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Rotation of Alcaldes in the Indian Cabildo of Mexico CityAuthor(s): Charles GibsonSource: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May, 1953), pp. 212-223Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2509657.
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ROTATION
OF
ALCALDES
IN
THE
INDIAN
CABILDO
213
these
more
widespread practices. The
aboriginal area of the
former
Tenochtitlan
was
organized politically into a subordinate
government
closely analogous to those of lesser Indian
communi-
ties and not to be confused with the
better-known
Spanish cabildo
in
the
same
city.
Local
native governments depended upon the
two
great
traditions
whose
convergence
informs and
gives mean-
ing to early colonial
Mexico: the elaborate ritualistic social heri-
tage
of Aztec times and the humanistic
Catholic
imperialism
of
sixteenth-century Spain
with
its objectives
of
education
and
con-
version.
For
present
purposes
the
political
hispanization only is
relevant. That it existed, that colonial
officials took the task
seriously,
and
that
Indian
governments
were
created
in
local
com-
munities
are incontrovertible
facts.
Seemingly
without
excep-
tion
these
governments
retained elements of
pre-conquest political
organizations-e.g.,
the
vigesimal
classifications,
the
office of te-
quitlato-and subtle
harmonies of
Spanish
and Indian
institu-
tions
were
repeatedly
realized.6 This also was
in
accordance
with
imperial policy, which
insisted that
Indian
practices were to be
preserved so long as
they
did
not conflict with
Hispanic ethical,
social,
or
religious
preconceptions.7
The
original
intention
of Charles V had been
that
Indians
were
to
be
introduced
gradually
into the
Spanish
cabildo
of Mexico
City
in
order that
they might gain political experience through
observation
and imitation.8
In
July, 1530,
cedulas
were
sent
in
blank
to the
Mexican audiencia so
that the
names of
native
officeholders
might
be inserted
para que
los indios se
entiendan
mas
con
los
espafioles
y
se
aficionen a la manera
de
su
gobierno. 9
Although
an instance
is
known
in
Puebla
in
1561,10
direct
ap-
pointment
of
Indians to the
cabildos of
Spanish
towns was rare
in
sixteenth-century
New
Spain,
for
the
Spanish
officeholders
failed to
share
fully
the humane attitude toward the Indians.
Direct association
of
the
two races
in
a
single
governing body
6
Frangois
Chevalier,
Les municipalities
indiennes en Nouvelle
Espagne 1520-1620,
Anuario
de Historia
del Derecho Espanol, XV (1944),
352-386.
* Los
Gobernadores, y Justicias
reconozean con
particular atencion la 6rden
y forma
de vivir de los Indios,
policia, y disposicion en
los mantenimientos,
y avisen
a
los Vireyes
6
Audiencias, y guarden
sus buenos
usos, y
costumbres
en lo
que
no
fueren contra nuestra
Sagrada
Religion . .
,
Recopilaci6n
de
leyes, II,
120 (Lib. V, tit. ii,
ley
xxii).
8
Vasco de Puga, Prouisiones,
cedulas instrucciones
de Su
Magestad,
ordenangas
de
difuntos y
audiencia para
la buena expedici6n de los
negocios
y
administraci6n
de justicia
y gouernaci6nde esta Nueua Espana, y para el buen tratamientoy conseruaci6n de los indios
dende el ano
de
1525
hasta
este presente de 63 (2
vols., Mexico,
1878-1879),
I,
164-166.
9
Colecci6n
de documentos ineditos
relativos
al
descubrimiento, conquista y
organizaci6n
de las antiguas posesiones
espanolas de ultramar (25
vols.,
Madrid, 1885-1932), XXI,
322.
10
Archivo
Municipal, Puebla.
Cartilla vieja (MS),
fol.
54.
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214
THE HISPANIC AMERICAN
HISTORICAL
REVIEW
in
the
manner
contemplated
by Charles
V
was moreover
con-
sidered impracticable
in
most communities
because Spaniards
were so few in number. In the great Indian towns no Spanish
cabildos
appeared.
Rather the
cabildos
that came
into existence
in
these
places
were
operated
exclusively by Indians, and it was
the boast of
Viceroy
Mendoza
that he had ordered
the creation
of a
cabildo
in
every Indian town.
