Read Kachina and the Cross Online

Authors: Carroll L Riley

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Page 168
Michoacán, a maternal ancestor was Fernando de Villagómez, one of the conquerors of Michoacán. Aguilar drifted off to Parral at the age of eighteen, working as a soldier and miner. Six years later he killed an uncle in a brawl (presumably by accident) and fled to New Mexico, eventually receiving a pardon from the Crown. There he married a local woman, Catalina Márquez, whose family had been in New Mexico from Oñate's time, and the couple had four children. In their actions against Aguilar, the Franciscans referred to him over and over again as a mestizo, and the description of him in the Inquisition documents as "somewhat brown" also suggested a mixed ancestry. Although there is some indication that Aguilar was illiterate, among his goods inventoried by the Inquisition were four books. One was a printed copy of the four gospels, two others had to do with Catholic religious exercises, and the fourth bore the title
Cathecismo, en lengua Castellanay Timuquana.
This latter book, on the Timucua of Florida, was compiled by the Franciscan missionary Francisco Pareja and was published in 1612 in Mexico. We have no idea where, and under what circumstances, Aguilar came by such a specialized volume and what use he made of it.
There were other adherents to the López cause, but only Anaya Almazán, Gómez Robledo, Romero, and Aguilar were actually tried by the Holy Office. All four men were probably in their mid to late thirties, and with the exception of Aguilar, all were from distinguished New Mexico families. The first three were given relatively light sentences (as Inquisition sentences went in those days). Gómez Robledo was actually acquitted, though he had to bear some of the costs of the trial. This is somewhat surprising because Gómez was accused of Judaizing and very likely had Jewish ancestors through his Portuguese father. Gómez Robledo, however, vigorously defended the father, pointing out that the elder man had come to New Mexico sometime in the first two decades of Spanish rule there and had served long and well. Romero was barred from returning to New Mexico and in 1678 was back in the Inquisition's bad graces, accused of bigamy. He died in prison in Vera Cruz. Anaya Almazán did return to the province (for his further activities, see chapter 11).
Nicolás de Aguilar was López's most active lieutenant in establishing conditions whereby Pueblo Indians could perform their forbidden ceremonial dances. He was, therefore, a main target of the missionaries after López himself. Aguilar made a strong defense, and his preliminary sentence, on a split vote, forbade him to hold public office for a period of six years. Probably, had Aguilar followed the same path as his three comrades, the sentence might have been reduced further. Instead, he decided to challenge the verdict, probably feeling very strongly that he had been wronged. Regardless of the merits of the case, Aguilar seems to have misjudged the court, for his appeal led to a much more serious sentence. Aguilar
Page 169
was banished from New Mexico for ten years and became ineligible to serve in public office for life. Aguilar then disappears from the record. It is not even clear whether or not his family joined him in exile from New Mexico.
France V. Scholes was somewhat of an admirer of Aguilar. Summing up the trial testimony he concluded that:
Aguilar made a vigorous defense against [charges by the Franciscans] during his hearings before the tribunal. His depositions were characterized by a certain quality of directness that was lacking in the testimony of Diego Romero and Cristóbal de Anaya. It was impossible, of course, for him to evade the major issues, but having taken a stand he usually stuck to it. His nerveperhaps stubbornness is a better wordnever failed him, and he did not humiliate himself, as Romero had done, by coming before the court in hearing after hearing to tell unsavory details of his early life, to admit his guilt little by little, or to testify against his fellow prisoners. During the trial proceedings this rough illiterate frontiersmanthis Attila, as the friars called himdisplayed greater dignity and self respect than any of the other New Mexican soldiers, with the exception of Francisco Gómez Robledo.
In his two years in New Mexico, López seems to have developed an antagonism to the Franciscans that was matched perhaps only by Governor Rosas two decades before. His concerns, discussed above, that the Indians might be abused by the missionaries and his refusal to allow the Franciscans free Indian labor led to cries of outrage. Indians had tilled mission fields, herded mission flocks, and had performed various menial tasks around the mission convents without pay, and the friars were determined that this policy should stand. In the López residencia of 1662, the Franciscans demanded repayment for 8,317 head of sheep, cattle, and oxen lost due to López's Indian policy.
López and his wife obviously believed that they should live with somewhat of the pomp required by their station as the secular chief and first lady of the New Mexico province. They dressed well and were very aware of the dignity of the office of governor. Inquisition documents that developed out of the later judicial hearings and formal trial of the López pair give some interesting sidelights on the various uses of the time. At the Casa Real, the governor and his wife had their bedroom in one wing of the palace, with the women domestics sleeping in the room beyond. These women were allowed to move through the López couple's bedroom as they liked, even when the governor and his wife were in bed. The men's quarters, however, were in the other direction, and they were forbidden to enter the bedroom of their master and mistress except by direct invitation. Doña Teresa had her own separate drawing room. The rooms were sparsely decorated
Page 170
with two representations of Christ, one in the bedroom and the other in the drawing room. López also commissioned a picture of San Miguel, painted on leather, so clumsily done that his enemies accused him of mockery. It is probably untrue, for López seems to have considered San Miguel a very important figure, perhaps a patron saint. As for the ''unskilled'' painting, it was done by an Indian who likely was operating under a native artistic tradition.
