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Spaniards in the Nahua City of Xochimilco: Colonial Society and Cultural Change in Central Mexico, 1650–1725

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Richard Conway*
Affiliation:
Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey

Extract

In 1650, a Nahua noble named don Martín Cerón y Alvarado set down his last wishes in a codicil. Eminent but now elderly and frail, don Martin had served many times as governor of the central Mexican altepetl (ethnic state) of Xochimilco. Located by the lakes to the south of Mexico City, Xochimilco was a prominent and populous polity, renowned for its bountiful wetland agriculture. Such was its size and economic vitality that Spanish authorities, under King Philip II, decided to award it superior municipal status as a city—one of just four such designations in the basin of Mexico. In keeping with his position as the dynastic ruler of a prestigious alteped, don Martin was a lord of the highest social rank. He could trace his exalted lineage back to Acamapichtli, the Mexica forebear of the Aztec emperor Moteuhcçoma Xocoyotzin. By 1650, though, don Martin was the last of his kind. No person in Xochimilco would again hold his honorific title, tlatoani (dynastic ruler). His codicil and an earlier will and testament, both written in Nahuatl, marked the passing of an era.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014

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References

I would to thank Susan Schroeder, James Lockhart, Kevin Gosner, and James Woodard, as well as the anonymous reviewers and the editorial staff of The Americas, for their kind suggestions and assistance.

1. As Sarah Cline has noted, Nahuas usually set down last wills and testaments as they perceived death to be approaching. Other documents from his family’s estate records, including other testaments and a genealogy, tell us that don Martín Cerón y Alvarado was elderly at the time he signed the document. Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City [hereafter AGN], Ramo Vínculos y Mayorazgos, vol. 279, exp. 1, fols. 6–7, 28–28v; Cline, , Colonial Culhuacan, 1580–1600: A Social History of an Aztec Town (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986), p. 19 Google Scholar.

2. The others were the constituent parts of the Aztec Triple Alliance. Colección de documentos inéditos, relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de ultramar, vol. 22 (Madrid: Tipografía de Archivos, I. Olózaga, 1929), p. 103.

3. AGN, Vínculos y Mayorazgos, vol. 279, exp. 1, fols. 28–28v, 30–30v; García, Luis Reyes, “Genealogía de doña Francisca de Guzmán, Xochimilco 1610,” Tlalocan 7 (1977), pp. 3135 Google Scholar.

4. AGN, Ramo Vínculos y Mayorazgos, vol. 279, exp. 1, fols. 10–10v, 12–13v.

5. Pérez Zevallos, Juan Manuel, Xochimilco ayer, vols. 1 and 2 (Mexico: Instituto Mora, Gobierno del Distrito Federal, Delegación Xochimilco, 2002–2003)Google Scholar; Ramos, Rebeca, Gortari Krauss, Ludka de, and Pérez Zevallos, Juan Manuel, eds., Xochimilco en el siglo XVI (Mexico: Cuadernos de la Casa Chata, 1981)Google Scholar.

6. From an estimated 30,000 Nahuas at the time of the conquest, the indigenous population fell to just 2,686 in 1643. Population figures can be found in the Archivo General de Indias, Seville [hereafter AGI], Patronato, L. 184, R. 50; AGN, Indios, vol. 9, exp. 172 and 173, fols. 82v-83v; Newberry Library, Chicago, Ayer Collection, Ms. 1106, fol. lv; Gerhard, Peter, A Guide to the Historical Geography of New Spain, rev. ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993), p. 246 Google Scholar; Moderación de doctrinas de la Real Corona administradas por las órdenes mendicantes, 1623 (Mexico: J. Porrúa, 1959), p. 46.Google Scholar

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8. See also Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia [hereafter INAH], Mexico City, Fondo Franciscano, vol. 48, fols. 7, 19–19v.

