The Hispanization of northern Mexico followed paths as diverse as the vastness of that region and the variety of its indigenous groups.
The first Spanish incursions had a different mood. Hernan Cortes He sent several maritime expeditions across the Pacific Ocean, while Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca undertook an eight-year trek - both fortuitous and fascinating - between Texas and Sinaloa (1528-1536). Around the same time, Nuño de Guzmán was heading northwest, beyond Culiacán, and some time later Fray Marcos de Niza and Francisco Vázquez de Coronado arrived in what is now the southwest of the United States in search of the imaginary Seven Cities of Cíbola ...
After them came the military, miners and settlers of different races from New Spain who established border defenses, exploited the rich veins of silver in the mountains or simply started a new life with cattle raising or any other activity that they found suitable. And although they managed to found many of our northern cities since the 16th century - Zacatecas, Durango and Monterrey, for example - they also faced strong indigenous resistance from a very early date.
The north was not only arid and extensive, but was populated by numerous and fierce Indians who, given their nomadic or semi-nomadic character, could not be easily dominated. At first, these indigenous people were called "Chichimecas", a derogatory word that the developed Nahuatl-speaking peoples of Mesoamerica applied to those threatening "barbarian" peoples. After the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica, the threat continued, so that the name remained for many years.
The confrontations between settlers and "barbarian" Indians were numerous. Almost all of the north, from the Bajío onwards, was the scene at different times of a long war that did not have the Spaniards as the exclusive enemies of the Indians. The last battles against "wild" Indians (that was the term of the time) were won by the Mexicans in Chihuahua and Sonora in the late 19th century against Vitorio, Ju, Gerónimo, and other legendary Apache leaders.
The history of the Hispanization of the north does not, however, focus on colonization and the different Chichimeca wars. Its most brilliant chapter is that of evangelization.
Unlike what happened in Mesoamerica, here the cross and the sword often followed different paths. Numerous solitary missionaries went into new routes with the purpose of taking the gospel to the pagan Indians. The missionaries preached the Christian doctrine among the Indians, which in those days was equivalent to Western civilization. With the catechism they introduced the practice of monogamy, the prohibition of cannibalism, the Spanish language, the raising of cattle, the planting of novel cereals, the use of the plow and many other cultural elements that included, of course, life in fixed villages .
The main protagonists of this epic were the Franciscan friars, who mainly occupied the northeast (Coahuila, Texas, etc.), and the parents of the Society of Jesus, who evangelized the northwest (Sinaloa, Sonora, the Californias). It is difficult to make an account of all his work, but a unique case can illustrate the spirit of these men: that of the Jesuit Francisco Eusebio Kino (1645-1711).
Kino, born in Italy (near Trento), scorned the prestige of university chairs in Austria by going on a missionary mission. He longed to go to China, but luck led him to northwestern Mexico. After many back and forth, including a frustrated stay in untamed California, Kino was sent as a missionary to Pimería, the land of the Pimas, which today corresponds to northern Sonora and southern Arizona.
He got there at age 42 (in 1687) and immediately took the reins of missionary work - figuratively and literally: his job was largely horseback riding. Sometimes alone, and sometimes with the help of a few other Jesuits, he founded successful missions at a dizzying rate - almost one per year on average. Some of them are today thriving cities, such as Caborca, Magdalena, Sonoyta, San Ignacio… He arrived, preached, convinced and founded. Then he would advance another forty or one hundred kilometers and restart the procedure. Later he returned to administer the sacraments and teach, to consolidate the mission and to build the temple.
In the midst of his jobs, Kino himself negotiated peace accords between the warring Indian groups, which he took time to explore. Thus, he rediscovered the Colorado River and mapped the route of the Gila River, which thanks to him was once a Mexican river. It also confirmed what 16th century explorers had learned, and later century Europeans forgot: that California was not an island, but a peninsula.
Kino is sometimes called the cowboy father, and with good reason. On horseback he crossed the plains populated by saguaros, herding cattle and sheep: livestock had to be established among the new catechumens. The missions produced and Kino knew then that the surpluses would serve as nutrients for new projects; Due to his insistence, missions were sent to Baja California, which were initially supplied from Pimería.
In just twenty-four years of missionary work, Kino peacefully incorporated into Mexico a territory as extensive as the state of Oaxaca. A great desert, yes, but a desert that he knew how to make flourish.
Not much remains today of Kino's missions. The men - Indians and whites - are different; the missions ceased to be so and disappeared or were transformed into towns and cities. Also the adobe of the constructions fell apart. Not much remains: just Sonora and Arizona.
Source: Passages of History No. 9 The Warriors of the Northern Plains
Hernan CortesJournalist and historian. He is a professor of Geography and History and Historical Journalism at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National Autonomous University of Mexico where he tries to spread his delirium through the rare corners that make up this country.
