Africans to Spanish America: Expanding the Diaspora

5. Afro-Mexican Saintly Devotion in a Mexico City Alley

5 Afro-Mexican Saintly Devotion in a Mexico City Alley joan c. bristol In October 1699, María Lópes de Avilés informed Mexico City inquisitors about a rumor that Isidro the sweet seller, along with others, had “made in his house a certain feast, or celebration to which a variety of men of all species gathered.”1 She claimed they “had founded there in their fashion a religión of Saint Augustine,” saying Mass and other prayers in Spanish and Latin.2 According to her, they wore “habit[s]” of brown scapulars with red hearts and “suits of seculars” (referring to secular clergy, those unconnected to an order).3 She reported they had other “religions,” including one for women called the “Iphigenias,” and “they name their Priors, Provincials, Masters of novices . . . and Isidro of Sweets is the abbot.”4 María’s informant was Lucas Mercado, identified as Spanish. Under the questioning of inquisitors, Lucas claimed that the previous year he had witnessed a meeting on the Calle de Escalerillas that was held in a room with a pulpit and an image of Saint Augustine. Among the attendees “most [were] blacks and mulattoes.”5 Lucas had attended similar meetings elsewhere. He claimed that “the congregants, blacks and mulattoes, and the rest . . . name themselves as if they were religiosos [clerics].”6 He also had heard of AfroMexican women called religiosas (nuns) of Saint Iphigenia.7 On the feast day of Saint Francisco, he had seen another group processing with an image, probably the saint himself, from the convent church to their meeting place. Members had then marched around a room carrying crosses, placed a man in the middle as if he were dead, and sung a response. He identified these as “exercises like those the Third Order of Saint Francisco practice.”8 This chapter explores the possible meanings this gathering and others like it may have had for these “congregants, blacks and mulattoes, and the rest,” as Lucas identified them.9 The case reflects Afro-Mexicans’ level of involvement in colonial society and religious life and their desires to gain social power as defined by colonial authorities. Yet at the same time it shows us Afro-Mexicans asserting the right to worship as Christians on their own terms. Both of these positions, which really are two sides of the same coin, reflect their roles as Christiansandcolonialsubjects.Theseattitudesandactionsareunderstandable when we consider the context in which the case against Isidro and the other worshippersoccurred.Bytheturnoftheeighteenthcentury,halfacenturyafter thepeakoftheMexicanslavetrade,the“blacksandmulattoes”Lucasidentified would have been American-born creoles rather than Africans. It is likely that mulattoes (commonly defined as the mixed descendants of Europeans, in this case Spaniards, and Africans) predominated, since they formed the majority of the Afro-Mexican population in this period. Unlike their African-born ancestors of the previous centuries, who had to quickly learn about Christianity in ordertoescapesuspicionsofblasphemyandheresy,Afro-Mexicansoftheearly eighteenth century acted as seasoned members of colonial society who were familiar and comfortable with Catholic practice. Free Afro-Mexicans were also present in significant numbers among the larger population by this period and were no doubt represented among this group. María’s description of “men of allspecies”remindsusthatmostearlyeighteenth-centuryAfro-Mexicanswere fully part of colonial society; many had lived alongside Spaniards and others for at least a few generations and had some Spanish or indigenous ancestry. This integration was also reflected in the descriptions of the gathering, which involved members of different social groups. Yet in his emphasis on the black and mulatto composition of the meeting , Lucas’s testimony indicates that Afro-Mexicans formed a discrete group that was distinguished by the particular challenges its members faced and by shared values and cultural practices. Like Africans and their descendants all over Latin America, Afro-Mexicans had to negotiate the limitations and opportunities that were provided to them by colonial rulers who were committed to limiting their freedom. Even legally free Afro-Mexicans were not allowed to go to the university or profess as clerics, for example. This inquisition case against Isidro and his fellow congregants shows that Catholic practice was central to the negotiation of the space between restriction and opportunity. Many of the identities and opportunities available to Africans and their descendants all over Spanish America were shaped by imperial and church policies.10 In addition, Catholic practice brought Afro–Latin saintly devotion in a mexico city alley · 115 Americans material and spiritual opportunities...