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MEXICO MAGICO
TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people |
CHAPTER IV, The Forefathers (58th part continues...)
By Prof. German Estrada - June 2006 |
The king or Council of the Indies appointed a viceroy; but they rarely trusted him. So they established a system of checks and balances, ordering authorities in New Spain to spy on each other, reports of misbehavior bestowing rewards on the informer. The Viceroy wielded the scepter, but the judges of the audiencia, legally under him, reported to Spain. The crown also dispatched royal spies, known as visitadores, to check up on his performance. The review or trial was called a juicio de residencia since most visitadores were lawyers or judges. The checks and balances, perhaps wise in theory, hardly encouraged bureaucrats to speak their minds. Viceroys, judges of the audiencia, and corregidores had to heed, if they wanted to govern effectively, the views of the powerful in the community. Royal officials were thus caught, so goes the cliché, between a rock and a hard place. Next in the hierarchy were the oidores of the audiencia. That of Mexico City had ten while that of Nueva Galicia, established in 1548, had five. Most of them were lawyers who sat as judges, for the audiencia was essentially a court of review that helped the viceroy run the affairs of New Spain. Like the viceroys, most of the oidores served ably, although often profiting from office.
Each geographical subdivision of the viceroyalty had its officials. These districts, called generally corregimentos, were run by corregidores (also named alcaldes, mayores, or gobernadores) appointed in Spain, who took orders from the viceroy. The conquistadores, more often than not the ones without encomiendas, served as the initial corregidores; officeholders of another type replaced them. Corregidores de indios administered the Indian pueblos.
Municipal government ranked at the bottom of the political edifice. The first town council, or ayuntamiento, dated from the founding of Veracruz in 1519. Cortés appointed its members, and those of other early settlements. In time, the regidores, who made up the ayuntamiento, were elected from among the wealthy of the town. Democracy had a narrow base. An alcalde, His Honor the mayor, presided over the ayuntamiento, which did what municipal bodies usually do; hire and pay police, keep garbage off the streets, bring water into town, and fill the granary. The Corregidor, who managed political affairs in the district, saw to it that the ayuntamientos toed the line.
Whatever the intent, rot managed to seep into the design. The best jobs were reserved for court favorites, hangers-on the king and his clique, while the colonial bureaucracy multiplied, partly in response to the appetites of peninsulares and criollos for public jobs. A retinue of job-hungry relatives and friends accompanied every viceroy who landed in Veracruz. Royal appointments, despite prestigious titles, paid little, encouraging the view of public office as an avenue for private gain, a practice that developed long tentacles during the seventeenth century. From Mendoza on, viceroys filled their private coffers; one of them, by the name of Albuquerque, sold alcaldías and corregimientos to the highest bidders. Not uncommonly, the Hapsburgs filled public offices with adventurers eager to line their pockets. Judges of the law courts, often with large families to support and wives with social pretensions, sold their favors.
The worst and most corrupt of these officials were the corregidores de indios, a remedy supposedly for the evils of the encomendero, whose obligations they assumed. They were to aid in the Christianization of the Indian, to defend him from the abuse by Spaniards, to see to it that he got fair prices for his goods, and to collect the crown’s tribute from him. The Corregidor was also a judge entrusted with the adjudication of Indian complaints; he was admonished not to steal land from the Indian, own cattle, or engage in commerce.
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Map of the Mexican Republic.
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In the next issue we’ll continue with Chapter V of this fascinating book, THE BAROQUE YEARS.
Prof. Germán Estrada
E-mail: estradanav@yahoo.com
Source: From the book Triumphs and Tragedy, a History of the Mexican People by his author Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, and with his authorization. (W.W. Norton & Company. New York-London).
Prof. Germán Estrada is the author of the best selling book, México Mágico: Everything You Wanted To Know About... But Nobody Told You..." available in Puerto Vallarta at The Net House, Mail Boxes, Etc., Books, Books as well as directly from his website.
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