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The Role of the Letrado in the Colonization of America*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Javier Malagón-Barceló
Javier Malagón-Barceló*
Affiliation:
Organization of American State, Washington, D. C.
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Extract

When people speak of the Spanish conquest of America, they generally mention the outstanding figures, either heroic or odious, like Pizarro, Alvarado, Cortés, Benalcázar, Nuño de Guzmán, De Soto, Cabeza de Vaca, etc., but they forget those other figures, whose names in many cases have not even come down to us, who played just as important parts as the better-known leaders and who were the veritable “motors” of the conquest—and even more of the colonization: the royal scribes, the judges, the oidores, in a word, the letrados or men of the law. This statement is neither exaggerated nor one-sided. The letrados were the organizers of the Spanish empire, the empire that was able to sustain itself for three and a half centuries—or four up to the loss of the Antilles. There today in Santiago de Cuba a monument stands on San Juan Hill, near those of the mambi and of the American soldier, which is inscribed to the Spaniard as a ”homage to the defender of the last Spanish territory in America (1492-1898).“

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , July 1961 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1989

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Footnotes

*

Translated by Mathias C. Kiemen, O.F.M.

References

1 “La admisión del Derecho de Justiniano en las naciones medioevales ofrece caracteres communes a todas ellas y otros perculiares de cada una. Los factores generales de la admisión fueron la concurrencia a las Universidades italianas y la importación del conocimiento y de la aplicación del Derecho romano que fue su consecuencia, la creación de Universidades nacionales consagrades a la enseñanza de este Derecho y la influencia de los jurisconsultos que interviniendo en la administración de justicia, tomando parte en los trabajos legislativos y siendo al par comentaristas, abogados y notarios, introdujeron las nuevas doctrinas y les dieron arraigo en las leyes y, especialmente en la práctica… .” Hinojosa, Eduardo, “ La admisión del derecho romano en Cataluña,” Boletín de la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona, 10 (1910), 211 Google Scholar. This article (pp. 209–221) is one of the very few studies published concerning the reception of Roman law into Spain. Also to be consulted on this subject are the following: Hinojosa, E., Historia del derecho romano según las más recientes investigaciones, 2 (Madrid, 1885), 248–294 Google Scholar; de Diego, Felipe Clemente, Introducción al estudio de las instituciones de derecho romano (Madrid, 1910)Google Scholar; Altamira, Rafael, Das Römische Recht in Spanien (Breslau, 1906)Google Scholar; Riaza, Román, Historia de la literatura jurídica española (Madrid, 1930)Google Scholar. As general works the following also have some information: Vinogradoff, P., Il diretto romano nella Europa medievale (Palermo, 1914)Google Scholar; Hazeltime, , “Roman and Canon Law in the Middle Ages,” Cambridge Medieval History, 5, 697–764 Google Scholar. A bibliography with ample information, although now a trifle out-dated, is the doctoral thesis of Vance, John T., The Background of Hispanic American Law (Washington, 1937)Google Scholar. Worthwhile information may also be found in Malagón, Javier, La literatura jurídica española del siglo oro en la Nueva España (México, 1959).Google Scholar

2 See, in the first place, Beceña, Francisco, Magistratura y justicia (Madrid, 1924)Google Scholar; see also, de la Fuente, V., Historia de las universidades, colegios y demás establecimientos de enseñanza en España (4 vols.; Madrid, 1884)Google Scholar; Miret, y Sans, , “Escolars catalans al estudi de Bolonia en la XIII centuria,” Boletín de la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona, 13 (1915–1916), 137–155 Google Scholar; Milla, M.A. Ortiz, “El Colegio de España. Bologna 1364,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia [Madrid], LXIX (1916), 426.Google Scholar The various histories of Spanish universities should also be consulted, but for our purposes the following are of special interest: Arteaga, E. Esperabé, Historia pragmática e interna de la Universidad de Salamanca (2 vols.; Salamanca, 1914 and 1917)Google Scholar; Alcocer, M., Historia de la Universidad de Valladolid (Valladolid, n. d.)Google Scholar; del Arco, R., Memorias de la Universidad de Huesca (2 vols.; Zaragoza, 1911 and 1916)Google Scholar; Llorens, J. y Fábregas, , L’Universitat de Lleyda (Lérida, 1900)Google Scholar; and Rafols, E. Serra, Acerca de una universidad medieval. El estudio general de Lérida (Madrid, 1931).Google Scholar

3 Beceña, op. cit.; Hinojosa, , “La admisión del derecho romano …,” passim.Google Scholar

4 Hinojosa in speaking of this period characterizes it by the “ favor y boga que alcanza … el estudio del Derecho romano, la influencia de los legistas y la fundación de las Universidades… .” Historia general del derecho español (Madrid, 1925), p. 24; see also the works cited in notes 1 and 2 above.

