90 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 1 



persons. Since none of these families, excepting 

 some of the Aparicio, Cruz, Magos, and SLxtos, are 

 found in the ranches, our assumption is further 

 strengthened. We have shown elsewhere that the 

 ranches have the least Indian blood of the various 

 communities in the Quiroga area. 



ETHNIC ORIGINS 



A survey of the 252 Quiroga surnames shows 

 that the great majority are Spanish in form and 

 origin. Possibly five names are ultimately western 

 Iberian (from Portugal and Galicia) — Acosta, 

 Ambriz, Ferreyra, Lugo, and Mejia. Four names 

 are of Arabic origin (Alcaraz, Alfaro, Farfdn, and 

 Medina), but all except Farfdn are Spanish place 

 names and probably do not indicate Moorish 

 blood. Perhaps 14 names are Basque or Navar- 

 rese in origin (Amaya, Arredondo, AiTiaga, 

 Ayala, Durdn, Elizondo, Fraga, Garnica, Landa, 

 Miranda, Uribe, Urquieta, Urueta, and Zavala), 

 and these represent 126 persons. There is 1 

 Italian family — Vercellino. Seven are possibly 

 or definitely Spanish, but no information was 

 located concerning their origins — Bucio or Busio, 

 Ceja or Seja, Cendejas or Zendejas, Esqueda, 

 Garria, Marinez, and N^rez. There remain 9 

 family names which probably or definitely are 

 American Indian in origin. Tarascan forms are 

 Anita, Cacari or Cacar6, Cufn, Huape, Huacuz, 

 Nambo, and Tzintzun; while Chagolla and 

 Mexicano probably are Mexicano (Nahuatl). 



INDIAN SURNAMES 



It is interesting to speculate as to how Quiroga, 

 which was pure Indian during the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, and which is now essentially mestizo, re- 

 ceived the various European surnames, and why 

 and how some Indian family names survived. 

 We know that the missionaries gave a Christian 

 name to every individual baptized. Quite often 

 such an individual would be laiown to the Span- 

 iards only as, for example, "Juan, Indio" (John, 

 an Indian). In the parish registry his son would 

 be inscribed as, perhaps, "Francisco, hijo de Juan 

 y Maria, indfgenas" (Francis, son of John and 

 Mary, Indians). If the need for a surname arose 

 this boy might call himself Francisco Juan. 

 Some of the adult Indians, when baptized, had 

 Spaniards as godfathers; and often they would 

 take the name of the godfather as their European 

 surname — thus becoming G6mez or Martinez or 



Infante without benefit of European blood. 

 Apparently some of the Indians took the surname 

 of their encomendero or master, much as did some 

 of the Negro slaves in the United States. How- 

 ever, many of the Indians took or retained an 

 Indian surname. We know very little about the 

 name customs of the Tarascan Indians at the time 

 of the conquest, and most of what we Icnow is 

 derived from the fragmentary and garbled material 

 incorporated in the Kelaci6n de Michoacdn (1903). 

 This Relaci6n was written about 1539 by an 

 anonymous Franciscan friar. Both within the 

 same edition and between the two published 

 editions of this work there is great variability in 

 the spelling of proper names. Consequently, it is 

 almost impossible to analyze the some 60 or 70 

 personal names of Tarascan Indians presented, 

 and to determine roots, meanings, and possible 

 prefixes or suffixes of relationship. Perhaps there 

 was nothing comparable with our family names; 

 but there are indications that clan or sib names 

 were used by some individuals in addition to some 

 type of a given or personal name. From the 

 Relaci6n de Michoacdn (1903, pp. 61, 69, 134, 

 289, 321, etc.) we learn that Curicaveri, the god of 

 the Chichimec-Tarascans, was the ancestor of the 

 ruling famiUes with the apellido (surname) of 

 Eneani, Zacapuheretin, and Uanacasin (the spell- 

 ing of each of these names varies greatly from page 

 to page). Also, we learn that the ruler or cazonci 

 was the representative on earth of Curicaveri, and 

 that the senores (lords) of his lineage were the 

 Huacuz-echa or eagle-clan. Actually, the term 

 huacuz or huacus is applied to an aguililla or 

 hawk of the Buteo genus. The name Huacuz is 

 still one of the most common Tarascan surnames 

 in the Pdtzcuaro Basin, especially in Santa Fe. 

 Apparently most or all of the members of the 

 ruling class were members of the three families 

 mentioned above, but those "surnames" were not 

 used as such in the Relaci6n. Possibly all of the 

 names mentioned in the Relacion were given 

 names, occasionally Unked with a nickname as in 

 the case of the last cazonci — Tangaxoan Zincicha, 

 who was baptized Francisco. His sons and grand- 

 sons took the surname of Huitzimengari, as in 

 Don Antonio Gitzim&gari who was regidor of 

 Piitzcuaro when a charter was given the Indians 

 of what is now Quiroga in 1534, and his son Don 

 Constantino Huizim6ngari who was governor of 

 Pdtzcuaro in 1589. Our assumption that names 



