Abstract

NUNEZ CASTRO, Erik  and  LEFEBVRE, Karine. The Processes of Territorial Structuration of the Hacienda of San José Puruagua Land Hoarding and Conflict (16th-18th Centuries). Estud. hist. novohisp [online]. 2023, n.69, pp.147-178.  Epub Feb 27, 2024. ISSN 2448-6922.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24486922e.2023.69.77774.

This paper analyses the structuration process of the hacienda of San José Puruagua from the 16th to the 18th century. The subject area of this research is located in the valley of the river Lerma, southeast of the present-day municipality of Jerécuaro, Guanajuato. This work was executed through the systematic confrontation of information from both field work and the analysis of historical documents (manuscripts and maps) extracted from archives like Archivo General de la Nación, Archivo Particular del Padre Efrén Cervantes, and the private archive of the hacienda of Puruagua. This paper provides an account of the process of land acquisition by Spanish landowners in the Puruagua area from the 16th towards the beginning of the 17th century. A total of 14 mercedes reales for estancias (ranches for small and large livestock) and caballerías de tierra for diverse Spanish landowners was found in these archives. It was by the year 1643, when the lands were in the possession of García del Castillo Villaseñor, that the Puruagua hacienda was formed through a collective composición de tierras. Lastly, the structuration process of the hacienda was not exempt from conflict. Territorial disputes occurred throughout the 17th century, which set the Indian town of San Pedro (Tzangua/Puruagua) against the estancieros and hacendados.

Keywords : New Spain; royal grants; composición de tierras; hacienda; territory; conflicts.