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The Devil and Deviance in Native Criminal Narratives From Early Mexico*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Lisa Sousa
Lisa Sousa*
Affiliation:
Occidental College, Los AngelesCalifornia
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Extract

In 1686, Marcial de la Cruz, a Zapotec from the community of San Francisco Cajonos, confessed that he had murdered his wife, Catalina María, two years earlier. Tired of running from authorities, burdened with a guilty conscience, and concerned about the house and land that he had left behind, Marcial returned to tell his fantastic story. He recalled how on the day of the murder Catalina had convinced native officials from the neighboring community of San Mateo to release him from jail, where he was being detained because of a dispute over a mule. On the way back to San Francisco, Marcial stopped to bathe in the river, but Catalina decided to continue walking. After bathing, Marcial hurried along the narrow path to catch up with his wife, but she was nowhere in sight. Then, suddenly, a jaguar jumped out from behind a large maguey plant, poised to attack. Fearing for his life, Marcial commended himself to God and held out the rosary that he wore around his neck to fend off the ferocious animal. He picked up a large stick and struck the jaguar three times. As the jaguar dropped to the ground, Marcial heard a voice say to him in Zapotec “Cuckold, don't kill that woman,” and he saw the jaguar transform into his wife. Stunned by this terrifying vision, he sought refuge in the convent of Santo Domingo in Oaxaca City. His flight from authorities would eventually take him to Mexico City, Puebla, Vera Cruz, and Chiapas before he returned to San Francisco Cajonos.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , October 2002 , pp. 161 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2002 

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was presented at the American Historical Association Meeting in Washington, D.C., in January of 1999. I would like to thank Sonia Lipsett-Rivera for inviting me to participate on the conference panel and Fernando Cervantes and Kevin Terraciano for reading and commenting on earlier versions of this article.

References

1 de Villa Alta, Archivo Judicial [hereafter AJVA], Criminal, 1: 50, San Francisco Cajonos, 1684.Google Scholar The case was initiated in 1684 when Catalina María was murdered; however, Marcial de la Cruz fled from authorities and did not confess to the crime until he returned to the community two years later.

2 According to William Christian, the cross had been used to repel the Devil since late medieval times. Christian, William A. Jr, Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), p. 184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 For a discussion of the nahualli complex in Mesoamerica, see Austin, Alfredo López, The Human Body and Ideology: Concepts of the Ancient Nahuas, volume 1,Google Scholar translated by de Montellano, Thelma Ortiz and de Montellano, Bernard Ortiz, (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988), pp. 362–75.Google Scholar He also provides a useful bibliography on the subject in The Human Body and Ideology, volume 5, translated by de Montellano, Thelma Ortiz and de Montellano, Bernard Ortiz, (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988), pp. 283–84.Google Scholar

4 For a discussion of the changing perceptions of the Devil's power, see Cervantes, Fernando, The Devil in the New World: The Impact of Diabolism in New Spain (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994)Google Scholar and MacCormack, Sabine, Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 On the uses of tlacatecolotl and tzitzimitl as terms for the Devil in ecclesiastical texts, see Burkhart, Louise M., The Slippery Earth: Nahua-Christian Moral Dialogue in Sixteenth-Century Mexico, (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989), pp. 42–43.Google Scholar Tzitzimitl, which were believed to fall from the sky, were likened to fallen angels.

6 See especially Cervantes, The Devil in the New World; Burkhart, The Slippery Earth; MacCormack, Religion in the Andes; Mills, Kenneth, Idolatry and Its Enemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation, 1640–1750, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Behar, Ruth, “Sex and Sin, Witchcraft and the Devil in Late-Colonial Mexico,” American Ethnologist 14:1 (February 1987), pp. 34–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 See, for example, Russell, Jeffrey Burton, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1984)Google Scholar and Roper, Lyndal, Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe (London and New York: Routledge, 1994).Google Scholar

