The Intimate Frontier: Friendship and Civil Society in Northern New Spain by Ignacio Martínez

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Intimate Frontier: Friendship and Civil Society in Northern New Spain by Ignacio Martínez Jean A. Stuntz The Intimate Frontier: Friendship and Civil Society in Northern New Spain. By Ignacio Martínez. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2019. Pp. 240. Notes, index.) Scholars of the Spanish Borderlands have long used societal relationships to analyze public behavior in New Spain. These relationships could be built on blood kinship or the powerful godparent/godchild relationship. Spaniards also had to abide by a strict code of honor in their public activities. Ignacio Martínez seeks to reframe these male relationships as friendships. He does not include female friendships and public actions. [End Page 88] The first chapter is an intellectual history of male friendships in the classical Mediterranean world, beginning with the Epic of Gilgamesh. Martínez then uses the Las Siete Partidas, a never-adopted law code sponsored (not written) by the Spanish king Alphonso X to show how male friendships were part of idealized Spanish society. To show that medieval Spaniards had a concept of amicable relations, he includes other legal documents, novels, and a variety of other ephemera that mention friendships. In New Spain, Spanish administrators referred to Native Americans as either “Friendly Indians” or “Hostile Indians.” Martínez interprets this to mean that Indians were operating under Spanish ideals of friendship. However, recent scholarship has shown that each Indian group reacted to the Spanish in ways that were most beneficial to themselves and that these Indians might sometimes be amenable to Spanish proposals but at other times were not. Martínez does not take into account that Indians acted in their own best interests but instead tries to impose this idea of friendship (under Spanish definitions) on Native groups. Arguing that the best way to define male friendships was in the breach, Martínez uses two case studies of Father Eusebio Kino. In the first example, Father Kino destroyed the career of a Mexican academic by not treating him with sufficient respect in his publications. In the second, Kino’s feud with Francisco Xavier Mora is presented as a betrayal of their supposed friendship. In neither of these cases does Martínez make a compelling argument that true friendship had actually existed or that Kino’s actions constituted betrayal. The author examines the actions of Spaniards and Native Americans during and after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, again framing events in terms of friendship and betrayal. The final chapter looks at the ways that unequal social relationships caused and affected the Pima Uprising of 1781. In both of these revolts, Indians had, unsurprisingly, pretended to be friendly to their Spanish overlords before the uprising. Martínez concludes that the Spanish, expecting the Pueblos and Pimas to obey the Spanish and to adopt Spanish codes of honor and friendship, saw these rebellions as betrayals of friendship. However, this conclusion is not supported by the evidence presented. Readers, even scholars of the Spanish borderlands, may have difficulty following the book’s argument because it lacks sufficient transitions and explanations. Most information comes from secondary sources, and the absence of a bibliography leaves unclear how much original research was conducted. Events, ascribed motivations, and official documents are applied to the author’s thesis that friendship was the most important factor in New Spain’s society, while other types of relationships or causal factors are ignored. In addition, Martínez does not reference much recently [End Page 89] published material that counters his argument. Overall, those studying the Spanish Borderlands would do best to rely on more traditional interpretations. Jean A. Stuntz West Texas A&M University Copyright © 2020 The Texas State Historical Association