PEOPLE OF THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE COLONIES IN AMERICAJean Lowry

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ANTONIO DE GOUVEIA Antonio De Gouveia was an Azorean

priest of obscure origins A deceptively charming man who could

endear himself to people in high places He knew astrology and alchemy, read

fortunes, fore-told happenings, practiced medicine with the sometime success of the amateur, and believed that he had the key to invisibility

The reputation that Gouveia enjoys as a Renaissance adventurer and rascal goes back very far

Born in 1528 to a family of Old Christians in Terceira, Gouveia went to Lisbon at about twenty years of age

Within two years he was made a sub-deacon and a deacon and then ordained to the holy priesthood in the chapel of Saint Anne

The Lisbon of his generation had already become the “eight marvel” of the world

Built on the north bank of the most beautiful river in Europe

ANTONIO DE GOUVEIA…CONT’D It was apparently on the return voyage

from Italy to Portugal that he was shipwrecked near Barcelona

Having lost his belongings in the disaster, he turned to medicine as a means of earning his passage home, though this too was a forbidden profession for priests under the law of the church

Gouveia’s first encounter with Inquisition was in Valladolid during this journey across Spain

He was accused of superstition, making a pact with the Devil, and practicing the proscribed art of medicine

He supposedly had power that made people lose their heads, and once made himself invisible long enough to steal delicacies with impunity from the table of a Castilian gentleman

Gouveia became popularly known in Bahia and Pernambuco as the Gold Priest, because of his knowledge of mining

CATARINA DE MONTE SINAY One August morning in 1758, Catarina

de Monte Sinay, enfeebled by old age and illness, called for the convent’s scribe to dictate her last will and testament

On a clear bright day in 1696, the young novice, Catarina de Telles Barretto, stood at the portals of the Desterro Convent of Bahia in Brazil, about to become Madre Catarina de Monte Sinay

Catarina vowed to God, the Virgin, Saint Francis, and Saint Clare that she would forever honor her sacred promise to live in poverty, chastity, and obedience

She symbolically dedicated her life to being a “bride of Christ”

For six years she had lived in the convent as a pupil and secular ward of the nuns

Bahia had maintained her position as the world’s leading sugar producer

Bahia had thus become the linchpin in a tricontinental trade between Europe and Africa

CATARINA DE MONTE SINAY…CONT’D Fabrics, furniture, tools, manufacture, and

foodstuffs were imported Bahia from Lisbon

Catarina’s childhood coincided with the beginnings of Bahia’s depression

Catarina considered herself a devout person and always tried to follow the Lord’s teachings

Her faith imbued her life with meaning that was both intensely personal and broadly universal

A Madre named Victoria had first refused to obey her father, and it was rumored that the Lord had visited her in a dream

Still resisting it was only after she had a vision of her terrifying descent to hell, that she was convinced that life in the Desterro was the road to her salvation

Catarina found her example awesome and inspiring, although she regretted that she could never attain the same humility

Catarina was reminded of her own shortcomings as a nun; she had often failed to live up to her creed, but all the same she was deeply committed to and content with convent life

DIEGO VASICUIO Diego Vasicuio was a quiet, cautious man;

and he managed to survive to an advanced age by avoiding direct contact with the Spanish imperial system whenever possible, confronting it only when necessary

His neighbor had denounced him to their parish priest as the leader of a group of Indians who persisted in the worship of the old god Sorimana

From the beginning of the colonial period, the Spanish attempted to convert the Indians of Peru into sincere, observant Catholics had been thwarted by tenacious survival of indigenous religious beliefs and practices that the priests loosely termed “idolatry”

Diego’s parents and grandparents had entrusted him with the stone image of the god Sorimana, and they had taught him to recite the proper prayers and perform the specific ceremonies of his cult

Diego had protected Sorimana during one such Visita by simply hiding the idol for the duration of the inspector’s stay

Performing a Ritual and Ceremony

DIEGO VASICUIO…CONT’D Diego was over ninety years old when he

appeared before Father de Prado to answer the charges of Heresy

For most of his adult life, Diego Vasicuio had been the chief priest and custodian of the god Sorimana, and an enthusiastic promoter of his cult

Diego’s reluctance to hand over the stone was undoubtedly a piece of artful dissimulation

The most common punishment in heresy cases was to denounce the convicted idolaters in public, and then to have them whipped by the parish priests or paraded through town carrying a cross or some other visible sign of their repentance

Diego and his friends knew this and behaved accordingly

They confessed that they were worshiping a false god and asked the true God’s help so that they might “sin no more”

Having once again adjusted and maneuvered to endure within the colonial system, Diego Vasicuio survived

