"The
Devil And Don Vasco"
By Mildred Boyd
May 2002 Guadalajara-Lakeside Volume 18, Number 9
Literature
offers many examples of struggles in which the powers of light invariably
triumph over the powers of darkness. Unfortunately, history usually
tells a different tale and darkness has a regrettable habit of winning.
Shortly after the conquest, Michoacan
was the stage for a drama in which Nuno de Guzman symbolized evil incarnate
and Don Vasco de Quiroga goodness personified. These two men, both members
of the audencias (governing committees),which replaced Cortez, were
engaged in a deadly, if mainly ideological, struggle.
The early deaths of the two senior members
of the first group left only the churchman, Bishop Zumarraga, and Guzman,
who had been busily undermining on a reign of terror. He has been described
as "the blackest scoundrel who ever ruled Mexico," which is
saying quite a lot. His greed was insatiable. He looted the royal treasury
to invest in schemes for his own enrichment. His cruelty especially
against the Indian, was unparalleled even by Spanish standards.
Only Zumarraga had the courage to oppose
him. Every Sunday the Cathedral resounded with thundering denunciations,
which the arrogant Guzman mainly ignored, though he once shocked the
congregation by having the good Bishop forcibly removed from the pulpit.
Guzman also took the precaution of interception the mail and destroying
Zumarraga's letters of complaint to the crown. But, if love finds away,
hate finds it even faster, and a message smuggled aboard ship in a tub
of tallow eventually reached the Emperor. Charles, Aghast, hastily sent
out a new audencia of which our hero, Don Vasco, was a member.
Guzman, already excommunicate, did not
wait around for indictment. In 1530 he gathered his troops and departed,
ostensibly to "conquer the west" but actually in search of
loot. Michoacan, which up to now had retained some semblance of autonomy,
soon had cause regret his arrival.
Disappointed at finding little gold, Guzman
went on a rampage of torture and murder. King Tangoxoan II and his advisors
were among the first victims, accused of withholding their treasure
by sinking it in the lake. For this "crime" the advisors were
tortured and the hapless king was dragged through the streets behind
a horse before being garrotted and burned at the stake.
Guzman, now styling himself "King
of the Tarascan Empire" continued his bloody tyranny until, convinced
there was no more gold, he enlisted 8,000 Tarascan warriors and moved
on. His trail though Jalisco, Sinaloa and Nayarit was marked by charred
ruins and weeping Indians.
The only creditable act in his career
was the founding of several cities, including Guadalajara, though those
cities had little else for which to thank him. Wild tales of the Seven
Cities of Cibola so excited Guzman's greed that he stripped the territory
of arms and men and sent them north with Coronado to claim any treasure
for himself. This left the west defenseless against the only serious
native uprising in post-conquest Mexico. The explosion of anger know
as the Miston Rebellion was eventually put down, but not without devastating
loss of life and property.
Guzman, having single-handedly destroyed
any possibility of rapport between Indian and Spaniard, fled. He had
reached the east coast before he was finally arrested. Don Vasco was
a member of the tribunal that condemned him to be sent to Spain in chains
where he was imprisoned until his death in 1550.
Meanwhile, the new commissioners strove
valiantly to repair the damage. With his own funds, Don Vasco founded
schools and hospitals and aided the Church in its efforts to appease
the alienated natives. Eventually he entered Holy Orders and, in 1538,
was appointed Bishop of Michoacan, arriving in Tzintsuntzan in time
to face the consequences of Guzman's disastrous reign. Quiroga faced
a seemingly impossible task; Guzman's was to prove a very hard act to
follow.
As early as 1524, at the invitation of
King Tangoxoan, a group of Franciscans had established a successful
mission in Tzintzuntzan. Now their work was destroyed. Hatred for the
infamous Guzman had spread o included anything Spanish. The new Bishop
found his church not only empty but virtually under siege.
When the Christian ethic of compassion
and loving kindness failed, Quiroga did not hesitate to adopt more worldly
tactics. The Tarascan people soon had access to ecclesiastical courts
where grievances were heard and wrongs redressed. New schools and hospitals
were founded. The hungry, the homeless and the sick received food, shelter
and medical care. Still, it was not enough to offset their deep-seated
fear and distrust.
Quiroga resorted to theatrical performances
to lure the Indians who, then as now, loved nothing better then noisy
celebrations. A dance called "Los Toritos" featuring loud
music, colorful costumes and masks, including the head of a huge bull,
is still a feature of Tarascan fiestas. Intrigued, the natives who came
to gawk stayed to listen to the Word of God. By 1540 the bishop could
begin building his new cathedral in Patzcuaro but his efforts on behalf
of his flock did not stop a religious conversion.
Tarascans
had always been known as superb craftsmen. In order to restore their
destroyed economy, Guzman imported Spanish artists to teach new arts
and techniques. A coppersmith went to the village now known as Santa
Clara del Cobre, woodcarvers to Janitzio and Tzintzuntzan, silversmiths,
potters, weavers, basket makers and lacquer workers to villages throughout
Michoacan. Each community was encouraged to develop its own craft and
designs.
The program was overwhelmingly successful,
so much so that, centuries later, pineapple pots from San Jose de Gracias,
guitars from Paracho, lacquerware from Uruapan and those delightfully
whimsical ceramic devils from Ocumicho, to name only a few, are world
famous.
Don Vasco de Quiroga, whom the Indians
lovingly called "Tata" Vasco, died in 1565, but his memory
lives on in the hearts of the people for whom he did so much.
History, for once, can record that virtue triumphed over evil.