Copyright by Francis Stalin Goicovich Videla, 2018
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Copyright by Francis Stalin Goicovich Videla, 2018 The Dissertation Committee for Francis Stalin Goicovich Videla certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: “The most famous Indians in all the Indies are those from Chile, called Araucos. The next in New Spain, called Guachichiles or Chichimecs, who are now conquered.” Pacification projects in two frontiers of the New World’ Spanish Empire: New Galicia and Chile (1529-1626) Committee: ____________________________________ Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Supervisor ____________________________________ Erika Bsumek ____________________________________ Susan Deans-Smith ____________________________________ Virginia Garrard-Burnett ____________________________________ Cynthia Radding “The most famous Indians in all the Indies are those from Chile, called Araucos. The next in New Spain, called Guachichiles or Chichimecs, who are now conquered.” Pacification projects in two frontiers of the New World’ Spanish Empire: New Galicia and Chile (1529-1626) by Francis Stalin Goicovich Videla Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2018 Acknowledgments Research funded by the International Development Research Fellowship, administered by the Social Science Research Council of the United States, which allowed working in archives and libraries of Chile, Mexico and Spain. The Fulbright-Mecesup2 grant made possible my doctoral studies in the United States of America, one of the most enriching experiences in my professional training, being able to forge myself in the cradle of colonial border studies. The funds provided by the Fulbright-Laspau research grant gave the possibility of carrying out documentary search and transcription in the Archivo General de Indias. My deepest thanks to Pablo Cuevas Valdés and Teresa Rojas Martini, students yesterday and today colleagues and friends, for their generous reception in Mexico City. To the professors of the Department of History of the University of Texas at Austin, Susan Deans-Smith, Erika Bsumek, Ann Twinam, Virginia Garrard-Burnett, and especially to Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, for their valuable guidance and the acute questions that constantly enriched the reflections of this work. The staff of the Harry Ransom Center and the Nettie Lee Benson Library deserve a special recognition, who provided me with bibliographical material and allowed the reproduction of illustrations and maps of invaluable historical value that I have incorporated into this dissertation. In the Aztec lands I could photograph the images that illustrate the Rhetorica Christiana by Fray Diego Valadés, thanks to the generous disposition of the Centro de Estudios de Historia de México authorities and staff. In my country I can not fail to mention the Departamento de Ciencias Históricas of the Universidad de Chile, which allowed my graduate studies in the United States. Thanks to its professors, my interest in indigenous themes was born, allowing me to develop my inclination for borderland studies: Osvaldo Silva Galdames, Leonardo León Solís, Jorge Hidalgo Lehuedé and José Luis Martínez Cereceda, in strict chronological order, left an important mark on my professional background. In the Departamento de Antropología of the Universidad de Chile, the committed teaching work of Donald Jackson Squella – who is no longer among us–, Francisco Mena Larraín, Victoria Castro Rojas, Rolf Foerster González, Fernanda Falabella Gellona, Mauricio Massone Mezzano, José Berenguer Rodríguez and iv Carlos Thomas Winter, was also determinant. And to Rosa Véliz Morales with eternal gratitude for her constant presence. v “The most famous Indians in all the Indies are those from Chile, called Araucos. The next in New Spain, called Guachichiles or Chichimecs, who are now conquered.” Pacification projects in two frontiers of the New World’ Spanish Empire: New Galicia and Chile (1529-1626) by Francis Stalin Goicovich Videla, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 SUPERVISOR: Jorge Canizares-Esguerra This dissertation seeks to unravel some of the most interesting and least known characteristics of the early Spanish Empire in the New World borderlands: the origin and application of the first policy of non-violent pacification in the lands of New Galicia, and its subsequent transfer to Mapuche territory in southern Chile, whose materialization ended in a resounding failure. It is assumed that an empire is a political, social, economic and cultural system in which information circulates through different means –mainly written texts and people–, so that the experiences of a corner of this system could serve