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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Alonso De Zorita’s career as a Spanish judge in the Indies in the years 1548–1556, though not as well known as the career of Bartolomé de las Casas and other pro-Indian reformers, merits serious study. The arrival of Zorita and his subsequent actions as an administrator and legist represent one example of the serious efforts of the Crown in the 1540’s to impose royal control over a quasi-feudal class of conquerors and pobladores which had from the early sixteenth century entrenched itself in the New World. Moreover, Zorita was not only a jurist who attempted to implement the New Laws of 1542–43, but an inspired humanitarian who took an active interest in the native civilizations of the New World and questioned the relations that had evolved and created “a Hispano-Indian society characterized by the domination of the masses by a small privileged minority…” His ardent defense of the Indians against the charge that they were “barbarians” included a relativist line of argument that anticipated Michel de Montaigne’s celebrated comment that “everyone calls barbarian what is not his own usage.” In addition, his inquiries into native history, land tenure and inheritance laws may be considered “in effect exercises in applied anthropology, capable of yielding a vast amount of information about native customs and society” and is an example of what Europe saw or failed to see in the sixteenth century when confronted with a strange new world.
1 Scholes, France V., “The Beginnings of Hispano-Indian Society in Yucatan,” Scientific Monthly, XLIV (June, 1937), 530–538.Google Scholar
2 Elliott, J. H., The Old World and the New, 1492–1650 (Cambridge, 1970), 46.Google Scholar
3 Ibid., 33 and 6.
4 Sanz, Manuel Serrano y, “Vida y escritos del Doctor Alonso de Zorita,” to be found in Zorita, Alonso de, “Historia de la Nueva España,” Colección de libros y documentos referentes a la historia de América (Madrid, 1909), VII–CX.Google Scholar Cited hereinafter as Serrano y Sanz.
5 Zorita, Alonso de, Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico: The Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain, translated and with an introduction by Keen, Benjamin (New Brunswick, N.J., 1963), (18), 290.Google Scholar Cited hereinafter as Keen.
6 Sancho, Hipólito R., “Diego Fernández de Zurita, Alcaide de Arcos, Embajador en Granada,” Revista de Historia y de Genealogía Española (Madrid, 1929–1931), I: 1–42, II: 107–116, III: 327–337, IV: 178–236.Google Scholar Cited hereinafter as Hipólito R. Sancho.
7 Haro, Alonso López de, Nobilario genealógico de los reyes y títulos de España (2 vols., Madrid, 1622), II, 424.Google Scholar
8 Hipólito R. Sancho, I, 18. This Diego Fernández de Zurita was the grandson of don Fagut the Conqueror and the grandfather of Diego Fernández de Zurita, Alcaide de Arcos.
9 The other three captains belonged to the houses of Villavicencio, Valdespino, and Dávila.
10 Sancho, Hipólito R., I, 17. Molina, Gonzalo Argote de, Nobleza de Andalucía (Jaen, 1866), 423.Google Scholar For the same coat of arms but for different colors, see Espejo, Juan Luis, Nobiliario de la antigua capitanía general de Chile (2 vols., Santiago de Chile, 1917–1921), I, 282–283 Google Scholar under lineage of Juan Pérez de Zurita.
11 Diego Fernández de Zurita, the son of Juana de García de Colsantos and Fernando Alfonso de Zurita, was raised in the house of don Fadrique de Castilla, Duke of Arjona and Count of Trastamara, Lemos and Sárrie. He served don Fadrique as camarero mayor, and one of his sons married Florentina Ponce de León, sister of the Marquis of Cádiz and daughter of the Count of Arcos and Lord of Marchena. Hipólito R. Sancho, I, 29.
12 In his dedication of the Historia de la Nueva España to don Hernando de Vega, president of the Royal Council of the Indies, Zorita stated on October 20, 1585, that he was 73 years of age. This means that he was born either in 1511 or 1512. Serrano y Sanz, 6.