The normal
Indian
cabildo
consisted of one
gobernador,two
alcaldes, and two or
four regidores.'2
An
examination
of the re-
sponses to the royal
questionnaires of
the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries
will
reveal
some
but
not
many exceptions
to this customary orderingof Indian government.13 Single alcaldes
and three regidores
are
occasionally to be
discovered, but rarely
(so
far
as our
information
goes)
was the number
of
alcaldes
more
than two or the
number
of
regidores
more
than
four. The
special
instance of the
Mexico City government, with its
two alcaldes
and twelve
regidores(reduced
to
eight
in
1559),14 was
one
of
the
very
few
that exceeded the
ordinary
number. In
the
literature
of
the
Relaciones
geogrdficas
one
also
finds
sporadic
references to
rotational systems
in
the
communities of New Spain, as
in
Ama-
tlan where the cacique of 1609, Don Fernando de la Cueba, y
algunos deudos suyos
alternatiuamente gouiernan el
Pueblo. 15
The
composition of the
cabildos
was
fixed
by Philip
III in
1618
according to the
population size
of
the
communities,
measured
vigesimally.
The maximum cabildo
established
in
the early
seven-
teenth
century
contained two
alcaldes and
four
regidores,
and
these
officers
han
de
elegir por
afio nuevo
otros,
como se
practica
en Pueblos
de
Espafioles. 16
The
legislation
of 1618 thus
pro-
11
Fragmento de la visita hecha
a
Don Antonio de Mendoza, Joaquin
Garcia
Icaz-
balceta, ed., Colecci6n de documentos para la historia de Mexico (2 vols., Mexico, 1858-
1866), II, 139.
12
Two
alcaldes
and four
regidores
were
customary
also in
Spanish
cabildos n New
Spain.
Cf.
Cortes'
ordenanzas of
1525, Ap6ndice al tomo
primero, Documentos raros o indditos
relatives a la historia
de
Mejico (Biblioteca de autores mexicanos, XXXV) (Mexico, 1901),
p.
125.
13
The
question respecting the form of Indian government was asked directly only in
the later
interrogation. Hence the responses of 1579-1580 often fail to provide informa-
tion on
this subject. See Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, ed., Papeles de Nueva Espaha
(9 vols., Mexico, 1905-1948) IV,
1
ff., 273 ff.
14
Luis Chavez Orozco, ed., C6dice Osuna,
Reproducci6n acsimilar de la obra del
mismo
titulo, editada en Madrid, 1878 (Mexico, 1947), pp. 130-131 (hereinafter cited as C6dice
Osuna).
15
Paso y Troncoso, op. cit., IV, 317-318.
16
Recopilaci6n
de
eyes, II, 210-211 (Lib. VI,
tit. iii, ley xv).
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ROTATION
OF ALCALDES IN
THE
INDIAN
CABILDO
215
hibited
the
retention
of
office
by
an
Indian alcalde
or regidor
for
longer
than
one
year.
A number of problems arise respecting the system of election
of the
alcaldes
and
their relation
to the
barrios
of
the
towns.
Notices
of
systems
of
election reveal
variant
procedures.
In
Miahuatlan
the
new
cabildo officers were chosen by the
old and
the choice
was
subject
to the
confirmation
of the Spanish co-
rregidor.17
In
Ameca
the Spanish
alcaldemayor 8selected the two
Indian
alcaldes directly.19
In the
very
interesting
instance of
Toluca
three
alcaldes were chosen
so
that the three Indian lan-
guages,
Nahuatl,
Matlatzinca,
and
Otomi,
might
each be
repre-
sented by one alcalde.20 Elsewhere, traditional elections by the
naturales
were
interfered
with
and
illegally influenced
by co-
rrcgidores
and
other
Spaniards.21
In
Tecamnachalcoan interval of
three
years
was
fixed prior
to which Indian
officers might
not
be
reflected.22
In
Ahuatepec
the interval
was fixed at two years.23
These
notices
expressly
or
tacitly
assume a
rotation
in
office, but
in most instances
they
fail to indicate
the systematic procedure
whereby
rotation
was to be
achieved.
In
this
respect
Mexico
City
manifests
characteristic
problems.
The Indian portion of the metropolitan capital was divided into
four
barrios,
Sant.-,
Maria,
San
Sebastian,
San
Juan,
and
San
Pablo.
The
number
of
alcaldes
in
the
mid-sixteenth
century was
two.