Unlike most of the settlers, López and Teresa were literate and, as described in chapter 9, had a considerable library that included various religious writings, works of fiction in Spanish and Italian, histories, a Latin text and a Latin-Spanish dictionary. A great deal is known of the couple's personal habits since these were of considerable interest to the Inquisitors, especially when trying to decide if the Lópezes were secret Judaizers. A number of individuals, including four or five actual eyewitnesses, had testified against the two at hearings held by the custodian and Holy Office commissary, Fray Alonso de Posada, in 1661-62. The very practice of sleeping alone in their bedroom, except for a small slave girl, seems to have created some negative talk.
Bernardo and Teresa were also accused of avoiding Mass. This was something that had been of longstanding concern to the clergy, since a similar accusation against the two had been made by the missionary, Ramirez, during the trip north in 1659. The López couple tended to avoid Catholic days of obligation and seldom said grace at meals. When their household members greeted them with pious expressions, they failed to reply. The couple failed in their bedtime devotions and were indifferent to holy images. Antagonistic to piety in others, Teresa had actually whipped a black slave woman who was fasting in honor of Our Lady of Carmén. In addition, Doña Teresa was accused of saving her menstrual blood for ritual purposes, and of using magical potions to attract her husband's sexual attentions. She also treated the bottoms of her feet with onion peel. (Teresa indignantly commented that she had corns, and this was the only remedy available). Teresa de Aguilar was also accused of unusual secrecy in that she kept her writing desk locked. Her reading of a book in an unknown language was considered suspicious by the Inquisitors because of the possibility that it might contain heresy.
In point of fact, heresy and the possibility of Judaizing made up a considerable amount of the later preliminary interrogation undertaken in New Mexico by Custodian Alonso de Posada (see below). Posada learned from servants that both Don Bernardo and Doña Teresa "made a special ceremony" of washing their hair and bathing, with Teresa especially inclined to lock herself in the bedroom at such times. One of the servant women actually attempted to spy on her mistress but without success. Not only did the couple wash themselves on Friday
Page 171
but put on clean clothing and changed the bed and table linen on that day of the week. If they were unable to perform the Friday ablutions, they always postponed washing until the following Friday. And on Saturdays, Doña Teresa was accustomed to primp as if that day was to be specially celebrated.
In the later Inquisition hearings, López, and especially Doña Teresa, made relatively short work of these accusations. The book read by Doña Teresa was Ludovico Ariosto's
Orlando Furioso
in Italian, which the lady read to keep up practice in that language. The couple did not habitually choose Friday for bathing and changing clothing; in fact, Don Bernardo stated that he changed at least his shirt more often, almost every day in summer. Although he might have occasionally have washed his hair on Friday, there was nothing special about the day. Teresa did confess to special attention to her toilet on Saturdays but claimed that this was a common habit of women of her class. It had nothing to do with a day "which the dead law of Moses orders to be observed." Rather, it was because there was not time before Sunday Mass for any but the most superficial makeup.
The black slave woman was not whipped because she was fasting but because she was a troublemaker and had been disciplined for insubordination several times before. In fact, according to Doña Teresa, the servants in the Casa Real were a turbulent group, Apache and black slaves, Pueblo Indians who were serving time for petty offenses, and "low class mestizos." A firm manner and the occasional use of force was the only way the governor's wife could maintain order. Today, we tend to take into account the obvious and often brutal exploitation of these servants and slaves. However, the Inquisitors, operating from the point of view of the master class, seemed to have regarded Teresa's travail with some sympathy.
In any case, the sanitary habits of the couple, their relationships with servants, or even their religious proclivities did not form the major part of the case, at least against López. In order to understand another set of accusations against the governor, it is necessary to consider one of López's own charges against the missionariesthat they habitually violated their vows of chastity both with Indian women and with members of the Hispanic community. The missionary at Tajique was accused of raping a number of his female parishioners, and the Franciscan stationed at Alamillo of having sex with Indian women. More sinister were the activities of Fray Luis Martínez at Taos, who, according to Mendizábal, raped a Pueblo woman and murdered her to keep the news from leaking out. Various citizens were accused of prostituting their wives to the missionaries. The extent to which these accusations were based on fact is not clear. There likely was some sexual misbehavior on the part of the clergy, but the incidences were probably not as widespread as López would have had the Inquisitors believe.
BOOK: Kachina and the Cross
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