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St. James at the Fair: Religious Ceremony, Civic Boosterism, and Commercial Development on the Colonial Mexican Frontier*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Jesús F. de la Teja
Jesús F. de la Teja*
Affiliation:
Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
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Extract

Every year a fair is held in the last days of September at which not only the inhabitants of Saltillo provision themselves for the entire year, but also those of the Kingdom of Nuevo León, Coahuila, Texas, and a great part of the colony of Santander as well. They come to sell wool, deer skins, salt, mules, and some other products that those places produce, and return with clothes, tanned hides, soap, saddles, and a variety of foodstuffs that come from Michoacán and Nueva Galicia, such as rice, sugar, chickpeas, and other commodities harvested in those lands. As a result, Saltillo has become a sort of warehouse, where the neighboring provinces provision themselves not only at fair time, but where they come between-times to stock themselves of those articles that they lack, which are considerable because of the impossibility of preserving them in such hot places.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , January 2001 , pp. 395 - 416
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2001

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Footnotes

*

Research for this article was made possible by a Southwest Texas State University Research Enhancement Grant. I wish to thank José Antonio Fernández, Ross Frank, and the editors of The Americas for their constructive comments on earlier versions. Special thanks to the staffs of the Archivo Municipal de Saltillo and the Instituto Estatal de Documentación de Coahuila for their generous assistance.

References

1 Quoted in Robles, Vito Alessio, Acapulco, Saltillo y Monterrey en la historia y en la leyenda (Mexico City: Editorial Porrua, 1978), p. 190.Google Scholar All translations are the author’s unless otherwise stated.

2 Feria refers both to a special market of greater importance and less frequency than the routine market day, and to a local feast held on specific dates from year to year. In the latter sense, the term tends to be used synonymously with romería, a popular celebration including food and dancing held in the vicinity of a shrine or sanctuary on the feast day of the site’s patron saint. See, for instance, Santos Solla, José Manuel, “Fiestas, ferias y mercados de Galicia,” in El Rostro y el discurso de la fiesta, ed. Rodríguez, Manuel Núñez (Santiago, Spain: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 1994), p. 301.Google Scholar Moreover, fairs exist on numerous levels and for multiple reasons. Fair classification may be based on primary function (commerce, religion, education), type of product (speciality, manufactures, miscellaneous), or scope of influence (local, regional, national, international). My classification is a modification of a very simple and straightforward scheme presented by Eugene Cleef, Van, Trade Centers and Trade Routes (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1937), pp. 141–42.Google Scholar

3 Quote: Christian, William A., Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), p. 118.Google Scholar On the subject of the fairs as social and religious celebrations see, e.g., Braudel, Fernand, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century, Volume II: The Wheels of Commerce, trans. Reynolds, Siân (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), pp. 85,Google Scholar 90; Saldivar, María Villanueva, “Las ferias medievales y su influencia en las ferias mexicanas” (Thesis, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1963), p. 14;Google Scholar Isherwood, Robert M., “Entertainment in the Parisian Fairs in the Eighteenth Century,” Journal of Modern History 53:1 (Mar. 1981), pp. 24–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 In early modern times fairs constituted the most advanced economic institutions of the times in the West. According to Fernand Braudel, in Civilization and Capitalism, “Their function was to interrupt the tight circle of everyday exchanges. . . . they could mobilize the economy of a huge region: sometimes the entire business community of western Europe would meet at them, to take advantage of the liberties and franchises they offered which wiped out for a brief moment the obstacles caused by the numerous taxes and tolls” (p. 82).

5 In his seminal article on New Spain’s fairs, Manuel Carrera Stampa notes that as a formal institution the Jalapa fair came into existence relatively late, 1720, but that long before that the transactions between European merchants and those of New Spain had gone by the term fair. Stampa, Manuel Carrera, “Las ferias novohispanas,” Historia Mexicana 2:3 (enero-marzo 1953), pp. 319–42.Google Scholar Although there is no work specifically on Indian trade fairs, the following works make references to these events: Moorhead, Max L., New Mexico’s Royal Road: Trade and Travel on the Chihuahua Trail, (1958; reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), pp. 42–13;Google Scholar Kenner, Charles L., The Comanchero Frontier: A History of New Mexican-Plains Indian Relations, (1969; reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), p. 40;Google Scholar Martin, Cheryl English, Governance and Society in Colonial Mexico: Chihuahua in the Eighteenth Century (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), pp. 116,Google Scholar 120–21.

