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Land, Water, and Government in Santiago Tlatelolco

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Land, Water, and Government in Santiago Tlatelolco ABSTRACT This dissertation discusses conflicts over land and water in Santiago Tlatelolco, an indigenous community located in Mexico City, in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The specific purpose of this study is to analyze the strategies that the indigenous government and indigenous people in general followed in the defense of their natural resources in order to distinguish patterns of continuity and innovation. The analysis covers several topics; first, a comparison and contrast between Mesoamerican and colonial times of the adaptation to the lacustrine environment in which Santiago Tlatelolco was located. This is followed by an examination of the conflicts that Santiago Tlatelolco had with neighboring indigenous communities and individuals who allied themselves with Spaniards. The objective of this analysis is to discern how indigenous communities in the basin of central Mexico used the Spanish legal system to create a shift in power that benefitted their communities. The next part of the dissertation focuses on the conflicts over land and water experienced by a particular group: women. This perspective provides insight into the specific life experience of the inhabitants of Santiago Tlatelolco during Mesoamerican and colonial times. It also highlights the impact that indigenous people had in the Spanish colonial organization and the response of Spanish authorities to the increasing indigenous use of the legal system. The final part discusses the evolution of indigenous government in Santiago Tlatelolco from Mesoamerican to colonial rulership. This section focuses on the role of indigenous rulers in Mexico City public works, especially the hydraulic system, in the recollection of tribute, and, above all, in the legal conflicts over land and water. The dissertation concludes that new forms of land tenure as well as other forms of social pressure changed social relations and the relationship with the environment. In the midst of change, nonetheless, indigenous peoples used traditional and innovative strategies to survive and thrive. ©Copyright by Margarita Vargas-Betancourt, 2015 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research and writing of this dissertation has taken many years. As I wrote, my life turned around several times. First it followed the course of ordinary life events such as marriage, having a baby, facing the illness and death of loved ones. Extraordinary events also marked the course of my research and writing, like Hurricane Katrina, the outset of violence in my country, Mexico, and in my hometown, Cuernavaca, and the resulting relocation of my family to the U.S. right in the midst of a major economic crisis. During these years, I received guidance, help, and support from several institutions and from professors, colleagues, family, and friends. First of all, I would like to thank the Mexican government, specifically the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) and the Royer Thayer Stone Center for Latin American Studies, for funding my graduate studies. I would also like to thank the Tinker Foundation for the Summer Field Research Grants that I obtained in two occasions and the Teixidor Foundation which funded the initial research for this dissertation as a fellow in the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas (IIH) at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). I would, then, like to thank my advisor Prof. Robert M. Hill II. I am especially grateful because he took up the project years after I had begun. He read all of my drafts in a record amount of time, and he patiently dealt with the difficulties of working with me long distance. His guidance was efficient, in depth, and very human. Without him, I would not have finished. There are no words to express how much I appreciate walking ii with him on this final stretch of the project. I would also like to thank the rest of my committee, Prof. Elizabeth Hill Boone and Prof. Kris E. Lane. Like Prof. Hill, Prof. Boone was in my initial committee, whereas Prof. Lane joined at the end. Thank you for your insightful guidance. I would like to thank two other members of Tulane’s faculty: Prof. Victoria Reifler Bricker and Jimmy Huck Jr. Prof. Bricker’s faith in my work and her friendship have been a light in my professional career. During my fellowship at the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas at the UNAM, Dr. Felipe Castro served as my advisor. I would also like to acknowledge his guidance. The support I got from my friends at Tulane and later at the University of Florida (UF) was fundamental for the success of this project. At Tulane, I would like to thank Ronald (Sonny) Faulseit, Kate Ingold, David S. Anderson, Dylan Clark, Aline Magnoni, Miriam Huet, Markus Eberl, Mark Lentz, Jonathan Truitt, Richard Conway, Ericka Hosselkus, Bradley Benton, Jessica Lepler, Carmen Muñoz-Fernández, Denise Frazier, Cristina Abreo, Marc C. Maddox, Amisha Sharma, Ed White, Leena Pradhan Nabzdyk, Amy George-Hirons, Cynthia Garza, Arnulfo Valdivia Machuca, and the countless others that walked with me during that time. At UF, I would like to thank Lillian Guerra, Efraín Barradas, Leah Rosenberg, Ida Altman, Murdo MacLeod, Carmen Diana Deere, and Helen Safa (I wish you were here to celebrate). The encouragement and support of my UF friends gave me the strength to walk to the end of the line. Other friends that I would like to thank are Helen Baffes, Iris and Ricardo Febry, Robert Schwaller and Rachel E. C. Beckley, John F. López, and María Aurelia Gómez de Unamuno. I would also like to thank my Mexican colleagues for sharing their knowledge with me and for letting me iii share mine with them: María Castañeda de la Paz, Lidia E. Gómez García, Rebeca López Mora, and Luis Fernando Granados. My favorite place at Tulane was the Latin American Library, I would like to thank the librarians who helped, trained, and inspired me: Guillermo Náñez Falcón, David Dressing, Hortensia Calvo, Verónica Sánchez, and María Dolores Espinosa. The knowledge I acquired at the Latin American Library at Tulane paved the way to my work at UF’s Latin American and Caribbean Collection, where I would like to thank Richard Phillips, Paul Losch, Lara Lookabaugh, Angie Soto, Jossie García-Alcaraz, Haven Hawley, and Judy Russell. Their faith and trust kept me going. This dissertation would not be possible without Linda Arnold, who generously gave to a stranger (me) a preliminary version of the AGN guides she was preparing, and without the assistance of Bilha Calderón Gómez and Cecilia Megumi Martínez Ito. Finally, I would like to thank my family: my father Jorge Gustavo Vargas García, my brother Jorge Vargas Betancourt, but above all my husband Nezahualcoyotl Xiuhtecutli, and my son Roberto. Eight years ago when I wanted to drop the dissertation, Neza told me that it was better to continue working every day even if slowly, than to stop and then try to come back. I dedicate this work to him and to my son. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 HISTORIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................5 SOURCES..............................................................................................................12 THESIS ..................................................................................................................14 CHAPTER I: SANTIAGO TLATELOLCO’S ENVIRONMENT AND ITS HYDRAULIC SYSTEM ...................................................................................................17 THE ORDENANZA AND THE PLANO .............................................................18 TLATELOLCO’S ENVIRONMENT ....................................................................27 THE PREHISPANIC HYDRAULIC SYSTEM ....................................................37 THE HYDRAULIC SYSTEM AND THE SPANISH CONQUEST ....................52 THE COLONIAL HYDRAULIC SYSTEM .........................................................62 SPANISH POLICIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE .............................69 CONCLUSIONS....................................................................................................79 CHAPTER II: TERRITORIAL CONFLICTS OF THE ALTEPETL .............................104 LAWSUIT AGAINST DOÑA LEONOR MOTEUCZOMA..............................105 LAWSUIT AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF ECATEPEC AND DIEGO ARIAS DE SOTELO ..............................................................................................................123 LAWSUIT AGAINST AZCAPOTZALCO ........................................................129 v SHIFTING POWER ............................................................................................140 CONCLUSIONS..................................................................................................149 CHAPTER III: TLATELOLCA WOMEN AND CONFLICTS OVER LAND .............155 PRECONQUEST AND SPANISH LANDHOLDING .......................................155 Community Consensus .............................................................................159 WOMEN AND LANDHOLDING ......................................................................161
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