ISABEL MOCTEZUMA In 1502 the Aztecs of Central Mexico

observed the death of the Emperor Ahuitzol

The late emperor’s nephew Xocoyotzin prevailed over serveral of his brothers and cousins, and in 1503 at the age of perhaps 35 he assumed power as Moctezuma

At the new ruler’s side was his legitimate wife , Teotalco

By 1520 the Aztec emperor and his family had unwillingly fallen captive in his capital of Tenochtitlan to a small force of Spaniards and Indians allies led by conqueror Fernando Cortes

Before his death, Moctezuma had asked Cortes to assume custody and care of his legitimate and serveral illegitimate daughters.They included Tecuichpotzin, later known to the Spaniards as Dona Isabel

For Isabel life continued for three decades, during which she figured as the most prominent Indian woman in colonial Mexico and as a pioneer of Mestizaje

On June 26,1526, Cortes granted Isabel and her descendants the revenues and income from the important town of Tacuba

ISABEL MOCTEZUMA…CONT’D As the wife of a prominent

conquistador, Dona Isabel would become a model of Hispanicized Indian Womanhood whom Cortes expected others to emulate

Choice fell on one Pedro Gallego de Andrade who arrived in Mexico shortly after the conquest was completed in 1521

In 1530 Dona Isabel bore Pedro Gallego a son named Juan de Andrade Moctezuma

Within two months Gallego was dead, and Isabel had been widowed for a fourth time

Life with her Fifth husband Juan Cano de Saavedra provided the first years of tranquility since early adolescence

It is apparent from Isabel’s will that she still held hope that the spanish crown would restore her patrimony as heir to Moctezuma II’s vast lands and that this expanded inheritance might also be divided equally among her six legitimate children

MIGUEL HERNANDEZ Miguel Hernandez was a free mulatto who

lived a good, full life in sixteenth-century Mexico

He married, raised a family, and lived to see his children find their own place in the world

Miguel Hernandez is an important man to know, he created a rich and rewarding life for himself while facing difficult circumstances

He was neither a spirited rebel nor an adventurer; he was simply a diligent and persistent man who gradually expanded the horizons of his own world

Miguel was born in Mexico City in the middle of the sixteenth century

He did some work as a muleteer, became more familiar with the complexities of trade, and developed personal and financial associations with people of wealth

Miguel chose the town of Queretaro as his new home

When he arrived in Queretaro, he automatically joined a special group

Since he was free, literate, and skilled as a muleteer, he became one of the leading mulatto citizens

MIGUEL HERNANDEZ…CONT’D Miguel Hernandez carefully sidestepped

many of the traps that ensnared other mulattoes and blacks in this society

He became a Spaniard in his economic activities, and much of the rest of his life personified the opposite of the nasty stereotypes that Spaniards had for mixed-bloods

Miguel began building his own freighting business

Miguel earned most of his income from hauling wool to the southern markets of Mexico City, Texcoco, and Tlaxcala

Miguel used his new wealth to buy a black slave, by doing so he joined a fairly exclusive group dominated by Europeans

He also claimed Spaniards as friends He spoke their language, wore their clothes,

followed their laws, and succeeded in their business

Miguel Hernandez died suddenly in 1604, leaving his wife and children as survivors

Miguel named his children as heirs, each to share equally in his wealth

MICAELA ANGELA CARRILLO Micaela Angela Carrillo lived all her life

in Nuestra Senora de Asuncion Amozoque (present day Amozoc), a predominantly Indian village about seventeen kilometers east of the large and wealthy Spanish city of Puebla de los Angeles

Micaela began her life as the daughter of a Spaniard named Diego Carrillo, and of the Indian daughter of a cacique of Amozoque, Maria Gutierrez

Micaela married a cacique, Juan Tapia y Luna, and thereby strengthened her ties to the hereditary nobility of the town

She lived by renting maguey plants on other people’s land

When the plant was ready to flower, she would go and tap the plant, extracting the aguamiel, or sweet tasting sap, which she fermented in a vat of cowhide to make an intoxicating beverage called pulque

It was through the production of this native wine that she supported herself, raised her children, and acquired a few material possessions

MICAELA ANGELA CARRILLO…CONT’D Pulque was one of the most

profitable industries in New Spain Micaela could rely on a steady

income During the 1705s, when she dictated

her first will, Micaela belonged to four cofradias, or catholic lay sodalities

As early as 1751, she had begun to distribute her property among her children

At some point after 1756, Micaela and her youngest daughter, Maria Antonia, moved to another house site, which was located on lands at the edge of town

The death of Micaela and the settlement of the family properties provoked a lawsuit and exacerbated a long-standing antagonism between two of her children

SOURCE

Sweet, David G. ., and Gary B. Nash. Struggle and Survival in Colonial America. Berkeley (Calif.): University of California, 1981. Print.