The Relación de Michoacán (1539–1541) and the Politics of Representation in Colonial Mexico

Abstract

Rather than a dichotomous split between conqueror and conquered, interethnic relations in New Spain have increasingly been approached with nuance, recognizing the multiple identities and agendas at play. Afanador-Pujol’s meticulously researched book on the Relación de Michoacán (1539–41) sheds light on the careful crafting of history, both recent and ancient, on the part of two indigenous groups that made up the multiethnic Tarascan state: the migrant Uanacaze, and the isleños who originated on the islands of Lake Pátzcuaro. Commissioned by the Spanish viceroy, supervised by a Franciscan friar, and authored by indigenous nobles and artists, it is one of the earliest surviving manuscripts from colonial Mexico. The author reconstructs the history of the region as expressed in the manuscript with a particular eye for the political machinations of its authors.Using colonial archival documents, Afanador-Pujol teases through the motivations behind the various historical episodes chosen to illustrate the indigenous history of the region. Ultimately she finds that through both mimicry of Spanish forms and the sustained usage of pre-Columbian iconography, the Uanacaze present themselves as conquerors of the region with a Christian-like ethnic identity. Similarly, the indigenous governor Don Pedro Cuiniarangari, an isleño, presents himself as an intermediary between the Uanacaze and the Spanish colonial authorities. Despite their differing agendas, both ethnic groups had to present a united front in their efforts to combat the encroachment of power-hungry Spanish encomenderos (Spaniards granted indigenous labor in the form of an encomienda).Afanador-Pujol highlights the groups’ “selective and calculated effort to convey a particular meaning in the hopes of better communicating with their audience while conveying their knowledge of the pre-Colombian past.” The hybridity visible in the document was thus a conscious effort on the part of the indigenous nobles and artists to carefully craft their history and identity for a Spanish audience.The manuscript is full of emendations to the images as well as discrepancies between image and text, phenomena that Afanador-Pujol examines through visual analysis. The written content of the Relacíon de Michoacán, however, could have been highlighted more clearly by the author. The painted portions of the manuscript are cropped from the text and the reader is at times left wondering how the images discussed fit with the written text of the manuscript. The book would also have benefited from more in-depth discussion of the materiality of the manuscript and its history from creation to the present day. The author nevertheless succeeds in revealing the intricacies of the collaboration between the Spanish patrons and multiethnic native artists and narrators and is an excellent resource for specialists and a wider audience alike.