The Brutal Reign of Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán

Introduction

The following article discusses the life and career of Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, who served as the Governor of the provinces of Pánuco and Nueva Galicia a decade after Cortés had destroyed the Aztec Empire.  As a conqueror, he succeeded in bringing a vast new territory under the domain of the Spanish Empire.  However, as will be seen below, Nuño de Guzmán, as an archfoe of Hernán Cortés, terrorized both Spaniards and Indigenous people who stood in his way. He was selected as the leader of the First Audiencia in Mexico City, but after a short time, he left Mexico City to conquer the vast area that became known as Nueva Galicia (New Galicia).

However, he compulsively dealt with the enslavement of the Indigenous people. He also impressed thousands of Indigenous people into his army and was careless in his concerns for their welfare. Over time, he made so many enemies that he was eventually removed from all his posts and thrown into jail.  Soon after his trial, he was sent to Spain where he lived out the rest of his life in relative obscurity.

The Early Years

Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán was probably born in the late 1480's or early 1490's in Guadalajara, Castilla, España [Spain]. He was the second eldest of five sons and two daughters born to Hernán Beltrán de Guzmán, a wealthy merchant and a high constable of the Spanish Inquisition, and of Magdalena de Guzman.[1] Nuño de Guzmán’s biographer, Donald E. Chipman, describes and illustrates the ancestors of the man in his book, Nuño de Guzmán and the Province of Pánuco in New Spain, 1518-1533 (1967), pages 111-114.

Early on in Nuño’s life, the Guzmán family had been supportive of Prince Carlos (Charles) (1500-1558), who would become King of Spain in 1516 (as Carlos I) and Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 (as Carlos V). It is known that for a period of time, Guzmán and his younger brother served as members of the 100 royal bodyguards of Carlos V, and Nuño even accompanied the Emperor on a trip to Flanders in 1522.[2] 

According to Guzmán biographer, Professor Donald E. Chipman, Guzmán probably accompanied Carlos V as a personal bodyguard when the King left Spain in May 1520. Upon returning from that trip, Guzmán lived in Valladolid, Spain, but he later maintained residences in Madrid and Toledo.[3] Some historians have referred to Nuño de Guzmán as a lawyer, but according to Professor Chipman, Guzmán had some legal training but probably did not hold a degree in law.[4]

Guzmán Receives the Appointment as Governor of Pánuco (1525)

On November 4, 1525, while living in Toledo, Guzmán received his appointment as the Governor of Pánuco in Nueva España (New Spain, now known as Mexico). He probably received this appointment because of his family’s service to the King and the fact that he was well known in court circles. As part of his instructions as governor of Panuco, Guzman was to proceed without delay to Sevilla and to present himself before the officials of the Casa de Contratación, the Spanish government agency responsible for overseas travel.[5]

Guzmán Comes to the Americas (1526)

On March 23, 1526, Guzman and his staff were cleared by the Casa de Contratación for passage to the Indies [West Indies], and on May 14, he left Sanlúcar de la Barrameda on the southern shore of Cádiz. His destination was Española [Hispaniola: Now Haiti and the Dominican Republic]. The date of Guzman's arrival in the West Indies is not known, but he was detained there for several months because of illness, probably malaria.[6] Most historians feel that Guzmán was sent to Mexico to counterbalance the influence of Hernán Cortés, who as the leader of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was becoming very powerful, so powerful that it worried King Carlos.

The Governor of Pánuco (1527)

Nuño de Guzmán took office as the Governor of Pánuco in May 1527.[7] Pánuco had been under the de facto control of Hernán Cortés since 1523, but this autonomous area on the Gulf Coast of Mexico was separated from the rest of Nueva España as a second Ayuntamiento (Council or Municipality). The capital of Pánuco was Villa de Santiesteban del Puerto, which had been established by Cortés in 1522.  The following map by Jonathan Rodriquez shows the State of Pánuco during Guzmán’s reign.

Map of Pánuco by Jonathan Rodriguez.

While the pro-Cortés faction viewed Guzmán as a person with no military experience, he had the support of the Council of Indies and the Spanish Crown who viewed him as an important counterbalance to Cortés, whose aspirations to power were worrisome to King Carlos. In addition, some of Spanish conquerors who had not received what they considered sufficient rewards from Cortés's distribution of encomiendas supported Guzmán against Cortés.[8]

In his position, Guzman sold natives into slavery and seized the estates of his political opponents. He worked to undermine anyone who supported Cortés.[9] In fact, according to some historical sources, Guzman spent the first six months in Pánuco waging war against both Spaniards and Huasteca chieftains. [The Huastecas were the local tribal group in Pánuco.] His battles against the Indigenous people were characterized by “constant slave-hunting raids.”[10] As governor, Guzmán instituted a system of Indian slave trade in Pánuco. During a raid in Huasteca territory in 1528, he allowed every horseman to take 20 Indian slaves and each footman took fifteen. [11]

