Michoacan and Eden: Vasco de Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico (review)

Michoacán and Eden: Vasco de Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico. By Bernardino Verástique. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000. i + 194 pp., introduction, map, illustrations, bibliography, index. $40.00 cloth, 19.95 paper.)

In Michoacán and Eden, Bernardino de Verástique provides an excellent new study of the conquest of western Mexico. The book moves well beyond previous studies in several ways, especially in its sensitivity toward the resilience and creativity of Purhépecha-Chichimec culture during the consolidation of colonial rule in Michoacán. Verastique also succeeds in moving beyond hagiographic descriptions of Vasco de Quiroga to provide a nuanced portrait of the legendary first bishop of Michoacán, whose tenure extended from 1538 to 1565. The book is written in an accessible style appropriate for undergraduates and the general public, though it is also substantial enough for graduate seminars. It is a fine contribution to the sparse though increasing literature on western Mexico during the sixteenth century.

The book consists of eight chapters and an epilogue. The first two chapters examine the social world and religious worldview of the Purhépecha-Chichimec of Michoacán, respectively. The next two chapters perform a similar task for the diverse peoples of the newly consolidated emerging nation of Spain. The most important achievement of these first four chapters is to demonstrate conclusively the heterogeneity of the peoples of sixteenth-century Mexico, inadequately referred to as “Spaniards” and “Indians.” Verastique also provides a thorough discussion and convincing answer to the debates over the proper nomenclature of the indigenous peoples of western Mexico (Tarascan, Purépecha, Purhépecha, Purhépecha-Chichimec). Though the substance of the argument in these chapters would have remained unchanged, greater depth would have been achieved by incorporating the works of Helen Perlstein Pollard and Cynthia Leigh Stone.

The next four chapters explore the consolidation of colonial rule in Michoacán. Chapters five and six provide a thorough summary of the arrival of Spaniards in Michoacán. Special attention is paid to the well-known factional struggles of Spaniards in the 1520s and 1530s, including divisions among those charged with the Christian evangelization of the region (Franciscans, Augustinians, and “seculars” or priests not belonging to the religious orders). The most-famous of the seculars was Vasco de Quiroga. Chapter seven analyzes the Información en derecho, Vasco de Quiroga’s longest written work. This chapter notes the diverse intellectual origins of Vasco de Quiroga’s thought and successfully argues that Silvio Zavala’s classic work overemphasizes the influence of Thomas More on Quiroga. Chapter eight discusses Santa Fe de Michoacán, the community established by Vasco de Quiroga, based on a reading of the Ordenanzas, compiled between 1555 and 1565. The epilogue provides a useful comparative look at the varied evangelization experiences of the Yucatán Peninsula, the central valley of Mexico, and Michoacán. Though there were similarities in all three regions, Verastique argues that historical circumstances led to an earlier and more-thorough Spanish colonial influence on local culture in Michoacán.

Though quite successful, Michoacán and Eden leaves some issues unresolved. Verastique acknowledges the authoritarian and ethnocentric aspects of Vasco de Quiroga’s thought and practice as well as the slim documentary base upon which many of these assumptions rest. He lends substantial depth to Anthony Pagden’s earlier claim that Vasco de Quiroga’s humanism was not humanitarian (123). However, his assertion that “absent from the record is how the Purhépecha responded to Quiroga’s precise plans to resocialize them” (142) seems to conflict with the earlier claim that during his lifetime, indigenes considered Quiroga a “benevolent lord” (94). Perhaps some did, and perhaps some did not, but the absence of data in this case warrants caution. Moreover, do Quiroga’s “ideals of Christian universalism and Renaissance humanism,” as recorded in the Información en derecho, really reveal the forging of...