8 de Olmos, Fray Andrés, Tratado de Hechicerías y Sortilegios, 1553, Paleografía del texto náhuatl, versión española, introducción y notas de Georges Baudot (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1990), pp. 56–59.Google Scholar

9 See, for example, Olmos, , Tratado de Hechicerías y Sortilegios, 1553, pp. 6 Google Scholar and 22, and the Florentine Codex (Historia universal), Book X, f. 40v (fray de Sahagún, Bernardino, Historia universal de las cosas de Nueva España: Códice Laurenziano Mediceo Palatino 218, 219, 220, Florence: Giunti, 1996).Google Scholar

10 The Mixtee term has been attested in Hernandez’ 1567 Doctrina en lengua misteca and in Mixteclanguage archival documents. See Terraciano, Kevin, The Mixtees of Colonial Oaxaca: Ñudzahui History, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001)Google Scholar, chapter 8.

11 Sahagún, Historia universal, Book I: f. 1v.

12 Sahagún, Historia universal, Book III: 10v–12. The Nahuatl word malacachoa literally means “to spin around.”

13 Burkhart, Louise M., Holy Wednesday: A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), p. 184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Tezcatlipoca and the Devil shared other characteristics. For example, Nahuas associated Tezcatlipoca with the north ( Burkhart, , The Slippery Earth, p. 50)Google Scholar just as European Christians associated the Devil with the north ( Russell, , Lucifer, pp. 69 Google Scholar and 71).

14 Sahagún, Historia universal, Book X: f. 20v.

15 Sahagún, Historia universal, Book X: f. 25v.

16 Heyden, Doris, editor, fray Durán, Diego, The History of the Indies of New Spain (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), p. 53 Google Scholar, n. 4.

17 Austin, Alfredo López, The Human Body and Ideology, p. 171.Google Scholar This concept is conveyed in the Nahuatl metaphor combining forms of ixtli, “face” and yollotl, “heart” to mean “mood” or “spirits.” For a full discussion on this metaphor and its usage, see Karttunen, Frances and Lockhart, James, editors, The Art of Nahuatl Speech: The Bancroft Dialogues (Los Angeles: University of California Latin American Center Publications, Nahuatl Studies Series Number 2, 1987), pp. 54–55.Google Scholar See also Terraciano, Kevin, “Crime and Culture in Colonial Mexico: The Case of the Mixtee Murder Note,” Ethnohistory 45:4 (Fall 1998), pp. 709–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Terraciano considers the similarity in Nahua and Mixtee associations between the emotions and the face on pp. 729–30.

18 Monaghan notes that the Mixtees of Nuyoo associate violent people with dogs. Monaghan, John, The Covenants With Earth and Rain: Exchange, Sacrifice, and Revelation in Mixtee Sociality (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), pp. 141 Google Scholar and 146. On dogs as symbols of sexual excess, see Sousa, Lisa, “Women in Native Societies and Cultures of Colonial Mexico” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1998), p. 367.Google Scholar Russell observes that in European folklore the Devil assumes many different animal forms, especially the dog (Lucifer, p. 67).

19 Sahagún, Historia universal, Book X: ff. 40v and 41.

20 Sahagún, Historia universal. Book X: f. 40v.

21 See, for example, Taggart, , Nahuat Myth, pp. 58 Google Scholar and 65 ; Monaghan, , The Covenants With Earth and Rain, pp. 58 Google Scholar and 144; see also Russell, , Lucifer, pp. 69 Google Scholar and 71 for directional significance in Christianity.