Several notices
provide
information
on
the
manner of
their
election. (1)
Los
dichos
alcaldes
y
regidores
tienen de costum-
bre
cada
afio,
al
tiempo
de
elegir
los alcaldes
nuevos
que
an
de
ser
de
aquel
afio, y regidores
y alguaziles,
los
escogen
entre
ellos
secretamnente,
sin
entrar
sobre
ello en
cabildo, y escogen
los
que
son
de
la condici6n
dellos,
ombres
que
saben
beber... .
(2)
I....
antes que se haga la elecci6n, los regidores andan por los
barrios
persuadiendo
a los
naturales
dellos, para
que
nombren
para
aquel afio,
a los
yndios
que
tienen
entre si
acordado, que
17
Paso y
Troncoso, op. cit.,
IV,
294.
18
Consistent
with
a
common
practice
in
sixteenth-century Hispanic
political
termi-
nology,
the word
alcalde
is used in this paper
in reference
to the alcalde ordinario,
whether
Indian or Spaniard.
The alcalde
mayor,
a
Spaniard,
occupied
a
totally
different
office.
19
Jesds Amaya,
Ameca, protofundaci6n
mexicana,
el
origen
de
su propiedad
rural (Mexico,
1951), pp.
4849.
20
The Otomi alcalde
appears
to
have
been added ca.
1575.
Archivo
General
de la
Naci6n, Mexico, Ramo de General de Parte, I, fol. 90.
21
Ibid., I, fol.
88;
II,
fol.
83.
Ramo de Indios, II,
exp. 61, fol. 15;
IV, exp.
183, fol. 56.
22
Ibid.,
Ramro
de General
de Parte, VI,
fol. 370.
23
Ibid., Rarno
de
Indios, IV, exp.
182, fol. 56.
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216 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL
REVIEW
sean alcaldes o alguaciles
o
regidores aquel
afio. 24 These state-
ments,
which are accusations
of
illegal election methods, are
in-
formative but imprecise; mention is made of
the barrios, but noth-
ing is suggested respecting a formal patterned rotational system
involving
alcaldes
and
their barrios.
Another notice of the 1560's states,
however, that the four
barrios
began
to
have
order
and
system
in
the election
of
gover-
nor, alcaldes,
and regidores
in
1555.25 Of the offices mentioned,
one,
that of
gobernador
(or juez),
had a
continuous existence
in
the
succession
following
the death of
Montezuma.26
The
election
of
judges alcaldess)
and
regidores (as
well as of alguaciles,
escri-
banos,
and
other
officers)
was ordered
by
a
royal
cedula
of 1549
which thus implied that a full cabildo institution was to be or-
ganized.27 Indian
alcaldes in
Mexico
City
are known
by name
at
least from 1550
and
regidores
at least from 1555. Probably
the
full
functioning
cabildo
should be
dated first
in
the latter
year,
when
order and
system began.
The
names
of known alcaldes
in the period 1550-1554 appear to
be
totally
lacking
in
order or
system,
and
in
any
case
the
barrio
affiliations
of
most
of
the
officeholders
are
not recorded.28
But
for a
decade
after
1555 the complete,
or almost complete,
list of Indian alcaldes in Mexico City is available in a document
in
the
Archivo General
de
la Naci6n, Ramo de Civil, Volume 644.
The document
has
been
published by
Luis
Chavez
Orozco
in
con-
nection with the
C6dice Osuna29and used by
him as
the principal
basis
for an
important
and
pioneering
study,
Las Instituciones
democracticas
e
los
indigenas
mexicanos
en
la
epoca
colonial
(Mexi-
co, 1943).
It
is
the thesis of the
present
paper that
this
docu-
ment
contains information
warranting
further
conclusions
respect-
ing the
office of
alcalde
and
strongly suggesting
the existence of
a
systematic rotational office related to the barrio affiliations of the
native
officials.
The Ramo de Civil manuscript indicates
the following persons
as
alcaldes
during
the
period 1555-1565:
24
C6dice Osuna, pp. 15, 19.
25
Luis Chavez Orozco, Las instituciones
democreiticas
de los
indigenas
mexicanos en la
6poca
colonial
(Mexico, 1943), p.
6.
26
J.-M.-A. Aubin, ed., Histoire de la nation mexicaine depuis
le depart d'Aztlan
jusqu'4
l'arriv&
des
conqudrantsespagnols (et
au dei&
1607) (Paris, 1893), pp.
148 if. This is the
Codex
of 1576.
