CONVENTUAL CONTRACTS: POWER AND PROPERTY IN OAXACA, MEXICO, 1700-1820 ELIZABETH POLAK A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HISTORY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO JULY 2012 © Elizabeth Polak, 2012 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-90336-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-90336-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada Financial interactions between convents and people in lay communities had many implications on the social and economic life in colonial Latin America. Nuns lived the contemplative life in a cloister, but at the same time they had enduring and evolving relations with the outside world. Little is understood, however, about the process of these interactions. This is a study of the impact of the Dominican convent of Santa Catalina de Siena on the economic development of Oaxaca during the eighteenth century. It is part of the growing body of literature on convent history that explores the convents' relationships with the world around them. Quantitative data obtained from hundreds of contracts pertaining to the convent of Santa Catalina, including censos, titles to properties and transfers of properties, bills of sale of slaves, in addition to qualitative sources such as nun's own writings and extensive correspondence between anticlerical reformers and the nuns' ecclesiastical representatives, found at multiple private, state and Church archives, broaden our understanding of the formal credit system, the slave experience, and the effects of the Enlightenment on religious life in New Spain. This research reveals that power and property defined relations between the Dominican convent and the lay community. In a specie-starved economy, the convent had access to bullion received in dowries and various investments, and regularly entered into financial contracts with people in Oaxaca. Nuns routinely lent money to people outside the elite group, and people in the middling group, including indigenous people and mulattoes, relied on the formal credit network to borrow money. This cooperation between convent and laity promoted social mobility and growth of the middling sector. In addition to urban properties, the convent invested in rural properties and relied on Afro-Mexican slave labour at their sugar plantation. Compared to other slave owners in the area, the convent promoted family formation and sold female slaves together with their young children. Wealth and economic prosperity of the convent became jeopardized however, when the nuns rejected the 1795 education reform. They interpreted it as an attack on their property and relative autonomy by anticlerical politicians and in defending their actions and ideas, the nuns misjudged Oaxacan laity. Propertied people desired lay education for their children, and a diminished political and economic role for the Church. When these objectives were not met, the convent was not able to secure new contracts, or to hold on to its existing properties and power. This dissertation shows the complexities of the connections between the convent and the lay world, and how the two were intertwined. iii To Anna and Ireneusz Polak iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing about debt, lenders and borrowers in a much distant time has left me with my own kind of debt. I owe many thanks for support, encouragement and criticism that I have received over the years from many people. I owe many thanks to late Elinor K. Melville for introducing me to the dynamic history of Mexico and igniting my passion for the colonial period, as well as for guiding me through the initial steps of the Ph.D. program. I wish she was here to see the final version of my dissertation: R.I.P. Many thanks go to my committee members, Anne Rubenstein, Bettina Bradbury and Alan Durston, for reading my work with great enthusiasm and encouragement, for pushing me to think more critically about my sources and subjects, for their expertise and patience. Many thanks also go to examining committee, Kathryn McPherson, Gillian McGillivray, and external examiner, Pamala Voekel, for their valuable comments and criticism. I also owe many thanks to Paul Lovejoy, Jaun Maiguasha, Sonya Lipsett- Rivera, Kenneth Mills, and Derek Williams as well as many more members of the Tubman Research Centre and the Latin American Reading Group in Toronto, who read various parts of my dissertation at different stages of completion, offered comments and provided fruitful ground for intellectual development. Additionally, I owe many thanks to panel chairs and commentators who participated in a number of conferences, including Nancy Van Dusen, Jeremy Baskes, Marie Eileen Francois, and Laura Shelton for insightful comments and enthusiasm. Further, thanks go to Bill Beezley and Bill French, the co-organizers and co-directors of Oaxaca Seminar IV, for introducing me to Oaxaca in 2002, its history, culture and archives, and for providing the ground for discussing crucial debates in the historiography of Mexico. Thank you all. This project was completed thanks to generous funding provided by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs for one year. Dissertation Wring Scholarship from the Dean's Office at York University for one year, as well as several Research Cost Funds, Filedwork Research Funds, and Graduate Development Funds provided by York University. None of this, however, would be possible without the help and generosity of numerous people in Mexico City and in Oaxaca. I owe many thanks to archivists v at Archivo General de la Nacion, galeria cuatro, Museo de Antropologi'a e Historia, Mexico D.F., Centra de Estudios de Historia de Mexico (CONDUMEX), Mexico D.F., Archivo de Notarias (ANO), Oaxaca, Archivo Historico de la Arquidiocesis de Oaxaca (AHAO), Archivo Historico Municipal de Oaxaca (AHMO), Archivo General del Estado de Oaxaca (AGEO), Fundacion de Bustamante Vasconcelos, Oaxaca, Biblioteca de Fray Francisco de Burgoa, Oaxaca and at Archivo de la Provincia de Santiago de Mexico, en Santo Domingo, Queretaro. I also owe many thanks to Gabriela Cano who helped make sense of Mexican bureaucracy when it was of most importance. To Francie Chassen de Lopez, Nimcy Arellanes Cancino, Paco Pepe (Francisco Jose Ruiz Cervantes), Manuel Esparza and Peter Guardino for discussions about archives, documents and Oaxacan history. To Susan Deeds for providing home away from home for many summers in Mexico City, for great conversations about archives and life in D.F. I also owe countless thanks to Doris Graciela Velasco who is a great language teacher and friend, and to Louise Clark Gammons and Ryszard Rodys who made my research days in Oaxaca more enjoyable. Thank you. I would especially like to thank my parents Anna and Ireneusz Polak for their love, support, and encouragement. I would like to thank my mother-in-law Anna Brzozowska for understanding the academic culture and for her moral support. Words cannot express my gratitude and appreciation for Mateusz Brzozowski, my husband, who stood by me every step of the way, offered support, understanding and encouragement, who even read parts of the dissertation, engaged in long debates on economic interpretations, offered valuable advice and his expertise. He never dreamed of learning so much about Mexico! I would also like to thank Jasmine, Zoe, and most of all Aiden for being a constant source of amusement, inspiration and distraction, and for reminding me that there is more to life than the dissertation. vi CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. CONVENTUAL LIFE IN COLONIAL OAXACA 45 3. THE CAPELLAN1A OF SOR JOSEFA: THE PROPERTY OF ONE NUN 88