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Water and Bureaucracy in Colonial Puebla de los Angeles1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Sonya Lipsett-Rivera
Sonya Lipsett-Rivera
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
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Extract

Although most urban dwellers take for granted the running water accessible to them in their homes, its presence is the culmination of the long ‘conquest of water’. In effect, there are still minorities or even majorities in some Latin American cities whose days are punctuated with the task of fetching water for the household. This delineation between the fetchers of water and those with the luxury of in-house access is not a novelty. Within colonial cities, the spatial distribution of water was often an indication of social and economic divisions. Public fountains could serve as a friendly gathering place but were all too often too few for the urban population. The strategies of municipal government for the provision of water for their populace was a reflection of their political priorities and limitations. Studies of the role of water allocation in agrarian societies abound, but its function in the make-up of urban life is little known. By examining this issue for a large city such as Puebla de los Angeles, whose population had reached nearly 70,000 by 1678 (see Table 1), it is possible to delineate some of the social tensions at work and the strategies deployed by both municipal government and populace in order to overcome shortages of accessible water. In Puebla de los Angeles, competition for water was part of the internal workings of the city. The City of Angels faced two major obstacles: the challenge of creating and maintaining an infrastructure for urban distribution of water, and the adjudication of the system.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 25 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

2 I take this expression from Goubert, Jean Pierre (trans, by Wilson, Andrew), The Conquest of Water, The Advent of Health in the Industrial Age (Princeton, 1989)Google Scholar.

3 Borah, Woodrow, ‘Trends in Recent Studies in Colonial Latin American Cities’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 64, no. 3 (08 1984), pp. 535–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar. comments on the lack of such studies. Some recent studies which address this topic are: Webre, Stephen, ‘Water and Society in a Spanish American City: Santiago de Guatemala, 1555–1773’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 70, no. 1 (1990), pp. 57–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Catalá, José Sala, ‘El agua en la problemática científica de las primeras metrópolis coloniales hispanoamericanas’, Revista de Indias, vol. 49, no. 186 (1989), pp. 257–81Google Scholar; and less directly Meade, Theresa, ‘”Living Worse and Costing More”: Resistance and Riot in Rio de Janeiro, 1890–1917’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 21 (1989), pp. 241–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Haslip-Viera, Gabriel, ‘The Underclass’, in Louisa S. Hoberman and Susan Migden Socolow, Cities and Society in Colonial Latin America (Albuquerque, 1986), pp. 285–312Google Scholar.

4 Puebla de Los Angeles was founded in colonial Mexico in 1532.

5 The situation contrasts with smaller towns of the Puebla region where access to water was blocked most often because of competition with agrarian interests. Lipsett, Sonya, ‘Water and Social Conflict in Colonial Mexico; Puebla 1680–1810’, Unpubl. PhD diss., Tulane Univ., 1988, ch. 4Google Scholar.

6 Doolittle, William, Canal Irrigation in Prehistoric Mexico, The Sequence of Technological Change (Austin, 1990), pp. 49, 76, 85 and 109Google Scholar.

7 Doolittle, Canal Irrigation, pp. 170–1, argues that aqueducts constructed under Spanish auspices actually had strong contributions from the Indians of the area.

8 Archivo General de la Nación (México), Ramo Padrones, vol. 38, expediente 1, 1791 (hereafter AGN, Padrones, vol. 38, exp. 1, 1791).

9 Weismann, Elizabeth Wilder, Art and Time in Mexico, From the Conquest to the Revolution (New York, 1985), p. xiv, Plate 8Google Scholar; Rivas, Heriberto García, Guía turistica. Ciudad de Pueblay Estado de Puebla (México, 1983), p. 64Google Scholar.

10 Chevalier, François, ‘Signification sociale de la fondation de Puebla de los Angeles’, Revista de Historia de Américas, vol. 23 (1947), pp. 105–30Google Scholar; Hirschberg, Julia, ‘A Social History of Puebla de los Angeles (1531–1561)’, unpubl. PhD diss., Univ. of Michigan, 1976, 2 vols., pp. 8–20Google Scholar, discusses the historiography.

11 de Castro, Antonio Diego Bermúdez, Theatro Angelopolitano: Historia de la ciudad de la Puebla (n.p., 1835, 1st edn, 1746), pp. 31–3Google Scholar.

12 Thomson, Guy, Puebla de los Angeles: Industry and Society in a Mexican City, 1700–1850 (Boulder, 1989), p. 35Google Scholar; Torres, Enrique Cordero y, Crónicas de mi Ciudad (Puebla, 1966), pp. 394–6Google Scholar.

