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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 6 



west, as yet unmarred by the adobe covering. 

 Mass was said while people knelt or stood in the 

 open. 



Subsequent to the drawing of these maps, 

 in the second half of the 16th century, the con- 

 vent was enlarged, probably to its maximum 

 size. It contains a lovely two-story patio sur- 

 rounded by stone arches, and the walls are 

 covered with paintings, the newest of which are 

 over 100 years old. These were covered with 

 whitewash at some unknown date, and only 

 in 1945 when the work of reconstruction of the 

 convent and burned church was begun were the 

 pictures uncovered. Some show Biblical scenes 

 and others the early folklore and history of Tzin- 

 tzuntzan. To the north of the parish church 

 stands the adobe facade of the now-ruined cha- 

 pel which belonged to the Third Order of San 

 Francisco, presumably built at a time when this 

 organization flourished under the close supervi- 

 sion of the early friars. The last major con- 

 struction was that of the chapel of La Soledad, 

 finished in 1631 by Father Leso, whose tomb 

 today is visible within the building. This struc- 

 ture, parallel to La Concepcion, from which it 

 is separated by a small, closed patio, faces south 

 on the atrium. Although referred to as a templo 

 in speech, and in size comparable to most rural 

 Mexican churches, in reality it must be consid- 

 ered as a chapel belonging, not to the archbish- 

 opric, but to the community itself, by whom 

 it is tended and administered. 



By the time of the construction of La Soledad, 

 Tzintzuntzan had been a Catholic town for over 

 100 years, and we can imagine that the olive 

 trees in the atrium, reputedly the oldest in the 

 New World, were already beginning to gnarl, 

 and that the lovely cedars were trees of consider- 

 able size. The chance to become a great relig- 

 ious center had been lost when the home of the 

 cathedral was moved to Patzcuaro in 1540, but 

 for many years the convent continued to be the 

 chief center of Franciscan activities and in- 

 struction in Michoacan so that the Indians, to a 

 much greater extent than in most Mexican towns, 

 were continually exposed to a strong religious 

 influence. The system of hospitals established 

 by Don Vasco de Quiroga was also undoubtedly 

 a potent factor in the stamping out of pagan 

 beliefs and the establishment of dominance of 

 Catholic thought. 



Today the properties used for religious pur- 

 poses include the large atrium, the chapels of 

 San Francisco and La Concepcion, the shell of 

 the parish church, and the small chapel of Gua- 

 dalupe in Ojo de Agua. Behind the olive trees, 

 backing on the high stone wall which surrounds 

 the atrium, are 12 tiny capiUitas or shrines, 

 stone structures about 3 m. high with a tiny 

 niche which can be filled with flowers and can- 

 dles. These, plus the facades of the burned-out 

 parish church and the chapel of San Francisco, 

 constitute the Fourteen Stations at which prayers 

 are offered in the processions of the Via Crucis. 

 Ten are named after, and symbolize, the original 

 barrios of the village, even though in the minds 

 of most persons the precise identifications have 

 been forgotten. The other two are named after 

 the Holy Trinity and La Soledad church. 



Formerly the atrium was also the cemetery, 

 and a number of old tombs are still visible. 

 About 1930 the community bought a piece of 

 land to the southeast for a new and larger pan- 

 teon. Unfortunately, the march of progress in- 

 terfered with the complete execution of the plan: 

 the best alinement of the new highway meant 

 cutting directly across the new cemetery from 

 one corner to another, leaving today two trian- 

 gular plots divided by a strip of asphalt. 



Father Tovar guards in the old convent the 

 remnants of the once extensive archives. Inspec- 

 tion of these books revealed little significant data 

 on the history of the town. The oldest book, that 

 of marriages, begins with the year 1709. All 

 acts are signed by friars, showing that at the 

 time the lay clergy had not yet replaced the 

 Franciscan. Records of deaths begin with the 

 year 1781, and of baptisms with the year 1788. 

 Addresses of all individuals are given by barrios 

 during the 17th century, either San Bartolo, San 

 Paulo, or La Magdalena. Apparently the other 

 original barrios already had become nonfunc- 

 tional. These three barrios, it is interesting to 

 note, are most often mentioned today in connec- 

 tion with religious ceremonies, and especially 

 in the naming of certain cargueros. 



THE CHURCHBELLS 



An important part of the church property are 

 the seven bells. The three most important, those 

 of the burned parish church, are suspended from 

 an iron pipe between two huge cedars in the 



