qtjiroga: a Mexican Mxnsricipio — brand 



21 



gold and silver to the east, the silver of Guanajuato 

 to the north, and the silver and gold of Tamazula 

 to the west), the great Malpais de Michoacan 

 within which the Pdtzcuaro Basin was situated 

 had no important deposits of the precious metals or 

 of copper. Mining reales, the mita (a Peruvian 

 term for encomienda of laborers for the mines) 

 labor system, mining haciendas, and all the other 

 manifestations of a rich mineralized zone were 

 lacking in our Quiroga area. It was inland and 

 divided between the temperate and cold climatic 

 zones, so such items as a very negroid population, 

 seaports, and a plantation economy based on 

 tropical crops were lacking. The Indians had 

 been pacified and completely sedentary since the 

 1530's, so there were no presidios, fortified churches 

 and haciendas, and a paucity of small isolated settle- 

 ments, such as obtained from Hidalgo to Sonora. 

 Also, the Patzcuaro Basin, with the exception of 

 the city of Pdtzcuaro itself, was Franciscan until 

 the 1770's, although the Jesuits worked briefly 

 in the fierra caliente of Michoacdn, and the 

 Augustinians dominated the region in a zone com- 

 pletely surrounding the Patzcuaro Basin. The 

 respective contributions of the Franciscans and 

 Augustinians to architecture, settlement pattern, 

 occupations and forms of economy, place names 

 and personal names, dress, customs, and many 

 other items would make a book in itself. 



The area, nature, and settlement pattern of the 

 Ponce hacienda becomes clearer with the infor- 

 mation from documents of 1712 and 1714. In 

 1712-14 it was termed the Hacienda de Labor de 

 San Nicolas Itziparamuco, and it belonged to 

 Manuel, a son of NicoMs Ponce de Le6n. The 

 northern boundary was a pedregal on the road to 

 Teremendo (Malpais de Icudcato or de Sajo) and 

 the Cerro Cotzitiro (Cerro del Mel6n) ; at the north- 

 east was the Cerro de Capula; adjoining at the 

 east were lands of the Augustinian monks of Tiri- 

 pitio (Fontezuelas and Lagunillas) and the Loma 

 de Santiago Arameo y Paratzico (probably the 

 Cerro del Divisadero of today) ; the western 

 boundary was still the lands of La Teneria and 

 Cucupao; and the southern boimdary remained 

 the Hacienda de Chapultepec which contained 

 the Puesto de San Antonio Tacupan, the Molino 

 de San Rafael, and Sanabria. Juan Barriga is 

 given as the o^vner of the Hacienda de Chapulte- 

 pec, which may indicate a possible origin for the 

 numerous Barriga family of today in the ranchos 



of Quiroga. The area comprised five sitios de 

 ganado mayor, two sitios de ganado menor, and 17 

 cahallerias de tierra, which would amount to about 

 11,066 hectares or somewhat more than the 

 conventional 8,778 hectares of an hacienda. This 

 is the equivalent of about 111 sq. km., which 

 approximates the area of the region as circum- 

 scribed by our interpretation of the boundaries. 

 Scattered over the hacienda, in appropriate 

 localities for the care of the livestock and of the 

 cultivated fields, were dwelling houses, granaries 

 (trojes), corrals, barns (jacales — in the Quiroga 

 area the term jacal is applied to large permanent 

 structures in which tools, fodder, etc., are kept), 

 and other structures (otras ojicinas), as well as a 

 number of puestos and puestecillos. Manuel 

 Ponce died between 1718 and 1722, and the 

 hacienda passed into the hands of Francisco 

 Ponce who died prior to 1736, and the lands were 

 inherited by his son Nicolas Ponce de Le6n. 

 Apparently the hacienda was never converted 

 into an entailed mayorazco, since the younger 

 sons and daughters were commonly named as 

 inheritors along with the oldest son; but the evi- 

 dence is contradictory since reference often is 

 made to but an individual as owner. Probably 

 the eldest represented the entire family in all legal 

 matters, and as the senior he may have had an 

 automatic right of attorney in all matters pertain- 

 ing to family property. An example is the 1714 

 reference in the Cocupao papers to the eastern 

 boundary of Cocupao being the lands of Don 

 Manuel Ponce de Leon and his brothers and sisters. 

 Also, especially between 1696 and 1736, there are 

 several mentions of a Ponce de Le6n purchasing 

 a piece of property which was specifically desig- 

 nated as having previously been a part of the 

 hacienda or patrimony. Probably when a Ponce 

 de Le6n needed some ready cash he would mort- 

 gage some part of the property, which might pass 

 out of the hands of the family for a number of 

 years. The papers dated between 1718 and 1736 

 add a few bits of information: the boundary of the 

 hacienda with the Pueblo de Capula was specifi- 

 cally the Cerro de Capula (Cerro de Buenavista) 

 and the Tres Cerritos (the Loma Guatzivet 

 chagaricu of the 1534 Cocupao titulo, and the 

 Tres Cabezas of today); the most southeastern 

 part of the hacienda included La Cacana (the area 

 around the Estaci6n Chapultepec of today) ; some 

 part of the hacienda had been set up as a capellania 