The Encomienda Labor System

In the early years of Nueva España (New Spain), Hernán Cortés, seeking to reward his officers for their services, awarded many encomienda grants to the inner core of his army. The first cédulas de encomienda were distributed by Cortes in July 1524.[12] The tribute-receiving soldier, known as an encomendero, received a grant in the form of land or Indian labor. The grant would give the Spanish encomendero the right to extract a few months' work from a certain proportion of the male population of nearby agrarian communities. In return, the encomendero was to provide for the welfare of the Indians under his command. The encomendero also provided his workers with military protection, a Christian education, and introduced them to Spanish customs.[13]

In effect, the “encomendero” was a deputy charged by the crown with responsibility for the support of the Indigenous people and their moral and religious welfare. Instead of being a grant of land, the encomienda was more often a grant of people. Typically, an encomienda in Mexico included an entire village, up to several hundred men, women, and children. Their Spanish masters could force them to mine gold, cultivate crops, or carry goods like beasts of burden. It was a system that became rife with corruption and, in some cases, led to misery and death for some of the subjects [the native people].

Appointed President of the First Audiencia of Mexico (1528)

Because of his political conflicts with the Spanish Crown, Cortés sailed for Spain in 1528 to appeal his case to King Carlos. Meanwhile, in December 1527, the government of King Carlos set up the First Audiencia (Governing Committee or High Court) in Mexico City to take control of the colony and to replace Cortés’ rule. The Audiencia consisted of a President (Guzmán) and four oidores (judges).  On November 13, 1528, Nuño Guzmán de Beltran, was named by the Spanish King Carlos to head this new government and end the perceived anarchy that was growing in Nueva España.  On Dec. 8, 1528, Guzman reached Mexico City and assumed the office of President of New Spain’s First Audiencia.[14]

Cortes described Guzman’s government as violent, arbitrary and exploitative of indigenous people, and it became obvious that Guzman, in his envy of Cortez, made ridiculous accusations of Cortes and was working to undermine and overthrow the leadership of Cortes.[15] According to the author Andrew L. Toth, “Cortéz, himself a master of intrigue, seems to have met his match in Guzmán who now ruled all of New Spain with an iron hand.” [16]

The Ruthless Guzmán

According to J. Lloyd Mecham, the author of Francisco de Ibarra and Nueva Vizcaya,[17] “Guzmán was an able and even brilliant lawyer, a man of great energy and firmness, but insatiably ambitious, aggressive, wily, and cruel.” Unfortunately, writes Professor Bernardino Verástique, “the government of Spain had no idea of the character of the man whom they had appointed as president of the Audiencia.” Eventually it became apparent that the "law and order personality" of Guzmán would be replaced with "ruthlessness and obstinacy." As soon as Guzmán took over, "he sold Amerindians into slavery, ransacked their temples searching for treasure, exacted heavy tribute payments from the caciques, and kidnapped women." Guzmán was “equally spiteful with his own countrymen,” confiscating the encomiendas that Cortés had awarded his cronies.[18]  As it turns out Guzman became regarded as a “natural gangster” and as “ruthless and unyielding.”[19]

The slaving operations in Pánuco that Guzmán had begun as Governor expanded even more when he became President of the Royal Audiencia of Mexico. He started smuggling Indigenous slaves into Pánuco and shipped them on to the Caribbean.[20] With little regard for Spanish laws forbidding the enslavement of Indians, Guzmán enslaved and shipped tens of thousands of Indians off to the Caribbean Islands to live out their lives as slaves.[21]

Cortés Goes to Spain (1528)

In 1528, Hernán Cortés was received in Spain by King Carlos with every distinction. In return for his conquest of the Aztec Empire and his efforts to expand the Spanish Empire in Mexico, Cortés was rewarded in 1529 by being accorded the noble title “Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca” (Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca). The Oaxaca Valley was one of the wealthiest regions of New Spain, and Cortés had 23,000 vassals in 23 named encomiendas in perpetuity. Although confirmed in his land holdings and vassals, he was not reinstated as Governor and was never again given any important office in the administration of New Spain.[22]

 Guzmán Worries About the Return of Cortés

Back in Mexico City, Nuño de Guzmán instituted hearings and reforms that soon alienated “all but the strongest opponents of Cortés.” By the autumn of 1529, it had become apparent to Guzman himself that “he had irreparably violated his royal prerogative.” Learning that Cortes would soon return to Mexico from Spain with the title of Marquis and other royal concessions, Guzman decided it was time for him to leave Mexico City and began to organize an expedition to conquer the regions that are today known as Jalisco, Nayarit, and Sinaloa. He had hoped to find great riches and “forestall the wrath of the Crown.”[23]

