Bad tlatoles: evidence of indigenous resistance discourses in the criminal case against the alazapa captain Juan Alonso

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to analyze the influence of the Nahuatl or Mexican language in the formation of the resistance discourses of the native people of the Nuevo Reino de León throughout the 17th century. The sources used are mainly the criminal cases carried out against natural persons of the northeastern territories during the government of Martín de Zavala. The linguistic policy of the Spanish monarchy for the Nueva España territories and those in the north consisted of using Nahuatl for the evangelization of the natives. This strategy generated the phenomenon of ladinism, a term that refers to the transculturation of the indigenous, in this case through linguistic practices. However, the introduction of Nahuatl or the Mexican language was not only useful for the encomenderos to subdue the native population, but it also became a tool for the natives themselves, who by using it as a common language, were able to celebrate alliances and resist by different ways the control of the spaniards.

Methods of resistance ranged from the theft and consumption of livestock to the destruction of property, but there were also other methos of a discoursive nature, the “bad tlatoles”: circulation of rumors and calls for rebellion, which were intensely monitored. This paper analyzes the evidence of resistance discourse contained in the statements of witnesses and defendants in the criminal case against the alazapa captain Juan Alonso, carried out in 1640 in the Nuevo Reino de León.