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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Indigenous Mine Workers in the Guanajuato-Michoacán Region: Labor, Migration, and Ethnic Identity in Colonial Mexico, 1550-1800 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Fernando Serrano 2017 © Copyright by Fernando Serrano 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Indigenous Mine Workers in the Guanajuato-Michoacán Region: Labor, Migration, and Ethnic Identity in Colonial Mexico, 1550-1800 by Fernando Serrano Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Kevin B. Terraciano, Chair This dissertation examines the participation of indigenous workers in the colonial mining industry of the Guanajuato-Michoacán region and the impact that this industry had on those workers and their communities of origin. In the present-day states of Guanajuato and Michoacán, Mexico, there existed a vibrant and lucrative mining economy throughout the colonial period (1521-1810). Michoacán’s mining industry produced a steady supply of copper and silver, and Guanajuato is best known for its extremely wealthy silver mines, especially after the mid- eighteenth century, when it became the world’s greatest producer of silver. The region’s mining industry created a very competitive labor market in which mine owners used different strategies to recruit and retain a labor force. Although mine owners paid many workers for their labor, the industry also relied on coerced forms of labor, including slavery, encomienda, repartimiento, and debt peonage. ii Many scholars who have studied the economic significance of the mining industry in the region, and its impact on the world economy, have not adequately examined the composition of the labor force. Those who have studied the labor force have focused on particular mining centers, overlooking the regional context within which the mines operated. Miners competed with one another and with other industries for workers. This competition put considerable pressure on the region’s indigenous communities to provide the bulk of the labor force. Also, labor demands led many people to migrate, altering the demographic composition of the region. Using a regional history approach and ethnohistorical methodologies, the dissertation examines the nature of the labor institutions that were utilized to recruit workers to the mines, and the impact of the mining industry on indigenous workers and their communities. Ultimately, this dissertation uses a variety of original sources to highlight the important role that indigenous men and women played in the mining industry of Guanajuato, and the persistence of an indigenous identity in this mining town. My findings contribute to the fields of labor history, ethnohistory, and mining history. iii The dissertation of Fernando Serrano is approved. Stephen Andrew Bell Eric Van Young Kevin B. Terraciano, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2017 iv A Mariza, por 17 años y muchos más… v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix LIST OF TABLES x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi VITA xv Introduction 1 The Leading Producer of Silver in the World 3 Sources and Methodologies 6 Relevant Literature: Mexican Rural History, Labor Institutions, 11 Colonial Mining Industry, and Ethnohistory Overview of the Chapters 25 Chapter 1: The Guanajuato-Michoacán Region, Pre-Hispanic Period to 1600 29 The Region 29 Guanajuato and the Chichimecas 34 Michoacán and the Tarascans 40 The Spanish Conquest of Michoacán 46 Population Movements to the North 52 The Road to the Mines 55 The Otomíes and Tarascans in Guanajuato 58 Institutions of Conquest and Resistance: 64 Cofradía, Hospital, and República de Indios Conclusion 69 Chapter 2: The Mining Industry and Its Workers, 1550-1700 71 The Mining Industry in New Spain 71 Labor Institutions 72 From Encomienda to Repartimiento Labor 76 Encomienda Labor in the Mining Industry 79 Local Authorities and the Labor Force 81 Assigning Labor to Particulars 85 Labor and Indigenous Elites 87 From Subject Towns to Cabeceras 89 The Repartimiento System in the Guanajuato-Michoacán Region 91 Tarascans in the Guanajuato Mines 94 The Repartimiento System and Migration 99 Layers of Labor Responsibilities 103 Complying With the Repartimiento 106 Conclusion 111 vi Chapter 3: A Competitive Labor Market, 1700-1770 112 The Persistence of Repartimiento 113 The Labor Market 119 Tlalpujahua 119 Inguarán’s Copper Mines 124 Recruiting and Retaining the Labor Force 127 Debt Peonage in Historical Context 129 Indebted Workers in the Inguarán Mines 132 A “fair and equitable solution” 137 The Viceroy’s Response 144 The Bourbon Reforms and Rebellion 146 Silver Mining on the Rise 151 Conclusion 159 Chapter 4: The New Repartimiento, 1770-1800 161 The Guanajuato Miners’ Solution 162 Reactions from Indigenous Communities 167 The Legal Struggle Against the New Repartimiento 170 Reasons to be Exempted from Repartimiento 177 Previous Justifications: Idleness and Laziness 178 Previous Decrees 183 Costumbre 184 Distance 187 Pay for Travel Days 191 Change in Climate 193 On the lack of workers 