Guzmán Leaves Mexico City (Dec. 1529)

Uneasy at the imminent return of Hernan Cortes to Mexico City after his lengthy stay in Spain, Nuno de Guzman resigned his office in December 1529 and put Juan Ortiz de Matienzo in charge of the Audiencia. Then, on Dec. 22, 1529, Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán left Mexico City with a force of 500 Spaniards and 7,000 to 8,000 Indian auxiliaries and 12 cannons.[24]

Guzmán had conscripted several thousand native warriors and Spaniards and also demanded supplies from Indigenous communities of central Mexico. Most of Guzman’s conscripts were from Tlaxcala, nearby Huejotzinco, and Mexico City.[25] Professor Altman wrote that “Guzmán’s recruitment techniques… were characterized by extortion and intimidation, and there is little indication of voluntary indigenous participation.”[26]

Guzmán and the King of the Purépecha

When Guzmán left Mexico City for Michoacan at the very end of 1529, he took with him the indigenous ruler of the former Tarascan (Purépecha) state, the Cazonci (Monarch) named Tangoxoán II whom he had been holding prisoner in the capital.[27] Tangoxoán II would be the last Cazonci of the Purépecha Empire, ruling from 1520–1530. He was baptized Francisco when his realm made a peace treaty with Hernán Cortés.

J. Benedict Warren has noted “the Cazonci’s docile submission to Spanish rule,” but explained it as follows: “The Cazonci knew of the great tactical advantage the Spaniards possessed in their firearms and horses. He had heard of the terrible vengeance that they had wrought on the Aztec capital for its resistance.” In such circumstances, he found it more prudent to come to terms with the Spanish invaders.[28]

Guzmán arrived in Michoacán and demanded King Tangoxoán to turn over all his gold and other treasures. Guzmán increased the pressure on the Cazonci to provide manpower and supplies so that Guzmán could continue his expedition to the north. On February 5, Guzmán lost his patience and imprisoned the Cazonci, accusing him of treason and interrogating him under torture.[29] In fact, Guzmán also tortured several of the leading nobles of Michoacan in an effort to force them to reveal the location of the Cazonci’s alleged treasure.[30]

The Torture and Death of Tangoxoán (February 1530)

Cazonci Tangoxoán was unable to deliver a suitable answer to his captor. Thus, on February 14, 1530, Guzmán had the Cazonci tortured, dragged behind a horse and finally burned at the stake.[31]  According to J. Benedict Warren, “the execution of the Cazonci was the most symbolic act marking the end of the pre-Spanish kingdom of Michoacán and the completion of the Spanish conquest of the region.”[32]

Guzmán's cruelty stunned and horrified the Tarascan (Purépecha) people who had made their best efforts to accommodate the Spaniards and their Tlaxcalan allies. Guzmán's forces plundered the once grand and powerful Purépecha nation. Temples, houses, and fields were devastated and, fearing for their lives, many of Purhépecha population fled far into the mountains to hide. Guzmán now declared himself “King of the Tarascan Empire.”

Preparations to Leave Michoacán

Next, Guzmán prepared to leave Michoacán. However, before moving on to plunder Jalisco, Guzmán drafted 8,000 Purépecha men to serve as soldiers in his army. According to the American historian, Professor Ida Louise Altman, “Force and intimidation marked Guzmán’s recruitment efforts for this expedition. The heavy-handed tactics he used to muster an army were directed not only at Indians from central Mexico and Michoacan but in some cases toward Spaniards as well.”[33] News of Guzmán's blatant atrocities rippled through the countryside and reached the ears of church authorities. While Guzmán moved on in an attempt to elude the authorities in Mexico City, Bishops Bartolomé de Las Casas and Zumárraga would begin to prepare a case against Guzmán.

In February 1530, Guzman’s expedition left Michoacan.[34] According to Professor Peter Gerhard, between February and June 1530, Guzman would conduct “a rapid and brutal campaign” through the Coca, Tecuexe and Cazcán territories.[35] Some historians have referred to Guzman’s expedition as the Entrada. According to Professor Altman, “Guzmán’s party headed northwest on a zigzagging route, skirting north of Lake Chapala and eventually reaching the Pacific coast.”[36] The following map shows the approximate route taken by Guzmán and his lieutenants over a two-year period.

Source: MazatlanToday.com, “History of Sinaloa, Mexico” (November 25, 2000). Online:  

https://mazatlantoday.net/history-of-sinaloa-mexico-english.html.