9. Horn, Rebecca, “Testaments and Trade: Interethnic Ties among Petty Traders in Central Mexico (Coyoacan, 1550–1620),” in Dead Giveaways: Indigenous Testaments of Colonial Mesoamerica and the Andes, Kellogg, Susan and Restall, Matthew, eds. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1998), pp. 5983.Google Scholar

10. Sarah Cline, for instance, wrote of Xochimilco that “impoverishment and decadence of native ruling lines was the long-term trend.” Cline, , “A Cacicazgo in the Seventeenth Century: The Case of Xochimilco,” in Land and Politics in the Valley of Mexico: A Two-Thousand Tear Perspective, Harvey, H. R., ed. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991), p. 266 Google Scholar. See also Gibson, Charles, “The Aztec Aristocracy in Colonial Mexico,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 2 (1959–60), pp. 169196 Google Scholar.

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13. One important example is Horn, Rebecca, Postconquest Coyoacan: Nahua-Spanish Relations in Central Mexico, 1519–1650 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

14. Presumably this absence can be ascribed to factors of colonial power and prejudice. Colonial ideologies are often understood to have involved the denigration of indigenous customs—obviously, there was no imperative, let alone compulsion, for Spaniards to adopt indigenous ways. Thus, terms with potential equivalence to “Africanization” or “Nahuatlization” have seldom if ever been used to describe the acculturative process. Dibble, Charles, “The Nahuatlization of Christianity,” in Sixteenth-Century Mexico: The Work of Sahagún, Edmonson, Munro, ed. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974), pp. 225233 Google Scholar; MacLachlan, Colin M. and Jaime, E. Rodriguez, O., The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980), p. 3 Google Scholar. For more recent work on mestizaje, see Bernand, Carmen and Gruzinski, Serge, Historia del Nuevo Mundo, tomo II: los mestizajes, 1550–1640 (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1999)Google Scholar; and Gruzinski, Serge, Las cuatro partes del mundo: historia de una mundialización (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2010), pp. 97123.Google Scholar

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16. A few excellent examples: Alberro, Solange, Les Espagnols dans le Mexique colonial: histoire d’une acculturation (Paris: A. Colin, 1992)Google Scholar; Alberro, , Del gachupín al criollo: o de cómo los españoles de México dejaron de serlo (Mexico: El Colegio de México, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and de los Angeles Romero Frizzi, María, Economía y vida de los españoles en la Mixteca Alta: 1519–1720 (Mexico: INAH, 1990)Google Scholar.

17. del Castillo, Bernal Díaz, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, Maudslay, A. P., trans. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1956), pp. 4346 Google Scholar.

18. Miller, Shawn William, An Environmental History of Latin America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 62 Google Scholar; Pilcher, Jeffrey M. ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

19. Few, Martha, Women Who Live Evil Lives: Gender, Religion, and the Politics of Power in Colonial Guatemala, 1650–1750 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002)Google Scholar; Alberro, Solange, Inquisición y sociedad en Mexico, 1571–1700 (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econòmica, 1993)Google Scholar; and Lewis, Laura A., Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in Colonial Mexico (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003)Google Scholar.

20. Terraciano, Kevin and Sousa, Lisa, “Historiography of New Spain,” in The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History, Moya, José C., ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 34.Google Scholar

21. See the special issue titled A Language of Empire, A Quotidian Tongue: The Uses of Nahuatl in New Spain, Ethnohistory 59:4 (Fall 2012), in particular Martin Nesvig, “Spanish Men, Indigenous Language, and Informal Interpreters in Postcontact Mexico,” pp. 739–764.

22. Dean, Carolyn and Leibsohn, Dana, “Hybridity and Its Discontents: Considering Visual Culture in Colonial Spanish America,” Colonial Latin American Review 12:1 (2003), pp. 535 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de la Cadena, Marisol, “Are Mestizos Hybrids? The Conceptual Politics of Andean Identities,” Journal of Latin American Studies 37:2 (2005), pp. 259284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23. On the use of native-language sources to explore the lifestyles of non-native groups, see the previously cited Fall 2012 special issue of Ethnohistory; and Restall, Matthew, “A History of the New Philology and the New Philology in History,” Latin American Research Review 38:1 (February 2003), pp. 113134.Google Scholar

24. Altman, Ida, Emigrants and Society: Extremadura and America in the Sixteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Altman, , Transatlantic Ties in the Spanish Empire: Brihuega, Spain, and Puebla, Mexico, 1560–1620 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000)Google Scholar.

