chichimecas] considerably before 1539.” P. W. Powell in his article “Franciscans on the Silver Frontier of Old Mexico,” The Americas, III (1947), 300 f. states that Father Olmos “began his apostolate [in the Panuco province] in the 1530’s.”

8 Velazquez, op. cit., I, 412 f. According to Bancroft, History of Mexico, II, 1521–1600, p. 763, n. 16, Fray Diego de la Magdalena is claimed by some to be the founder of the city of San Luis Potosí.

9 Velazquez, op. cit., I, 413. It was during the years 1576–1591 that the mining town of San Luis Potosí grew slowly into a city. It was a rich district, but trouble with the fierce Chichimecs (a name the Spaniards gave to all the various savage tribes to the north of Mexico City) slowed down colonization for a long time. Finally in 1591 a sort of truce was arranged by the mestizo Captain Caldera, whose mother was a Chichimeca. The Spaniards agreed to pay an indemnity of cattle and clothes to the Indians. Four hundred families of Tlascalans, according to the treaty, were to be settled in the north east, with Franciscans as missionaries. See Bancroft, History of Mexico, II, 1521–1600, pp. 760–764. For more details on this and on the whole frontier system adopted by the Spaniards in this wild mining region, see Powell, Philip W., Soldiers, Indians and Silver. The Northward Advance of New Spain, 1550–1600 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1952), pp. 214–216 Google Scholar, and passim.

10 Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, p. 430. He mentions that he found this information in the baptismal book of the convent of Xichú.

11 Ibid., pp. 429 f. No date of death is given. Much of the following information concerning the Custody of Rio Verde, given by Velazquez and Espinosa is taken from la Rea, Alonso de, Crònica de la Orden de N. Serafico P.S. Francisco, Provincia de San Pedro y San Pablo de Mechoacán en la Nueva España. Compuesta por el P. Lector de Teología Fr. Alonso de la Rea de la misma provincia. Dedicada á N.P. Fr. Cristóbal Vaz, Ministro Provincial de ella (Mexico, 1643; 2nd ed., Mexico, 1882), pp. 384–424 Google Scholar. This book will hereafter be cited as de la Rea, Crònica.

12 Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, pp. 433 ff.; de la Rea, Crònica, p. 393. Velazquez, op. cit., I, 472 f. has it that Fray Juan de Cárdenas and Fray Juan Bautista Mollinedo left from the convent of Xichú together in 1607, and worked together for some time in the region of Rio Verde. Hereafter, to avoid confusion, the word “pueblo” will be used when speaking of the town of Rio Verde, to distinguish it from the region of the same name. For details on the life of Fr. Mollinedo, see de la Rea, Cronica, pp. 384–388.

13 Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, pp. 433–445; de la Rea, Crònica, p. 401. Another reason for the difficulty in recruiting friars for Rio Verde may have been the “mountainous character of the land and the isolation of the tribes there [which] had never allowed pacification along the lines used in the plateau region.” Powell, Soldiers, Indians, and Silver, p. 201. Fray Buenaventura Salinas y Cordova in his “Relación del Viaje, 1648,” transcribed below, calls Mollinedo “el apóstol del Rio Verde.”

14 Velazquez, op. cit., II, 94 f.

15 Ibid., II, 96. Bancroft, in his History of Mexico, III, 1600–1803 (San Francisco, 1887), p. 715, gives this year, 1612, as the year of the founding of the Río Verde missions.

16 Velazquez, op. cit., II, 97 f.

17 Ibid., II, 98–105. See ibid, for the name of the friar at each station.

18 Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, p. 441. Espinosa seems to be quoting de la Rea, Cronica, p. 401.

19 Velazquez, op. cit., II, 106.

20 Ibid., II, 106. Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, pp. 441–444; de la Rea, Crònica, p. 410. The dispute over episcopal jurisdiction caused trouble again in S. Luis Potosí in 1630–1641, but in 1641 it was decided to allow the Franciscans and Augustinians around S. Luis Potosí to keep jurisdiction over the Indians of the doctrinas originally granted to the Orders. See Velazquez, op. cit., II, 169 ff.