The Guzmán Entrada (1530-1531)

In March 1530, Nuno de Guzmán’s army crossed into Jalisco and soon attacked Coca-speaking Tecuexe farmers in the area of the present-day municipio of Tototlán. They set up a fortress at Jamay and then moved on through other parts of Jalisco.[37]  Guzmán’s force reached Tonalá by March 25, 1530 and subjugated its queen along with numerous subchiefs. The army then struck north, repelling a native ambush at Tetlán.[38] Guzman reached El Teul early in April 1530 where he saw a great temple and destroyed it. At Teul, Guzman divided his forces.[39] From Teul, Guzmán’s subordinate, Pedro Almíndez Chirinos, traveled north with a force of fifty Spaniards and 500 Tarascan and Tlaxcalan allies. Chirino took a direct route across the Sierra Madre (into Huichol Territory).[40]

Reaching the area of present-day Zacatecas, Guzmán’s forces entered the Cazcán territory near Nochistlán. Some of the indigenous tribes offered resistance, while others taming submitted. There were several bloody battles which were able to put Juchipila, Nochistlán, Mezquitula, Cuzpala, Moyahua, Tenayuca, Jalpa, Matabasco and Teúl under Spanish control. Eventually, Guzmán arrived in Tepic [now the capital of Nayarit] on May 13, 1530. Here his force met with the force under Chirinos.

Everywhere along the path of his expedition, Guzman’s force left devastation. Professor Altman also states that Guzmán made “attempts to impose the encomienda on indigenous groups in Nueva Galicia that differed considerably from those of central Mexico in their sociopolitical organization,” pointing out that these attempts “fomented almost constant disorder and conflict in the region during the 1530s.”[41] Altman also points out that “Guzmán’s increasingly controversial tactics” eventually led to “considerable scrutiny of his actions during the two-year entrada.[42]

In Tepic, Guzmán halted for several weeks and refreshed his expedition with supplies and then moved north and westward into the land of the Totorame who inhabited the coastal plain from Tepic as far north as the Ria Piaxtla.[43] The following map shows the journey Guzmán’s army took from February 1530 to March 1531.

The Route Taken by Guzman’s Army (February 1530 to March 1531). Map by Jonathan Rodriguez.

Floods and Disease Take A Toll on Guzmán’s Force (September 1530)

In August 1530, Guzmán’s army reached the Río Acaponeta near present-day San Pedro in the native Province of Aztatlán, where they settled down as the rainy season set in. However, a month after their arrival, a tropical storm inundated Guzman’s encampment and destroyed his supplies. The flood was accompanied by an epidemic in which as many as 8,000 native allies perished. It is believed that both dysentery and typhoid may have hit the area.[44]

Guzman’s Army Gets Reinforcements (January 1531)

Guzmán sent his maestro de campo (Chief of Staff) south into Jalisco and Michoacán to obtain more native reinforcements By January 1531, Guzman’s army was replenished with several thousand impressed reinforcements. Soon the force moved on to the town and province of Chametla (now in southern Sinaloa, near Rosario). To help them in their journey from Aztatlán, 150 native porters were brought in to help move the army’s baggage and supplies. When they arrived in Chametla in late November or early December, a local cacique joined the force, bringing with him 5,000 warriors from 22 nearby pueblos. In addition, the cacique provided Guzmán and his army with two months of supplies.[45]

Guzman’s army departed Chametla and resumed its northward marching, subduing Tahue native populations along the Presidio and Piaxtla rivers. The Tahue inhabited the coastal area as far north as the Mocorito River.[46] Foremost in the mind of Guzmán at this time was to find the land of the Amazons (inhabited only by women) and the location of the Seven Cities of Cibola (Gold).  Daniel T. Reff points out that Guzmán was “spurred on by lust and greed” but found “little gold or other hoped-for wealth.” In fact, when the natives had no gold to offer, a frustrated Guzmán “promptly ordered the destruction of several settlements.” [47]

Equipped with new reinforcements, Guzman’s main force continued its journey northward through Sinaloa. Peter Gerhard notes that “Guzmán’s strategy throughout was to terrorize the natives with often unprovoked killing, torture, and enslavement – there was remarkably little resistance. The army left a path of corpses and destroyed houses and crops, impressing surviving males into service and leaving women and children to starve.”[48]

Guzman’s Army Reaches Culiacán (March 1531)

