UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title A History of Guelaguetza in Zapotec Communities of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, 16th Century to the Present Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7tv1p1rr Author Flores-Marcial, Xochitl Marina Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles A History of Guelaguetza in Zapotec Communities of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, 16th Century to the Present A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Xóchitl Marina Flores-Marcial 2015 © Copyright by Xóchitl Marina Flores-Marcial 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION A History of Guelaguetza in Zapotec Communities of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, 16th Century to the Present by Xóchitl Marina Flores-Marcial Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Kevin B. Terraciano, Chair My project traces the evolution of the Zapotec cultural practice of guelaguetza, an indigenous sharing system of collaboration and exchange in Mexico, from pre-Columbian and colonial times to the present. Ironically, the term "guelaguetza" was appropriated by the Mexican government in the twentieth century to promote an annual dance festival in the city of Oaxaca that has little to do with the actual meaning of the indigenous tradition. My analysis of Zapotec-language alphabetic sources from the Central Valley of Oaxaca, written from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, reveals that Zapotecs actively participated in the sharing system during this long period of transformation. My project demonstrates that the Zapotec sharing economy functioned to build and reinforce social networks among households in Zapotec communities. I argue that guelaguetza enabled communities of the Central Valley of Oaxaca to survive the trauma of conquest, depopulation, and external demands for local resources. Zapotecs relied on the system to maintain control of valuable community resources, such as property, labor, and ii agricultural goods. My project also examines the system of guelaguetza from a transnational perspective by considering how it continues to function effectively for Zapotecs outside of Oaxaca, in other parts of Mexico and in the United States, especially in California. The project utilizes a range of unpublished archival sources from Mexico, Spain, and the United States, including Spanish- and Zapotec-language legal documents, municipal records, and chronicles. Finally, I incorporate Mexican literature from the early twentieth century, and modern ethnographic observations from Oaxaca and California. iii The dissertation of Xóchitl Marina Flores Marcial is approved. Pamela Munro Teófilo Ruiz Kevin B. Terraciano, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iv Para los zapotecos, de ayer, de hoy y de siempre. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements vii Vita x Introduction: 1 The Zapotec of the Central Valley of Oaxaca Spanish Entrance into the Central Valley of Oaxaca Oaxacan Indigenous Historiography Chapter Overview Chapter 1: 27 Zapotec Historical Records Zapotec Discourse Zapotec Literacy Before the Spanish Conquest Zapotec Culture and Society Through a Spanish Imperial Lens Colonial-Era Zapotec Documents Conclusion Chapter 2: 57 Zapotec Community and Society From Pre-Columbian Elites to Colonial Administrators The Cabildo and its Leaders The Secular-Sacred Hierarchy The Cofradía Hereditary and Earned Leadership Positions Zapotec Households A Celebration in the Queche Conclusion Chapter 3: 90 Guelaguetza, a Zapotec Code of Conduct The Pre-Columbian Foundations of Guelaguetza Zapotec Traditions under Colonial Rule Cargos and Tequio The Practical and Social Functions of Guelaguetza Chapter 4: 119 The Queche of Tlacolula vs. don Domingo de Mendoza Don Domingo’s Cacicazgo within the Marquesado del Valle Don Domingo de Mendoza, Cacique y Gobernador de Tlacolula Común y República de Tlacolula The Case Against don Domingo Conclusion: The Cacique's Punishment vi Chapter 5: 152 The Enduring Legacy of Guelaguetza Twentieth Century Transformations Transnational Zapotec Expressions of Collaboration and Exchange Bibliography 161 vii Acknowledgements This dissertation is the result of a wonderful network of comradery, family and friendship. I am deeply grateful to my academic advisors and the institutions in Mexico as well as in the United States that opened their doors to me. I am eternally thankful to my friends and family who provided unconditional love and emotional support throughout this process. I would like to thank my advisor Kevin Terraciano for always supporting and inspiring my work. As an undergraduate student at UCLA, I took my first