5 Marina, Francisco Martínez, Ensayo histórico-crítico sobre la legislación y principales cuerpos legales de los reinos de León y Castilla y especialmente sobre el código de las Siete Partidas de D. Alonso el Sabio (3rd. ed.; Madrid, 1845), pp. 372–375.Google Scholar

6 This law was taken from the Digesto of the Justinian Code.

7 Riaza, Román and Gallo, Alfonso García, Manual de historia del derecho español (Madrid, 1934), pp. 209–229, 327–368Google Scholar; Minguijón, Salvador, Historia del derecho español (Barcelona, 1933), pp. 76–90, 252–254, 295–299, and 358–360 [bibliografía, pp. 428–460]Google Scholar; María, José Ots Capdequí, Instituciones [T. XIV of Historia de América] (Barcelona, 1959), pp. 221–228 Google Scholar. There are other manuals or studies of the history of Spanish law, such as that of Galo Sánchez (Madrid, 1932), and Juan Bereyto (Zaragoza, 1948). On America, the manual of Basadre, Jorge, Historia del derecho peruano (Lima, 1937), pp. 223–234 should be consulted.Google Scholar

8 There exists an English edition of the text of the Partidas relative to “obligations,” published by Moreau, L. and Carleton, Henry under the title A Translation of Titles, Promises, Obligations, Sales, Purchases and Exchanges from the Spanish Siete Partidas (New Orleans, 1818)Google Scholar. There is a modern bilingual edition entitled Las Siete Partidas. Trans. Samuel P. Scott. Index and intrpd. by Charles S. Lobingier (Chicago, 1931).

9 The Leyes de Toro, 83 laws in all, were promulgated by Doña Juana in the Cortes de Toro of 1505, which was called together to swear allegiance to the queen. These laws had been composed and ordered during the reign of Isabella and Fernando at the Cortes of Toledo in 1502, with the object of ending the variable and contradictory interpretations given in many cases to the laws and charters, and of supplying in other laws the lack of a strictly legal text, so much needed for clear decisions in the lawsuits.

The intent of the Catholic Kings was not to form a complete code, but they did introduce many and important new ideas in the “instituciones de las mejoras, de los mayorazgos, de los retractos,” etc.

10 Gallo, A. García, Los orígenes de la administración territorial de las Indias (Madrid, 1944), p. 11.Google Scholar

11 Malagón-Barceló, Javier, El distrito de la audiencia de Santo Domingo en los siglos XVI a XIX (Santo Domingo, 1942), p. 2.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., pp. 11 f.

13 Schäfer, Ernesto, El consejo real y supremo de las Indias, 2 (Sevilla, 1947), 56–59.Google Scholar

14 Góngora, Mario, El estado en el derecho indiano: Epoca de fundación, 1492–1570 (Santiago, 1951), pp. 287 f.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., p. 288.

16 Guiñazú, Ruiz, Magistratura indiana (Buenos Aires, 1916)Google Scholar, and Cunningham, Charles, The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies (Berkeley, 1919).Google Scholar

17 On the picota and its significance see the studies of de Quirós, Constancio Bernaldo, La picota: Crímenes y castigos en Castilla en los tiempos medios (Madrid, 1908)Google Scholar, La picota en América (La Habana, 1948), and Nuevas noticias de picotas americanas (La Habana, 1952).

18 Vázquez Ayllón is for me one of the most interesting figures of the Spanish conquest. He might be called the “conquistador indiano,” in the sense that he was educated in America, and yet there is not a single adequate study of him. There is sufficient documentation, for example, the residencia to which Zuazo submitted him, his “ Parecer en la información sobre la capacidad de los indios,” etc. His contemporaries, like Oviedo in his Historia general y natural de las Indias, Lib. IV, cap. X, and Las Casas in his Historia de las Indias, Lib. II, cap. XL, carry ample information concerning him or his expedition. There are actual studies of him in Fernández, Manuel Giménez, El plan Cisneros-Las Casas para las reformas de las Indias, 1 (Sevilla, 1953), 323–325, 371, 573–590Google Scholar, and in Icazbalceta, Joaquín García, Nueva colección de documentos para la historia de México, 9, 303 ffGoogle Scholar. Recently there has been published by Quattlebaum, Paul the Land Called Chicora (Gainesville, 1956)Google Scholar concerning the lands discovered by Ayllón. This latter work, perhaps because it focuses almost exclusively in English sources, has not utilized all the rich information that lies unpublished in the archives or even that published in the various collections of documents concerning the oidor of the Audiencia de Indias.

