Mexico's Indigenous Communities

by Medrano, Ethelia Ruiz; Davidson, Russ

• ISBN13: 9781607321330
• ISBN10: 1607321335
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-15
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Colorado

Summary

A rich and detailed account of indigenous history in central and southern Mexico from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries, Mexico's Indigenous Communities is an expansive work that destroys the notion that Indians were victims of forces beyond their control and today have little connection with their ancient past. Indian communities continue to remember and tell their own local histories, recovering and rewriting versions of their past in light of their lived present. Ethelia Ruiz Medrano focuses on a series of individual cases, falling within successive historical epochs, that illustrate how the practice of drawing up and preserving historical documents--in particular, maps, oral accounts, and painted manuscripts--has been a determining factor in the history of Mexico's Indian communities, especially in the significant issue of land ownership. Mexico's Indigenous Communitiesis a unique and exceptional contribution to Mexican history. It will appeal to students and specialists of history, indigenous studies, ethnohistory, and anthropology of Latin America and Mexico.

Author Biography

Ethelia Ruiz Medrano is a researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e His toria in Mexico, and a visiting professor at the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of three books with the University Press of Colorado and the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
List of Tables	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Historical Background: Indian Access to Colonial justice in the Sixteenth Century	p. 11
Justice in Ancient Mesoamerica	p. 12
Justice for the Indian Population: From Conquest to the Beginning of the Viceroyalty	p. 16
Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and Indian Justice	p. 33
Viceroy Luis de Velasco and Indian Justice	p. 38
Augustin Pinto: A Sixteenth-Century Procurator	p. 48
The Indian Justice System at the End of the Sixteenth Century	p. 61
Notes	p. 69
Indigenous Negotiation to Preserve Land, History, Titles, and Maps: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries	p. 79
Historical Setting	p. 79
The Policy of Congregation	p. 91
The Policy of Composition	p. 96
Recounting History as a Means of Defending Land	p. 103
Retelling the Past among Indian Pueblos	p. 109
Recalling the Past and Local Indigenous Power	p. 114
Traditional Indigenous Tides and Maps in the Context of the Sacred	p. 132
Notes	p. 138
Indigenous Negotiation to Preserve Land, History, Titles, and Maps: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries	p. 151
Indian Pueblos and Independence: General Considerations	p. 151
Indian Pueblos during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century	p. 156
Indian Pueblos, Land, and Titles from the Reform Laws Onward	p. 166
Land, Indians, and Titles after the Revolution	p. 184
Notes	p. 200
Defending Land: Indian Pueblos' Contemporary Quest for the Origins of Local Community History	p. 211
Pueblos That Hold Primordial Titles: Present-Day Cases	p. 211
A Nahua Pueblo and Its Titles	p. 218
Santa Maria Cuquila, Oaxaca: Politics and Local History in a Mixtec Community	p. 237
A Snapshot of Local History	p. 239
Land and Primordial Titles	p. 254
The Past in the Present in Santa Maria Cuquila	p. 266
Notes	p. 274
Conclusion	p. 283
Maps	p. 293
List of Libraries and Archives Consulted	p. 303
List of Significant Towns Mentioned in the Book	p. 305
Bibliography	p. 309
Index	p. 325
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