13 The confusion between the two patronymic family names Zorita and Zurita makes for bibliographical confusion, but is in reality of minor importance. The fact is that the names were recognized as interchangeable in the sixteenth century, and the subject of this study was occasionally referred to as Alonso de Zurita, the form used by his father and those Zoritas of Aragonese descent such as Jerónimo de Zurita, the chronicler of Aragon. In fact, Jerónimo de Zurita in his memorial claims the same coat of arms as that of Alonso de Zorita’s family, and it appears that the Zuritas of Aragon also had their origin in Jerez de la Frontera. Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, “Memorial de Jerónimo de Zurita a Felipe III sobre su limpieza de sangre,” Colección de don Luis de Salazar, Vol. A-110, folios 337–341. See also de Ustarroz, J. F. A. and Dormer, D. J., Progreso de la historia en Aragón y vida de sus cronistas (Zaragosa, 1878), 8 Google Scholar. Moreover, the etymology of the word Zorita or Zurita is undoubtedly purely Iberian and not Arabic as Serrano y Sanz—following Belot’s Vocabulaire arabe-français—would have us believe. Corominas, J., Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana (4 vols., Madrid, 1954), IV, 883.Google Scholar Cañete de las Torres in the province of Córdoba was captured permanently from the Moors in 1407 by Fernando de Antequera, the uncle of Juan II (1406–1454) of Castile.
14 Ursúa, Luis de Roa y, El reyno de Chile, 1535–1810 (Valladolid, 1945), 222.Google Scholar Ojeda, Tomás Thayer, Formación de la sociedad chilena y censo de la población de Chile en los años de 1540 a 1565 (3 vols., Santiago de Chile, 1939–1943), III, 82–84.Google Scholar Descendants of don Pedro de Olmos and doña María de Zorita, the sister of Alonso de Zorita, were in Chile in the seventeenth century and belonged to the Orders of Calatrava and Alcántara. See Villena, Guillermo Lohmann, Los americanos en las órdenes nobiliarias, 1529–1900 (2 vols., Madrid, 1947), II, 91 and 187.Google Scholar Juan Pérez de Zorita, a brother of Alonso de Zorita, belonged to the military Order of Calatrava. I am of the opinion that Beatriz Moyano de Figueroa y Córdoba was the niece of the Marqués de Priego and not the Count of Priego, for the Counts of Priego began with don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza whereas the marquises of Priego are of the house of Fernández de Córdoba. See Haro, Alonso López de, Nobiliario genealógico, II, 330–334.Google Scholar It should also be noted that J. L. Espejo claims that Ana de Córdoba was of the noble house of Fernández de Córdoba. See Espejo, J. L., Nobiliario de la antigua capitanía general de Chile, I, 282–283.Google Scholar The great house of Fernández de Córdoba goes back to the counts of Trava and Trastámara and members of the family became Grandes de España, marquises of Priego, counts of Feria, counts of Cabra, counts of Alcaudete, dukes of Sessa, marquises of Comares, lords of Aguilar, Córdoba and Montemayor. The most famous historical figure of this house is, of course, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba who with Gonzalo de Ayora created the famous Spanish tercios of the sixteenth century.