25. For the social functions of credit, see Herrera, , Natives, Europeans, and Africans in Sixteenth-Century Santiago de Guatemala, pp. 1620 Google Scholar; and Muldrew, Craig, The Economy of Obligation: The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early Modern England (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

26. AGI, Patronato, L. 182, R. 22; AGI, Indiferente, L. 1529, N. 2 and 3; AGI, Audiencia de México, L. 256; Scholes, France V. and Adams, Eleanor B., eds., Cartas del licenciado Jerónimo Valderrama y otros documentos sobre su visita al gobierno de Nueva Espana, 1563–1565 (Mexico: J. Porrûa, 1961), p. 196 Google Scholar; Scholes, France V. and Adams, Eleanor B., eds., Sobre el modo de tributar los indios de Nueva España a Su Majestad, 1561–1564 (Mexico: J. Porrúa, 1958), p. 105.Google Scholar

27. Some groups may have been more susceptible to epidemic disease than others, and birth and death rates may have varied among different ethnic groups. These uncertainties frustrate attempts to calculate accurately the proportion of Nahua, Spanish, and casta residents. See the parish records of burials for the early 1700s in AGN, Genealogía [microfilm], vol. 1855. There are other concerns. The documentation is not comprehensive, friars were inconsistent in recording information, and the determination of a person’s racial status could be arbitrary. Such determinations were subject to contention or confusion, with friars ascribing identity on the imperfect basis of perceived physical characteristics. Cope, R. Douglas, The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660–1720 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), pp. 2425, 5157, 69.Google Scholar

28. AGN, Genealogía [microfilm], vols. 1794 and 1795.

29. AGN, Genealogía [microfilm], vol. 1855.

30. AGN, Genealogía [microfilm], vol. 1794. The casta population remained limited because Xochimilco lacked the kinds of enterprises—for example, sugar and silver—that relied on the labor of African slaves. There was a sugar mill in Xochimilco’s jurisdiction, owned by Nahuas, but its workforce consisted of Nahuas. AGN, Tierras, vol. 3018, exp. 2; Martin, Cheryl English, Rural Society in Colonial Morelos (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1985), p. 25 Google Scholar; Gibson, Charles, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964), p. 244.Google Scholar

31. Newberry Library, Chicago, Ayer Collection, Ms. 1106, fol. lv; Gerhard, , A Guide to the Historical Geography of New Spain, p. 246.Google Scholar

32. AGN, Padrones, vol. 29, fol. 258.

33. Horn, Postconquest Coyoacan, p. 2; Haskett, Robert, Indigenous Rulers: An Ethnohistory of Town Government in Colonial Cuernavaca (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991), p. 17.Google Scholar

34. Gibson, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule, pp. 321, 366, 409.

35. Rabicla, Teresa Rojas, “Ecological and Agricultural Changes in the Chinampas of Xochimilco-Chalco,” in Land and Politics in the Valley of Mexico, Harvey, H. R., ed., pp. 275290 Google Scholar; Rabicla, Rojas, Las siembras de ayer: la agricultura indígena del siglo XVI (Mexico: CIESAS, 1988)Google Scholar; Zevallos, Pérez, Xochimilco ayer, Conway, Richard, “Lakes, Canoes, and the Aquatic Communities of Xochimilco and Chalco, New Spain,” Ethnohistory 59:3 (Summer 2012), pp. 541568.Google Scholar

36. Horn, “Testaments and Trade,” p. 63. On Spaniards acquiring land in Cuemavaca, see Haskett, , Indigenous Rulers, pp. 185187.Google Scholar

37. Horn, Postconquest Coyoacan, 216.

38. Among early land grants for estancias, or ranches, some can be found in AGN, Mercedes, vol. 1, exp. 213, fol. lOlv; vol. 2, exp. 41, fol. 19v, and exp. 356, fol. 145v. For some of the haciendas, see AGN, Tierras, vol. 720, fols. 57–163v, vol. 1477, exp. 1, fols. 1–12, 35–177v, vol. 1631, exp. 1, cuad. 2, fols. 1–114v, and vol. 1802, exp. 6, fols. l-33v; AGN, Reales Cédulas Duplicadas, vol. 18, exp. 184, fol. 131v; and AGI, Escribania, vol. 194c and México, vol. 781.

