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A Social Welfare Organizer in Sixteenth-Century New Spain: Don Vasco de Quiroga, First Bishop of Michoacán

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

†M. M. Lacas
†M. M. Lacas*
Affiliation:
Instituto Francés de la Laguna, Gómez Palacio, Durango, Mexico
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Extract

No tourist who visits central Mexico will fail to pay a visit to the world-famous lake of Pátzcuaro. This beautiful and placid lake, with the several islands which dot its surface and the surrounding hills that frame it, formed, in olden times, the hub of the Michoacán Kingdom. Even today, it is the main habitat of the peaceloving Tarascan Indians who cluster around it and, partly at least, live on its abundant fish. An ancient author tells us that the word Michoacán means “fishing place,” and that the main occupation of the early Indians was the mild art of fishing, so opposed to the war-like activities of their neighbors to the east, the cruel Aztecs.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , July 1957 , pp. 57 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1957

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References

1 West, Robert C., Cultural Geography of the Modern Tarascan Area (Washington, D. C: Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Anthropology, Publication 7, 1948), p. 67 Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., p. 56.

3 “Tata” is a colloquial expression which approximates our “dad” or “daddy.” It is very much used by the Indians to designate the paternity of God. They often say Mi Tata Dios.

4 On his way to Nueva Galicia, Nuño de Guzmán passed through Michoacán to draft men and exact gold and silver through the most cruel means.

5 The principal modern works on Quiroga are: Moreno, Juan José, Fragmentos de la vida y virtudes de D. Vasco de Quiroga (México, 1766; mod. ed. Morelia, 1939)Google Scholar; León, Nicolás, El Ilmo. S. D. Vasco de Quiroga, primer obispo de Michoacán (México, 1903)Google Scholar; Zavala, Silvio, La “Utopia” de Tomás Moro en la Neuva España (México, 1937)Google Scholar, and Ideario de Vasco de Quiroga (México, 1941); Jarnés, Benjamin, Don Vasco de Quiroga, Obispo de Utopia (México, 1942)Google Scholar.

6 “Testament of Don Vasco de Quiroga,” printed in extenso in Spencer, Rafael Aguayo (ed.), Don Vasco de Quiroga, Documentos (México, 1939), pp. 271–287 Google Scholar.

7 Ibid., p. 287.

8 del Castillo, Bernal Díaz, Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España (3 vols.; México, 1939), III, 271. ‘Google Scholar

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11 Charles V governed jointly with his mother, Juana la Loca. The latter’s signature was to precede that of Charles in all official documents. Many people directed their letters to the queen, particularly during Charles’ many absences from Spain.

12 Moreno, Fragmentos, p. 198 n.

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14 The carriers, tamemes, were a recognized institution in Aztec Mexico, as no domestic animals of burden were known before the coming of the Spaniards.

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17 Evidently those who make this statement—Moreno, Florencia, Alegre—had only a slight knowledge of the plans of St. Peter’s. The Pátzcuaro design was quite different.

18 Moreno, Fragmentos, p. 56 Google Scholar.

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27 Zavala, Ideario, p. 52.

28 “Información de Derecho,” in Spencer, op. cit., pp. 387, 397.

29 Ibid.

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31 Ibid., p. 78 n.

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34 “More’s Utopia,” loc. cit.

35 “Reglas y Ordenanzas,” loc. cit.; p. 251.

36 “More’s Utopia,” loc. cit.

37 “Reglas y Ordenanzas,” loc. cit., p. 258.

38 Zavala, Ideario, pp. 60 f.

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41 Moreno, Fragmentos, p. 77.

42 Ibid., p. 76; see however Robert Ricard, op. cit., pp. 298 f.

43 Ibid., p. 59.

44 “Testament of Don Vasco de Quiroga,” in Spencer, op. cit., p. 271.

45 Ibid., p. 277.

46 Moreno, Fragmentos, p. 65.

47 “Testament of Don Vasco de Quiroga,” in Spencer, op. cit., p. 274.

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50 Ibid., p. 275.

51 Mendieta y Núñez. op. cit., pp. xxvi-xxvii; Robert C. West in his Cultural Geography of the Modern Tarascan Area (cf. Note 1) has made a very detailed study of these arts and crafts. The tables he gives on pp. 57–62, and the map facing p. 66 are excellent illustrations of the Tarascan handicraft situation at the present time, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

52 de Mendoza, Pacheco-Cárdenas-Torres, Colección de documentos inéditos (42 vols.; Madrid, 1864–1884), XIII, 421 Google Scholar.

53 Riva Palacio, op. cit., II, 219 n.