27
See Juan de Sol6rzano
y Pereyra,
Politica indiana
(2 vols., Madrid, 1776), I, 200,
202.
On the other hand,
for
Mexico City, this order may have authorized
an
already effective
institution, without creating any new body.
28
Aubin, op. cit., p. 92: (C6dibe
Osuna,
p.
S1.
29
See note 14.
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ROTATION OF
ALCALDES IN THE
INDIAN CABILDO 217
TABLE
I
1555
Miguel Diaz, alias*
Miguel Cuautli, Miguel Quauhtli, Miguel
Diaz
Qualotle
Alonso de San Miguel, alias Alonso
Temuc
1556 Don
Crist6bal
de
Guzman (?) t
Miguel Sanchez
Yscatl, alias Miguel
Ytzcatl, Miguel Yscac
1557
Don Luis de Santa
Maria, alias Don Luis Zipac
Tomas de Aquino Yspopulac, alias
Tomas
Huixtopulcatl
1558
Don Pedro de la Cruz, alias Don Pedro
Tlapaltecatl, Don Pedro
Tlapaltecal
Martin Cano
1559 Don Lucas Cortes Tenamaz
Pedro Garcia Tenylotl, alias Pedro
Temilotli
1560
Miguel Sanchez Ystecal, alias Miguel Itzac
Melchior Diaz
Suchipepena
1561 Don
Luis de Paz, alias Luis Huehuezaca
Toribio B:asquez,
alias Toribio Tlacuscalcal
1562
Martin Cano
Don Pedro Tlapaltecal, alias Talpaltecal
de Myguel
1563 Lucas
Cortes,
alias
Lucas Tenamaz
Tomas de Aquino, alias Toma's Huixtopolcatl, Tomas Ytztopulcatl
1564 Don Antonio de
Santa Maria, alias
Antonio Mexicaytoa, Antonio
Momexuiaytoa
Don
Martin de San
Juan, alias Martin Ezmalin, Martin Tezmali
1565 Don Pedro
Dionisio
Toribio Vasquez
*The
alternative names
are
samples only. No effort has been
made to
list
all
aliases
or
spelling forms.
tSee
Note
33.
The names as
given
reveal
the
common
orthographic
irregu-
larities
of
sixteenth-century
nomenclature
both
in
their
Spanish
and
in
their Nahuatl versions.
It
was
entirely customary
for
individuals of
sixteenth-century
Mexico
to
bear names
in
both
languages:
the Christian
first
names served
as evidence
of Chris-
tianization
and
baptism,
the
Christian
surnames
gave
evidence
of
a
degree
of
hispanization,
and the native
surnames
preserved
the
record of
noble
Indian
families,
an
important
criterion
for
Indian social
status
and
officeholding.
Variations
in
the written
forms of
the names
may
of course be
ignored:
Toribio
Ba'squez
and
Toribio
Vasquez are versions
of the
same name
and
represent
a
single
individual.
Similarly the
names
Miguel
Sanchez
Yscatl,
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218
THE HISPANIC
AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW
Miguel
Ytzeatl, Miguel
Yscac, Miguel
Sanchez
Ystecal,
and
Miguel Itzac
all
refer to
the same
person, alcalde
in
1556 and
1560.
Six
of
the
persons
occur
as
alcaldes
twice
in
this period:
Martin
Cano
(1558, 1562), Miguel Sanchez Yscatl
(1556, 1560), Tomas
de
Aquino
Yspopulac
(1557, 1563),
Lucas
Cortes
Tenamaz
(1559,
1563), Pedro de la Cruz
Tlapaltecatl (1558,
1562), and
Toribio
Basquez Tlacuscalcal
(1561, 1565). The Spanish honorific
title
Don,
as
would
be
expected,
is
attached to some
of the names but
not to
all.