15 Recent studies have demonstrated that only approximately half of the minor nobility proceeded from the old feudal aristocracy or from the group consisting of the segundones, younger sons of the great houses. Vives, J. Vicens, Historia de España y América (5 vols., Barcelona, 1961), II, 443.Google Scholar
16 Livermore, Harold, A History of Spain (London, 1958), 275.Google Scholar
17 Instrument by which the jurado don Alonso Díaz de Zurita and his wife doña Inés de Córdoba, vecinos in the precinct of Santo Domingo, sell their grange of Peralejo on the boundary of the villa of Montoro to the Holy Office of the Inquisition for a redeemable censo of 75,000 maravedís, payable at the rate of 6,250 maravedís yearly. Signature: Alonso de Zurita—doña Inés de Córdoba, March 23, 1554. (Archivo de Protocolos, Córdoba, Oficio 1, Protocolo 27, fols. 255v.-257.). Sales and purchase of land by Zorita’s father and mother may be found in the following legajos: (1) purchase of land worth 40,000 maravedís, January 30, 1539. (A.P.C., Oficio 21, Protocolo 26, fols. 82–83.); (2) purchase of land worth 10,000 maravedís, October 6, 1558. (A.P.C., Oficio 21, Tomo 47, fols. 1253–1258.); (3) sale of land worth 225,000 maravedís, March 27, 1561. (A.P.C., Oficio 21, Tomo 49, fols. 336v.-340.); (4) sale of land worth 187,500 maravedís, April 1, 1561.(A.P.C., Oficio 21, Tomo 49, fols. 348–351.); (5) purchase of land worth 1,400 ducats or the equivalent of 525,000 maravedís, April 9, 1561. (A.P.C., Oficio 21, Tomo 49, fols. 359–368.); (6) purchase of land worth 18,000 maravedís, May 6, 1561. (A.P.C., Oficio 21, Tomo 49, fols. 468–471.); (7) sale of land worth 150,000 maravedís, August 9, 1561. (A.P.C., Oficio 21, Tomo 49, fols. 986–989.). I am indebted to the son of the late don José de la Torre y del Cerro, cronista oficial de la provincia de Córdoba, for having given me access to his father’s file on Zorita. Without the diligent investigation of the Archivo de Protocolos in Córdoba over a lifetime by don José, it would have been impossible to find these documents.
18 Letter of payment in the amount of 519 maravedís granted by the jurado Alonso de Zurita acting as mayordomo for the Señora Marquesa de Priego and Condesa de Ferias to Asensio López, vecino of Cañete, for the use of the baking oven in the said villa. Signature: Alonso de Zurita, Córdoba, November 30, 1540. (A.P.C., Oficio 7, Tomo 1.).
19 Letter of Zorita to the Crown, Cartagena, October 13, 1551. (Archivo General de Indias, Audiencia de Santa Fe, Legajo 187.). Cited hereinafter as A.G.I, with appropriate information.
20 Probanza of the services of Juan Pérez de Zorita, La Plata, October 16, 1583. (A.G.I., Patronato 127, Ramo 12.).
21 These were Juan Zorita, Pérez de, Zorita, Francisco de, Zorita, Miguel Díaz de, Zorita, Lucía de, Villavicencio, María Zorita de, Villavicencio, Elvira Zorita de, Zorita, Inés de, and Villavicencio, Ana de Zorita. José de la Torre y del Cerro, “Los fundadores de las Córdobas de América,” Obras de don José de la Torre y del Cerro (1 vol., Córdoba, 1955), I, 345–356.Google Scholar
22 Keen, 20.
23 Serrano y Sanz, X and 17. A search of the incomplete list of Pruebas de cursos y bachilleramientos prior to 1546 furnished me by Padre Florencio Marcos, bibliotecario of the Archivo de la Universidad de Salamanca, when I visited the Archivo in 1967, failed to reveal Zorita’s name.
24 Miguel Díez, describing his university studies, stated in 1547: “Fuí colegial en Salamanca, en el Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé, de donde lo fué el señor licenciado Gasca. Quien en esa casa entra ha da hacer tres informaciones: primera, de letras; segunda, linaje; y tiénese por probanza más que cierta, que no es judío ni toca en ello, sino que es de buena casta el que es dado por hábil para ser elegido; tercera, de costumbres, muy rigurosa…” Letter of Miguel Díez de Armendáriz to Adelantado Benalcázar, Santa Fe, April 27, 1547, in Aguado, Pedro de, Historia de Venezuela (2 vols., Madrid, 1950), I, (X), 90.Google Scholar
25 Letter of Zorita to the Crown, Mexico, March 20, 1560. (A.G.I., Aud. de México, Leg. 68.).
26 Power of Attorney given by Licenciado Alonso de Zorita to his brother Juan Pérez de Zorita and Licenciado Turiel, lawyer of the Royal Chancery of Granada, Córdoba, March 11, 1548. (A.P.C., Oficio 23, Protocolo 10.).
27 Appointment of Zorita as oidor of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, Madrid, May 21, 1547. (A.G.I., Aud. de Santo Domingo, Leg. 868, fol. 364v.).
