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Authors: Carroll L Riley

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Page 159
Cristóbal López de Mendizábal, an
hacendado
in that area, was from the Basque region, being born in the town of Oñate, north of Vitoria. Cristóbal's hometown was presumably the same place as the ancestral home of the famous Oñate family. López's mother, Doña Leonor de Pastraña, was born in Mexico. López originally desired to join the Church, and he attended the Jesuit college in Puebla. As López later told the Inquisition officials, he often wore ecclesiastical garb and had taken minor orders. He had actually intended to go into the priesthood but was prevented for family reasons.
From the Jesuit college, López went on to the University in Mexico City. Following his education, López moved to Havana, where he was involved with the galleon service, making a number of voyages. López de Mendizábal then went to Cartagena, in modern-day northern Colombia, where a cousin was bishop. Through this family influence, and probably also because of his clerical training, López was appointed
visitador
, or inspector, to the diocese. In Cartagena, López became acquainted with the governor of Cartagena, Melchor de Aguilera, and eventually married his daughter, Teresa de Aguilera y Roche.
Doña Teresa was born in Allesandra in Spanish Italy. Teresa's mother was an Irish woman who had fled to escape the persecution of Catholics in the British homelands. At the time of Teresa's birth, Aguilera was governor of the Italian province. Though we know relatively little of Doña Teresa, she seems to have been a sophisticated woman, speaking Italian as well as Spanish and perhaps English also.
Following his marriage with Teresa de Aguilera, López spent time in Cuba and Spain before returning to Mexico, where he held the office of alcalde mayor, first in San Juan de los Llanos and then in Guaiococotla. His appointment as governor of New Mexico came in 1658, and López left Mexico City on December 24 of that year to take charge of his new province. He was replacing Governor Juan Manso de Contreras, whose scandalous sexual conduct is described in chapter 7.
With López in the supply caravan was Fray Juan Ramirez. This man was appointed procurator-general of the supply service in 1656, replacing the previous holder of that office, Fray Tomás Manso (Juan Manso's brother), who had been appointed bishop of Nicaragua. Ramirez was quite well educated in spite of relatively humble origins, his father being a miner in Tasco. After a primary education in Tasco, Ramirez was trained in the Jesuit College of Saints Peter and Paul in Mexico City. This
colegio
, founded in 1574, was a boarding school that taught a variety of secular and religious subjects. At the age of sixteen, Ramirez joined the Franciscans, eventually being ordained after further theological studies in Mexico City and Puebla. He had a rather varied experience, serving as
Page 160
vicar-general of the Province of the Holy Gospel and commissary-general of Franciscans in New Spain. In 1655, Viceroy Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, Duke of Alburquerque, appointed him the Franciscan procurator-general for New Spain. A year later he was made procurator-general of the New Mexican custodia. This might be seen as a demotion, though perhaps Ramirez was given the larger office on a temporary basis with the understanding that he would quickly move to the custodia. In 1657, Ramirez took actual charge of the mission supply trains and began the purchases of materials for the missionaries and laypeople of New Mexico. Meanwhile, sometime in 1658, Ramirez was elected custodian of the New Mexico Franciscan custodia.
The supply train bearing the additional missionaries and the new governor, his wife, and retainers began the slow journey from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Because of their somewhat similar backgrounds one might expect López and Ramirez to have had a certain viewpoint in common. From later testimony, however, it would seem that the two men quarreled very quickly and by the end of the long journey north were sworn enemies. Possibly, López with his upper-class family background looked down on Ramirez, a manifestation of the Spanish obsession with honor and social rank. More likely it was a personality conflict between two men, each with an exalted idea of his own worth. By the time López reached New Mexico, he had expanded his dislike to include the New Mexican missionaries, and his statements took on an increasingly violent anti-Franciscan tone. One wonders to what extent López's training by the Jesuits may have affected his attitude toward the Franciscans, or even to what degree he may have considered Ramirez a traitor to his early Jesuit training.
