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Kolb on Verastique, 'Michoacan and Eden: Vasco De Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico' H-LatAm Kolb on Verastique, 'Michoacan and Eden: Vasco de Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico' Review published on Thursday, June 1, 2000 Bernardino Verastique. Michoacan and Eden: Vasco de Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000. xviii + 194 pp. $40.00 (cloth) ISBN 0-292-78737-5; $19.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-292-78738-4. Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb (National Endowment for the Humanities)Published on H-LatAm (June, 2000) Amerindian and Spanish Cultural Conflict and Syncretism inMichoacan, Mexico [Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those of the reviewer and not of his employer or any other federal agency.] The author of this important book-length synthesis, Bernardino Veastique, completed research on his volume while at Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions; he is currently associate professor of Religious Studies at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. In this significant contribution to Mexican history, historiography, anthropology, and religious studies, Verastique assesses the evangelization efforts of the first bishop of the west Mexican province of Michoacan (a region larger than the modern state), Don Vasco de Quiroga (1477 or 1478 to 1565). The author also places into context and evaluates the dramatic cultural and historical impacts resulting from this effort by focusing on Quiroga who served as bishop from 1535 until his death in 1565. Quiroga remains a controversial figure the Mexican historiography --Renaissance humanist, social liberal, reformer, "miracle worker," progenitor of the Mexican social security system, defender of indigenous peoples, or violent authoritarian -- depending upon which biographer the reader consults (p. xiv). The significance of Bishop Quiroga to Mexican history and historiography is attested to by the fact that there have been more than a dozen biographies by Mexican and American historians and religious scholars representing a number of theoretical orientations.[1] As a Judge (oidor) and Bishop, Quiroga was driven by a profound respect for Spanish jurisprudence and his desire to convert the Purhepecha-Chichimeca to a purified form of Christianity free of the corruption of European Catholicism, and strove to establish "New World Edens" in Michoacan by congregating the native populace into "pueblo-hospital" communities. In these towns, mendicant friars could more easily instruct them in the fundamental beliefs of Christianity as well as the values of Spanish culture. Quiroga patronized the construction of three pueblos each of which included a hospital, as well as the great cathedral of Santa Ana, numerous churches and schools, and the Colegio de San Nicolas Obispo. These were no small feats, given that the Purhepecha kingdom of Michoacan also included parts of the modern states of Guerrero, Guanajuato, and Quetaro -- an area of 70,000 square kilometers and 1.5 million inhabitants. Structurally, the volume contains an introduction, eight chapters, and an epilogue, 10 sets of endnotes (a total of 404), a bibliography with 274 entries (78 in Spanish), and a 10-page double Citation: H-Net Reviews. Kolb on Verastique, 'Michoacan and Eden: Vasco de Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico'. H- LatAm. 12-03-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/23910/reviews/54350/kolb-verastique-michoacan-and-eden-vasco-de-quiroga-and-evangelization Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-LatAm column index of predominantly proper noun names, supplemented by one map and 10 figures, all of which are line drawings. The figures are adapted from Craine and Reindorp's edited translation of The Chronicles of Michoacan (1970) -- sometimes called the "Morelia edition," which served as Verastique's primary source, in addition to the three-volume Cronica de Michoacan (1932), and some documents from Mexico's Archivo General de la Nacion (A.G.N.), Justicia.[2] He also relies heavily upon the writings of Americo Castro (1971), Miguel Leon-Portilla (1963), Stanley Payne (1984), R.A.M. Van Zantwijc (1967), and J. Benedict Warren (1985) for background information.[3] In addition to the biographies of Quiroga noted previously, Verastique employs Josefina Muriel's (1980) enlightening essay and the Paulino Castaneda Delgado edition of Quiroga's reportInformacion en derecho (1974).