Death by Effigy: A Case from the Mexican Inquisition

Chapter 9. The Farmer

Chapter nine The Farmer 6–8 May 1582 Between 17 march and 5 may 1582, licenciados Bonilla and santos García took a break from Francisco yáñez’s trial, coinciding with lent and holy Week. after nearly four years, the inquisitors must have hoped that they were at last close to resolving the scandal in tecamachalco. Their strategy continued to focus on a plot first outlined in 1578 by the cochineal collector Juan lópez de montalbán, which he reaffirmed in January 1582 before canon santiago: 1. Francisco yáñez acted as plot leader, putting up the effigy and the sambenitos to avenge a woman—possibly Juana de montoya— for hernando rubio naranjo’s insults against her. yáñez already hated rubio naranjo for insulting yáñez’s mother and sister(s), which led to the attack on rubio naranjo in Quecholac. 2. Juan de molina aided his close friend yáñez by writing in his “very good scribe’s” hand the three placards accompanying the effigy and the sambenitos. he may also have helped yáñez put up the defaming objects. 3. Juana de montoya, or another woman who may have been yáñez’s lover in 1578, may have instigated the humiliating crime against rubio naranjo. she may also have helped make the sambenitos and the effigy, whose fine stitches witnesses thought were the work of a woman. Given the absence of any hard evidence or witnesses, proving such a plot depended on yáñez and molina confessing their role in the scandal, which 115 Farmer they stubbornly refused to do. The inquisitors seemed determined to resort to what notary Euguí called “harsher means” to force these recalcitrant men to admit their guilt. such means seemed necessary to uncover the names of any other accomplices in carrying out the elaborate insult against rubio naranjo. Between January and march 1582, the inquisitors established several contradictions in the declarations of yáñez and molina. at last, the testimony of the interpreter Juan lópez appeared to provide the strongest evidence yet that the two men had been lying about their role in the scandal. in early may, licenciados Bonilla and santos García were ready to apply the harsher methods that would finally establish the truth. * * * on 6 may, the inquisitors ordered the jailer to bring before them Francisco yáñez, who had not appeared at an audience since January. The questioning began: Inquisitors: have you remembered anything new? tell the truth under the oath you’ve made! Francisco Yáñez: i don’t remember anything new. Inquisitors: The prosecuting attorney for the holy office wishes to declare the evidence collected against you. you would do well to declare the whole truth. tell the truth! Yáñez: i have nothing more to say. What made yáñez so stubborn? a thirty-year-old farmer, he was a castizo and the legitimate son of a mestiza and a Portuguese man, both of whom were dead. around 1541, Francisco yáñez, senior, had come to the region of Puebla along with four other Portuguese farmers to cultivate woad (pastel), used as a blue dye. German brokers and business associates of the Weslers, German bankersofEmperorcharlesV,receivedaprivilegefromtheemperortoundertake its cultivation.1 The venture failed, but yáñez stayed in mexico, married a mestiza, and settled in tecamachalco, where Francisco yáñez, junior, was born around 1551. The younger Francisco yáñez moved to Quecholac, where he lived with his mestiza wife. he conducted business (trata e contrata) in his hometown, as well as in the surrounding towns and cities.2 he knew how to read and write. he counted among his many acquaintances the tecamachalco horseshoe maker Juan Guillén, as well as three scribes: Pedro de Beristain 116 1582 from tecamachalco; Francisco de molina from tepeaca; and his close friend Juan de molina. yáñez may have had personal or family connections with more powerful figures, such as the regidor, or councilman, from Puebla, who paid his bail in november 1581, after canon santiago arrested yáñez. The inquisitors did not ask about his personal wealth, but yáñez was certainly not poor. he owned a horse. he had a house in tecamachalco, which Juan lópez described as “miserable and falling,” in addition to his house in Quecholac; he also had fields near tecamachalco. When yáñez’s mother died in 1581, she left him an inheritance in tlaxcala...