Contrasting Resistance and Alliances in the Ethnic State of Napiniaca, Chiapas (Mexico) (1521–1590): The Anthropological and Historical Aspects

ABSTRACT

The present article aims to re-evaluate the gamut of ostensible alliances forged between colonial subordinates and those who subordinated them in the ethnic state of Napiniaca, Mexico, as well as identify the social spaces and contexts in which such alliances were formed and ultimately fell apart. It will do so by attempting to “unwrap” indigenous strategies and forms of resistance based on the admittedly limited texts we currently possess, in light of modern research and theory in both (ethno) history and anthropology.

KEYWORDS:

• De-romanticizing Conquests
• Spanish-indigenous “Alliances”
• Contrasting Forms of Resistance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Note that I have not previously scrutinized either of these sources in my earlier studies on Chiapa (Megged 1991, 2007). However, as the time span of this present analysis covers the rule of Pedro Noti in the town of Chiapa de Indios, as well as the state of affairs in its subject towns, these sources may now shed new light on the circumstances and the personalities involved.

2. AGI Guatemala, leg. 161, 15.10.1598; Gerhard 1993, 158.

3. “Don Rodrigo de León, indio principal del pueblo de Chiapa: 1. pide alguna ayuda de costa cada mes con que se pueda sustentar, situada en la caja real; 2. y licencia para tener caballos de rúa y de camino y poder tener espada y armas y también poder tener arcabuz de camino. 1603.” 27fols. Testimonios presentados por Luis de León Cabeza de Vaca sobre la sucesión y el cacicazgo de su padre, Diego Nocayola]. 1569 [Traslado de 1603] AGI Guatemala, leg. 59, exp. 2, fols. 6v–7r.

4. “Probanza de méritos de don Diego de Mazarriegos, 1561,” AGI Guatemala, leg. 116, fol. 3v.; A.G.I Guatemala 59, fols. 5v–6r.

5. A Royal decree of 9 January 1540 (op. cit. in Gil Gonzáles Dávila 1649, 168); Residencia de Lic. Alonso López de Cerrato, Lic. Tomás López Mendel y Lic. Rogel, AGI Justicia leg. 301, fols. 679v–680r.

6. “Comisión dada a don Diego Ramírez para averiguar los malos tratamientos a los padres de Sto. Domingo en Chiapa,” AGI Justicia, 331, fol. 15r, 1547.

7. Here, for example, is evidence gathered by Demenici (2001) attesting to the conducting of cave rituals in the area of Chiapas, starting as earlier as the Epi-Classic period:

The Late-Terminal Classic ritual activities show a strong tendency towards child burials and sacrifices (Cueva del Lazo, Camino Infinito, Cueva Colmena, El Castillo) that … could be related with water petition to the rain gods … In a recent work, Dolores Aramoni cites acts from trials against zoque indians accused of sorcery. In 1685, the zoque woman María Sánchez from Jiquipilas witnesses that her father, who was a famous brujo (sorcerer), wanting her to know ‘what is inside the mountain,’ took her various times into a cave where she met super-naturals. She says also that her father and his companions used to bring dead childrens, copal, candles and flowers into the caves as presents for the ‘devil.’ Still in 1801, the zoque Tiburcio Pamplona from Quechula, accused of being a brujo, said that the naguales (shamans’ alter-egos) lived in a place called Ipstec (‘Twenty Houses’), a place corresponding to the mountain ridge on the north side of Rio La Venta (today called Veinte Casas); he also said that when the naguales want to kill someone they used to throw him in the Rio La Venta canyon. (Aramoni 1992)

Davide Domenici, “Pre-hispanic Ritual Use of Caves in the Rio La Venta Region, Chiapas, Mexico”, 13th International Congress of Speleology 4th Speleological Congress of Latin América and Caribbean 26th Brazilian Congress of Speleology (Brasília DF, 15–22 July 2001).

8. “Relacion que hace el obispo de Chiapa, Fray Pedro de Feria a un religioso de una cofradía que se hallo en suchiapa con el titulo de los doce apostoles, septiembre 1584,” AGI, Patronato, leg. 181, ramo 11, 8 fols., fol. 2v.

9. See, in parallel, the bishop's actions against the Zapotecs in the province of Oaxaca (Tavarez, 112).

10. “Una carta del Lic. Garcia Valverde, presidente de la audiencia de Guatemala a la Corona, 1 de abril de 1585,” AGI, Guatemala, leg. 10.

11. Nutro queforo injunta aliqua penitencia salutary promodo culpe, AGI, Guatemala, leg. 3, 1585.

12. AGI Guatemala, leg. 331, testimony presented by Antonio Mobó, an interpreter from Chiapa de Indios, 20.7.1548.

Pedro, indio del dicho calpul, siendo preguntado en la manera que dicha, le dijo que él quería que fuese cacique del dicho pueblo de Chiapa el dicho don Hernando porque era bueno y principal del dicho pueblo y amigo de Dios y del rey [f. 22r] y de los cristianos y que trataría bien los naturales del dicho pueblo y los quería mucho. Y formulo el dicho señor alcalde y el dicho Pedro juró en forma ser verdad lo susodicho.

AGI Guatemala, leg. 110, fol. 21v–22r.

13. The idea of establishing a separate indigenous autonomy under the tutelage of the Church was first put into practice by Bishop Vasco de Quiroga, an ardent follower of Sir Thomas More's Utopia during the 1530s and 1540s, in the hospital-villages of Santa Fé in Michoacan, Mexico. Between 1595 and 1604, Fray Luis Lozano, who may very well have been inspired by the Lascasian pro-indigenous and anti-Spanish spirit, appears to have incited the local leadership of San Luis Tlaxialtemalco and San Gregorio Atlapulco, under the jurisdiction of Xochimilco in central Mexico, to undertake a legal struggle against the powerful, land-hungry Spaniard, Juan Andrés Meretil. The latter, together with another Spaniard, Nicolás Aguilera, threatened local stability and well-being by applying unrelenting pressure on the local lords to rent their lands to them. Reacting to this growing threat, the local elders went to Fray Luis Lozano to ask for assistance. Lozano recommended that the lords remove the Spaniards from their lands (Megged 2014; Pérez Zavallo and Reyes García 2003, Doc. II).

14. Pleito entre Fr. Pedro Calvo y Baltazar Guerra”, AGI Guatemala, exp. 3, leg. 110, (1.8.1547), fol. 10v.

15. “Pleito entre Fr. Pedro Calvo y Baltazar Guerra”, AGI Guatemala, exp. 3, leg. 110, (1.8.1547), fol. 10v, testimony by Miguel Chapolina, an interpreter, acquaintance of don Juan Tegcapan; “Elección del cacique del pueblo de Chiapa, Chiapa, 1 de agosto de 1547,” Ibid., fols. 21r–21v.

16. AGI Guatemala, leg.110, fols. 24v–33v, testimony before the commission of the alcalde ordinario Gonzalo de Ovalle, 2.8.1547.

17. “Executoria de las tierras de los pueblos de Chiapa, Acala y Chiapilla, 1571” (op. cit. in Navarrete 1966, Appendix, doc. 1); AGI Guatemala, leg. 110, fol. 19r.

18. “Comisión dada a don Diego Ramírez … ,” 1547–8, AGI Justicia, leg. 331, fol. 15r.

19. Carta de Lic. Alonso de Cerrato a Su Magestad, September 1548 (C.D.I.A Vol. 24).

20. “Testimonios sacados de los mandamientos que para ello me entregó don Bernabé Guerra, natural y governador de Chiapa, 1603”, AGI Guatemala 59.