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| Purépecha empire in green; Aztec in puce |
Later this morning I will be boarding a bus with twentysome other northerners (almost exclusively women) and heading east to the wilds of Michoacán for a few days.
This is the trip I wrote about in come the revolution, we will all be margaret mead.
Michoacán is one of my favorite Mexican states. Had I decided not to live in Barra de Navidad, I would have chosen Pátzcuaro. I had gone so far as to choose a specific house to purchase back in 2009. I now try to visit there at least every other year.
But that is not our destination. My chum Linda Bello Ruiz has invited us along as she says, not for a tour, but for an experience!!! (You have to know Linda to discern the joy and enthusiasm in those exclamation points.)
The experience will be two full days spent with the Purépecha grandmothers of Chilchota village. I have stopped in the village during my transits to and from Pátzcuaro, but this will be different.
Apparently there is an assembly area away from the highway where, over the course of two full days, we (or some of us) will participate in embroidery, pottery, and medicinal classes, along with the cultural ceremonies of sweat lodges, bonfire dances, and "fire ball" games. It sounds like a feminine Bohemian Grove.
The agenda ends with that ever-hopeful "and more," which I hope includes some information on Purépecha food. As you know, I am quite fond of the corn smut huitlacoche even though corn is completely off my plate these days.
What I really hope is that we are going to have an opportunity to talk a bit about Purépecha history and the studies that indicate a possible link between the Purépecha and the Inca Empire in Peru. I have been studying and researching both for the past decade.
Like the Aztec, the Purépecha Empire emerged late amongst the Mesoamerican cultures. Probably only 200 years before Cortes landed at Veracruz. Tariácuri, the Purépecha Alfred the Great, united the various city-states surrounding Lake Pátzcuaro under the rule of his two sons and himself.
The empire stood right in the path of the Aztec manifest destiny. But the Purépecha would be the only tribe the Aztec could never defeat. On the map, you can see the giant detour the Aztec had to make around the armed force of the Purépecha. That was true for two reasons.
The first was a technological state secret. The Purépecha had learned how to create the alloy copper. And copper weapons had a great battlefield advantage over the Aztec with their wood and stone weapons. And, as an O'Gorman mural in the Pátzcuaro library shows, the Purépecha were not above slaughtering captured invaders.
But history is strewn with armies who had only a technological advantage. The Purépecha were also blessed with leaders and soldiers who had a thorough understanding of strategy and tactics.
A Whig historian would probably point out that any people fighting for the freedom of their own land always has an advantage over an invading army. And say that I do.
When the Spanish beat the Aztecs, the Purépecha bowed to reality. Even though he had an army that may have numbered 100,000 soldiers, the Purépecha emperor Tangáxuan decided war would end in the destruction of his empire.
So, in 1522, a year after Tenochtitlan fell, he agreed to a peace treaty where he would would rule jointly with Cortés. The promise was that the Purépecha empire would have a large degree of autonomy.
It was a bad deal for the Purépecha. The reason the Spanish descended so quickly on Lake Pátzcuaro is that Tangáxuan had sent gifts of gold to Cortés in the hope that Tzintzuntzán would not become the next Tenochtitlan. For the Spanish, the gifts were metallurgic methamphetamine.
Things did not go well for Tangáxuan. Within eight years of the treaty's signature, the Spanish tromped back in and demanded that Tangáxuan disclose a treasure that probably never existed. They then tortured him, and subsequently executed the emperor. The Purépecha society fell into chaos, as did the other tribes that were accustomed to a hierarchical society.
It always seems that when things are the worst, one of those inherently good men enters history to help resolve matters. In this case, a good servant of the Spanish Empire -- Vasco de Quiroga. His mission was to create some order in a declining Purépecha population.
Relying upon Thomas More's Utopia, he gathered the Purépecha into villages for five reasons: (1) to quell the rebellion of the Purépecha, (2) to administer order in the name of the Spanish Empire, (3) to indoctrinate the Purépecha into Catholicism, (4) to teach them to live a Spanish lifestyle, and (5) as it turned out the most important, to provide each village with a specialized trade.
Unlike the Indian reductions administered by the Jesuits in South America, Spain felt no political challenge from Don Vasco's projects. The biggest reason was that the settlements around Lake Pátzcuaro thrived in peace.
To this day, the specialty villages that Don Vasco established still survive.
- Angangueo: woolen items
- Cuanajo: wooden chests and furniture
- Erongarícuaro: wooden furniture, earthenware
- Ihuatzio: petate mats
- Jarácuaro: woven palm hats
- Paracho: guitars and stringed instruments
- Quiroga: painted trays and bowls, leather goods, wooden toys
- Santa Fe de la Laguna: pottery
- Santa Clara del Cobre: copper items
- Tzintzuntzan: wood, pottery, straw decorations and toys
- Uruapan: lacquer work
- Zirahuén: wood and cloth dolls
The specialized tasks gave the Purépecha dignity and a vocation. And, even though he was clearly an institution of the Spanish empire, Don Vasco is venerated by the Purépecha. Many of them still make a pilgrimage to his tomb in the Pátzcuaro Basilica.
The Purépecha we will see are the product of that Vasco reform. Without it, most of what was the legacy of the Purépecha would be lost -- as were so many other tribes. Like the Aztec. There are times when paternalism is utilitarian.
As for the connection to the Inca Empire, I will save that tale for another day. I am hoping to learn more about that theory on this trip.
I may even tell you about my meeting with a young man who styled himself as the Subcomandante Marcos of the Purépecha. It is a very Mexican story.
But it will wait because the bus won't.
I will see you on the other side.
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