[4] Bishop Quiroga's organizational model for these new communities derived from the Judeo-Christian myth of Eden and Plato's concept of the republic as a perfect commonwealth governed by intellectuals. Verastique states that Silvio Zavala exaggerates the claim that Quiroga was influenced extensively by Thomas More's Utopia (p. xiv, 113, 117). He contends that early chroniclers such as Gomara and Oviedo, the philosophical concepts of Montesque and Raynal, and anthropological theoreticians including Edward Burnett Tylor and Louis Henry Morgan, colored the interpretations of "Amerindian" culture. Verastique, exhibiting cultural sensitivity, employs that term instead of Native American or Indian. He begins the volume with an illustrative introduction in which he states that his thesis is that these varying opinions and contradictions about Quiroga [1] "are due to the continual transmission of misinformation concerning the 'New World' and to historical interpretations shaped by the authors' own prejudices and worldviews" (p. xiv). He further notes that he assumes that "a basic characteristic of a culture is its symbolic construction of boundaries, both internal and external. In other words, a culture's core identity is encapsulated in its perception of differences: differences within a culture, such as varying class and caste statuses, and differences between it and surrounding cultures. A community and its members thus define themselves in relation to significant others" (p. xvii). After the Metzica (Mexica or Aztecs), the Purhepecha were the second most powerful Prehispanic Amerindian state in northern Mesoamerica, and the Purhepecha elites saw themselves as heirs of the Toltec monarchs and, therefore, that they had a sacred entitlement to the land. They distinguished themselves from their enemies -- the Metzica to the east, and the Chichimecs to the north. In the initial chapter, "The Purhepecha-Chichimeca of Michoacan" (pp. 1-19), the geographical and cultural landscape of the Purhepecha kingdom is reviewed, as are cultural precursors from ca. 40,000 BCE to the end of the Postclassic Toltec period ca. 1150 CE. Verastique uses an inappropriate Old World archaeological term, "upper Paleolithic period," ca. 40,000 B.C., to describe the entry of early humans into the Western Hemisphere across the Bering Strait land bridge -- this is more correctly the Early Paleoindian period of the New World. His discussion of "Michoacan from the Olmecs to the Toltecs" relies upon the works of art historians George Kubler and Laurette Sejourne, ethnohistorian Jacques Soustelle, and archaeologist R.E.W. Adams. Readers would be advised to consult the writings of Pollard, Weaver, Williams, and Bell. [5] By page eight, the narrative has turned to a consideration of the English-language The Chronicles of Michoacan (more properly La Relacion de Michoacan in its original Spanish edition), a manuscript prepared for the first viceroy of New Spain from 1535-1550, Don Antonio de Mendoza. The original manuscript (Codex C-IV-5 or Codex del Escorial_) consists of 140 sheets, 3 Purhepecha calendric Citation: H-Net Reviews. Kolb on Verastique, 'Michoacan and Eden: Vasco de Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico'. H- LatAm. 12-03-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/23910/reviews/54350/kolb-verastique-michoacan-and-eden-vasco-de-quiroga-and-evangelization Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-LatAm pages, and 44 illustrations, is deposited in the Real Biblioteca del Escorial in Madrid. [6] The disputed authorship (p. 9) -- Fray Martin de Coruna or Fray Jeronimo de Alcala, among others -- is evaluated cogently, but nonetheless the document is the primary source on the social history of the Purhepecha. The relationship between the Purhepecha and nomadic Chichimec tribes is reviewed, and the misuse of the term "Tarascan" to describe the Purhepecha kingdom is demonstrated. Tarascan is a general term meaning all Amerindian peoples of Michoacan (including Otomi, Matlaltzinca, and Teco peoples) much as the generic term "indio" means "Indian." Verastique moves then to a discussion of the founding of the Purhepecha kingdom, the succession of priest-king rulers (cazonci), and the Purhepecha elite (nobles, priests, and warriors). There is little information on the commoners. Nonetheless, there are similarities to Aztec social structure (calpullis [wards or districts], cities, towns, rancherias, and extended families). The "dominant elite" occupied the apex of the social pyramid, and women fared better in Purhepecha society and politics than they would under the Spanish. Priestly class offices were inheritable within a state religion. Verastique uses the terms lineage and clan rather loosely (p. 15, 16); there have very precise anthropological connotations and I would have wished for clarity. In Chapter 2 "The Purhepecha Religious Worldview" (pp. 20-35), the author relates the sacred principle of duality, three-realm cosmos (celestial, earthly, and subterranean), the astronomical orientations of communities, five directions (the center
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