«List of Places and Villages Where to Extract Cochineal in the City of Cholula» (Mexico, 1600). Scope and Content

Abstract

Asturias has traditionally been an emigrant region and America one of the most preferred destinations for the many of Asturian emigrants since Modern Age. As a result of this migrations, Asturian family (o noble) archives keep some documents which make explicit reference to the American territory or/and to the stay of Asturian citizens in America. The purpose of this contribution is to make known an «American» document about an American territory called the city of Cholula (Mexico), and that is kept decontextualized in a noble collection in the west of Asturias. It makes a quantitative and qualitative description of the number of nopales and its cultivation in Cholula in the 16th century. At the same time, an analysis of the nature of the document is carried out as an historical source of information, in parallel that is linked to the documentary fund where is guarded, as it is shown contemporary works.