Death by Effigy: A Case from the Mexican Inquisition

Chapter 6. New and Old Leads

Chapter six new and old leads Puebla, 2–8 January 1582 in early January 1582, six weeks after his last interrogation, the inquisition’s commissioner canon santiago resumed his investigation in Puebla. The last three witnesses he interrogated in november led to important discoveries that shifted attention away from Juan Pérez and toward the royal scribe Juan de molina’s role in the scandal in tecamachalco. The new information, collected just as the commissioner was wrapping up his work in Puebla, was a fortuitous turn of events in an otherwise frustrating investigation. Until the last three days of interrogations, canon santiago was unable to find any hard evidence to support the declarations made by Diego de trujillo and Francisco yáñez accusing Juan Pérez of the crime. Part of canon santiago’s difficulty was that many of the witnesses who had come before him had forgotten important details or they repeated rumors without much substance. Key witnesses had died or had moved away to unknown destinations. Unexpectedly, canon santiago found evidence that raised suspicions about Juan de molina. on 18 november, the saddle maker luis de cepeda, in what was almost an afterthought to his declaration, recounted a recent incident in which catalina rodríguez, speaking in a loud and angry tone to her nephew, the cuban tailor tomás Peña, implicated Juan de molina in placing the sambenitos in tecamachalco. When canon santiago interrogated catalina rodríguez a day later about that incident, she denied saying anything about the sambenitos. nonetheless, she provided new details that bolstered suspicions about Juan de molina. a month and a half later, the inquisition’s commissioner in Puebla was ready to pick up the thread of this investigation. on 2 January 1582, Peña came before canon santiago. The commissioner 1582 94 sought Peña’s recollection of his aunt’s words denouncing molina. The tailor confirmed that, in august 1581, he had gone to catalina rodríguez to tell her about a quarrel between himself and molina over the scribe’s unwillingness to pay for clothes that Peña had made for him. (Peña did not say so, but cepeda explained that when molina refused to pay Peña, the scribe made insulting remarks against catalina rodríguez.) according to Peña, catalina rodríguez was upset at molina for mistreating her nephew and said: “it’s impossible that this scoundrel Juan de molina won’t be punished for the sambenitos put up in tecamachalco, when it’s said that he had something to do with them! if i knew where Domingo lópez de montalbán was, i would ask him if it had been discovered whether molina had put them up, and inform this to the señores inquisitors.”1 Domingo lópez de montalbán was catalina rodríguez’s neighbor in tecamachalco. Domingo’s brother and partner in collecting cochineal, Juan lópez de montalbán, was Juan de molina’s friend; in 1578, he was the prime suspect in the tecamachalco scandal. in rodríguez’s declaration on 19 november , she explained that Domingo repeatedly came to her house asking about molina’s whereabouts the night before the effigy and the sambenitos appeared. one day, Domingo told rodríguez, referring to the sambenitos: “They’re going after your son Juan de molina, because they say he knows about them.” Peña’s testimony corroborated the fact that her neighbor’s questions fueled rodríguez ’s suspicions about her “son” and his role in the tecamachalco incident. canon santiago read back the statements made by Peña. The tailor now corrected himself, insisting that his aunt had not said “sambenitos” but that she referred only to “what happened in tecamachalco.” Peña explained that he asked his aunt what she meant, and she replied: “it’s a matter i couldn’t tell you about.” rodríguez told her nephew that Domingo lópez de montalbán would sometimes come to her house to visit her husband (no name given). Domingo would stay for dinner, and afterward the two men remained seated around the dinner table chatting about an affair in tecamachalco, “without saying what this was about.” Inquisitors: Do you know about the sambenitos and other insignia of the holy office that were put up in tecamachalco . . . ? Tomás Peña: i don’t know about it—never heard about it. Inquisitors: . . . Did you ever see Juan de molina enter catalina rodríguez’s...