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11 Cuello, José, “Saltillo in the Seventeenth Century: Local Society on the North Mexican Frontier” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1981), pp. 14–20,Google Scholar 31–33.

12 On the importance of Saltillo to the development of northeastern New Spain see “Las raíces coloniales del regionalismo en el noreste de México,” in Cuello, José, El norte, el noreste y Saltillo, pp. 171–90.Google Scholar See also Jones, Oakah L. Jr., Los Paisanos: Spanish Settlers on the Northern Frontier of New Spain (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979), pp. 22–23,Google Scholar 33, 48–49, 70.

13 Robles, Alessio, Acapulco, Saltillo y Monterrey, pp. 163–67;Google Scholar Jones, , Los Paisanos, p. 32;Google Scholar Offutt, , “Urban and Rural Society,” p. 64.Google Scholar

14 Although the region north of San Luis Potosí does not figure directly in his work, John Kicza’s discussion of the relationship between provincial shopkeepers and Mexico City wholesalers fits the available evidence for Saltillo. Kicza, John, Colonial Entrepreneurs: Families and Business in Bourbon Mexico City (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983), especially pp. 81–85,Google Scholar 96–99.

15 Cuello, , “Saltillo in the Seventeenth century,” pp. 159–68Google Scholar, 212–26.

16 Jones, , Los Paisanos, p. 31.Google Scholar

17 Cuello, , “The Economic Impact of the Bourbon Reforms,” p. 307.Google Scholar

18 Marker of D. Francisco Dubai, Bexar, [2]/2/173[3], in Carpeta de correspondencia de las Provincias Internas por los años de 1726 a 1731 con los Exmos. Sres. Marqués de Casa y Fuerte y Conde de Fuenclara, Ramo Provincias Internas, Archivo General de la Nación de México, vol. 236, microfilm at the Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin (hereafter AGN:PI); Petition of Vicente Alvarez Travieso, Jan. 30, 1735, AGN:PI vol. 236; Autos de pedimiento de varios soldados del presidio de S. Antonio de Béjar, provincia de Texas, May 29, 1735, AGN:PI vol. 163; Proceso de diligencias seguidas en virtud de superior mandamiento del limo, y Exmo. Señor Arzobispo Virrey de esta Nueva España, por D. Manuel de Sandoval, governador de la Provincia de Texas, AGN:PI vol. 163; Copia de la carta que comprehende las resoluciones tomadas en la revista de inspección pasada por mi el mariscal de campo marques de Rubí, Audiencia de Guadalajara, Archivo General de Indias, 104-6-13, transcript in Spanish Materials from Various Sources, vol. 45, p. 211, Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. See also de la Teja, Jesús F., San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain’s Northern Frontier (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995), pp. 105–06,Google Scholar 115–16, 130; Jones, , Los Paisanos, pp. 40–43.Google Scholar

19 Quoted in De la Teja, , San Antonio de Béxar, p. 135.Google Scholar

20 Cuello, , “The Economic Impact of the Bourbon Reforms,” pp. 309–12Google Scholar; Offutt, , “Urban and Rural Society,” pp. 64,Google Scholar 77.

21 Valle, Rafael Heliodoro, Santiago en América, facsimile ed. (Mexico: Fideicomiso del Premio “Rafael Heliodoro Valle,” 1988), pp. 19–33;Google Scholar Lafaye, Jacques, Quetzalcóatl y Guadalupe: La formación de la conciencia nacional en México, 2nd ed. (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1985), p.288;Google Scholar Simmons, Marc, “Santiago: Reality and Myth,” in Santiago: Saint of Two Worlds, photos. Myers, Joan, essays Simmons, Marc, Pierce, Donna, and Myers, Joan (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991), pp. 16–21.Google Scholar

22 According to Weckmann, Luis, La herencia medieval de México 2nd ed. (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1994),Google Scholar Today there are still eighty-one place names in Mexico bearing his name, many others, including Saltillo, Monclova, and Querétaro, having dropped the saintly patronymic prefix following independence (p. 316). See also Robles, Alessio, Coahuila y Texas, p. 389;Google Scholar Cuello, , El norte, el noreste y Saltillo, p. 95.Google Scholar