In March 1531, Guzmán's army reached the site of present-day Culiacán [in present-day Sinaloa], where his force engaged an army of 30,000 warriors in a pitched battle. After several hours of battle, 5,000 Indians on both sides fell, and the indigenous forces of that area were decisively defeated and, as Professor Gerhard notes, the victors "proceeded to enslave as many people as they could catch." The Indigenous people confronted by Guzmán belonged to the Cáhita language group. Speaking eighteen closely related dialects, the Cáhita peoples of Sinaloa and Sonora numbered about 115,000 and were the most numerous of any single language group in northern Mexico. These Indians inhabited the coastal area of northwestern Mexico along the lower courses of the Sinaloa, Fuerte, Mayo, and Yaqui Rivers.
Guzman’s army stayed in the Culiacán Valley for about seven months, sending several expeditions and scouting parties northward to check out the validity of certain legends, such as the Seven Cities of Cíbola (Gold). With Culiacán as a base, Guzman’s forces advanced as far as Cumuripa in Sonora. At the same time, repeated slaving expeditions led to a breakdown of the Tahue and Totorame peoples of northern Nayarit and southern and central Sinaloa.[49] The following map from Daniel T. Reff’s book, Disease, Depopulation, and Culture Change in Northwestern New Spain, 1518-1764, shows Guzman’s approximate path to the north, with a reference to the 1524 Expedition of Francisco Cortés de San Buenaventura, the nephew of Hernán Cortés.[50]

Travel Route of Nuño de Guzmán’s Expedition to the Northwest (Source: Daniel T. Reff, Figure 2, page 22).

Guzmán Establishes San Miguel de Culiacán (September 1531)

On Sept. 29, 1531, Guzmán established San Miguel de Culiacán on the San Lorenzo River. Although Guzmán would return to the south, the Spanish post at Culiacán remained, Professor Gerhard writes, as "a small outpost of Spaniards surrounded on all sides but the sea by hostile Indians kept in a state of agitation" by the slave-hunting activities of the Spaniards. Culiacán would remain a precarious Spanish outpost far removed from other centers of Spanish settlement in Nueva Galicia.[51]

After seven months in the Culiacán Valley, Guzman’s army “had become exhausted and disheartened by dreams unfulfilled.” And, as Daniel T. Reff notes, “Guzmán’s expedition had, in effect, exhausted its last hope of finding great riches.” Therefore, Guzman and his lieutenants“ retraced the expedition’s footsteps, establishing new towns in the south, including Tepic (1531), Nochistlán (1531), and Villa de Purificación (1533). Tepic would be the first capital of Nueva Galicia. The original name given to Nochistlán was Guadalajara (Guzmán’s birthplace in Spain and eventually the second and permanent capital of Nueva Galicia).[52] Daniel T. Reff describes the details of Guzmán’s expedition in the Northwest in his book, Disease, Depopulation, and Culture Change in Northwestern New Spain, 1518-1764, pages 20-40.

Guzmán’s Encomiendas

Guzman assigned encomiendas to the Spaniards who had served him in his entrada, “reserving the most substantial and wealthiest commissions for himself and a few of his captains and assigning some of his associates who had not participated in the entrada but arrived in the area after its conclusion.” However, Guzmán’s men who had accompanied him but did not receive rewards became outraged by these later assignments.[53]

The Multiple Establishments of Guadalajara (1531-1542)

In 1531, Guzmán had ordered his chief lieutenant, Cristóbal de Oñate, to establish La Villa de Guadalajara – named after the city of his birth in Spain – on the plateau near Nochistlán in the present-day state of Zacatecas.  The construction of Guadalajara began on January 5, 1532.  However, the small settlement came under repeated attacks almost immediately from the local Cazcán Indians. Later, Guzmán visited the city, and at the request of its inhabitants, who were fearful of Indian attacks and lacked sufficient water, he ordered it moved to Tonalá, farther south. The original City of Guadalajara was abandoned on August 5, 1533. Guadalajara would be moved three times before finding its fourth and final home on February 14, 1542 at its present site.[54]

The Naming of Nueva Galicia

Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán gave the name “Conquista del Espíritu Santo de la Mayor España” (The Conquest of the Holy Spirit of Greater Spain) to the territories he explored and conquered.[55]  However, the Queen of Spain, Joanna of Castile, the mother of Carlos V, did not approve of the name. By a royal decree dated January 25, 1531, she supplied the name Reino de Nueva Galicia (Kingdom of New Galicia). Nueva Galicia was a separate entity, not under the authority of the Audiencia of Mexico City (but still part of New Spain). And Nuño de Guzmán was the first governor of Nueva Galicia.

Connecting Pánuco to Nueva Galicia (July 1533)

Meanwhile, Guzmán had continued to run Pánuco from Nueva Galicia and stayed informed of the state of affairs there. In fact, Guzmán was searching “for a connecting road that would pass through the sierras between New Galicia and Pánuco.” In this regard, Guzmán succeeded in connecting the two provinces, making them contiguous. In July 1533, Guzmán arrived in Santiesteban del Puerto, the capital of Pánuco, declaring that his “grand design” had been accomplished.[56]