as a reference to the moment of making decisions for another region. The Franciscans were the promoters of the first successful pacification project in a borderland of the American continent, which put an end to the prolonged Chichimec War in northwestern Mexico. This plan of pacification was the heir of other attempts carried out in various conflictive regions of the continent, in which numerous tests of trial and error were carried out. Along this process mixed in a tense relationship the theological and philosophical positions on the nature of Indians, the desires of wealth and glory of the diverse social strata that developed in these spaces, the role played by the religious orders, and the resistance of the Indians to the invasion of their territories. vi Aware of the peacemaking success in Chichimec lands, the Jesuits tried to implement the essential guidelines of this project in southern Chile to put an end to the bloody Arauco War, but the ecological and cultural peculiarities of southern Chile, as well as the personalism of the main promoter of this transfer, prevented reaching the same happy result: in this way, a successful model would not necessarily have the same result in another region of the Spanish Empire. vii Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Between experiences and social epistemologies: the geographical and human challenge for settlement and understanding 25 New Galicia and southern Chile, two geographically complex spaces 26 From roots to contact: ethnic panorama of New Galicia and south-central Chile 43 For an ethnography of the sixteenth century: is violence a valid means to domesticate the difference? 56 Conclusion 74 Chapter 2: Dynamics of the Spanish-Indian confrontation in the two extremes of the American Spanish empire 76 Physical violence, disease and slavery 79 Economic violence: ecological impact, looting, diseases and tribute 110 Symbolic violence: “knocking down idols and raising churches” 132 Conclusion 136 Chapter 3: Trying to convert the Indian Frontiers into Mission Frontiers: gestation of the Franciscan project of pacification at both ends of the New World 137 Historical background of missionary pacification in America 139 The long road to consensual peace: between the legal framework and the Franciscan spirit 151 Missionary Foundations of the Franciscan Order 153 The missionary challenge in New Galicia and the Kingdom of Chile: viii between the apostolic zeal and the glory of martyrdom 160 Population projects with Spanish settlers 176 Conclusion 187 Chapter 4: Four actors and a stage: mestizos, Franciscans and “madrinero Indians” in the Chichimecs pacification of northern New Spain 189 A new framework for action: The Third Mexican Provincial Council (1585) 190 A longstanding innovation: Captain Miguel Caldera and diplomacy of peace 194 Madrinero Indians and Franciscan missionaries: the cross and example rather than the sword 198 Conclusion 213 Chapter 5: A Jesuit attempt of borderland peacemaking: the Defensive War project in Chile 214 The struggle for indigenous rights in the Kingdom of Chile: pre-Jesuit Initiatives 214 Missionary foundations of the Society of Jesus 233 The Defensive War in Chile: heir to the Chichimec pacification? 247 The Defensive War in the Kingdom of Chile: a failed pacification project 260 Conclusion 275 Conclusion 277 Documentary Funds 281 Bibliography 282 VITA 321 ix Introduction This is a history of worlds, a narration of dissimilar and distant spaces inhabited by peoples who in pre-Columbian times and during the colony developed different lifestyles. It is the history of two societies whose fates were tied to a single European empire, whose men (soldiers, officials, merchants and missionaries) initially described them as nations “without God, without law, and without king.” The Chichimecs from the north of New Spain, and the Reche-Mapuches from the forests of southern Chile evidenced military and political agency that allowed them to resist the Spanish initiatives of conquest. The success of the native struggle induced the frustration of those who wielded metal weapons and clamored the discourse of conquest, applying to these indomitable indigenous warriors the categories of “idolaters” and “uncivilized”1 with which the inhabitants of other regions of the continent had already been labeled, such as the Caribbeans. Officials of the Spanish administration, and even members of the clergy who ventured into these lands, made use of the conquest language on countless occasions to characterize the process by which independent Indian nations were being incorporated into the colonial orbit. In the minds of those men still beat the spirit of a Spain that had just consolidated the spatial and human control of the Iberian Peninsula.2