Elsewhere
in
the same document, where
certain of these indi-
viduals
appear
as
witness or
in
other
connections, their
barrio
affiliations are sometimes
indicated. Of the
sixteen individuals
who served
as
Indian alcaldes
in
the years 1555-1565 the affilia-
tions
of
thirteen
may
be
ascertained
as
follows:
TABLE
II
Name
Affiliation
Page*
Alonso de San
Miguel
del
barrio de San Pablo 88
Miguel Sanchez Yscatl
vecino de
San
Sebastian,
42,
45
del barrio de
San Sebastian
Luis de Santa Maria vecino de San Joan 43
Tomas
de
Aquino Yspopulac
del
barrio de
San Pablo 46
Pedro de la
Cruz
del barrio de Santa Maria 43
(Tlapaltecatl)
Martin Cano
del
barrio de San
Sebastian 43,
46
Lucas
Cortes
Tenamaz vecino
de
San Joan,
44,
46,
86
del barrio de San Joan
Pedro
Garcia
Tenylotl
vecino de San Pablo, de la
44,
92
parte
de
los
indios
de
San
Juan
Melchior Diaz
Suchipepena
del
barrio
de
Nuestra Sefiora 45
la rredonda
Luis
de Paz
(Huebuezaca)
vecino de San Pablo
45
Toribio
(Basquez)
vecino de San Joan
45
Tlacuscalcal
Antonio de Santa
Maria del barrio de Santa Maria, 101
(Mexicaytoa)
alcalde
de la
parte
de
los
indios
de
San Juan
Martin de San Juan de la parte de San Sebastian 100
(Ezmalin)
*Page
references
are to the
published
edition
of
the
Ramo de
Civil
document,
Codice
Osuna.
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ROTATION
OF ALCALDES IN
THE
INDIAN
CABILDO
219
These notices seem for the most part sufficiently
straight-
forward.
There
appears
to be no
significant
difference
between
the forms vecino de and del barrio de, for both indicate a
relationship to the barrio given. The barrio noted as Nuestra
Sefiora de
la
Redonda
(Nuestra
Sefiora
la
rredonda)
in
the
in-
stance of Melchior Diaz Suchipepena
is
simply Santa
Maria
under another name.30 Only
in
the
instances where double affilia-
tion
is indicated does
a
question
arise: Pedro Garcia
Tenylotl
and
Antonio de Santa Maria (Mexicaytoa), respectively vecino de
San
Pablo and del
barrio de
Santa
Marla,
are both indicated
also as de
la
parte
de
los indios de San Juan. At first
glance
each of these two individuals appears to represent two barrios,
San
Pablo and
San
Juan
in
the one
case,
and
Santa
Maria
and
San Juan
in
the
other.
A
correct
reading
of
this
text, however,
reveals quite
another situation. The
parte (partido
or
parcialidad)
of San
Juan was not the same
as
the
barrio of
San Juan. The
parte was so called to distinguish Tenochtitlan-Mexico
from
the
parte (partido
or
parcialidad)
of
Santiago (Tlatelolco)
on the
same
island.31
Tlatelolco
had a
separate
Indian
government,
and the
references here to San Juan simply identify these
persons ad-
ditionally as belonging to Tenochtitlan-Mexico rather than to
Tlatelolco.32
The collection
of all
pertinent information
in a
single chart
yields the following:
30
See,
for
example, Diego Dur6n,
Historia de las Indias de
Nueva-Espafa y
islas de
tierra
firme (2 vols., Mexico, 1867-1880),
I,
42. The name is sometimes written Santa Maria
de la O.
31
It is true that
in loose
usage
both
Tenochtitlan
and
Tlatelolco
were
frequently termed
barrios
of the same
city. See,
for
example,
Juan
de
Torquemada,
Prirnera
(Segunda,
Tercera) parte
de los
veinte
i vn libros rituales i monarchia indiana
(3 vols., Madrid, 1723),
I, 93 ( . . . hasta que se dividieron, en los dos Barrios, que aora son Mexico, y Tlatilulco ),
or Francisco Cervantes
de
Salazar,
Cr6nica de la
Nueva Espafa (Madrid,
1914),
p. 300
( Estaba la ciudad repartida en solos los dos barrios que dixe, que al uno liamaban Tate-
lulco y al otro Mexico ).
Loose
usage
was
responsible
at other
times
for
references
to
the barrios as partes.
See for
example
C6dice
Osuna, p.
100.
32
Silvio Zavala
and Maria
Castelo, eds.,
Fuentes
para
la historia del
irabajo
en Nueva
Espafia (8 vols., Mexico, 1939-1948), I, 94-95,
refers to the
gobernador, alcaldes, y
regidores de la . . . parte de Santiago (1576). See also C6dice Osuna, p. 303, and Jos6
Antonio de Villa-Sefnor y Sanchez,
Theatro
americano, descripci6n general
de
los reynos,
y provincias de la Nueva-Espania, y sus jurisdicciones (2 vols., Mexico, 1746-1748), I, 58,
which comments
upon
the continued
separation
of
the
Tlatelolco
from
the
Tenochtitlan-
Mexico Indian government in the eighteenth century. Villa-Sefnorrefers to the former
as the
parcialidad
of
Santiago
and to the latter as the
parcialidad
of San
Juan.