Nuño de Guzmán Removed from the Audiencia

In 1530, the Spanish Crown began to realize that picking Nuño de Guzmán as President of the Audiencia was a major blunder. He had willfully ignored the crown's instructions and had asserted his royal authority against many of the Conquistadors that had helped Spain to establish a foothold on the continent. Instead, he had accrued more of his own power and sought to deliver great wealth to himself and some of his lieutenants.[57]  So, as Guzmán ravaged through Nueva Galicia, the Crown dissolved the First Audiencia in 1530. A Second Audiencia with judges who recognized crown authority were installed.[58]

Resistance to Guzmán Grows

Already in the summer of 1529, the Spanish Crown had ordered an investigation of Guzman’s slaving activities in Pánuco. Around the same time, Bishop Zumárraga leveled serious charges against Guzmán also in reference to his slaving activities. By this time, Guzmán not only fell out of favor with the Spanish authorities, but also made a slew of enemies with the Church Hierarchy, especially Bishop Zumárraga.[59]

By 1533, several lawsuits were instituted against Guzmán, most of them relating to “the illegal sale of slaves and the general mistreatment of Indians.” The first case was dated April 16, 1533. Most of the cases involved the branding of free Indians after slavery had been banned. Also in April, the Spanish Crown had called for the removal of Guzmán as the governor of Pánuco. The governance of Pánuco was transferred to the Second Audiencia.[60]  One nineteenth-century chronicler of the Conquest referred to Beltrán de Guzmán as "the detestable governor of Pánuco and perhaps the most depraved man ever to set foot in New Spain."[61]

In 1536, Guzmán returned to the capital to greet Antonio de Mendoza, the newly appointed Viceroy and Governor of Nueva España. Soon thereafter, in March 1536, Diego Pérez de la Torre arrived in Mexico City to replace Guzmán as the Governor of Nueva Galicia.

The Arrest and Trial of Guzmán (January 1537 - September 1537)

Nuño de Guzrnán was arrested in Mexico City in January 1537 by Diego Perez de la Torre, judge of residencia for New Galicia, and placed in the public jail.[62]  Soon after, he was put on trial. The details of Guzmán’s trial are described in Donald Chipman’s Nuño de Guzmán and the Province of Pánuco in New Spain, 1518–1533, Chapter 8 [pages 253-274].

In September 1537, Judge Juan Alvarez de Castañeda pronounced judgment on Guzman. He had been tried for 49 cargos (accusations). He was declared innocent of many of the charges. As an administrator, Guzmán was absolved on many counts, but as a military commander, he failed to be absolved of a single charge. Guzmán was absolved of the charges arising from his encomienda policy because of his role in converting the Indian population [however cruel that conversion process was]. But Guzmán’s ultimate fate was in the hands of the Council of the Indies, which carried the case on appeal.[63]

In spite of the fact that he was declared innocent of many of the charges, Guzmán had to remain in jail in Mexico City. While in prison, he pleaded his case by writing to the Crown and to the Council of the Indies. Finally, after eighteen months in prison, he was released on June 30, 1538, and the Council of the Indies ordered that he be sent to Spain. And Chipman states that “following his return to Spain in late 1538 or in 1539, Guzmán heretofore has virtually disappeared from the annals of history.”[64]

The Last Years of Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán

According to the historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft, the last years of Guzmán’s life were passed in obscurity and misery.[65] However, there is some evidence that in 1539, Guzmán returned to his position as a member of the royal contino bodyguard. [A contino was one of a hundred men assigned as personal bodyguards of the Spanish monarch].[66] Court records show him on the payroll every year from 1539 to 1561 (in 1561 he was listed as "deceased").[67] According to the genealogist Lopez de Haro, Nuño Beltrán de Guzman died in Valladolid, Spain, in 1558. 

Guzmán’s Legacy: Nueva Galicia

In 1548, the Royal Audiencia of Nueva Galicia – embracing about 224,638 square kilometers (86,733 square miles) – was officially created, first based in Compostela (now in Nayarit) and later moved to Guadalajara (now in Jalisco).[68] Nueva Galicia would include the territories won by Nuño de Guzmán in the 1530s and governed by his successors, as well as the mining areas in Zacatecas that were added in the 1540s. The region included most of the present-day Mexican states of Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit and Zacatecas. Although it was initially subservient to the Audiencia of New Spain in Mexico City, in the early 1570s it became an independent body.[69]

The Repercussions of Guzmán’s Lawlessness and Cruelty

Although Guzmán conquered a great deal of territory for the Spanish crown, his mode of recruitment showed a careless disregard for the Indigenous people in his army. Eventually it led to a great deal of sickness and death. Although other Spaniards had already discovered some portions of Nueva Galicia,  Guzmán ignored prior rights of discovery by provoking the natives to revolt so that he might subdue them. As noted earlier, the historian Peter Gerhard writes that “Guzmán’s strategy throughout was to terrorize the natives with often unprovoked killing, torture, and enslavement…  [Guzmán’s] army left a path of corpses and destroyed houses and crops.”[70]

