Contact Zone I
The Evangelisation of Intimate Life
Still. Confessionary interrogation. © Susie Vickery, 2022
The evangelisation of intimate life happened over more than three centuries of colonialism as Catholic missionaries and colonial legislation imposed a European Christian set of morals and values on Indigenous peoples.
Still. Confessionary interrogation. © Susie Vickery, 2022
Lives were changed forever as colonisers used violence, coercion and religious doctrine to force or shame tribes and settled communities into abandoning their millenarian practices, adopting the institution of marriage and worshiping Christian gods.
For the Franciscan missionaries who visited the Sierra Madre Occidental this was a difficult task. Wixaritari held vehemently to their ways and for more than a century were largely resistant to the persuasions of missionaries. Their mountainous terrain and dispersed living arrangements helped them in this quest and protected them from constant invasion.
Arrival of the Spanish. 'Ukari Wa’utiska' animated film by Susie Vickery
Arrival of the Spanish. 'Ukari Wa’utiska' animated film by Susie Vickery
However, documentation of mass marriage ceremonies in Santa Catarina and San Sebastián during the 17th and 18th Centuries, obligatory attendance at church services and the widespread use of confessionary books over several generations, eventually instilled a new set of moral ideas in their minds, although these continue to be viewed with some degree of scepticism.
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'Confessionary in Mexican Language'
Don Bartholomé de Alva, 1634
Invasion and Ethnocide
Painting of the New Kingdom of Galicia, 1560 © España. Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. Archivo General de Indias, MP-México, 560
Timeline of colonisation and evangelisation
The first writings we have about Wixárika people that give some indications of gendered practices are in the writings of missionaries who spent time in their communities.
Domingo Lázaro de Arregui was one of the first missionaries to write about Indigenous peoples in the region now occupied by Wixárika communities.
“And these Indians of this town [Colotlán] communicate with those of Guaximic and with another neighboring nation called Guaramota, people who when they want to, they are Christians and when they don’t, they are not, and this is understood when they go to doctrine”
Domingo Lázaro de Arregui, Descripción de la Nueva Galicia, 1980 (1621) 156-7.
Domingo Lázaro de Arregui (1717). He wrote about Indigenous people in the region now occupied by Wixárika communities in 1621. © Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes
Wixárika
In 1783 Pedro Trelles Villademoros described how Wixaritari from Santa Catarina and San Sebastián dressed.
‘Their costume is as if they have spent time on it, in the way of the gentility, because they bring cotton of ixtle and wool, rawhide breeches, ordinary straw hat; the one used only by married people. Those who are not [married], bring their hair loose and on the neck and throats of the feet, use many chokers of shells and beads of many colours. The maiden women wear very fine cottons, and a wrap up to the knee, with most of the chest bare: On the contrary, the married ones, cover something more this, and the feet, and do not put the work into their cottons.’
Archivo General de la Nación
Artist’s impression of 18th Century description of a Wixárika married couple. © Tom Eglington, 2023
Marriage and birth practices were documented by Fray Joseph Arlegui
Arlegui was the first to document childbirth practices.
Crónica de la Provincia de N.S.P.S. Francisco de Zacatecas, 1737, José de Arlegui
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Fray José Arlegui chronicled birthing practices in the early 17th Century. © Digital Library AECID. CC (BY-NC-SA)
Ceremonies and Evangelisation
Records from 1667 suggest that Franciscan Friars lived intermittently among the Wixárika communities of Santa Catarina, San Andrés and San Sebastián.
Each of these communities experienced mass baptism and mass marriage ceremonies as the Friars travelled from village to village gathering ‘indians’, teaching the commandments and maintaining churches.
Records of mass christenings in Santa Catalina Questomatitan (Santa Catarina/Tuapurie), November 1667 © Parroquial Records 1590-1979, Mezquitic, Jalisco, Mexico.
Record of mass marriages in Santa Catalina Questomatitan (Santa Catarina), 1667. © Parroquial Records, 1590-1979, Mezquitic, Jalisco, México
The confessional books used on these visits provide a window into the intimate life of Indigenous peoples, or how these were seen by missionaries. Their repeated visits and interrogations are also indicative of Indigenous resistance to the evangelising process.
Confessionaries followed the Ten Commandments, beginning with the question: Have you loved God above all things?
Questions about sexuality and marriage come under the sixth commandment: You shall not commit impure acts.
Some of these sins were later incorporated into law, with corporal punishment brought in for infidelity and a judge installed in Wixárika communities to police this.
Sexual and intimate life transformed
In 1906 Francisco de P. Robles published the only confessional intended specifically for the Wixaritari. Written in Wixárika and Spanish, it preserves the structure of questions according to each of the commandments with specific questions on intimacy:
‘Have you consented to evil desires, with whom, is he/she related, is he/she married?
Was she a maiden, were you already married? Have you spoken indecent things?
Have you committed the sin of sodomy?’
Women were asked if they had fulfilled their duties as a wife and obeyed their husband ‘in all lawful things’.
Confessionary in Spanish and Huichol, Zacatecas 1906 © Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco
Colonial laws on marriage
One of the main aims of missionaries was to instil in Indigenous peoples a belief in and adherence to the institution of heterosexual marriage. This was enshrined in colonial law before being enforced in practice during visits to communities.
‘The indians (male or female) that marry two women will be punished’ (1530)
‘No cacique, nor Indian, even if they are unfaithful, can marry another woman’ (1552)
Copy of Laws of the Kingdom of Indians, Madrid, 1681.
© Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies and Official Bulletin of the State, 1998.
New Colonial Land Relations
Exploitation of Mexico by Spanish Conquistadors. Mural (1929-1945) by Diego Rivera, Mexico City - Palacio Nacional. © Juan Pérez A. 2008
Negotiations man to man: Spanish found complex and diverse societies when they arrived in the Americas.
The semi-nomadic Indigenous peoples to the north and west of Mesoamerica who became known as ‘Chichimecas’ differed socially from the peoples of the centre and south, and were described as ‘barbarians’ and ‘uncivilised’.
Northwest Mexico was colonised after the discovery of silver mines in Zacatecas and was populated with Tlaxcaltec families, allies of the Spanish from central Mexico. The task of the Tlaxcaltecas was to keep the peace on the roads, in particular the silver route, as well as teach good customs and agricultural techniques to groups of insurrectionist ‘indians’ (Guachichiles, Caxcanes, Zacatecos, Huicholes, among others).
From this time on, relations between ‘indians’ and colonisers followed a patriarchal structure: negotiations were man to man. Indigenous groups were governed by men and all negotiations regarding land and natural resources happened between men.
Negotiations over land happened between men:
1733 communication from all-male Wixárika authorities to Captain Antonio de Escobedo requesting the restitution of their territory is a rare example of Wixárika authorities dealing with such negotiations.
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© Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco “Juan José Arreola”, Archivo de la Real Audiencia de la Nueva Galicia, Ramo Civil, C-308-29-4490 Año: 1733