23 William B. Taylor makes clear that even as official devotion to Santiago declined, his patronage remained a powerful local symbol at specific places. In the case of Saltillo and its neighboring Tlaxcalan community, both of which strongly identified with the Spanish conquest of the region in the sixteenth century, devotion to Santiago served as an important element of local identity. Taylor, William B., Magistrates of the Sacred: Priests and Parishioners in Eighteenth-Century Mexico (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), pp.297–98.Google Scholar

24 Founded in 1591 and adjoining the Spanish settlement of Santiago del Saltillo, San Esteban remained a separate jurisdiction until after Mexican independence. The town provided colonizing families for a number of frontier communities throughout the seventeenth and into the eighteenth century. See Adams, David B., Las colonias tlaxcaltecas de Coahuila y Nuevo León en la Nueva España (Saltillo: Archivo Municipal de Saltillo, 1991).Google Scholar

25 Personal communication from Elizabeth Butzer concerning San Miguel de Aguayo, now Busta mante, Nuevo León, the municipal archives of which record orders for the annual “revista” from the late seventeenth and throughout the eighteenth century.

26 Chapa, Juan Bautista, Texas and North-Eastern Mexico, 1630–1690, ed. Foster, William C. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997), pp. 38–39.Google Scholar

27 Robles, Alessio, Coahuila y Texas, pp. 355,Google Scholar 292–93.

28 Valdés, Cuellar, Historia de la ciudad de Saltillo, p. 24.Google Scholar

29 Actas de Cabildo, Archivo Municipal de Saltillo, Mexico, (hereafter AMS:AC), Sept. 23, 1696, libro 1–III, acta 15, and Aug. 29, 1700, libro 2, acta 1; Cuadernos de nombramientos de regidores del cabildo, Jul. 28, 1738, Presidencia Municipal, Archivo Municipal de Saltillo, Mexico, (hereafter AMS:PM), caja 14, exp. 32 [this document is mistitled, as it refers to the town’s obligation to the feast and the naming of captains].

30 “Quejas, reclamos, peticiones y otros negocios de ningún valor, 1683,” AMS:PM caja 3/1, exp. 60, doc. 17.

31 The practice at San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua, today’s Ciudad Chihuahua, of making its major patronal celebration the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, which occurs on October 4, suggests that city fathers throughout northern New Spain took the climate into consideration in making their public holidays decisions. Cheryl Martin, in Governance and Society in Colonial Mexico, describes the week-long celebration as “the most important local fiesta.” According to her, the festivities “began with a religious observance that featured music and a sermon. A full round of secular amusements followed, including fireworks, horse races, comedies, and re-enactments of the medieval battles between Moors and Christians. Most exciting of all, however, were the bullfights held in the central plaza, which was especially fenced for the occasion. People traveled to San Felipe from great distances to observe these spectacles and to enjoy the gambling, dancing, and other entertainments that also marked the San Francisco celebration” (p. 100).

32 AMS:AC Aug. 30, 1754, libro 4, acta 85. See also AMS:AC Sept. 11, 1789, libro 5, acta 136, and Sept. 3, 1805, libro 6, acta 128.

33 Poole, Stafford, Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Origins and Sources of a Mexican National Symbol, 1531–1797 (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1995), p. 176;Google Scholar Lafaye, , Quetzalcóatl y Guadalupe, pp. 357–61.Google Scholar

34 AMS:AC Sept. 19, 1737, libro 4, acta 32.

35 Expediente sobre la dedicación de la iglesia parroquial de esta villa del Saltillo, año de 1800, AMS:PM caja 52/1, exp. 35.

