QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MUNICIPIO — BRAND 



97 



more years. These families, in alphabetic order, 

 are: Alcaraz, Arellano, Arias, Ayala, Barriga, Cal- 

 der6n, Campuzano, Castaiieda, Castro, Cazarez, 

 Chagolla, Cuiriz, Dominguez, Elizarraras, Eli- 

 zondo, Farias, Fuentes, Gaona, Garcia, Gonzaga, 

 Gutierrez, Guzman, Huerta, Lara, Leal, Le6n, 

 L6pez, Magana, Medina, Mendoza, Mier, Ortega, 

 Ortiz, Padilla, Pantoja, Ponce, Robles, Rodriguez, 

 Rojas, Sendejas, Serrania, Silva, Tellez, Tena, 

 Torres, Tovar, Valdes, ViUanueva, ViUaseiior, Vil- 

 licana, and Zamudio. All of the prefectorial and 

 municipal elective and appointive positions from 

 1862 to the period of agrarian dissensions in the 

 early 1930's were held by members of these fami- 

 lies. The bulk of the property and nearly all of 

 the larger businesses are in the hands of these 

 families. Only individuals from some of these 

 families have made a name for themselves in other 

 parts of Mexico. However, some of these families 

 are now extinct in Quiroga; other famihes had 

 their period of glory and power in the middle or 

 latter part of the nineteenth century; and some 

 of the families are distinctly recent in their rise to 

 social and economic position. Among the 50- 

 some families listed there are families of presump- 

 tive Indian origin, and a larger number are defi- 

 nitely mestizo racially. Nevertheless, there are a 

 few famihes whose surnames have not appeared 

 in the records as belonging to known Indian, mu- 



latto, or mestizo famihes. These names will not 

 be listed since such families are no more certain to 

 be pure white than are many individuals who have 

 a family name in common with Indians, mulattoes, 

 or mestizos. It must be kept in mind, consider- 

 ing the various methods by which European family 

 names were acquired by nonwhites and mixed- 

 breeds, that all the individuals with the same fam- 

 ily name in the Quiroga area are not necessarily 

 related. In fact, quite the contrary is true for 

 many family names. The only safe assumption 

 is that, in general (considering the marked social 

 and economic privileges which set the whites above 

 the mestizos, and the mestizos above the Indians, 

 during all of the colonial period and well into the 

 period of Independence), accumulated wealth and 

 opportunity have tended to maintain the whites 

 and near-whites in the upper privileged class. This 

 condition has been upset somewhat by revolu- 

 tions, especially the last revolution, but the gen- 

 eralization probably still holds for Quiroga and for 

 many other communities in Mexico. 



Our conclusion, from the study of family names, 

 history, and the appearance of the inhabitants, is 

 that the population of Quiroga is essentially mes- 

 tizo. There are individuals who are pure Indians 

 or nearly so, and there are persons who are whites 

 or practically so, but they constitute a decided 

 minority. 



GOVERNMENT 



At the present time the name "Quiroga" is ap- 

 plied to three progressively larger pohtical entities. 

 The smallest is the community proper of Quiroga 

 which has the official category or rank of inlla, 

 which is best translated as "town" in English. 

 The urban community of Quiroga dominates and 

 claims as its traditional lands a surrounding rural 

 area in which there are six smaU communities 

 known as ranchos. This area constitutes Quiroga 

 in general, as contrasted with the town proper. 

 Finally there is the municipio of Quiroga, which 

 includes the general Quiroga area and three distinct 

 pueblos or villages with their surrounding lands. 

 This municipio is not a municipality in the ordi- 

 nary American sense; rather, it is more like a 

 to-\vnship of the northern and eastern United States 

 wliich may contain a number of settlements or vil- 

 lages. The municipio is constitutionally the basic 

 political element of the Mexican States. 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 



Before we discuss the government and external 

 relationships of the municipio of Quiroga, we will 

 present a brief history of the development of gov- 

 ernmental units in the Quiroga area and Michoa- 

 can from earliest colonial times to the present. 

 This is given for background, and also because it 

 is nowhere else available either in Spanish or in 

 English. 



The independent "kingdom" or state of the 

 Tarascans (which covered more than the present 

 State of Michoac^n; see Brand, 1944) was con- 

 quered by a lieutenant of Cortez in 1522. The 

 Tarascan capital was at Tzmtzuntzan, and this 

 city included or claimed as dependent barrios all 

 the villages of the Pdtzcuaro Lake Basin as well 

 as some outside of the basin. Cortez held Tzint- 

 zuntzan and its barrios (which undoubtedly in- 

 cluded Cocupao or Quiroga) as an eneomienda from 