Missionary
policies
were also involved, and the governor and the Franciscans were in conflict from the very beginning about spheres of influence. López considered himself to be the ''universal head'' of the province, while the missionaries believed that they firmly controlled the spiritual affairs of New Mexico. The difference in the positions may have been largely semantic, perhaps nothing more than an unfortunate choice of phraseology. The Spanish government generally insisted that wide powers be granted to its executive officers, and it seems likely that López was simply trying to say that as governor he had the final authority. But he said so in a way that inflamed the Franciscans.
It was not long before accusations and counter-accusations were being routinely exchanged between the two leaders. According to López, Fray Ramirez had been hostile from the start, failing to provide properly for the governor and his wife and attempting to persuade the viceroy to suspend the López appointment. López documented this unfriendly attitude by sending letters he received from Ramirez back to Viceroy Francisco Fernández de la Cueva as examples of the intemperance of
Page 161
the Franciscans. The viceroy seems to have weighed in on the side of his governor and protested to the Franciscan commissary-general about Ramírez's discourtesy. This further angered Fray Juan, and according to Governor López, he refused all efforts at conciliation. The new governor may have felt a bit outnumbered, for some twenty-four missionaries were in this particular wagon train, making their way to the New Mexico missions. Ten of the twenty-four deserted along the way, and López and Ramírez blamed each other for these defections.
The governor and missionaries had ample time to get acquainted (and to focus on disagreements) because the trip, as always, took several months. At Parral, López, Ramirez, and a few others pushed on ahead to the new Manso mission station near Paso del Norte, arriving there in early June 1659. Moving upriver to Senecú, López de Mendizábal held a series of conferences with the missionary in charge there, Fray Garcia de San Francisco, and undoubtedly with local estancia and encomienda holders in the area. Among other things, the governor discussed with Ramirez and San Francisco the question of Indian labor, something which was quickly to become a sore point among the various factions.
By the time the caravan actually arrived in New Mexico, López and Ramirez were open enemies, and López had solidified his dislike of the entire missionary order in New Mexico. At Socorro, the missionary in charge, Fray Benito de la Natividad, claimed to have welcomed López with arches of flowers and tolling church bells. According to the Franciscans, López greeted Fray Benito rudely, informing him that the missionary should have gone two leagues (five miles or so) to formally meet the governor's party and that the governor should be received "like the blessed Sacrament on the day of Corpus, with pallium and incense." This statement played a part in the later Inquisition investigation of López. The governor flatly denied making any such comment, and it really seems unlikely that López de Mendizábal would have indulged in such inflammatory language. Even later, when the hostilities between López and the missionaries had reached a point of open warfare, the governor generally was careful not to impugn the sanctity of the Church as a whole, only the Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico. Still, López did have a tart tongue when it came to comments on the missionaries. At Socorro he was entertained at dinner by a local estanciera, Luisa Díaz de Betansos and her daughter, Isabel de Salazar. The women complained that they were not always able to attend Mass for lack of riding animals. López assured them that they were "healthier or better" for missing these religious obligations since it meant they could avoid the friars. In later testimony, the ladies claimed to have been shocked by such statements.
López arrived in Santa Fe on July 11, 1659, Ramirez having dropped off at Santo Domingo, the Franciscan headquarters. It was customary for the custodian
Page 162
to make a formal call on the governor at Santa Fe, at which time he normally would be received with considerable pomp and circumstances, and Ramirez therefore sent letters announcing his arrival in the capital. López, however, was still angry because of perceived slights from the Franciscans and replied that although he would assist the custodian, he had no obligation to provide a formal welcome. This kind of behavior formed the pattern of relationships between the governor and the missionaries for the two years of López's governorship.
Several other trouble spots flared up during these first months of Lópezs tenure of office. Even before coming to the Southwest, López had been concerned with the very low pay of the Pueblos. By a viceregal degree of 1621 (see chapter 7) it had been set at a low half-real per day plus food. Forty years later the food provision had been dropped, and there are hints that even the wretched base pay was sometimes not forthcoming. In view of what happened later, it seems likely that the viceregal government wished to adjust the pay schedule, and that López de Mendizábal may have been acting under the orders, or at least with the approval, of the viceroy. At any rate he ordered that the wage be increased to one real per day, with a daily ration of food.