39. See among others AGN, Indios, vol. 2, exp. 315, fols. 76–76v, vol. 6, la pte., exp. 1025, fol. 277, vol. 7, exp. 100, fols. 50–50v, and vol. 9, exp. 220, fol. 106v; AGN, General de Parte, vol. 839, fol. 155; and Gibson, The Aztecs under Spanish Rule, p. 346.

40. As such, the Spanish community in Xochimilco resembled that of Toluca in the late sixteenth century, with settlers arriving from Mexico City to work in the Spanish estate economy. Lockhart, “Capital and Province, Spaniard and Indian,” p. 110; AGN, Inquisición, vol. 147, exp. 6, fols. 121–188v. For the obrajes, see AGN, Indios, vol. 3, exp. 366, fol. 85v, exp. 872, fols. 21 lv (219v old foliation); and vol. 6, la pte., exp. 640, fol. 170v, and exp. 907 and 908, fols. 244v-245.

41. Apparently the practice of crafts was not antithetical to Nahua concepts of nobility. Other nobles, including don Felipe de Santiago, worked as weavers. AGN, Criminal, vol. 232, exp. 21, fols. 409—432v; Lockhart, The Nahuas after the Conquest, p. 486, N. 106.

42. Cline, “A Cacicazgo in the Seventeenth Century,” pp. 266–268.

43. AGN, Vínculos y Mayorazgos, vol. 279, exp. 1, fols. 19–25v.

44. Translated by Lockhart, James in “The Testimony of don Juan,” Nahuas and Spaniards: Postconquest Central Mexican History and Philology (Los Angeles and Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1991), pp. 8182 Google Scholar: AGN, Vínculos y Mayorazgos, vol. 279, exp. 1.

45. Lockhart, , “The Testimony of don Juan,” p. 79.Google Scholar

46. AGN, Criminal, vol. 41, exp. 38, fols. 524–527v; AGN, Criminal, vol. 48, exp. 30, fols. 500–502v.

47. Lockhart, “Capital and Province,” p. 111; Tutino, “Provincial Spaniards, Haciendas, and Indian Towns” pp. 177–194. Franciscan friars remained separate from Spanish society because of their place of residence, religious mission, and because they did not marry.

48. Archivo General de Notarías del Departamento del Distrito Federal [hereafter AGNM), Mexico City, Sección Juzgados de Primera Instancia, Serie Xochimilco [hereafter Xochimilco], vol. 1 (second foliation), fols. 47, 116–117v. Apparently, Maza Riva conformed to regulations forbidding corregidores from obtaining property in their jurisdictions for a period of six years after their tenures in office. See AGN, Reales Cédulas Duplicadas, vol. 11, exp. 87, fols. 131–131v.

49. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 1–2v, 25v-27.

50. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 83–84, 178v-180, 188–188v, 271–272v.

51. However, Xochimilco’s cabildo had its own scribe.

52. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 19–20v.

53. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 5–6, 99v.

54. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 146–147.

55. AGN, Inquisición, vol. 271, exp. 3.

56. AGN, Mercedes, vol. 28, exp. 436, fols. 161v-162v.

57. AGN, Criminal, vol., 232, exp. 6, fols. 136–147v.

58. AGN, Intestados, vol. 309, exp. 10, fols. 366–385.

59. Like many other settlers, López was from the second generation of emigrants from Spain. His father came from Castile but his mother, doña María de Sotomayor, grew up in Mexico City. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 148–154v.

60. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 138–139v.

61. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 60–62v.

62. AGN, Tierras, vol. 3308, exp. 1, fols. 1–675. vol. 3322, exp. 3 and 4. See also vol. 3179, exp. 1.

63. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 201–204.

64. INAH, Fondo Franciscano, vol. 48, fols, 11v-12; AGNM, Xochimilco; vol. 2 (second foliation) fols. 5–7v.

65. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 71–73v.

66. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 74–76v, 114–116v, 98v-103, 105–107v.

67. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 7–8, 13–14v, 67–68, 138–139v, 146–147; Latin American Library [hereafter LAL) Tulane University, New Orleans, Viceregal Ecclesiastical Mexican Collection [hereafter VEMC], Leg. 46, exp. 8 (folder 1 of 2), no foliation but dated May 1, 1696.

68. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 98v-103.

69. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 146–147.

70. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 15–16v, 63–64v, 87–88v.

71. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 103–104v.

72. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 133–134.

73. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fol. 141v.

74. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 69v, 166–167.

75. Cope, Limits of Racial Domination, p. 10. Note the contrast with Toluca in the late sixteenth century where, as Lockhart notes, wealthy Spaniards came to be concentrated in the town center. Lockhart, “Capital and Province, Spaniard and Indian,” p. 113.

76. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 133–134, 146–147, 173v-175, 197–198.

77. AGN, Genealogía [microfilm], vol. 1855, no foliation (the date given is November 22, 1601). On the requirements for marriage, see Seed, Patricia, To Love, Honor, and Obey in Colonial Mexico: Conflicts over Marriage Choice, 1574–1821 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), pp. 7578 Google Scholar.

78. AGN, Genealogía [microfilm], vol. 1865, no foliation. See the entries for February 16 and March 6, 1642.

79. AGN, Matrimonios, vol. 45, exp. 56, fol. 240; vol. 90, exp. 37, fols. 94–96v.

80. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1 (second foliation), fols. 59v-68v.

81. AGN, Criminal, vol. 234, exp. 3, fols. 38–38v; Lewis, Hall of Mirrors, pp. 46–48. See also Haskett, Indigenous Rulers, pp. 149–150.

82. AGN, Criminal, vol. 49, exp. 21, fols. 284–290v.

83. AGN, Criminal, vol. 49, exp. 21, fol. 290v.

84. For cases related to amancebado (an intimate relationship outside of wedlock) involving Josepha Ortiz and Juan de Orozco, see AGN, Bienes Nacionales, vol. 596, exp. 42 and 43.

85. In one instance, Franciscan friars expressed worries over men and women bathing together at a temascal (bathhouse). AGN, Genealogía, vol. 1796.

86. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 98v-103, 105–107v.

87. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 175–177.

88. AGN, Indios, vol. 26, cuad. 1, exp. 25, fols. 24–24v, vol. 27, exp. 322, fols. 216v-217, vol. 30, exp. 248, fols. 232–232v; AGN, Criminal, vol. 48, exp. 30, fols. 508–510v, 512.

89. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 5–6, 99v; AGN, Criminal, vol. 132. exp. 10, fol. 555.

90. Bartolomé may have been related to one Alonso de Zamudio, who had previously presided over a 1622 residencia, a routine investigation at the end of an official’s tenure. AGN, Historia, vol. 36, exp. 2, fols. 95–196v.

91. AGN, Criminal, vol. 48, exp. 30, fols. 519, 550.

92. AGN, Criminal, vol. 49, exp. 1, fols. 1–44.

93. AGN, Criminal, vol. 232, exp. 14, fols. 333, 337v, 338v.

94. In the same year, Nicolás de Trujillo was appointed as legal representative for a youngster by the teniente Agustín de Trujillo. Perhaps the two men were related. AGN, Criminal, vol. 232, exp. 14, fols. 331v-332.

95. AGN, Criminal, vol. 132. exp. 10, fol. 555.

96. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 21–23, 166–167, 183–184v, 214–217v; vol. 1 (second foliation), fols. 22–24, 35–36v.

97. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fol. 108v.

98. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 21–23v.

99. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 85–86v; LAL, VEMC, leg. 46, exp. 8 (folder 1 of 2), no foliation (dated December 23, 1699).

100. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 213–214.

101. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 19–20v, 68–68v, 81v-82.

102. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 158v-159.

103. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 33–34v, 41–42v.

104. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 3–4v, 80v, 148–154v, 203.

105. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 84–84v, vol. 1 (second foliation), fols. 20–21.