22 They include: Archivo General de la Nación [hereafter AGN], Criminal, 590: 2, Lalopa, 1657; AGN, Criminal, 686: 3, Acatepec, 1558; AJVA, Criminal 1: 39, Totontepec, 1675; AJVA, Criminal, 1: 50, Cajonos, 1684; Archivo General de Teposcolula [hereafter AJT], Criminal, 1: 35, Chalcatongo, 1581 ; AJT, Criminal, 1: 56, Teposcolula, 1592; AJT, Criminal, 2: 182, Teposcolula, 1605; AJT, Criminal, 3: 309, Yanhuitlan, 1616; AJT, Criminal, 3: 363, Teposcolula, 1628; AJT, Criminal. 3: 373, Teposcolula, 1630; AJT, Criminal, 4: 421, Cuquila, 1637; AJT, Criminal, 5: 547, Teposcolula, 1681; and AJT, Criminal, 5: 558, Teposcolula, 1682.

23 The remaining case involves a robbery in which the victim did not know the defendant.

24 For a study of criminal records as narratives, see Davis’ examination of letters of remission from early modern France. Davis, Natalie, Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and Their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987).Google Scholar

25 Stern also notes the prominence of jealousy (celos) in his study of gendered violence. Stern, Steve J., The Secret History of Gender: Women, Men, and Power in Late Colonial Mexico (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), pp. 79–80.Google Scholar

26 AGN, Criminal, 686: 3, Acatepec, 1558.

27 Martín Tilantzin stated that he forced his wife to admit that “hella estaba preñada de tres honbres que con ella abian tenido quehacer” (AGN, Criminal, 686: 3, Acatepec, 1558, f. 37). His statement reflects the Mesoamerican belief that repeated intercourse was necessary so that enough semen could build up inside the womb to form a baby, making conception a cumulative process. On this and other Nahua beliefs about conception, see Austin, López, The Human Body and Ideology, volume 1, pp. 296–99.Google Scholar

28 AGN, Criminal, 590: 2, Lalopa, 1657. Jacinto Manzano confessed that “el demonio le persuadio a que no estava preñada del” (f, 47). In the course of his confession before Spanish officials, Jacinto had the nerve to complain that the local officials continued to whip him even after he had confessed to the crime.

29 Don Juan repeated Jacinto's admission “que no avia tenido mas causa ni fundamento que tentasion del demonio que abia mas de quatto años que le tentava” (AGN, Criminal, 590: 2, Lalopa, 1657, 36).

30 AJT, Criminal, 5: 547, Teposcolula, 1681. Juan de la Cruz Hernández stated “que fue con enoxo y colera por haverlo aliado en su casa abrazando a su muxer y por entender que hera su amigo y por haverle engañado el diablo en su malpensamiento a este confesante” (f. 7v). For a similar example, see AJT, Criminal, 3: 373, Teposcolula, 1630. In this case Andrés Sosa attempted to justify his murder of a local official by explaining that the Devil had convinced him that the man was his sexual rival. He stated that “el diablo lo avia engañado” (f. 3).

31 This document is translated and published by Terraciano in The Mixtees of Colonial Oaxaca, Appendix B, Document II.

32 Taylor, William B., Drinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979).Google Scholar

33 AJT, Criminal, 2: 182, Teposcolula, 1605.

34 Andrés’ brother stated: “es verdad que yo la mate que el diablo me engaño y se me devio de meter en el cuerpo porque estava boracho” (AJT, Criminal, 2: 182, Teposcolula, 1605, f. 5v). Another witness testified that Andrés said “yo la mate mis manos lo hizieron y en ellas murios yo lo pagare que el diablo me engaño y dios deve de ser servido de que yo lo pague porque estava borracho sin juizio cuando lo hize” (f. 5v). Sebastián Gómez testified that Andrés said: “yo la mate si me an de ahorcar aqui estoy que el pulque lo hizo porque estava boracho” (f. 6).

35 AJT, Criminal, 3: 363, Teposcolula, 1628.

36 Lucía Sayu testified that he said “los diablos lleven mis manos sino te matare” (AJT, Criminal, 3: 363, Teposcolula, 1628, f. 7).