19 Ots Capdequí, , Instituciones, p. 11.Google Scholar

20 Oviedo, op. cit. Further information is given us by Inca Garcilaso in his La Florida.

21 Navarrete, Martín Fernández in his Colección de viajes y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Españoles, 3 (Madrid, 1855), 84–86 Google Scholar, has an ample note on the expedition of Ayllón.

22 Oviedo, loc. cit.

23 La obra de España en América (Santiago de Chile, 1944), pp. 71 f.

24 Ibid.; see also Historia de la América española, I (Madrid, 1924), 294.

25 There exists a facsimile edition edited by Alfonso García Gallo (Madrid, 1945–1946).

26 Rafael Altamira has a series of works on this subject, but especially his Análisis de la recopilación de las leyes de Indias de 1680 (Buenos Aires, 1941) should be consulted; Levene, Ricardo, Introducción a la historia del derecho indiano (Buenos Aires, 1924)Google Scholar; María, José Ots Capdequí “La formación del derecho indiano,” Revista Javeriana, 16 (1941), 124–135 Google Scholar, and “Don Manuel Josef Ayala y la historia de nuestra legislación de Indias,” Hispanic American Historical Review, III (1921), 281–322; Revello, José Torre, Noticias históricas sobre la recopilación de Indias (Buenos Aires, 1929)Google Scholar; Manzano, Juan, Historia de las recopilaciones de Indias, siglo 16 (Madrid, 1950)—his comments on the bibliography relative to this theme (pp. ix-xvi) are of interest.Google Scholar Special studies on the various single projects are numerous. Besides those by the authors mentioned above, we can note those of Camara, J. Peña, “El manuscrito llamado ‘ Gobernación espiritual y temporal de las Indias’ y su verdadero lugar en la historia de la Recopilación,” Revista de Historia de América, Num. 12 (1942), 5–72 Google Scholar, and of Barceló, J. Malagón, “Las ordenanzas y copilación de leyes del Virrey Mendoza para la Audiencia de la Nueva España,” Revista de Historia de América, Nums. 37–38 (1955), 109–132.Google Scholar

27 Los bucaneros de las Indias Occidentales en el siglo XVII (Brujas, 1939), p. 16.

28 Carlo, Agustín Millares, Notas bibliográficas acerca de archivos municipales, ediciones de libros de acuerdos y colecciones de documentos concejiles (Madrid, 1952).Google Scholar

29 On the Indian the bibliography is immense and not all of value. On the Negro the best work is that of Zavala, Silvio, “Los trabajadores antillanos en el siglo XVI,” in Estudios Indianos (México, 1948), pp. 95–203 Google Scholar. See also my study, “Un documento del siglo XVIII para la historia de la esclavitud en las Antillas,” Misceláneas … Fernando Ortiz (Havana, 1956).

30 Malagón-Barceló, , La literatura jurídica, and Ots Capdequí, “ La burocracia indiana,” Asomante [San Juan, Puerto Rico], reproduced in El estado español en Indias (3rd. ed.; México, 1958).Google Scholar

31 Las instituciones jurídicas en la conquista de América (Madrid, 1935), pp. 1–10.

32 Introduction by Zavala, Silvio to De las islas del mar océano by Juan López de Palacios Rubios (México, 1954), pp. cxxvi, cxxix.Google Scholar

33 Góngora, op. cit., p. 57.

34 Ibid., p. 61.

35 Op. cit., II, 156 f.

36 We disregard the insane rage shown at court by Don Francisco Quevedo against the lawyers, scribes and other “ people of the law,” since this attack was more that of a political rival than of an objective critic. See Política de Dios, gobierno de Cristo, tiranía de Satanás (Barcelona, 1626).

37 Instituciones, p. 441.

38 Pedro, de Leturia S.J., “Antonio Lelio de Fermo y la condenación de Indiarum Jure,” Hispanla Sacra, 2 (1949), 74 f.Google Scholar

39 Góngora, op. cit., p. 225.

40 The second edition with the title Nuevas reflexiones sobre las leyes de Indias (Buenos Aires, 1944), pp. 101 f. is quoted here.