106. AGN, Tierras, vol. 2913, exp. 8, fols. 218–224.

107. AGN, Genealogía [microfilm], vol. 1795. For the specific entry, see the second set of records, fol. 92v.

108. Among the properties inherited by his children was a two-story house, a sign of wealth. AGN, Indios, vol. 19, exp. 441, fol. 249v; AGN, Tribunal Superior de Justicia del Distrito Federal – Colonial, Alcalde del Crimen, Serie Civil, caja 7B, exp. 48, fols. 4, 15, 35–37.

109. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 27v-28v, 69–70v.

110. Kuznesof, “Ethnic and Gender Influences on ‘Spanish’ Creole Society in Colonial Spanish America,” p. 163.

111. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 21–23v.

112. AGN, Indios, vol. 19, exp. 441, fols. 249v.

113. Sebastián de Covarrubias Orozco, Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española (Madrid: Editorial Castalia, S.A., 1995), 896; INAH, Fondo Franciscano, vol. 136, fol. 123.

114. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 232–233, 311v-312v.

115. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 27v-28v; AGN, Matrimonios, vol 25, exp. 13, fols. 105–109; AGN, Inquisición, vol. 816, exp. 17, fols. 387–390, vol. 866, fols. 378–400, vol. 886, exp. 22, fols. 162–163, vol. 893, fols. 1–221, 381–389.

116. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 69–70v.

117. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1 (second foliation), fols. 39v-10v, 40v-41v; AGNM, Notary Number 392, Antonio Alejo Mendoza, vol. 2603 (second foliation), fols. 24–25v.

118. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1 (second foliation), fols. 46–50v.

119. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 273–273v.

120. AGNM, Notary Number 392, Antonio Alejo Mendoza, vol. 2603 (second foliation), fols. 27v-29v.

121. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 104v-105. He also served as a witness to notarial contracts, one of which involved the wealthy peninsular Spanish landowner Francisco de Olmedo y Lujan. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 29–30, 217v-219.

122. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 43–43v.

123. On Spaniards being elected to the governorships of some of the larger towns in Cuernavaca’s jurisdiction, see Haskett, Indigenous Rulers, 139.

124. AGN, Reales Cédulas Duplicadas, vol. 15, exp. 179, fol. 141v; AGN, Indios, vol. 12, la pte., exp. 180, fols. 116–116v; vol. 30, exp. 241, fols. 227v-228v and exp. 248, fols. 232–232v.

125. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1 (second foliation), fol. 46v.

126. Don Antonio held this office in 1703, 1704, 1707, 1708, 1716, 1720, and 1722. He may have done so in other years, too; we lack information for several of them. AGN, Indios, vol. 44, exp. 76, fols. 105v-106, vol. 47, exp. 26, fols. 42–43v; AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 85–86v, 96–97, 112v-113v, 113v-114, 155–156, 172–173v, 195–196v, 226v-229, 274–275v, 299–301 (second foliation), 12–13v, 21–22, 57–59v. See also Pérez Zevallos, Xochimilco ayer, vol. 2, pp. 72–73.

127. AGN, Indios, vol. 44, exp. 76, fols. 105v-106; AGN, Tribunal Superior de Justicia del Distrito Federal—Colonial, Alcalde del Crimen, Serie Civil, caja 31A, exp. 49.

128. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 135v-136v.

129. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 172–173v; AGNM, Not. 392, Antonio Alejo Mendoza, vol. 2603 (fifth foliation), fols. 7v-10.

130. AGN, Indios, vol. 44, exp. 76, fols. 105v-106.

131. Yannakakis, Yanna, The Art of Being In-Between: Native Intermediaries, Indian Identity, and Local Rule in Colonial Oaxaca (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Metcalf, Alida, Go-Betweens and the Colonization of Brazil, 1500–1600 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

132. INAH, Fondo Franciscano, vol. 48, fols. 7, 19–19v.

133. Horn, Postconquest Coyoacan and “Testaments and Trade”; Lockhart, “Capital and Province, Spaniard and Indian,” p. 113.

134. AGNM, Xochimilco, vol. 1, fols. 51–51v.