THE LIBRARY OF IBERIAN RESOURCES ONLINE

GUATEMALA VILLAGES OF THE 16TH CENTURY

Dan Stanislawski

Products of dramatic commercial value have been studied by many authors and information regarding them made available; but the ordinary things of living have not received the same attention. That gap can be partially filled for mid-sixteenth century Central America by the tribute lists made under the so-called Cerrato reforms. The record that throws light on the general condition of such affairs is found in the bundle of papers listed in the Archive of the Indies as legajo #128. It is a fairly thorough account of the things that the natives produced and, because it had become evident by the mid-sixteenth century that most Spaniards were not going to profit greatly from the "precious" things in Central America, but could be compensated by payments of the products of agriculture and native handicrafts, these things make up the bulk of the items on the lists.

Throughout central America several items had been considered as fundamental tributes to be paid by Indians to the native overlords. These were mostly taken over in the same form by the Spanish conquerors, both to support their ménages and, if possible, to yield cash, e.g. cacao, mantas, or another marketable product (Jose Miranda, 1952, pp. 35, 93; Chamberlain 1947, p. 642 ). The most important items were maize, beans, cotton (although in some areas the product was not mentioned, only the textiles made from it), mantas of woven cotton, chickens, honey, beeswax, and services. Also, but not as comprehensively paid for obvious reasons, were salt, fish, reed or rush mats (petates ), chili peppers, and pottery. In some provinces eggs, sandals, plum wine, and vinegar were part of the list.

Native Tributes, Pre-Hispanic

Orellana refers to the fact that the Quichés, in the earliest period of their residence in Guatemala, continued to pay tribute to their ancestral lords of Tula, in Mexico ('84, p. 63).

Later documents indicate that Indians paid their native lords common services such as planting the fields, and personal services in their lords' dwellings. Also they made material contributions such as cotton textiles, cacao, and honey (op. cit. pp. 64-66; and see Carmack, '79, pp. 30, 81-82).

But there were differences. Charles Gibson pointed out that the precious stones and precious metals, with which both Cortés and Bernal Díaz began their lists, received less attention in later reports. Cervantes de Salazar, about 1550, observed that Motolinía's list no longer applied with respect to the objects of gold, silver, feathers, and precious stones (Gibson, p.353).

The fact may be indicated by the difference in tributes paid to the "Aztec" empire by Soconusco (Xoconochco) at the time of the Spanish conquest and those paid in 1549 by its neighboring area (in Guatemala). At the time of the conquest Soconusco paid its native conquerors a considerable list of luxury items including ocelot skins, elaborated drinking cups made of gourds, gold and amber, highly valued jadeite beads (Chalchihuitles), 8,000 bunches of feathers including quetzal, green, blue, red, and yellow ones, bird skins as well as cacao (Borah and Cook, 1963, pp. 142-43). Whereas, in 1549 the neighboring area paid Guatemala's most important encomendero , Francisco de la Cueva, tribute of various standard food items, mantas , and a relatively modest amount of cacao. The only extraordinary items were thirty two bedspreads, and twenty eight decorative cloths (paramentos).

A half dozen years after the date of the "Cerrato" tribute list, one of the judges (oidores) of the high administrative court (the Audiencia ), Alonso de Zorita, suggested that a fair tribute would be six reales for a married man and three for widows and single men. (p. 252). Cook and Borah (1971, p. 330) write that by the mid 1570s tributes (in Nueva Galicia) had been standardized so that virtually all tributaries paid six reales in silver, plus one hundred pounds of maize, and one chicken per year. Such standardization was certainly not the case in the tribute reports regarding the isthmian provinces of Central America in the mid-sixteenth century.

Another practice—for which Spaniards later were criticized—was that of sending people from one climatic zone to another to work for their masters; but it, too, was part of native custom (op. cit. p. 78). Lovell ('85, pp. 52-53) refers to the tribute demanded by the Quiché from other native peoples after military conquests. Fowler ('89, pp. 191, 269) relates that the evidence for the tributary base of the Cuzcatlan state (i.e. the Pipil state: essentially present El Salvador, west of the Lempa River) is clear.

To make sure that the tributes were forthcoming, the native lords appointed official collectors. The Spaniards found it convenient to continue that practice with themselves as beneficiaries of most of the same tributes that had been paid previously (Orellana, '84, pp. 138, 167, 223-24). But there was a difference: tributes paid by natives to other natives in pre-Columbian society had been adjusted through the generations so that a balance had been recognized between the needs of the tributaries and the surplus that they could pay to their overlords. Spanish conquerors in many cases superimposed their demands upon those that had been previously made. Often the result was an unconscionable burden on the natives.

A report by the Indian leaders of the town of Atitlan in 1571 stated:

"We submitted to Pedro de Alvarado.............This pueblo gave men and women—400 to 500--to work as servants or in mines. Also they paid mantas, cacao, honey, chickens, salt, chili, copper, pita, and many other things...............Many were badly treated-------many died.............until came Licenciado Zarrato (Cerrato) who moderated the tributes...............he cancelled slavery". (Report on Atitlan. RAH Munoz coll. sol. 42, f 115-118).

Regional variation in Tributes

Differences in the matter of payments among the provinces were an outcome not only of variances in the native schedule of tributes which were taken over by the Spanish, but because of differences among the Spanish conquerors. Pedrarias and his men in Nicaragua, for example, created a desolation greater than that in any other province except perhaps Honduras. Because of that, there was a comparative paucity of tributes paid.