36 AMS:AC Sept. 14, 1820, libro 8, f. 59.

37 Cuello, , El norte, el noreste y Saltillo, pp. 179–80.Google Scholar

38 Cuadernos de nombramientos de regidores del cabildo, Jul. 28, 1738, AMS:PM caja 14, exp. 32 [see note 33].

39 AMS:AC Aug. 4, 1764, libro 5, acta 18.

40 AMS:AC Sept. 11, 1789, libro 5, acta 136.

41 Coues, Elliott, ed., The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, in two vols. (1895; reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1987), vol. 2, p. 778.Google Scholar

42 Harris, , A Mexican Family Empire, p. 107;Google Scholar Arizpe, Miguel Ramos, Discursos, memorias e informes, (Mexico City: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma, 1942), pp. 51–52;Google Scholar Año de 1785 y 86. Ynformes y oficios de los señores sub-Ynspectores Generales D. José Espeleta y Dn. Pedro Mendinueta sobre manejo de Yntereses de las tres compañías volantes, AGN:PI vol. 26, exp. 12; Collector of alcabalas of Saltillo José Pereira de Castro to Rafael Martínez Pacheco, Nov. 13, 1788, Bexar Archives, Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin (hereafter BA); Martínez Pacheco to Pereira de Castro, Dec. 8, 1788, BA; Pereira de Castro to Martínez Pacheco, Dec. 26, 1788, BA.

43 Braudel, , The Wheels of Commerce, pp. 82–83;Google Scholar Stampa, Carrera, “Las ferias novohispanas,” pp. 323–26;Google Scholar Wolfe, Martin, “French Views on Wealth and Taxes from the Middle Ages to the Old Regime,” Journal of Economic History 26:4 (Dec. 1966), p. 468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 There was a temporary elevation of the rate to 4 percent between 1746 and 1756. See Cuello, José, “The Economic Impact of the Bourbon Reforms,” p. 305.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., pp. 308–09.

46 Robles, Alessio, Coahuila y Texas, pp. 591–95;Google Scholar Cuellar, , Historia de la ciudad de Saltillo, pp. 27–28;Google Scholar Cuello, , “The Economic Impact of the Bourbon Reforms,” pp. 305–07;Google Scholar Weber, David J., The Spanish Frontier in North America, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 224–25.Google Scholar

47 Moderación de Alcabalas en la villa del Saltillo, 1782, Fondo Colonial, Archivo General del Estado de Coahuila, Instituto Estatal de Documentación del Estado de Coahuila, Saltillo, Mexico (hereafter AGEC:FC), caja 10, exp. 27.

48 Cuello, , “The Economic Impact of the Bourbon Reforms,” pp. 312–16;Google Scholar Regencia, Madrid, Mar. 26, 1814, Decretos, Archivo General del Estado de Coahuila, Instituto Estatal de Documentación del Estado de Coahuila, Saltillo, Mexico (hereafter AGEC:D); Gálvez, and Ibarra, , “La feria de San Juan de los Lagos,” 592;Google Scholar Decree of José de Iturrigaray, Dee. 18, 1805, AGEC:FC caja 20, exp. 60.

49 There is also no evidence of the participation at the Saltillo Fair of unassimilated Indians such as Apaches.

50 AMS:AC Aug. 18, 1785, libro 5, acta 111; Requisitoria del comandante militar al justicia mayor del Saltillo sobre una partida gruesa de indios que están en las inmediaciones de Ciénegas, año de 1769, AGEC:FC caja 7, exp. 45; Order for the removal of roadside crosses, 1784, AMS:PM caja 36, exp. 74; Bandos de buen gobierno del gobernador d. Jacobo de Ugarte, año de 1772, AGEC:FC caja 7, exp. 62; Orden pasada al Alcalde Ordinario mas antiguo del Saltillo para que pusiese en prisión al extranjero don Agustín Guillermo Espangemberg; y diligencias que aquel practicó en su consecuencia, año de 1795, AGEC:FC caja 13, exp. 32; AMS:AC Sept. 29, 1808, libro 6, acta 208, Sept. 29, 1810, libro 7, actas 8–15, and Sept. 28, 1817, libro 7, f. 82v. Manuel Royuela, treasurer, to Gov. Miguel José de Emparán, Aug. 23, 1794, AGEC:FC caja 13, exp. 10; Robles, Alessio, Coahuila y Texas, p. 392 Google Scholar; Harris, , A Mexican Family Empire, pp. 35–39.Google Scholar

51 Pedro José de Padilla’s ordinance for the celebration of the Santiago fair, Sept. 27, 1779, AMS.PM caja 32, exp. 4.

52 Petition of José Miguel Lobo Guerrero and Manuel Antonio de Morales for delay in the start of the fair, [Sept. 16, 1790], AMS:PM caja 42/1, exp. 74.

