Vasco de Quiroga
Encyclopedia
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and one of the judges (oidor
Oidor
Oidor is the Spanish name of the member judge of the Royal Audiencias and Chancillerías, originally courts of Kingdom of Castile, which became the highest organs of justice within the Spanish Empire...
es) in the second Audiencia that governed New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
from January 10, 1531 to April 16, 1535.
Coming from a background as a lawyer and a judge he was appointed to be a judge in the second Audiencia after the first Audiencias failure. As an oídor he took a strong interest in restoring order to the Michoacán area which had been ravaged by rebellions and unrest. He employed a strategy of congregating indigenous populations into congregated Hospital-towns called Republicas de Indios, organized after principles derived from Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
's Utopia
Utopia (book)
Utopia is a work of fiction by Thomas More published in 1516...
. The purpose of this policy was to make the dispersed indigenous populations easier to control and instruct in Christian values and lifestyles. He established two such hospitals: Santa Fé de México close to the town of Tacuba
Tacuba
Tacuba is a municipality in the Ahuachapán department of El Salvador.-Church Of Tacuba:It is located in Villa of Tacuba. It is head of the municipality of the same name in the department of Ahuachapán, at about 14 Kilometers of the city of Ahuachapán and at 700 meters over the sea level...
in the Valley of Mexico
Valley of Mexico
The Valley of Mexico is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with the present-day Distrito Federal and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations, including...
, and Santa Fé de la Laguna close to Pátzcuaro
Pátzcuaro
Pátzcuaro is a large town and municipality located in the state of Michoacán. The town was founded sometime in the 1320s, at first becoming the capital of the Tarascan state and later its ceremonial center...
, Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
.
Because of his reputation as a protector of the Indians, Vasco de Quiroga is venerated as a saint in some communities in Michoacan to this day.
Background and life in Europe
Vasco de Quiroga was born into a noble family in Madrigal de las Altas TorresMadrigal de las Altas Torres
Madrigal de las Altas Torres is a municipality located in the province of Ávila, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2005 census , the municipality has a population of 1,825 inhabitants. In this village, Isabella I of Castille was born in 1451....
, Castile
Castile (historical region)
A former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain when united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre...
. His family was of Galician origin. His brother Álvaro became the father of Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela
Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela
Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela was a prominent Catholic official who rose to become General Inquisitor of Spain, from 1573 to 1595, and Archbishop of Toledo from 1577 to 1595. He was named a Cardinal by Pope Gregory X in 1578...
, later Cardenal of Toledo. Traditionally his birth year has been given as 1470, because of a tradition that he was 95 at his year of death. Recent biographers prefer the later date around 1478, because of evidence from Quiroga's own hand that he was 60 in 1538.
De Quiroga studied law and later theology. He studied canon law
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
, probably in Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
. He worked as a letrado - a royal jurist in southern Spain and as a judge in Oran
Oran
Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...
in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
from ca. 1520 - 1526. In North Africa he oversaw cases of corruption and disputes between the locals and the Spanish conquistadors. Returning from Africa he stayed a while with the royal court, where documents have him in 1528. He certainly had powerful connections such as a friendship with Juan Bernal Díaz de Luco who was a member of the Council of the Indies, and with the Cardinal of Toledo Juan Tavera. This was probably the reason that he was offered a position as oídor (judge) in the second Audiencia of New Spain when the Council of Indies had to dismiss the first in 1530. The president of this second Audiencia was Bishop Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal
Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal
Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal was bishop of Santo Domingo and president of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo 1528 to 1531. He was also president of the second Audiencia of New Spain...
, and the other members were Quiroga, Juan de Salmerón
Juan de Salmerón
Juan de Salmerón was a Spanish colonial official New Spain, and an oidor of the Second Audiencia, which governed the colony from January 10, 1531 until April 16, 1534. On the latter date, the government was turned over to Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy...