28 Letter of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo to the Crown, Santo Domingo, May 13, 1549. (A.G.I., Aud. de Santo Domingo, Leg. 49.). Testament of Departure by Alonso de Zorita before Pedro Sánchez, Crown notary, San Lúcar de Barrameda, April 28, 1548. (A.G.I., Aud. de México, Leg. 100.).
29 Letter of Zorita to the Crown, Santa Marta, February 27, 1550. (A.G.I., Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 16.).
30 Residencia of Licenciados Alonso López de Cerrato, Alonso López de Grajeda, and Alonso de Zorita, president and judges of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo, 1553, Legs. 75–80. (A.G.I., Justicia, Leg. 76, fol. 1773.).
31 Información, Alonso de Zorita, México, 1562. (A.G.I., Aud. de México, Leg. 100.). The translation is by Keen, 23.
32 Letter of the Cabildo of Santo Domingo to the Crown, Santo Domingo, February 17, 1553. (A.G.I., Aud. de Santo Domingo, Leg. 73.).
33 Letter of the Audiencia of Guatemala to the Crown, Santiago de Guatemala, September 20, 1553. (A.G.I., Aud. de México, Leg. 100.).
34 Letter of the Audiencia of Mexico to the Crown, Mexico City, July 9, 1556. (A.G.I., Aud. de México, Leg. 100.).
35 Letter of the Audiencia of Mexico to the Crown, Mexico, March 22, 1560. (A.G.I., Aud. de México, Leg. 68.).
36 Letter of Zorita to the Crown, Mexico, February 10, 1561. (A.G.I., Aud. de México, Leg. 68.).
37 Letter of Zorita to the Crown, Mexico, February 10, 1564. (A.G.I., Aud. de México, Leg. 68.).
38 Petition of Zorita to the Royal Council of the Indies, Madrid, Friday, June 7, 1576. (A.G.I., Indif. Gen., Leg. 1085.). See Elliott, J. H., Imperial Spain, 1469–1716 (New York, 1966), 232–;237 Google Scholar, for the second rebellion of the Alpujarras.
39 Petition of Zorita to the Royal Council of the Indies, Madrid, May 5, 1575. (A.G.I., Indif. Gen., Leg. 1385.).
40 The visita and residencia are almost indistinguishable. See Urquijo, J. M. Mariluz, Ensayo sobre los juicios de residencia indianos (Seville, 1952), 141–146, 255–256.Google Scholar
41 Scholes, France V. and Adams, Eleanor B. (eds.), “Cartas del Licenciado Jerónimo Valderrama y otros documentos sobre su visita al Gobierno de Nueva España, 1563–1565,” in Documentos para la historia del México colonial (7 vols, to date, Mexico, 1955–1961), VII, 346–401.Google Scholar
42 Petition of Zorita to the Royal Council of the Indies, op. cit., Madrid, May 5, 1575.
43 “A.V.A. humilmente suplica se tenga atención a lo susodicho y así no hubo contra él demanda pública ni de mal sentenciado ni querella de parte con estar sin oficio los dos años de tres que duró la dicha visita. Y que se le pusieron muchos cargos porque fué condenado sin los poner al doctor Villalobos ni al doctor Horozco por respeto que para ello hubo habiendo sido todos tres juezes en ello. Y se le pusieron otros muchos de procesos en que no había sido juez y de cosas que sucedieron después de se haber disistido de su oficio de oidor y otros de que constó lo contrario por fees de escribanos y oficiales de real hacienda, pudiendo el dicho visitador averiguarlos como era obligado ante que se pusieran, y otros muchos sin estar probados y fué de lo dicho dado por libre y así lo fuera de otros si se sacara del libro del acuerdo como lo pidió al dicho visitador lo que en él estaba sentado. Y a que los cargos porque fué condenado en lo que dicho es fueron inventados por el deán de México y Diego Rodríguez de Horozco que después fueron traídos a esta corte por lo del rebelión que se intento en México que eran muy grandes amigos y vivían juntos en una casa y estaban mal con el dicho doctor por haber sido juez en negocios graves que se trataron en la dicha real audiencia contra el dicho Diego Rodríguez. Y dieron contra él capitulos al dicho visitador y dijeron sus dichos en la dicha visita dando en ellos el color que quisieron para que tuviesen apariencia de verdad siendo inventados por ellos. Y afirmaron en lo que toca a don Luis de Quesada y su mujer lo que no pasó ni aunque pasara lo podían ver ni hallarse presentes tantos y tan diversas veces como dicen los cargos, ni podian saber y asi se enviara si se llevaba ni se recibía. Y con pasión afirmaron lo que les pareció atrayendo a otros a lo mismo y así lo publicaban y decían que lo habían de destruir, que es lenguaje que se usa en Indias para atemorizar a los jueces que no andan a su gusto.” Ibid. For a late sixteenth century account of the Avila conspiracy, see Peralta, Juan Suárez de, La conjuración de Martín Cortés (Mexico, 1945).Google Scholar