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220
THE HISPANIC
AMERICAN HISTORICAL
REVIEW
TABLE III
San
San San Sebas- Santa
Date Alcalde Pablo Juan tidn Maria
1555
Miguel
Diaz
Alonso
de
San
Miguel
X
1556
Cristobalde Guzman
(?)*
Miguel SanchezYscatl
X
1557 Luis de Santa Maria
X
Tomas
de Aquino
Yspopulac
X
1558
Pedro
de la Cruz
(Tlapaltecatl) X
Martin
Cano
X
1559 LucasCortesTenamaz X
Pedro GarciaTenylotl X
1560
Miguel Sainchez
Yscatl X
MelchiorDiaz Suchipepena X
1561 Luis de
Paz
(Huehuezaca)
X
ToribioBasquez(Tlacuscalcal)
X
1562 Martin
Cano
X
Pedro (de la Cruz)
Tlapaltecatl
X
1563 Lucas
Cortes (Tenemaz)
X
Tomasde AquinoYspopulac X
1564
Antonio
de
Santa Maria (Mexicaytoa)
X
Martin
de San Juan
(Ezmalin)
X
1565
Pedro Dionisio
Toribio
Basquez
(Tlacuscalcal)
X
*See
Note 33.
Placed
in
this
form, the
barrio
affiliations
appear
to
provide
testimony
that
a
rotational
system
of alcalde
officeholding by
barrios was
in
effect
in
the
Indian cabildo
of
Mexico
City. The
pairs
of barrios
emerge
as San Pablo
and San Juan on
the one
hand, and San Sebastian
and
Santa Maria
on
the
other
in
annual
alternation.
At
no
time,
so
far
as
these indications
go,
did
an
alcalde
from San Pablo or San Juan serve
simultaneously with
an
alcalde from
San Sebastian or Santa Maria. Two
alcaldes,
one
each
from San Pablo
and
San
Juan,
served
regularly
in
odd-
numbered
years;
two
others, respectively
from San
Sebastian and
Santa
Marla,
served
in
even-numbered
years.
The
lack of in-
formation
respecting
three
persons appears
insufficient
to dis-
prove the system, given the
perfect regularity
of
the thirteen
for
whom
the
barrio
connection
is
ascertainable. One
may postulate
with
a
fair
degree
of
certainty
the affiliations
of
two
of
these
three:
Miguel
Diaz
of San
Juan,
and Pedro Dionisio of
San Pablo.
Con-
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ROTATION
OF
ALCALDES IN THE INDIAN
CABILDO
221
cerning the third, whose name is
given
as
Crist6bal de Guzman,
proper identification
of the
man
and office remains
problematic.33
Several
significant
conclusions
may
be
drawn from
this
po-
litical system. It is possible, perhaps even probable, that the
regidores of the cabildo were also
affiliated with the barrios in
a
systematic way.
One may hazard
the guess that three regidores
from each of the
four barrios composed the annual
complement
of
twelve regidores.34 The
hypothesis
remains
unproved,
for
re-
gidores were normally persons of
less consequence than alcaldes;
hence less is known of their
individual biographies, and although
the barrio connections
of many are
known the sum of this infor-
mation
is
still
insufficient to indicate
equality
of
representation.
The hypothesis is supported, however, by comparison with the
practice
in
sixteenth-century
Tlaxcala, where each of four cabe-
ceras
contributed three regidores to
form
an annual cabildo
of
twelve.35
A
second
conclusion relates to the order
in
which the
two
alcaldes of a given
year were listed
in
the
sixteenth-century rec-
ord.
This
order
seemingly
bore no relation to
a
rotational
form.36
In
odd-numbered years, as seen in
the above tables, the name of
the alcalde
from San
Juan
preceded that
of
his
colleague
from San
Pablo on four of six occasions. In even-numbered years the name
of
the
alcalde
from Santa Maria
appeared
before
the
name of
the alcalde from
San
Sebastian on two
of
four occasions. These
positions seem
arbitrary
and
their
unsystematic
character
is con-
sistent also with
regidor
lists
of
the same
(and
other)
periods,
where
no
uniformity may
be
discerned.
In
fact alternative list-
ings
of
the alcaldes
themselves
occasionally transpose the
order.
