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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 6 



catas, a hospital, the plaza mayor, and the four 

 main east-west streets which exist today. Tzin- 

 tzuntzan is clearly a town of considerable size; 

 Patzcuaro is shown only by a church. In the 

 lower left-hand corner Don Vasco is shown leav- 

 ing, carrying with him the organ and church 

 bell. 



Seler's map (Seler, 1908, vol. 3, pi. 3, p. 66) 

 is essentially the same, and also shows the 

 departure of Don Vasco with the organ, and the 

 convent and church. With respect to the hos- 

 pital, which is shown at the lower side of the 

 churchyard, and the unmarked chapel of La 

 Concepcion shown by three arches immediately 

 to the right, it is more accurate than Beaumont's 

 map. Both maps clearly indicate that at this 

 time Tzintzuntzan was the important city of the 

 entire region. 



Tzintzuntzan continued as the center of Fran- 

 ciscan efforts in Michoacan. The Relacion de 

 los Obispados de TIaxcala, Michoacan, Oaxaca 

 y otros lugares, 1565, relates that there was 

 the Franciscan convent with at least two or three 

 friars, and often more, and lists nine barrios 

 that depended on the cabecera (Relacion de los 

 Obispados, etc., 1904, p. 33). Alonso Ponce, 

 at the time general commissioner for the Fran- 

 ciscans in Mexico, visited Tzuntzuntzan in 1586. 

 He reports that the convent, of stone and mortar 

 construction, was completed, and in it lived two 

 friars. Fishing was done from canoes with both 

 hooks and nets, and small dried fish were taken 

 as far as Mexico City for sale. The list of 

 European fruits found in the Patzcuaro area 

 (figs, apples, peaches, grapes, quinces, oranges, 

 pomegranates, citrons, lemons, limes, and wal- 

 nuts) indicates to what extent agriculture had 

 been influenced. Wheat had become such a basic 

 crop that several mills existed in the area (Pon- 

 ce, 1873, vol. 1, p. 538). 



The inhabitants of Tzintzuntzan never ceased 

 to smart under the humiliation of having been 

 robbed of their royal prerogative, and com- 

 plained of suffering injustices at the hands of 

 the authorities in Patzcuaro. In 1593, after 

 years of litigation and testimonials, King Philip 

 of Spain in a royal edict bestowed upon the 

 town the new title of City of Tzintzuntzan with 

 the right to be self-governing and free from 

 Patzcuaro (Beaumont, 1932, vol. 2, pp. 385- 

 386). 



In early documents Tzintzuntzan is often cal- 

 led both Huitzitzila (or Vitzitzila) and Ciudad 

 de Michoacan. Tzintzuntzan is an onomatopoet- 

 ic Tarascan word meaning "place of the hum- 

 ming bird." Huitzitzila is the Aztec equivalent. 

 And since in the beginning it was the chief city 

 of the province of Michoacan, it was also called 

 Ciudad de Michoacan. This has caused great 

 confusion because first Patzcuaro and later Mo- 

 relia, as the chief cities of the province, were 

 also called City of Michoacan. Properly speak- 

 ing, Tzintzuntzan could claim this title only be- 

 tween 1528 and 1540. In the former year the 

 city of Huitzitzila was recognized in an edict 

 as the cabecera or head of the province, a status 

 which lasted until Don Vasco changed the seat 

 of his bishopric to Patzcuaro in the latter 

 year. 



During the 16th and 17th centuries Tzintzun- 

 tzan was apparently important as a religious 

 center, and many of the outstanding Francis- 

 cans of this period were trained in its convent. 

 The convent functioned continuously until 1780 

 (Romero, 1862, p. 80). Rea, 1639, remarks 

 that Tzintzuntzan had nearly 200 vecinos. i.e., 

 heads of families, indicating that the village 

 had shrunk to about its present size or a little 

 less (Rea, 1882, p. 8.). By 1748 the pro- 

 cess of mestization had gone a long way. Villa- 

 senor reports that there were 45 families of 

 Spaniards, 52 of Mestizos and Mulattoes, and 

 150 of Indians. The town had a governor and 

 alcaldes to rule, and forming part of the par- 

 ticlo, or political unit of which it was the head, 

 were the towns of Ihuatzio (60 families, ap- 

 parently Indian) and Cucuchucho (18 famil- 

 ies), both of which were visitas of the clergy 

 from Tzintzuntzan; and Cucupao (Quiroga, 30 

 Spanish, 60 Mulatto and Mestizo, and 60 Indian 

 families), Santa Fe (120 Indian families), and 

 San Jeronimo Purenchecuaro (35 Indian famil- 

 ies), all with churches and clergy. In the same 

 source we learn that the towns around Lake 

 Patzcuaro, in the sierra to the west, and in La 

 Canada — precisely those areas which today 

 are still basically Indian — had only Indian 

 populations, with rare mention of a few Spanish 

 families. Those towns surrounding this area, 

 which had formerly been Tarascan, are report- 

 ed to have had large numbers of Spanish, Mu- 