44 Petition of Zorita to the Royal Council of the Indies, op. cit., Madrid, May 5, 1575.
45 The Suma de los Tributos, now lost, is cited by Zorita in the Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain. Keen, 58, notes that Serrano y Sanz, XCVII, is of the opinion that its contents in large part were incorporated in the material on the subject of tribute in the Brief Relation and Part II of Zorita’s Relación de las cosas notables de la Nueva España y de la conquista y pacificación della y de la doctrina y conversión de los naturales, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, Madrid, Ms. No. 59. An examination by the author of Part II of the manuscript (fols. 166 to 260) confirms Serrano y Sanz’s statement that this part of the Relación de las cosas notables … is almost an exact reproduction of the Brief Relation.
46 This is undoubtedly the work known as Leyes y ordenanzas reales de las Indias del mar Océano por las cuales primeramente se han de librar todos los pleitos civiles y criminales de aquellas partes y lo que por ellas no estuviere determinado se ha de librar por las leyes y ordenanzas de los reinos de Castilla, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, Madrid, Ms. No. 1813.
47 “El doctor Zorita, estante en esta corte, dice que él presentó dos libros escritos de mano en este consejo, para que vistos se le diese licencia para imprimirlos, los cuales se sometieron al licenciado Castro para que los viese e informase. Suplica se manden buscar entre los libros del dicho licenciado Castro y hallados, se le vuelvan. (Que se hará).” Extract of a petition of Zorita, to the Council of the Indies, Madrid, Monday, June 25, 1576. (A.G.I., Indif. Gen., Leg. 1085, fol. 185, punto 1.).
48 Extract of a petition of Zorita to the Council of the Indies, Madrid, Monday, January 27, 1578, Entry 28. (A.G.I., Indif. Gen., Leg. 1086.).
49 Extract of a petition of Zorita to the Royal Council of the Indies, Madrid, Wednesday, January 29, 1578. (A.G.I., Indif. Gen., Leg. 1086, fol. 29v.). Extract of a petition of Zorita to the Royal Council of the Indies, Madrid, Tuesday, February 4, 1578. (A.G.I., Indif. Gen., Leg. 1086, fol. 40, punto 5.).
50 Serrano y Sanz, 25.
51 Extract of a petition of Zorita to the Royal Council of the Indies, Madrid, Monday, March 3, 1578. (A.G.I., Indif. Gen., Leg. 1086, fol. 68v., punto 6.). Space does not permit comments on Zorita’s ability to portray Indian life in Mexico prior to and after the conquest. However, the author agrees with Serrano y Sanz that Zorita’s major work, the Relación de las cosas notables … is largely derivative and is marred by pedantry and the inclusion of irrelevant material. Zorita’s best work is the Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain and the best edition is Keen’s magnificent translation of the work into English.
52 Alonso de Zorita, Relación de las cosas notables de la Nueva España, op. cit., fol. 273.
53 Keen, 61.
54 Alonso de Zorita, Relación de las cosas notables de la Nueva España, op. cit., fol. 300.
55 Keen, 52.