Finally the question
may be asked
whether the
political
so-
phistication evidenced
in
this
rotational
cabildo
was
derived from
Spanish municipal procedures or whether it derived from pre-
conquest
Indian
political
history.
The
question
does not admit
of
a
simple
or
absolute
solution.
With the
Indian
governments
13
Our texts give the names Don Cristobal and Don Crist6bal de
Guzmdn for one of
the alcaldes of 1556 (C6dice Osuna, pp. 42, 82, 93, 124). He
is
identified as del
barrio de
San
Juan. The
identification may be
an
error,
may represent
an
exception
to the system
in this year, or may refer to the parte. It is contradicted by the Codex of 1576,
which
names Crist6bal de Guzm~n as
gobernador
beginning January 6, 1556 (Aubin, op.
cit., p.
98).
3
The hypothesis assumes that when
eight
regidores
formed the cabildo, as in 1559,
two were chosen from each barrio.
35
Charles Gibson, Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth
Century (Yale Historical
Publications, Mis-
cellany,
LVI.) (New Haven, 1952), pp.
111
ff.
36
The order appears to be arbitrary.
It may, of course, reflect some now unknown
system of seniority or priority.
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222
THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW
the
student
is
confronted with a composite institution the com-
bined elements of which
stem from
both sources.
The terminology of the main offices of the
cabildo-gobernador,
alcaldes, regidores-was of course Spanish. The judicial functions
of the alcaldes were likewise Spanish, although the judicial sys-
tems
of Aztec
society37 undoubtedly facilitated the transition to
Spanish forms. The principle of rotation in office was, as has
been
suggested,
a
common
one
in
Spanish and Spanish colonial
administration. That the systematic rotation of alcaldes by their
barrios derived
directly
from
procedures
in
the mother country is
evident
from a
number of
documents
of
medieval Spanish munici-
palities.
An
example
is
the thirteenth-century
fuero
of Soria in
Castile. Here the sub divisions (colaciones) of the municipality
numbered
thirty-five,
of which
one (Santa Cruz) was privileged
to
provide
an alcalde
every year.
The
remaining
thirty-four,
divided
into
two
equal groups
of seventeen
each, alternated
an-
nually
so
that in one year one group of seventeen colaciones
furnished
seventeen
alcaldes
whereas
in
the next
year
the other
group
of
seventeen
colaciones furnished
another seventeen al-
caldes.38
In
the
Mexico
City system
no barrio
was
privileged,
as
was the
colacion
of Santa
Cruz in
Soria,
to
provide
an
alcalde
every year. Rather all four of the barrios of Mexieo City were
functionally comparable
to
the
thirty-four
lesser colaciones
of
Soria,
for each
one
provided
one
alcalde
for a
term
of
one
year
every other year.39
It
has
sometimes
been asserted that the division
of
the
Indian
area
of
Mexico
City
into
four
barrios,
a division
persisting through
colonial
times, was
an
act
of
the
post-conquest
Spaniards
for
37
Carlos
H. Alba,
Estudio
comparado
entre
el
derecho
azteca
y elderecho
positive mexicano
(Ediciones
especiales del
Instituto
Indigenista
Interamericano,
III.) (Mexico,
1949),
pp.
27-28.
38
Section
51 of the
fuero
of
Soria reads as
follows: Los alcaldes
deuen sseer dize
ocho
con
el
juez,
por
que
la collation
Sancta Cruz
cadanno ha de auer
un
alcalde,
& delas
otras treynta
& quatro collatjones,
las XVII collationes
dan un anno
sendos las
otras
dize
siete
el otro
anno
sendos
alcaldes.
Et
por
esta
gracia
que
ha la
collation
de
Sancta
Crux demas
delas otras, non
ha derecho
njnguno
enel yudgado.
See
Galo Sdnches,
ed.,
Fueros castellanos
de Soria y Alcala
de
Henares
(Madrid,
1919), p.
22.
39
Equally precise
instances
of rotation
in
office
are difficult to discover
in
pre-conquest
Mexican
society.
The
many
examples
of dual
governorship
in
aboriginal
political
life
appear
not
to be
historically
related to the dual
office of alcalde in
colonial
times.