A quite different attitude from that of the Pedrarians was shown by the Montejos and the Franciscans in Yucatan. Payments there were simple, and perhaps in the context, reasonable.

The organization of San Salvador was an inheritance from the Mexican traders and settlers who, through many centuries, had brought an efficient organization to that part of Central America.

Differences between San Salvador and San Miguel—the area east of the Lempa River—were largely a result of physical differences in geology and soils, but especially in climate: east of the Lempa unpredictable droughts occur. For that reason agricultural production is at hazard. The region was not considered desirable by the Mexican immigrants (the so-called Pipiles) and remained under the control of the less sophisticated Lenca. The fact that the Lenca used poisoned spears and arrows may have contributed to their ability to cling to the territory.

Santiago province was a tangled product of the disparities of choice and control by the various Mayoid groups who inhabited the highlands and extended their influence into the lowlands. The fact of the "untimely" death of Pedro de Alvarado undoubtedly reduced the potential exploitation of those natives. That sanguine and sanguinary man might well have established a greatly different—and more extortionate—tribute list from the one put into effect by the Crown and the Church.

Of the nine provinces included in the tribute list, little need be said regarding Tabasco. Of its ten towns, five were under the Crown and two were under Francisco de Montejo, who received half of the tribute of another. Of this latter town, two encomenderos shared the half not paid to Montejo. Two other encomenderos held one town each. For two of the largest towns, Champoton and Xicalango, the number of tributaries is not shown. For the other eight towns a total of 1020 tributaries are listed. Aside from those of the Crown and Montejo, 325 tributaries were held by four encomenderos, who had plots of maize planted for them, received some Indian service, fowl (European or indigenous), chili, beans, a little pottery, and, most important, 180 xiquipiles of cacao.

In the matter of payments, the two other provinces of Yucatan, Merida and Campeche, were obviously similar to each other in organization and quite different from the other seven provinces of the tribute list. Beeswax was paid to encomenderos in greater quantities and chickens in greater numbers than anywhere else except for San Salvador; but aside from these two items, tributes were modest and the list is short.

The two provinces of Nicaragua, Leon and Granada can also be considered together because the tributes are generally comparable, and they differ considerably from the others. Leon encomenderos were paid at the highest rates in maize and beans planted, and those of Granada at a rate only somewhat less. The crops of those plantings produced a surplus which could be shipped out to the impoverished Caribbean lands. Salt was paid at the highest rate. Servants were supplied at as high a number in comparison with the tributary population as was the case in any other province.

The tributes paid in Comayagua, the only part of Honduras listed in the document, suggest a forlorn place. The history of abuse in Honduras by slavery for mining gangs and for shipment to the West Indies would make it surprising if it were otherwise ( See Chamberlain, 1953, pps. 36, 53, 60, 64, 120; also Sherman. 1979, pp. 29, 42, 43). A small compensation was made to its encomenderos for the meagreness of resources by the number of servants allotted. Herders were supplied in sufficient numbers to suggest that livestock may have become a compensation for deficient agriculture.

San Miguel, the part of present El Salvador east of the Lempa River, was, in the light of the tribute payments, a poor relation of San Salvador (as it certainly is today). Without distinction in anything, it trailed behind its more prosperous neighbor.

San Salvador stood out as a peak of efficiency in exploitation of its resources: soils and Indians. While maize and beans were not planted in the averages per tributary that they were in Nicaragua, the amounts were high in comparison with all other provinces, and in the length of the list of payments received by its encomenderos it was salient. Cotton harvests must have offered a large surplus for sale as nearly 26,000 lbs. of seed were planted. At a yield of twelve and one half lbs. of lint per pound of seed, the harvest would have been 325,000 lbs.; but as toldillos required about three and a half lbs. each, the total of 15,139 paid to encomenderos would have required about 53,000 lbs., leaving more than three times that amount for sale. This was true despite the fact that payment of woven materials (calculating the toldillo as being two thirds the value of a manta) was the highest of the provinces. The payments of chickens was as high as that of any other province and higher than most; and the payment of a long list of items: honey, herders, fish, chili, eggs, alpargatas, cutaras , wheat, wine, vinegar, was the highest of the provinces. Perhaps the Spanish authorities allowed such consideration to the San Salvadorans partly because Los Izalcos , then a cacao area (now in the southwest of El Salvador) had been assigned to the encomenderos of Santiago.

In amounts of payments payments received by its encomenderos, Santiago was either at the bottom of the list of provinces or near it, except for three items: cacao, salt, and servants. Only one quarter of the Santiago towns paid "unusual tributes" whereas two thirds of the towns of San Salvador did.

was a form of cash so attractive to the Santiago men that they not only demanded it as tribute (paid to five sixths of them) but also exchanged their servants for additional cacao or other forms of cash (silver or gold coin, or mantas).

In Santiago Province all encomenderos received cash in some form (coin, mantas or cacao), mostly by exchanging servants. Over three quarters of those making exchanges received coin (silver tostones or gold pesos ). Others were paid in other forms of cash: ten received mantas , nine received cacao. Four exchanged grain to be planted for some form of cash (Goncalo Najara, Ovalle, Paez, and Paredes). Five exchanged one form of cash for another (Arias, Cristobal Lobo, Lope Lobo, Lopez de Villanueva, and Mendez de Sotomayor).

Five encomenderos exchanged servants for grain to be planted (Aragon, Diaz de la Reguera, Francisco Lopez, Morales, and Cristobal Salvatierra). Lopez de Villanueva exchanged two servants for 200 feathers.

Encomendero Exchanges