Guzmán’s treatment of Michoacán's indigenous population was also destructive and cruel. Professor Verástique writes that "three factors contributed to the loss of life in Michoacán: warfare, ecological collapse, and the loss of life resulting from forced labor in the encomienda system." It took decades for Michoacán to recover from Guzmán activities.[71]

The Long-Range Implications of Guzmán’s Entrada

The long-range implications of Guzmán’s reign of terror were realized in 1540 when the Mixtón Rebellion pitted many of the Indigenous people of Jalisco against Spanish rule.[72] Although this insurrection was put down by 1542, it caused great consternation with the Spanish authorities and eventually also led to the enslavement of many more Indigenous people.

Bibliography

Altman, Ida. “Conquest, Coercion, and Collaboration: Indian Allies and the Campaigns in Nueva Galicia,” in Mathew, Laura E. and Oudijk, Michel R. Indian Conquistadors: Indigenous Allies in the Conquest of Mesoamerica. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press: 2007, pp. 145-174.

Altman, Ida. The War for Mexico’s West: Indians and Spaniards in New Galicia, 1524-1550. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 2010.

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Chipman, Donald E. “New Light on the Career of Nuño Beltán de Guzmán,” The Americas, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Apr., 1963), pp. 341-348.

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Mecham, J. Lloyd. Francisco De Ibarra And Nueva Viscaya. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1968.

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Footnotes

[1] Donald E. Chipman, “New Light on the Career of Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán,” The Americas, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Apr., 1963), pp. 341-342; Alonso Lopez de Haro, Nobiliario Genealogico de Los Reyes y Titulos de España (Madrid: 1622), pp. 71-72. 3

[2] Robert Himmerich y Valencia, Robert. The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, p. 170.

[3] Donald E. Chipman, “New Light on the Career of Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán,” op. cit., pp. 345-346.

[4] Ibid., p. 343.

[5] Ibid., p. 346.

[6] Ibid., p. 346.

[7] Alan Knight, Mexico: The Colonial Era.  Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 4; Donald E. Chipman, Nuño de Guzmán and the Province of Panuco in New Spain (1513-1533) (Glendale, 1967), pp. 59-82 (hereinafter referred to as Nuño de Guzman); Ida Altman, The War for Mexico’s West: Indians and Spaniards in New Galicia, 1524-1550 (Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 2010), p. 21 (hereinafter referred to as The War of Mexico’s West.

[8] Robert Himmerich y Valencia, op. cit., p. 170.

[9] Andrew L. Toth, Missionary Practices and Spanish Steel: The Evolution of Apostolic Mission in the Context of New Spain Conquests (Bloomington: IUniverse, Inc., 2012), p. 93.

[10] Herbert Eugene Bolton and Thomas Maitland Marshall, The Colonization of North America, 1492-1783 (Hafner Publishing Co., New York, 1971), p. 37.

[11] Donald E. Chipman, Nuno de Guzman, p. 225.

[12] J. Benedict Warren, The Conquest of Michoacán: The Spanish Domination of the Tarascan Kingdom in Western Mexico, 1521-1530 (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), pp. 75, 78-80.

[13] Jorge Chapa, “Wage Labor in the Periphery: Silver Mining in Colonial Mexico,” Review (Fernand Braudel Center), Vol. 4, No. 3, Chicano Labor and Uneven Development (Winter, 1981), p. 512. The encomienda system is discussed in detail in two chapters of J. Benedict Warren, The Conquest of Michoacán: The Spanish Domination of the Tarascan Kingdom in Western Mexico, 1521-1530 (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), Chapter 4 (pp. 73-80) and Chapter 9 (pp. 157-210). The Encomenderos and Encomiendas of Michoacan are also reported in Appendix B (pp. 260-285).

[14] Marley, David F. Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 1998)., p. 26.

[15] Andrew L. Toth, op. cit., p. 92.

[16] Ibid.

[17] J. Lloyd Mechan, Francisco De Ibarra And Nueva Viscaya (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1968), p. 22.

[18] Bernardino Verástique, Michoacán and Eden: Vasco de Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000), p. 75.

[19] Ida Altman, The War for Mexico’s West, pp. 21-22.

[20] Donald E. Chipman, Nuno de Guzman, p. 225.

[21] The personality of Guzman is discussed in J.H. Parry, The Audiencia of New Galicia in the Sixteenth Century: A Study in Colonial Government (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1948), pp. 19-20.

[22] Robert Himmerich y Valencia, op. cit., pp. 146–147.

[23] Daniel T. Reff, Disease, Depopulation and Culture Change in Northwestern New Spain, 1518-1764 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1991), p. 21 (hereinafter referred to as Depopulation and Culture Change); Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Mexico (Mexico, 1883-1888), pp. 40-53.