Atten-
tion may be
called,
however,
to
the
system
employed
in
Mixtec
officeholding,
as
described
by Herrera. A Mixtec priest rose in rank, occupying each position for a period of four
years,
and
then se salia del
Monasterio, porque
no le
quedaba
otro
Oficio que
servir, i el
Cacique
lo
tenia
por
bien,
i era de su consejo, y
si se
queria
casar, podia
(Antonio
de
Herrera,
Historia general
de los hechos
de
los
castellanos
en
las islas
y
tierra
fire
del
mar
oceano
[4
vols., 8
decades;
Madrid,
1726-1730],
Dec.
III,
lib.
iii, p.
99).
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ROTATION OF ALCALDES IN
THE
INDIAN CABILDO
223
purposes
of
religious
conversion.
It
is
true at least that Santa
Maria,
San
Sebastian,
and San Pablo
were
parroquias
of
the
regular clergy in the sixteenth
century.40
But the four-part divi-
sion
of
the
city
is to
be found
also
in
texts
relating
to the
pre-
conquest period, and there
can
be
little doubt that as
in
Cholula,
Tlaxcala,
and
other
Mexican
areas the
four
parts
of
Tenochtitlan
antedated
the
coming
of
the
Spaniards.
Their
Nahuatl names-
Cuepopan
or
Tlaquechiucan (Santa Maria),
Atzacualco
(San
Se-
bastian), Teopan
or
Zoquipan (San Pablo),
and
Moyotlan (San
Juan)-suggest
at
least
a
pre-conquest origin.
Textual
sources
close to sixteenth-century
Indian
informants and
reflecting
oral
or written Indian traditions, speak of the division into these four
quarters as
an
event
of
the period immediately following the
foundation
of
Tenochtitlan.41 Indications
are
numerous,
further-
more, that
in
the
socio-political
life of
the
pre-conquest capital
these
barrios,
as
calpulli,
served
important administrative,
reli-
gious,
and
political
functions.42 Thus
the
exact
number of
urban
barrios participating
in
the rotational
office of
alcalde may prob-
ably
be identified
as
an
Aztec survival.43 The
number
four,
as
is
well
known,
had
many applications
in
Aztec
pre-conquest society.
It fit precisely the Spanish dictum that two alcaldes were to serve
annually
in
Indian
(as
in
Spanish) municipal governments
in
America. The adjustment of Indian to Spanish number was
achieved
through
the
equal
division
of
barrios
and
the
annual
alternation
of barrio
groups
as in
the thirteenth-century
fuero
of
Soria
in
C(Tsdtile
40
Manuel Carrera Stampa, Planos
de
la ciudad de M6xico, Boletin de la Sociedad
Mexicana de Geografia y Estadistica, LXVII (1949), 318. For a list of metropolitan
parroquias,
see Jos6
Bravo Ugarte,
S.
J., La parroquia
del
sagrario metropolitano y
su
compafifa
de
cocheros y lacayos
del santfsimo
sacramento,
Memorias de la
Academia
Mexicana de la Historia, VIII (1949), 51.
41
Duran, op. cit., I, 42; Hernando Alvarado Tezozomoc, Cr6nica mexicana, Manuel
Orozco y Berra,
ed.
(Mexico, 1944), pp. 17, 19, 260.
42
Agustin
de
Vetancurt,
Teatro
mexicano, descripci6n
breve
de
los
svcessos
exemplares,
hist6ricos, politicos, militares, y religiosos del nuevo mundo occidental
de las Indias
(2 vols.,
4
parts; Mexico, 1697-1698), II, Part
IV
(Chr6nica
de
la provincia
del santo
evangelio de
Mexico), p. 40. Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, Oputsculos
varios
(Biblioteca
de autores
mexicanos, I) (Mexico, 1896), p. 369;
Manuel Orozco
y Berra,
Historia
antigua y
de
la
conquista de Mexico (4 vols. and atlas, Mexico, 1880), III, 163-165; atlas,
P1.
19;
Tor-
quemada, op. cit., I, 295.
43
The four-part division
of a
city is,
of
course,
a
widespread
and not a
uniquely Aztec
form. The English word quarter
defines
both
a
section
of a
city
and a fourth
part.
On the four-part division
of
Tenochtitlan-Mexico, prior
to the
conquest
and in colonial
times,
see
S. Linne,
El valle
y
la
ciudad
de
Mexico
en
1550,
relaci6n
hist6rica
fundada
sobre
un mapa
geografico,
que
se conserva
en
la universidad
de
Uppsala, Suecia (Stockholm,
1948), pp. 33-34.
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