Blood and Pearls: Cazoopin (Colonial Spaniards) in the Comcaac Region of Mexico

ABSTRACT

In collaboration with Comcaac (Seris) Indigenous community members from the Sonoran coast of Mexico, this study integrates ethnographic, archaeological, documentary, and oral historical data to better understand the Comcaac past relevant to the present. This is the first publication of Comcaac historical accounts about the Cazoopin, or colonial Spaniards, extending back to AD 1750 and earlier. We document Comcaac people’s first encounters with Spanish sailing ships and their opportunistic adoption of Spanish material culture. Oral accounts are combined with evidence from archaeological survey of named places and archival documents, particularly Pimentel’s Diary of Governor Ortiz Parrilla’s 1750 expedition to Tahejcö (Tiburón Island). For the Sonoran colonial period, previous reconstructions have been based on archaeological evidence and archival documents written by Spanish Empire representatives; here, we encourage the incorporation of Indigenous voices to understand economic, social, political, and ecological dimensions of the past that condition the creation of different historical narratives.

KEYWORDS:

• Community-based participatory archaeology
• Indigenous past
• Indigenous archaeology
• Spanish colonial period
• ethnohistory
• oral tradition
• cultural landscape
• cultural resistance

Acknowledgments

This research is part of the first author’s dissertation while attending the University of Arizona. The project was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board and Human Subjects Review Committee of the University of Arizona. GIS and field mapping assistance were provided by Michael Brack, and production of the final map was supported by Centro Geo and Silvestre Zepeda and Isidro Rangel. This article was revised and improved through important comments and editorial revisions by anonymous reviewers, Susanne K. Fish, T.J. Ferguson, Nieves Zedeño, Tom Sheridan, Andrew Stewart, and Brenda Bowser. Cmiique iitom language documentation was revised and improved by Alma Imelda Morales Romero. Special appreciation to all the Comcaac who made the Comcaac Cultural Landscape Documentation Project possible, gracias, haxa tiipe! This article is dedicated to the memory of Lorenzo Herrera Casanova, a loyal friend always willing to teach and share knowledge. May his legacy, the art of story-telling, endure for future generations to come.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Smith, William N. 1947. Seri Field Notes, 1947. Unpublished manuscript filed at Tucson, the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections.

2 Smith, William N.1944 Report on the Seris from Visit to Tiburon, September 10-11, 1944. Unpublished manuscript filed at Tucson, the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections.

3 Smith, William N. 1966. Seri Field Notes, 1966. Unpublished manuscript filed at Tucson, the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections.

4 See Rentería (2009) for details about bighorn sheep hunting permits.

5 For more information see the following websites: www.repositorio.risza.mx; www.opsecomcaac.risza.mx.

6 See Rentería (2006) for a similar discussion in relation to the late 1940s successful Protestant evangelization in the area.

7 The transfer of the Spanish Crown from the Hapsburg to the Bourbon royal families occurred in 1700.

8 Translated to Spanish by Torres Cubillas and to English by Martínez-Tagüeña.

9 The Mosers belonged to the Summer Institute of Linguistics and began their efforts to write down Cmiique iitom in 1950’s as an initial attempt to translate the Bible and to develop a dictionary. Herrera’s father and later he were pioneers in the written endeavor of their oral language. He has a publication in the book, Inside Dazzling Mountains: Southwest Native Verbal Arts, edited by David L. Kozak in 2021 by the University of Nebraska Press.

10 This name is very similar to the word “cachupín” meaning Spaniard established in America (RAE, http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=Gachupin), colloquially believed to be a term employed by the Nahuas in central Mexico to refer to the colonial Spaniards. Some Comcaac probably knew about the Cazoopin before they met them.

11 Although we developed a map for these locations, we are not publishing it due to some community members’ concerns.

12 Several Comcaac elders that were interviewed had learned from oral tradition about this leader.

Additional information

Funding

It was supported by funding from CONACYT-Becas por convenio para estudio de posgrado, a grant from William Self Associates, and the Raymond H. and Molly K. Thompson Endowment Fund for Research.

Notes on contributors

Natalia Martínez-Tagüeña

Natalia Martínez-Tagüeña is an archaeologist and environmental anthropologist with 10 years of experience conducting applied participatory research that is responsive to underrepresented community members’ needs and interests. As a researcher and professor in the Environmental Sciences Division of the Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica in Mexico, her research aims to understand humans and nature as co-evolving in complex adaptive systems that vary in different contexts and temporal trajectories. Through participatory methodologies such as workshops, participatory mapping, and fuzzy cognitive mapping, she works to find collaborative solutions to socio-environment challenges to promote stewardship and sustainable development in dryland regions.

Lorenzo Herrera Casanova

Lorenzo Herrera Casanova was a member of the Comcaac Indigenous Community and a well-known Comcaac writer and story-teller. He participated in the documentation and analysis for the Cmiique iitom dictionary elaboration as part of the editorial committee. He was the son of Roberto Herrera Marcos who was a primary consultant for Edward Moser during the translation of the New Testament.

Luz Alicia Torres Cubillas

Luz Alicia Torres Cubillas is a member of the Comcaac Indigenous Community and the main collaborator on the Comcaac Cultural Landscape Documentation Project. As a girl she was a student of Adolfo Burgos and Amalia Astorga at the Comcaac Traditional Music and Dance School. She is knowledgeable about Comcaac oral tradition and history, particularly the deep time of the Xiica Coosyatoj (lit. “things singers”), the temporal framework of the Giants.