[24] David F. Marley, Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 1998)., p. 26; Daniel T. Reff, Depopulation and Culture Change, p. 21; Andrew L. Toth, op. cit., p. 93; Ida Altman, The War for Mexico’s West, pp. 26-28.

[25] Ibid., pp. 25-28.

[26] Ida Altman, “Conquest, Coercion, and Collaboration: Indian Allies and the Campaigns in Nueva Galicia,” in Laura E. Mathew and Michel R. Oudijk, Indian Conquistadors: Indigenous Allies in the Conquest of Mesoamerica (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press: 2007), p. 147 (hereinafter referred to as Conquest).

[27] David F. Marley, op. cit., p. 26; Daniel T. Reff, Depopulation and Culture Change, p. 21; Andrew L. Toth, op.cit., p. 93; Ida Altman, The War for Mexico’s West, pp. 26-28.

[28] J. Benedict Warren, op. cit., p. 287.

[29] Ibid.

[30] Ida Altman, Conquest, p. 148.

[31] Bernardino Verástique, op. cit., pp. 81-82. The trial and death of the Cazonci by Guzmán is described in detail in Chapter 11 of J. Benedict Warren, pp. 211-236.

[32] J. Benedict Warren, op. cit., p. 236.

[33] Ida Altman, Conquest, p. 147.

[34] Ida Altman The War for Mexico’s West, p. 32.

[35] Peter Gerhard, The North Frontier of New Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 42.

[36] Ida Altman, Conquest, p. 148.

[37] David F. Marley, “Wars of the America: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1942 to the Present.  Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1998, pp. 26-27

[38] Ibid., p. 27

[39] Ibid., pp. 26-27; J.H. Parry, The Audiencia of New Galicia in the Sixteenth Century: A Study in Colonial Government (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1948), p. 22.

[40] Peter Gerhard, op. cit., p. 42.

[41] David F. Marley, op. cit., p. 27; J.H. Parry, op. cit., p. 22.

[42] Ida Altman, Conquest, p. 149.

[43] Daniel T. Reff, Depopulation and Culture Change, p. 23.

[44] Ibid., pp. 24, 104-105.

[45] Ibid., p. 24.

[46] Ibid., p. 25..

[47] Ibid.

[48] Peter Gerhard, op. cit., pp. 42-43.

[49] Daniel T. Reff, op.cit., p. 21.

[50] Ibid., p 22 (Figure 2)

[51] Ida Altman, Conquest, p. 148.

[52] Ibid., p. 148; Daniel T. Reff, op. cit., p. 26.

[53] Ida Alltman, Conquest, p. 8.

[54] J. H. Parry, op. cit., p. 25.

[55] Donald E. Chipman, Nuño de Guzmán, p. 235; Bancroft, History of Mexico, II, p. 365; Tema Fantástico, S.A., “Kingdom of New Galicia,” Jan. 11, 2010. Online: http://kingnewgalicia.blogspot.com/.

[56] Donald E. Chipman, Nuño de Guzman, pp. 240-245.

[57] Peggy K. Liss, Mexico under Spain, 1521-1556: Society and the Origins of Nationality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975), p. 52.

[58] Ibid., pp. 52-55.

[59] Donald E. Chipman, Nuño de Guzman, pp. 244-247.

[60] Ibid., pp. 221, 224-225, 228, 247.

[61] Vicente Riva Palacio. México a Través de Los Siglos, Vol. II (Barcelona: Spain, (1991) [1880].

[62] Donald E. Chipman, Nuño de Guzman, p. 249.

[63] Ibid., pp. 271-274.

[64] Ibid., pp. 277-278.

[65] Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Mexico, II, pp. 460- 461.

[66] Enciclopedia Universal llustrada (Barcelona: [sin fecha] ), XV, pp. 172-173.

[67] Donald E. Chipman, Nuño de Guzmán, pp. 279-281.

[68] Peter Gerhard, The North Frontier of New Spain, p. 39; Tema Fantástico, S.A., “Kingdom of New Galicia,” Jan. 11, 2010. Online: http://kingnewgalicia.blogspot.com/. A physical description of Nueva Galicia and its inhabitants is discussed in J.H. Parry, op. cit., , pp. 15-18.

[69]  J. H. Parry, op. cit., pp. 35-36.

[70] J. Lloyd Mecham, op. cit., p. 23;  Peter Gerhard, The North Frontier of New Spain, pp. 42-43.

[71] Bernardino Verástique, Michoacán and Eden, p. 83.

[72] Emilio Rodríguez Flores, Compendio Histórico de Zacatecas. Zacatecas, Zacatecas: Academia Comercial Heroes del 64, 1976, p. 74; Martha Menchaca, Discovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2001), p. 73.