21 Ibid., pp. 444 f. See also de la Rea, Crònica, pp. 412–414. The Relación del viaje, 1648, the transcript of which makes up the second part of this paper, treats of Fr. Mollinedo and his efforts and of the “disgraceful” actions of the seventeen missionaries.

22 Velazquez, op. cit., II, 106 f. Among the large landowners who ran cattle in the area was Luis de Cárdenas, a, relative of the aforementioned Fray Juan Cárdenas.

23 Ibid., II, 147 f.

24 “… no faltaban ministros, que… daban vueltas a tiempo.…” Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, p. 445.

25 Ibid., II, 149.

26 Ibid., II, 163 ff.

27 Ibid., II, 165.

28 Ibid., II, 165 f.; Espinosa, Crónica Michoacan, pp. 469–474; de la Rea, Cronica, pp. 415–419. See also the Relación, where Fray Buenaventura de Salinas y Cordova praises Fray Cristóbal Vas highly, and indirectly blames the other provincials for not having done more for Rio Verde.

29 Espinosa, Crónica Michoacan, p. 474 f.

30 Ibid., pp. 475 f. See also Bancroft, History of Mexico, III, 1600–1803, p. 715. The Relación mentions these sixteen religious procured by Fray Hermoso Estrada.

31 Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, p. 476. The Relación was probably intended for the Consejo de Indias, although there is no salutation given. It was certainly intended for someone who had influence in mission matters. It was written in Mexico City, at the convent of San Francisco, March 8, 1648. The scribe signs himself as Fray Francisco Claro. The Spanish style is good, abounding in plays on words. Occasionally, however, the Relación seems to become a trifle prolix, especially when describing the childlike joy of the Indians at seeing Fray Buenaventura. It seems to me that the Indians of Rio Verde would have become quite unmoved by portents of better times, after being so often disappointed in the past.

32 For the above biographical and bibliographical information concerning Fray Buenaventura, see Memorial, informe y manifiesto del P. F. Buenaventura de Salinas y Cordova, de la Orden de S. Francisco, Letor lubilado, Calificador del Consejo de la Santa General Inquisición, Padre de la Provincia de los Doze Apóstoles de Lima, y Comissário General de las de la Nueva-España … (Madrid, 1646?), passim. See also José Toribio Medina, La Imprenta en Lima, 1584–1824, I (Santiago de Chile, 1904), 272–275. I am also indebted to the Rev. Benjamin Gento Sanz, O.F.M., for letting me examine an unpublished MS entitled “Semblanza histórica del cronista Fr. Diego de Cordova y Salinas, a través de algunos documentos del archivo de San Francisco de Lima.” Fr. Sanz devotes the first sixteen pages to Fr. Diego’s brother, Fray Buenaventura.

33 See the Relación, p. 233. The account of the actual trip through Rio Verde Custody occupies pp. 234–247 of the Relación.

34 See the Relación, passim, for details concerning all the above remarks. P. 247 gives the “argument” of the relación: the charge that missionary work in Rio Verde is useless and impossible is refuted with stirring words.

35 For a summary account of this trip of Salinas y Córdova, see Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, pp. 476 f. Espinosa mentions that the Indians, in return for all his presents, gave him a precious trinket of worked virgin silver from the mines of Guadalcázar. The friar took it with him to Mexico City and gave it to the viceroy, who, in turn, sent it to Philip IV. The Relación does not mention this return gift of the Indians, although it records that Fray Buenaventura, prevailed upon by the Indians, accepted some gifts such as chickens, raw sugar, etc.

36 Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, p. 478.

37 Velazquez, op. cit., II, 225 f.

38 Ibid., II, 253 f.

39 Ibid., II, 287 ff.

40 Ibid., II, 323.

41 Ibid., II, 365.

42 Espinosa, Crónica Michoacán, p. 479. See Lejarza, op. cit., for an account of the reconquest of Rio Verde as part of the Colonia de Nuevo Santander, after the rebellions of the early eighteenth century.

43 Velazquez, op. cit., II, 457.

44 Ibid., II, 467 f.

45 Ibid., II, 470–472.

46 Lejarza, op. cit., p. 438.

47 Bancroft, History of Mexico, III, 1600–1803, pp. 715 f.