, Alonso de Maldonado
Alonso de Maldonado
Alonso de Maldonado was a Spanish lawyer and a member of the Second Audiencia of Mexico City, which governed New Spain from January 10, 1531 to April 16, 1535. He was also president of the First Audiencia of Guatemala, and in that capacity interim governor of Guatemala from 1536 to September 15, 1539...
and Francisco Ceinos
Francisco Ceinos
Francisco Ceinos was one of five oidores of the second Audiencia of New Spain. This group governed the colony from January 10, 1531 to April 16, 1535. Ceinos was also in the Audiencias that served as interim governments of New Spain from 1564 to 1566 and from approximately July 1568 to November...
. They began governing in Mexico City in 1531.
As a member of the Audiencia
Quiroga founded the hospital-pueblo of Santa Fe (Mexico City)Santa Fe (Mexico City)
thumb|400px|Panoramic view of Santa Fethumb|200px|Carlos Lazo AveSanta Fe or City Santa Fe is one of Mexico City's major business districts, located in the west part of the city in the delegaciones of Cuajimalpa and Álvaro Obregón. Paseo de la Reforma and Constituyentes are the primary means of...
, with his own money. This was his first attempt at building a Utopia on the model of Sir Thomas More. He converted many Indigenous
Indigenous peoples of Mexico
Mexico, in the second article of its Constitution, is defined as a "pluricultural" nation in recognition of the diverse ethnic groups that constitute it, and in which the indigenous peoples are the original foundation...
to Christianity. He sat on the tribunal that ordered the president of the first Audiencia, Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán
Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán
Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán or sometimes Nuño de Guzmán was a Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain. He was Governor of the province of Pánuco from 1525–1533, and of Nueva Galicia from 1529–1534, President of the first Audiencia from 1528-30. He founded several cities in...
, to be returned to Spain in chains. Quiroga and the other oidores of the second Audiencia also conducted the trial of Juan Ortiz de Matienzo
Juan Ortiz de Matienzo
Juan Ortiz de Matienzo was a Spanish colonial judge and a member of the first Real Audiencia in the New World, that of Santo Domingo, in 1511...
and Diego Delgadillo
Diego Delgadillo
Diego Delgadillo was a judge of the first Audiencia of New Spain, which governed the colony from December 9, 1528 to January 9, 1531.Delgadillo was a native of Granada...
, oídores of the first Audiencia.
When the newly conquered Chichimec Indians of Michoacán rebelled in 1533, Quiroga was sent to that province as visitador (inspector). While an oídor Vasco de Quiroga became influenced by Thomas More's recently published Utopia (1516), he probably read the copy belonging to Bishop Juan de Zumarraga
Juan de Zumárraga
Juan de Zumárraga was a Spanish Basque Franciscan prelate and first bishop of Mexico.-Origins and arrival in New Spain:...
, now held at the library of the University of Texas at Austin.
In 1535 the second Audiencia turned over its governing powers to the first viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, Marquis of Mondéjar, Count of Tendilla , was the first viceroy of New Spain, serving from April 17, 1535 to November 25, 1550, and the second viceroy of Peru, from September 23, 1551 to July 21, 1552...
.
Información en Derecho
"Informacción en Derecho" is the lengthiest piece of writing from Vasco de Quiroga's hand that we have knowledge about. Dated in México on July 1535 was partly a response to the Crowns reversal of a previous prohibition of the enslavement of Indians. It contains a detailed analysis of the legal and ethical issues concerning slavery in the Americas and includes a recommendation of a new policy towards the Indians based on the model laid out in Thomas MoreThomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
's Utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
.
Since 1530 the second audiencia had worked in accordance with a royal decree of 1530 forbidding all further enslavement of Indians, which had previously been allowed only during warfare or by buying Indians that were already slaves. In 1534 the Crown responded to appeals by colonists who argued that they needed slave labor to continue to make profits by repealing this law and legalizing a limited form of slavery once again. The arguments put forth was that Indians were recently becoming unruly, that there were no longer any causes for "Just War
Just War
Just war theory is a doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin, studied by moral theologians, ethicists and international policy makers, which holds that a conflict ought to meet philosophical, religious or political criteria.-Origins:The concept of justification for...
