Ancient Michoacán, land of the fish-eaters, and their sad fate

Mexico has one of the more interesting national flags. The colours are red, white and green and in the middle of the white area is an eagle, with a snake in its beak, standing on a nopal (prickly pear cactus). This is a reference to the foundation myth of the people we know as Aztecs, who called themselves mexica. The mexica conquered a substantial part of central Mexico, and practiced human sacrifice on a spectacular scale. The Estados Unidos de México takes its name from these warlike people, and the national capital sits above the ruins of the mexica’s capital Tenochtitlan. The ruler of the mexica was the huey tlatoani (great orator). When modern Presidents step out onto the balcony of the National Palace to pronounce in grand oratorical style they emulate their mexica predecessors.

 

Former president Ernesto Zedillo gives the grito ("shout") to celebrate Independence in 2000

The mexica tend to hog the limelight of ancient Mexico’s “great civilization”, but they were, in fact, one of a number of important civilizations conquered by the Spaniards in the 16^th century. The Aztecs met their warlike match in Michoacán, where lived the people the mexica knew as Michhuàque (those who have fish), and whom the Spaniards called los de Michoacán (those from the place where they eat fish), but who called themselves purhépecha. They are more generally known nowadays as the Tarascans (meaning idol, son-in-law, or father-in-law). Since we are temporary residents of Michoacán, this seems a good moment to tell a little about this much less well-known people.

The capital of the purhépecha is Tintzuntzan, a city built on a hilltop terrace, covering almost seven square kilometres, above Lake Pátzcuaro. The modern visitor sees several large stone platforms, rectangular in shape except for one curved end. On top of the platforms once sat temples where purhépecha priests performed public rituals, including the inevitable human sacrifice to Curicaueri, the god of fire and sun; Cuerauáperi, the creator goddess of birth, death, rain and famine (quite a combination); Xarátanga, the goddess of the moon and wife of Curicaueri; and Ucumu, god of the underworld associated with gophers, moles, mice and snakes.

 

Tzintzuntzan from the air

In addition to the temple platforms, by the early 16^th century there were also palatial residences for the nobility, and other residential zones for the lesser nobility, commoners and for people from other ethnic groups. There was also a manufacturing zone for craftsmen: knife-makers (from obsidian stone), leatherworkers, sandal-makers, potters, masons, metalworkers, feather workers, carpenters, painters of gourds (used as cups). There was also a zoo; storehouses, steam baths, a market, and, south of the city, a court where the ritual ballgame was played.

The population of the capital city was probably around 25,000-30,000 by 1520. A further 70,000-80,000 lived in the lake basin. Here farmers cultivated the rich soils around the lake, fishermen supplied the produce of the lake itself, and merchants moved around the lake in canoes.

 

Lake Pátzcuaro from the ruins of Tzintzuntzan

Tarascan copper bells, worn by priests

The ruler of the purhépecha was known as the cazonci. By about 1350 the cazonci of Tzintzuntzan was the most powerful ruler in the lake basin. By the 1440s the cazonci Tangaxoán I (1408-1454) had expanded his domains to the Pacific Coast and the Balsas river to the south and east, seeking tropical products such as chocolate, cotton, colourful birds’ feathers, and sources of copper. His successor Tzitzi Pandácuare (1454-1479) expanded his empire north and west, and further east.

The eastern expansion brought the armies of the cazonci into conflict with the forces of the huey tlatoani of Tenochtitlan. The mexica were accustomed to winning their battles and were shocked to be defeated soundly by the purhépecha. After the 1480s the two empires fortified their frontiers and fought frequent battles, but abandoned attempts to expand into one another’s territory. This was the situation when the Spaniards first appeared in 1519.

The defeat of the mexica in 1521 must have been quite a shock to the cazonci Tangaxoán II, who submitted to the Spaniards to save his people the death and destruction inflicted on the mexica. Unfortunately, Tangaxoán had to deal with an exceptionally thuggish Spaniard, Nuño de Guzmán. Guzmán, convinced that the purhépecha were hiding gold from him, tortured their last ruler to death.

Other Spaniards followed Guzmán to the land of the purhépecha, but in search of souls rather than gold. The Pope had entrusted the Spanish crown with the evangelization of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Franciscan friars who arrived in Tzintzuntzan were few, and the indigenous people many thousands. So, evangelization posed two logistical problems. Where would Spanish friars conduct mass conversions by the thousands, far too many to be converted in a traditional church building? And how would they address people who understood not a word of Spanish?

The first solution was to construct a large open air “nave” with a stone “atrial cross” at its centre, where large numbers of Indians could assemble to hear the gospel. To give the nave a Spanish flavour, the friars planted imported olive trees along the edges (the surviving trees can still be seen today). As for language, the friars learned purhépecha and published grammars so that other priests could learn the local tongue. Work on a monastery, and the church of San Francisco, began in 1570 and was finished in 1601. The façade of the monastery includes open air chapels from which friars could preach to the multitude gathered in the open air nave. In the 17^th century a second church, dedicated to the Virgin of Solitude, was built a few yards to the right of the Franciscan church. Next to this church stand the remains of a hospital, complete with its own open air chapels.

 

Church of San Francisco, Tzintzuntzan

The first bishop of Michoacán was Vasco de Quiroga, who established his headquarters not in

Plaza Vasco Quiroga, Pátzcuaro. The statue of Quiroga is in the centre

Tzintzuntzan, but in Pátzcuaro.  This is a beautifully preserved colonial town, whose two plazas commemorate very different historical figures. Bishop Quiroga’s statue presides over an enormous square, that bears his name, now fringed by hotels and restaurants. The rather more popular Plaza Gertrudis de Bocanegra, teeming with buses, street food vendors, the market, and the cinema, commemorates a heroine of the independence struggle, executed in Pátzcuaro in 1817.