Political Autonomy, Factionalism, and Economic Survival: Indigenous Governance in Huaquechula, New Spain (1535-1735)

Abstract

After the conquest of Mexico, the Spanish Crown was faced with several challenges. The first was to balance the economic imperative to exploit its indigenous subjects with the moral obligation to protect them. The second was how to govern them. The creation of two republics –one Spanish, one Indian, both subordinate to the Crown– gave indigenous peoples the limited right to govern themselves, which could result in factional conflict as they struggled to survive, not only politically, but economically. Based on archival documents, this article illustrates this relationship by way of an in-depth examination of two examples –one from the late 1500s, the other from the early 1700s– from Huaquechula, located in the fertile Valley of Atlixco, Mexico. This article demonstrates that the participation of indigenous peoples in New Spain’s politico-legal system contributed to the colony’s social transformation.