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Some Demographic Considerations of the Matrícula de Huexotzinco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Dave Warren
Dave Warren*
Affiliation:
Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Extract

THROUGH the late fall and early spring of 1560, a Spanish official, Diego de Madrid, under authority of the Royal Audiencia of New Spain, travelled to twenty-five settlements within the provincia of Huexotzinco. This area, presently located in the Mexican state of Puebla, extended from the modern site of San Juan Texmelucan, in the north, to Atlixco, to the south. Madrid, named as juez de comisión, visited a region over 155 square miles in extent. The purpose of Madrid's inspection concerned a census of all persons living in the jurisdiction. Numerical totals were not the sole objective of the survey; ultimately all manner of census categories comprised the population listing: old persons, widows, widowers, deceased individuals, youths, children, artisans, church workers, “nobles,” “commoners.”

Type
Dedication
Information
The Americas , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , January 1971 , pp. 252 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1971

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References

1 Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), Manuscrits Mexicain 387, f. 102lr. Hereafter cited as BNP 387.

2 I wish to thank France V. Scholes, Professor Emeritus, for his guidance in suggesting the Matrícula as a subject for investigation and for pointing out the significance of the Matrícula as a major resource for study of colonial Mexico. I also wish to acknowledge the kind help of Professor Pedro Carrasco, State University of New York at Stony Brook, who provided Xerox copies of the Matrícula for this study.

3 Scholes, France V. and Adams, Eleanor B., eds., Sobre el modo de tributar los indios de Nueva España a su majestad, 1561–1564 . Documentos para la historia de México colonial, 5, (México, 1958), p. 68.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as Scholes-Adams, modo de tributar. del Paso, Francisco y Troncoso, ed., Epistolario de Nueva España, 1505–1818 (16 vols.; México, 1939–42), 9, 11–12, 67–68.Google Scholar

4 Borah, Woodrow and Cook, Sherburne F., Population of Central Mexico in 1548: An Analysis of the Suma de visitas de pueblos. [Ibero-Americana: 43] (Berkeley, 1960), p. 63.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as Borah and Cook, Population of Central Mexico, 1548. The Indian community was equally concerned over the assessment issue. Spokesmen of the period felt the assessments were too high and were based on erroneous counts that included bachelors (solteros), youth (mozos) and other persons who would normally be exempt from such estimates. BNP 387, f. 465v; AGI, Contaduría 785A, f. 5v–6r. (Note: the latter document, containing resumes of the tasación from 1543–1566, clesrly shows the conflicting factors or criteria of tribute assessment.)

5 Prem, Hanns J., Die Namenshieroglyphen der Matricula von Huexotzinco, Ms. mex. 387 der Bibl. Nat. Paris (Hamburg, 1967).Google Scholar This meticulous study provides a thorough analysis of personal name-glyphs found in the Matrícula.

6 An example of such orders appears on ff. 475r, 1025r–1025v of the Matrícula.

7 BNP 387, ff. 1024r–1025v; 1022r.

8 Ibid., passim; for examples see ff. 482v–493v, cf. 685v–696r, 920r–955r for pictorial and written tabulations of these categories of persons who were under the immediate jurisdiction of the head town (cabecera) of Huexotzinco.

9 ibid., ff. 913r–914r.

10 BNP 387, ff. 1025r–1026r.

11 Scholes-Adams, , modo de tributar, pp. 79–80.Google Scholar

12 BNP 387, ff. 1024r, 1025r, 1025v, 1026r, 1027r, 1027v. Each macehual-tërrasguero received “100 braças” of land of which he worked 20 bfazas for the principal as part of his tribute obligation and used the remainder for himself, BNP 387, 1027r. One braza equalled 1.83 yards according to Stampa, Manuel Carrera, “The Evolution of Weights and Measures in New Spain,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 29, no. 1 (February, 1949), 10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Borah, and Cook, , Population of Central Mexico, 1548, pp. 58 ff.Google Scholar

14 BNP 387, f. 1027r.

15 Borah, Woodrow and Cook, Sherburne F., The Aboriginal Population of Central Mexico on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest. [Ibero-Americana: 45] (Berkeley, 1963), p. 68.Google Scholar

16 Loc. cit.

17 BNP 387, f. 727v, 852r ff.

18 Monzón, Arturo, El Calpulli en la Organización Social de los Tenochca (México, 1949), pp. 47–51.Google Scholar

19 BNP 387, ff. 955r, 979r, l006r, 1020r.

20 Cook, Sherburne F. and Simpson, Lesley Bryd, The Population of Central Mexico in the Sixteenth Century. [Ibero-Americana: 31] (Berkeley, 1948), p. 17.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as Cook and Simpson, Population of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Century.

21 Borah, and Cook, , Population of Central Mexico, 1548, p. 102.Google Scholar

22 AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 1092. No chart is included for reference on this data. Statistics are available from my notes and rough table compilation.

23 Borah, and Cook, , Population of Central Mexico, 1548, pp. 65–67.Google Scholar

24 AGI, Contaduría 785A, ff. 5v–6r, Tasaciones de tributos, Guoxocingo [sic1, [September 6, 1560].

25 Cook, and Simpson, , Population of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Century, p. 11 Google Scholar; Borah, and Cook, , Population of Central Mexico, 1548, pp. 65 ff.Google Scholar

26 BNP 387, ff. 955r, 979r, 1006r, 1020r.