", and that already enslaved Indians would benefit from having Christian masters rather than Indian ones.
In Información en Derecho the lawyer Vasco de Quiroga undertook a complex legal argument refuting the reasoning behind this royal decree. The letter was probably directed to his friend Bernal Diaz de Luco member of the Council of Indies. He argued that Indians did not have slavery in the European sense and that therefore there were no class of already enslaved Indians that could be bought by Spaniards and that allowing this was therefore unjust.
He argued that the right way to avoid problems with unruly natives was to gather them into congregations where they would be able to be better controlled and administrated, and indoctrinated into the Christian faith and a Spanish way of life. He proposed that this system of congregations should be based on the organizational principle's laid out in Thomas More's Utopia.
As in More's Utopia the basic social unit would be the family headed by the "padre de familia" corresponding to More's "Paterfamilias". Every thirty families would be overseen by a "jurado" corresponding to More's office of "Syphogrant". Above every ten jurados would be a regidor, corresponding to More's office of "tranibore" or"philarch". On the top of the hierarchy there would be two alcaldes ordinarios and a "tacatecle" corresponding to the Utopian prince. All of these offices were to be held by natives. The highest office of the city that of "corregidor" would be held by a Spaniard, appointed by the audiencia.
Accompanying the información en derecho De Quiroga also sent his own translation into Spanish of More's Utopia (written in Latin), but this document has been lost.
As bishop of Michoacán
In 1536 De Quiroga was appointed the first bishop of the newly established diocese of Michoacán. He was nominated by the President of the Second Audiencia, Bishop of Santo DomingoSanto Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
, Sebastián Ramírez Fuenleal, after the first candidate Fray Luis de Fuensalida had declined the honor. The Emperor and the Pope approved the nomination and in 1537 the appointment was made official and in 1538 he took office. He remained in Michoacán as pastor and protector of the Indians for most of the remainder of his life.
As bishop, he transferred the seat of the bishopric from Tzintzuntzán
Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán
Tzintzuntzán is a town and municipality located in the north of Michoacán state, 53 km from the capital of Morelia and 17.5 km from Pátzcuaro, located on the northeast shore of Lake Pátzcuaro. It is best known as the former capital of the Tarascan state until it was conquered by the...
to Patzcuaro
Pátzcuaro
Pátzcuaro is a large town and municipality located in the state of Michoacán. The town was founded sometime in the 1320s, at first becoming the capital of the Tarascan state and later its ceremonial center...
. In Patzcuaro he founded the cathedral and the Seminary of San Nicolas. He worked to gather the Indians in large towns near Lake Pátzcuaro
Lake Pátzcuaro
Lake Pátzcuaro is a lake in the municipality of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico.The natives believe that the lake is the place where the barrier between life and death is the thinnest....
in the center of Tarascan territory, recently ravaged by Beltrán de Guzmán. Using Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
's Utopia as a model, here the Indians were to be taught religion, crafts and the fundamentals of self-government. Each town was to become the center of an industry. Each person worked six hours a day and contributed on an equal basis to the common welfare. He gradually realized the necessity of restricting the scope of his plans, which he had hoped to apply throughout the colony, to the smaller area over which he had jurisdiction, partially because his personal funds were not unlimited.
Bishop Quiroga's efforts were very successful, and he was said to be greatly beloved by the members of his flock. He was known to them as Tata Vasco (Father Vasco).
Charles V had prohibited the enslavement of conquered subjects, but in 1534 he revoked that prohibition, at least insofar as to allow slavery of natives captured in a "just war". When Quiroga became aware of this, he wrote to Charles his celebrated Información en derecho (1535), in which he strongly condemned the encomenderos
Encomienda
The encomienda was a system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor....
, saying that they did not accept the natives as men, but only as beasts.