53 AMS:AC Dec. 29, 1786, libro 5, acta 119.

54 AMS:AC Aug. 29, 1700, libro 2, acta 1, Aug. 30, 1754, libro 4, acta 85, Aug. 24, 1789, libro 5, acta 137, Aug. 22, 1805, libro 6, acta 125, Aug. 20, 1807, libro 6, acta 180.

55 AMS:AC Dec. 29, 1786, libro 5 acta 119, Oct. 11, 1792, libro 5, acta 147, Aug. 1, 1805, libro 6, acta 121, Oct. 31, 1805, libro 6, acta 134, Sept. 18, 1810, libro 7, acta 5; Sept. 7, 1820, libro 8, f. 55; Expediente sobre situación de los puestos de vendimia durante las fiestas en la Villa del Saltillo, año de 1798, AGEC:FC caja 15, exp. 9, and Ayuntamiento of Saltillo to Gov. Cordero, Sept. 7, 1802, AGEC:FC caja 18, exp.24; Documents regarding auctioning of plaza during the annual fair of 1807, AMS:PM caja 57, exp. 64.

56 Cuello, , “The Economic Impact of the Bourbon Reforms,” pp. 318–21.Google Scholar

57 Valdés, Cuelar, Historia de la Ciudad de Saltillo, p. 30.Google Scholar

58 AMS:AC Sept. 30, 1810, libro 7, f. 14, Sept. 28, 1817, libro 7, f. 82v, Aug. 3, 1820, libro 8, f. 52v, Sept. 7, 1820, libro 8, f. 55; Governor to Señor Presidente y vocales de seguridad de la Junta del Saltillo, Aug. 16, 1811, Archivo Municipal de Monclova, photocopy in Instituto Estatal de Documentación del Estado de Coahuila, Saltillo, Mexico; Regencia, Madrid, Mar. 26, 1814, AGEC:D. The war of independence on northern frontier, particularly in Coahuila and Texas, is treated in Robles, Alessio, Coahuila y Texas, pp. 627–65.Google Scholar

59 Presentación hecha por Luis Mariano Menchaca, Mar. 31, 1783, BA; Expediente promovido por Santiago de Zúñiga sobre cantidad de dinero que demanda contra D. Simón de Arocha, May 9, 1788, BA; Autos que sigue Francisco Martínez de Aguirre, vecino y del comercio de México, contra José Julián de la Rosa y Primo Alvarez, Ramo de Consulado, Archivo General de la Nación de México, vol. 188, exp. 9.

60 Copia de la instancia hecha por el Cabildo Eclesiástico de Monterrey, N.L., para que este radique en la Villa de Saltillo, Coah., por las ventajas que presenta. Año de 1797, Archivo de la Secretaría de Defensa Nacional, exp. 1186, microfilm roll 39, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

61 Arizpe, Ramos, Discursos, p. 54.Google Scholar

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64 AMS:AC Oct. 2, 1831, libro 10, acuerdo 640, July 25, 1844, libro 19, acuerdos 85–89, Sept. 15, 1846, libro 19, acuerdos 1812–14; Santiago Vidaurri’s promulgation of the secularization law of 1859, Aug. 4, 1859, AMS:D, Caja 3, exp. 324; La Union, Saltillo, Mexico, Oct. 28, 1854, Archivo General del Estado de Coahuila, Instituto Estatal de Documentación del Estado de Coahuila, Saltillo, Mexico, N58 TI PI; Delgado de Cantú, Gloria M., Historia de Mexico I. El progreso de gestación de un pueblo, 2nd ed. (Mexico City: Alhambra Mexicana, 1994), 483.Google Scholar

65 Municipal president Albino de León’s announcement of the 1861 fair, Aug. 8, 1861, AMS:D caja 3 exp. 560; Governor Evaristo Madero’s promulgation of law regulating the Saltillo Fair, Jan. 3, 1882, AMS:D caja 6 exp. 3; Governor José María Galan’s promulgation of the law reforming article 1 of decree 443, July 14, 1886, AMS:D caja 7 exp. 152.