In order to understand this situation, it is necessary to say something about Spanish coins and their different values. First of all, I must stress that we are talking about
equivalents
, for little or no actual money circulated in New Mexico. The basis of calculation seems to have been the peso de plata of eight reales, and a smaller coinage unit called the tomin, ninety-six to the peso and twelve to the real. An "on the ground" unit for calculating value was the cotton or wool manta, a vara and a half (about fifty inches) square. This cloth was reckoned at six reales. A fanega (about two and a half bushels) of wheat was pegged at eight reales, and a fanega of corn at four to six. An ox was worth seven to ten pesos, and a good mule or a slave boy or girl, thirty to forty pesos. According to the Prada letter of 1638, each Indian household, every year, must needs pay its encomendero a fifty-inch piece of cotton cloth and a fanega of maize or wheat, representing on an average perhaps twenty-five wage-days. It does not seem to be excessive, but in lean years it may well have been difficult to meet even those amounts.
The timing of the wage hike was perhaps unfortunate, for the increase came at harvest time in 1659. It produced cries of anger and outrage from the various Spanish encomenderos and estancieros. How much they actually were hurt by the new pricing is uncertain. A number of them complained at López's residencia, some two years later, that they were no longer able to afford Indian labor in harvesting and herding. Another complicating factor may have been the fact that parts of New Mexico were entering a drought cycle that would peak in the late
Page 163
1660s (see chapter 11). This might have had an intensifying effect on any change in work or wage policy.
Although the raise in wages of the Pueblo worker mainly impacted the land-holding colonists, López's next move was aimed at the Franciscans. In 1648, by order of then Governor Luis de Guzmán y Figueroa, the missionaries had been given rights to the free labor of Indians for various church and convent offices (interpreter, sacristan, bell ringer, cook and porter) as well as for herding and other field tasks. Such Indians were exempt from the normal encomienda tax. After some backing and filling, and only when pressed by the Franciscans to give a definite statement on the matter, López ruled that the new wage laws also applied to these mission workers. He based his ruling on the famous viceregal directive of 1621, which sharply delineated and restricted actions against the Indians by both the ecclesiastical and lay authorities. López also moved against encomenderos who had been in the habit of building on Pueblo land and who also utilized Indian labor, in some cases free labor. The mission labor practices may have been in a gray area, but that of the encomenderos was clearly illegal.
Even before reaching New Mexico there was another flare-up between López and the missionaries concerning the interpretation of a papal bull, the
Omnimoda
, issued by Adrian VI during his short tenancy as pope, 1522-23. This bull stated that in areas where no bishop was in control, monastic prelates were permitted to have the powers of an ecclesiastical judge-ordinary. López insisted that the bull had been revoked by the Council of Trent. This was a murky area of Church law, but during the earlier seventeenth century, the Franciscan custodiae in outlying mission areas of New Spain were generally considered to have judge-ordinary powers. López's reservations were probably sincere, and Scholes, at any rate, believed that the governor did not mean "to deny ecclesiastical authority as such." The Franciscans, however, took that as the governor's meaning and complained vociferously to the Inquisition.
López de Mendizábal began his term as governor by making the customary tour of the province. During his travel and visits, the governor closely questioned various Indians on the activities of the Franciscans. López seems to have had a tradition of being "pro-Indian," at least as far as the clergy were concerned. When serving as alcalde mayor in Guaiococotla, he had assured the Indian leaders that the Church had only limited power over them. Now in New Mexico, he questioned Indians as to the morals of their friars and took steps to limit the ecclesiastical use of Indian labor. In a number of cases he tampered with the actual organization of the missions, dismissing Pueblo servants and denying the missionaries the right to personal service on the part of the Indians.
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