194 Damage to Indigenous communities 198 Collecting Tribute 201 Economic Exploitation: Suppression of Wages 203 Economic Exploitation: Extortion 208 Guevara’s Recommendation and Cervantes’ Response 216 The End of the Repartimiento 222 Conclusion 226 Chapter 5: Indigenous Ethnic Identity in Guanauato 228 The Invisible Majority 229 The Long Debate About Indigenous Identity 231 Challenges to Indigenous Ethnic Identity in Colonial Irapuato 235 An Indigenous Town in a Spanish Space 239 Being Indigenous in a Spanish Town 242 Interpretations of Mestizaje 249 Indigenous Presence in Guanajuato and the Ideology of Mestizaje 256 vii Indigenous Participation in the Riots of 1766 and 1767 261 The Organization of Space 272 Conclusion 275 Conclusion 277 Guanajuato’s Zone of Influence 277 The Guanajuato-Michoacán Regional System 280 Labor Systems and Repartimiento 282 Indigenous Ethnic Identity in Guanajuato 285 Concluding Remarks 290 GLOSSARY 291 REFERENCES 295 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRA TIONS Map 1.1: Alcaldías Mayores and Corregimientos of the Present-Day 31 States of Michoacán and Guanajuato, circa 1750 Map 1.2: The Guanajuato-Michoacán Region 33 Map 1.3: Cultural Areas in Pre-Hispanic Mexico 34 Map 2.1: The Mining Zones of the Guanajuato-Michoacán Region 93 Map 3.1: The Mining Centers of Inguarán and Curucupatzeo, and the 132 Refining Center of Santa Clara del Cobre Map 4.1: Tenencias of the Alcaldía Mayor of Valladolid-Pátzcuaro 164 Figure 6.1: El Templo del Hospitalito, Irapuato, Guanajuato 286 Figure 6.2: “Orígenes de Irapuato” Mural, Irapuato, Guanajuato 287 Figure 6.3 Templo del Hospitalito and “Orígenes de Irapuato” Mural, 287 Irapuato, Guanajuato ix LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Arrendatarios of the San Bartolomé Mine 126 Table 3.2: Inguarán Mines and Indebted Workers, 1763 137 Table 3.3: Mines, Owners/Arrendatarios, and Administrators 145 of the Inguarán Mines Table 4.1: Towns Subject to the New Repartimiento, 165 Province of Michoacán, 1777 Table 4.2: Towns Subject to the New Repartimiento, 167 Alcaldía Mayor of Jiquilpan, 1777 Table 4.3: Indigenous Workers from Pamatácuaro that 200 Ran Away to Evade Repartimiento Service, November 1778 Table 5.1: Ethnic/racial Identity in the Mexican Census 2010 230 and Intercensal Survey 2015 Table 5.2: Population of the Intendancy of Guanajuato, 1793 256 Table 5.3: Population of La Valenciana (Percent), 1805 259 Table 5.4: Ethnic/Racial Identity of Captured Rioters, Guanajuato, 1767 264 x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A dissertation project requires, without a doubt, a collaborative effort. Without the direct and indirect support of countless people, doing a project like this would not be possible. For that reason, I would like to express my gratitude to everybody that helped in one way or another. First, I would like to thank my advisor, Kevin Terraciano, for the trust he had in the project I proposed when I entered the doctoral program and the continued support he provided as the project went through several changes. He has been a continued source of inspiration to me for his commitment to his academic work and to his students. In the many classes, seminars, and independent studies that I participated while at UCLA, I learned from many faculty members and will always be thankful to them for what they shared with me. In particular, I would like to thank the members of my doctoral committee for the patience, continued support, and constructive criticism, my work wouldn’t be what it is without them: Stephen Bell, William Summerhill, Eric Van Young, and María Eugenia Vázquez Semadeni. Finally, I offer my thanks to the UCLA Department of History, I didn’t have anything but good experiences with its staff and administration. I would like to extend a special recognition to the excellent job of our knowledgeable and committed Director of Student Affairs, Hadley Porter, who was always willing to listen and help, providing useful advice and guidance when I needed it the most. As a graduate student at UCLA, I benefitted in different ways from many peers and friends. Dana Velasco Murillo’s work has been a direct influence and inspiration for my own work, both in topic and methodology. Having completed her degree just a year before I joined the doctoral program at UCLA, her work, in its dissertation form (now a published book), served as a model for my own work. Similarly, other colleagues and friends at UCLA made my stay xi here productive and enjoyable. Rebecca Dufendach and I joined the doctoral program the same year and we are completing it the same year. Our conversations the first few years of the program and her continued encouragement as we both completed our dissertations is something that I truly valued. Jorge Arias, Brad Benton, Xochitl Flores-Marcial, Ricardo García, Brian Kovalesky (el presidente), Miriam Melton Villanueva, Juan Pablo Morales Garza, María Ornelas, Kathryn Renton, Kendy Rivera, Pablo Sierra, Sabrina Smith, and Valeria Valencia were all part of this crazy adventure as well and I thank them all for the good times in Los Angeles and abroad during research trips.