course on colonial Mexican history with Kevin—the first time I had ever heard Oaxaca mentioned in an academic environment. His teaching and mentorship provided the initial spark that fueled my desire to study the history of my ancestors. I am also greatly indebted to my dissertation committee Pam Munro, Teo Ruiz, William Summerhill, and John M. D. Pohl for their generosity and dedication in guiding me in this project. Their scholarship has truly served as a model for my dissertation and an endless source of personal and professional inspiration. At UCLA I was surrounded by scholars in various fields who provided conversation, instigated laughter and whose work served as further models for my research—Robin Derby and Andrew Apter, Cecelia Klein, Charlene Villaseñor, José Moya, Carlo Ginzburg, the late John Skirius and the late Teshome Gabriel. Their areas of expertise allowed me to open new lines of inquiry in my work. Throughout this process, I have formed meaningful friendships with colleagues, including Aaron Olivas and Luis Muñoz, Luis Sanchez-López, Elizabeth Gonzalez, Daina Sanchez, Sabine Schlosser and Rebecca Zamora. Their willingness to collaborate and exchange ideas, laughter, archival documents and travel is priceless. Certainly, graduate school viii would have been less exciting without the company of Luis Antonio Domínguez Ramírez, who always had a scientific response to my historical questions. In Oaxaca and Mexico, colleagues and paisanos also provided me with multiple forms of support. María de los Ángeles Romero-Frizzi spoke to me about Central Valley documents in the Archivo General de las Indias in Seville early on. Her suggestions lessened the daunting task of figuring out where to begin. Michel Oudijk and Bas van Doesburg who I met with at UNAM and the Biblioteca de Investigación Juan de Córdova were incredibly generous and supportive during my many visits. I owe several academic guelaguetza debts to my paisanos, Zeferino Mendoza and family in Teotitlán del Valle, the autoridades of San Lucas Quiaviní, Ignacio Santiago and family in San Felipe Güilá and the autoridades of San Bartolomé Quialana, Victor Cata and Natalia Toledo in Juchitán. This dissertation would not have been possible without the mighty “Zapotexts,” an inter- disciplinary research team of linguists and historians dedicated to the study of colonial Zapotec documents, where I have felt at home since 1999. The experience I gained from working closely with such academic superstars is truly priceless. The Zapotexts are not only colleagues, but also mentors and dear friends. I would like to thank them for allowing me to incorporate our collective findings in my work. I will always be thankful to Aaron Broadwell, Michael Galant, Brook Lillehaugen María Ornelas, Pam Munro, Aaron Sonnenschein, Diana Schwartz, Lisa Sousa, Kevin Terraciano and the people who attended the weekly meetings over the course of many years. The Zapotexts scholarship has profoundly changed my scholarship. X’tiosu! I am grateful for the numerous grants that made my research possible. The UCLA Department of History Cota Robles Fellowship and the UC Mexus-CONACYT Grant sponsored my research in Seville and Mexico. The Latin American Institute at UCLA and the Center for the ix Study of Women at UCLA sponsored research travel to Oaxaca and for conference presentations. The UCLA Graduate Division Summer Research Grant was instrumental in providing the financial resources for summer archival research trips to Mexico City and Oaxaca. The Mellon Institute Program for Spanish Paleography summer program at the Huntington Library provided much needed practice and training for reading my colonial documents. The Foreign Language Area Studies at UCLA’s Latin American Center grant allowed me to study Portuguese colonialism and to become fluent in Portuguese. And last but not least, as a guest researcher at the Getty Research Institute’s Scholars Program in the summers of 2014 and 2015, I was encouraged to polish a finished draft of this dissertation. I offer my most sincere gratitude to all the individuals at these institutions who made these experiences possible. As a member of the Zapotec community, I am indebted to my pueblo Tlacolula de Matamoros, Oaxaca and the people there who insisted that I finish this dissertation so that we could finally have a source to know our own history. I would like to thank and acknowledge my late grandparents: my paternal grandparents who were forced to disguise their indigenous roots and become mestizos, Ysidro Flores Cruz and Celestina Rios Manzano; and my maternal grandparents Petrona Garcia Quiñones and Andres Marcial Vásquez, Zapotecs who were physically punished by government and church officials