UCLA

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Nahuatl-Language Petitions and Letters from Northwestern New Spain, 1580-1694

by

Ricardo Medina Garc�a

Doctor of Philosophy in History

University of California, Los Angeles, 2016

Professor Kevin B. Terraciano, Chair

The dissertation investigates relationships in colonial Northwestern Mexico between literate Indigenous leaders and Spanish officials of the Diocese of Guadalajara, the Real Audiencia of Nueva Galicia, and the Franciscan Order. The study is based primarily on the transcription, translation, and analysis of dozens of Nahuatl-language texts, written in the Roman alphabet during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Indigenous notaries on behalf of Indigenous leaders. The authors of these Nahuatl-language texts, mainly petitions and letters, belonged to at least four Indigenous groups: Cocas, Coras, the Mexicas, and the Cazcanes. The records represent more than thirty different towns within northwestern New Spain, a region located approximately within a one-hundred mile radius from the city of Guadalajara.

The dissertation examines how and why the Nahuatl-language documents were created. Indigenous notaries who wrote the petitions, letters, and other records responded to the visita, a colonial practice in which church officials based in Guadalajara traveled to rural provinces to consult with Indigenous leaders about the performance of local clerics or colonial officials. Subsequently, notaries in the visited communities drafted petitions or letters that formally stated their grievances in writing and then sent the documents to church officials. The petitions, in particular, were structured texts consisting of three main parts. The first introduced the petitioners to the addressed subject by his title, usually not his name, and with reverential, if not deferential, phrases that combined elements of polite Indigenous discourse with colonial conventions of obeisance before authorities. The main section presented the grievance itself, employing specific language that recalled conversations and speeches with colonial officials. The final part, the conclusion, listed the Christian names of the petitioners, noted the Christian date of the document, and referred to the acts of writing and signing the text. The writers of these Nahuatl-language texts exhibited a strong awareness of their mediating roles in the colonial exchange between Indigenous communities and colonial institutions in Northwestern New Spain.

The dissertation also examines the Nahuatl language of the texts. Each notary wrote a distinct variant of Nahuatl. Whereas many secular officials and priests promoted the teaching and use of Central Mexican Nahuatl throughout New Spain, local Indigenous notaries in the area where the petitions were written favored Sayulteco or another western Nahuatl variant. The native-language texts thus record how various Indigenous groups around Guadalajara sought to protect and advance their interests, during a period of great transformation, by communicating with urban colonial officials in one or another variant of Nahuatl. Thus this dissertation also contributes to the study of Nahuatl as it was written in the colonial period outside of central Mexico, including texts produced by groups who spoke other native languages.