37 AJT, Criminal, 3: 309, Yanhuitlan, 1616.

38 AJT, Criminal, 4: 421, Cuquila, 1637.

39 Don Pablo testified, “el dicho marido y muger con mucho conformidad estubieron bebiendo pulque y que el diablo le engaño en que media noche con un palo le abia dado a la dicha ana de silba su mujer” (AJT, Criminal, 4: 421, Cuquila, 1637, 6v),

40 Burkhart, , The Slippery Earth, p. 46.Google Scholar

41 Burkhart, The Slippery Earth, see especially chapter 3. Russell notes that in European folklore the Devil also favored noon; this would have contrasted sharply with Mesoamerican views of the moral order of the universe ( Russell, , Lucifer, p. 171).Google Scholar

42 Taggart, James M., Nahuat Myth and Social Structure (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983).Google Scholar

43 See Burkhart, Louise M., “The Solar Christ in Nahuatl Doctrinal Texts of Early Colonial Mexico,” Ethnohistory 35:3 (Summer 1988), pp. 234–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar for a discussion of the development of this association. See also Burkhart, , The Slippery Earth, p. 83.Google Scholar

44 Taggart, , Nahuat Myth, p. 63.Google Scholar

45 For contemporary examples of this ideology, see Taggart, Nahuat Myth. For the colonial period see Burkhart, The Slippery Earth. These concepts are clearly conveyed in the speeches in the Florentine Codex, Book VI.

46 Monaghan, , The Covenants With Earth and Rain, pp. 136–37.Google Scholar

47 Monaghan, , The Covenants With Earth and Rain, p. 312.Google Scholar

48 Monaghan, , The Covenants With Earth and Rain, p. 164.Google Scholar

49 The time of the crime is questionable in two cases: the murder in Cuquila (1637) and the murder in Cajonos ( 1684). In Cuquila officials asserted that the crime occurred at night; however, there were no witnesses to the attack and since the defendant denied having clubbed his wife, his testimony gives no clear sense of the time. In Cajonos the time is not explicitly stated; however, we know that Marcial de la Cruz and his wife had been travelling for some time before she allegedly transformed herself into a jaguar. The association of transformation with night in Mesoamerican thought suggests that the crime may have occurred in the evening.

50 AJT, Criminal, 3: 363, Teposcolula, 1628.

51 AJT, Criminal, 4: 421, Cuquila, 1637.

52 Cervantes considers the Devil as a “scapegoat” in cases involving a nun and a friar who attributed their delusions and intensely anti-Christian feelings to demonic possession (The Devil in the New World, pp. 98–104). In her study of letters of remission, Davis notes that prisoners did not refer to the Devil in their requests for pardon in the sixteenth century, although this was occasionally done in the fifteenth century (Fiction in the Archives, p. 37).

53 Mills, , Idolatry and Its Enemies, p. 224 Google Scholar and MacCormack, , Andean Religion, pp. 406–07.Google Scholar

54 AGN, Criminal, 590: 2, Lalopa, 1657; AJT, Criminal, 3: 309, Yanhuitlan, 1616; AJVA, Criminal 1: 39, Totontepec, 1675 (note that this homicide case did not involve any evidence of jealousy or sexual rivalry); and AJVA, Criminal, 1: 50, San Francisco Caxonos, 1684 (note that in this case the sentenced was appealed and reduced to 200 lashes and eight years labor in an obraje or panadería).

55 For examples of cases in which the Devil befriends people, see: Ruth, Behar, “Sexual Witchcraft, Colonialism, and Women's Powers: Views from the Mexican Inquisition,” in Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America, edited by Lavrin, Asunción (Lincoln: Nebraska University Press, 1989), pp. 178–206;Google Scholar Behar, , “Sex and Sin,” and Cervantes, The Devil Google Scholar, esp. ch. 3.

56 See Cervantes, The Devil, ch. 4.

57 See MacCormack, , Andean Religion, pp. 295–301 Google Scholar and Mills, Idolatry and Its Enemies.

58 See MacCormack, Andean Religion; Cervantes, The Devil, esp. ch. 2; and Mills, Idolatry and Its Enemies.