In 1545 Quiroga left for Spain to attend the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
, but his ship was damaged and he was forced to return to New Spain. He left again in 1547 and did attend some sessions of the Council. He took several Indians with him and presented them at Court. While in Spain he was frequently called upon by the emperor and the Council of the Indies to give advice on colonial questions.
He returned to New Spain in 1554. On his stopover in Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
, he obtained banana seedlings, which he introduced into Michoacán. In 1555 he participated in the first provincial council of the Church.
He died in his 90's in mid March 1565, tradition has it that he was then on a pastoral visit in Uruapan, but sources rather support that it was rather in the City of Pátzcuaro. He bequeathed his hospitals to the care and proctection of the rector of the college of San Niclas. His body is interred in the cathedral of Pátzcuaro.
Last Will
The testament of Vascco de Quiroga is dated to January 24, 1565 - two months before his death. Here Quiroga laid out his will for the future functioning of the institutions he had established, among them the Colegio de San Nicolas. The will established that the descendents of the Indians of Pátzcuaro who had participated in the building of the Colegio were to receive free education there. He also made provisions for the future expenditure profits of his Pueblo Hospitals, some of which will be invested in monthly mass in commemoration of his parents, and others will be used for wages for the guardians of the Pueblos and the rectors and friars of the Colegio. His 626 books are bequeathed to the Colegio de San Nicolas. He also stated that all of the slaves in his possession were to be given free upon his death.His legacy
The skills he implanted among P'urhépechaP'urhépecha
The P'urhépecha, normally spelled Purépecha in Spanish and in English and traditionally referred to as Tarascans, are an indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of the Mexican state of Michoacán, principally in the area of the cities of Uruapan and Pátzcuaro...
of the Pátzcuaro region have been passed down to their descendants, who are today considered among the most skilled craftspersons in Mexico. Tata Vasco trained his pupils in a variety of disciplines. His method of specialization by community continues to this day: Paracho
Paracho
Paracho de Verduzco is a small city located in Michoacán, Mexico. Located at , about 100 kilometers west of state capital Morelia, it serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of Paracho. It has a population of some 16,500...
produces guitars, Tzintzuntzán
Tzintzuntzan
Tzintzuntzan was the ceremonial center of the pre-Columbian Tarascan state capital of the same name. The name comes from the P'urhépecha word Ts’intsuntsani, which means "place of hummingbirds". After being in Pátzcuaro for the first years of the Tarascan empire, power was consolidated in...
pottery, Santa Clara
Santa Clara del Cobre
Santa Clara del Cobre is a town and municipality located in the center of the state of Michoacán, Mexico, 18 km from Pátzcuaro and 79 km from the state capital of Morelia...
copper products and Nurío woven woolens.
There is a university named for him in Morelia
Morelia
Morelia is a city and municipality in the north central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital of the state. The main pre-Hispanic cultures here were the P'urhépecha and the Matlatzinca, but no major cities were founded in the...
, Michoacán. Miguel Bernal Jiménez
Miguel Bernal Jiménez
Miguel Bernal Jiménez was a Mexican composer, organist, pedagogist and musicologist.He is widely regarded as the best representative of 20th century Mexican religious music, in addition to his important contributions to the Mexican nationalist music movement...
wrote an opera, Tata Vasco, commemorating his fourth centenary. It premiered in Pátzcuaro in February, 1941.
He is credited as the founder of the city of Irapuato, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
Writings
- "Información en derecho del licenciado Quiroga sobre algunas provisiones del Real Consejo de las Indias." Edited by Paulino Castañeda Delgado. Madrid: Ediciones José Porrúa Turanzas, 1974.
- "Ordenanzas de Santa Fe de Vasco de Quiroga" / introducción, paleografía y notas por J. Benedict Warren Morelia, México : Fimax, 1999
- "Testamento del Obispo Vasco de Quiroga" / introducción, paleografía y notas por J. Benedict Warren Morelia, Mexico : Fimax, 1997