13 Bazant, Jan, ‘Evolution of the Textile Industry of Puebla, 1544–1845’, Comparative Studies of Society and History, vol. 7 (1964–1965), pp. 56–9 and 58–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Veytia, Mariano Fernández de Echeverría y, Historia de lafundación de la ciudad de Puebla de los Angeles en la Nueva España, su descripción presente estado (Puebla, 1962, 3rd edn, 2 vols.), p. 233Google Scholar.

15 Hirschberg, ‘A Social History’, p. 41; Carrión, Antonio, Historia de la ciudad de Puebla de los Angeles (Puebla, 1896, 2 vols.), pp. 133–4Google Scholar.

16 Van Young, Eric, Hacienda and Market in Eighteenth-Century Mexico. The Rural Economy of the Guadalajara Region, 1675–1820 (Berkeley, 1981), p. 35, table 2Google Scholar.

17 Carrión, Historia de la ciudad, pp. 51–2.

18 Ibid.; Haslip-Viera, ‘The Underclass’, p. 294, mentions aguadores in the cíty of Mexíco.

19 Carrión, Historia de la ciudad, p. 90.

20 Ibid., p. 52.

21 Echeverría y Veytia, Historia de la ftmdación, p. 258.

22 Ibid., p. 259.

23 Ibid.

24 Torres, Enrique Cordero y, Historia compendiada del estado de Puebla (México, 1965, 3 vols), p. 245Google Scholar.

25 Ibid., p. 246.

26 Echeverría y Veytia, Historia de la fundación, p. 259.

27 de Campo, Victoria Linares, Catálogo de expedientes en el archivo del Ayuntamiento de Puebla (Puebla, 1960)Google Scholar; Bermúdez de Castro, Theatro Angelopolitano, p. 34, writes about six sulphurous springs used by the local population for medicinal baths.

28 Echeverría y Veytia, Historia de la fundación, p.259; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 64, fol. 3V, 1694; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 77, 1747; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 78–78V, 1747; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 143, 1752.

29 Echeverría y Veytia, Historia de la fundación, p. 260.

30 AGN, Mercedes, vol. 70, fol. 95, 1721; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 77, 1747; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 78–78v, 1747; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 143, 1752; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 220–221, 1761; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 238v–239, 1763; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 1, 1764; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 16–16v, 1768; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 17, 1768; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 17–17v, 1768; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 47v–49v, 1771; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 72v, 1774; Archivo del Ayuntamiento de Puebla, vol. 42, Legajo 336, 1771 (hereafter AAP, vol. 42, L. 336, 1771).

31 AGN, Mercedes, vol. 72, fol. 67v–68, 1728; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 16v, 1768.

32 AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 33v, 1745; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 77, 1747; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 78–78v, 1747; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 220–221, 1761; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 72, fol. 284–284v, 1735; AAP, vol. 42, L. 332, 1760; AAP vol. 43, L. 354, 1800; AAP, vol. 44, L. 363, 1804; AAP, vol. 44, L. 369, 1808; AAP, vol. 44, L. 373, 1809.

33 AAP, vol. 40, L. 365, 1808; AAP, vol. 43, L. 351, fol. 47–48, 1799.

34 AAP, vol. 42, L. 336, 1771.

35 For some examples, see AAP, vol. 42, L. 333, 1761; AAP, vol. 42, L. 331, 1759; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 16v, 1768; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 47v–49v, 1771; AAP, vol. 42, L. 342, 1794; AAP, vol. 42, L. 327, 1749.

36 Webre, ‘Water and Society’, pp. 75–6.

37 For some examples see: AGN, Mercedes, vol. 66, fol. 122v–123, 1703; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 70, fol. 95, 1721; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 33v, 1745; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 159v, 1754; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 75, fol. 77, 1747; AAP, vol. 42, L. 327, 1749.

38 Webre, ‘Water and Society’, p. 69, also notes that this practice developed in Santiago de Guatemala. There exists some fragmentary evidence that this quid pro quo arrangement was present in provincial towns: see for San Andrés Chalchicomula: AGN, Mercedes, vol. 67, fol. 118–118v, 1708; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 77, fol. 39–39v, 1745; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 80, fol. 120v–121, 1780; BN–TTP, caja 31, 1787; Huilango: AGN, Tierras, vol. 959, exp. 1, 1772; and Santiago Teutla: Archivo Judicial de Puebla, 1732, 8 [hereafter AJP, 1732, 8].

39 AAP, vol. 42, L. 332, 1760.

40 For some examples see: AAP, vol. 42, L. 33, 1761; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 81, fol. 1, 1764; AAP, vol. 42, L. 342, 1794; AAP, vol. 43, L. 347, 1797; AAP, vol. 43, L. 353, 1800.

41 AAP, vol. 43, L. 347, 1797.

42 AAP, vol. 44, L. 373, 1809.

43 The first reference to a capitular grant was that of the regidor Licenciado Don Manuel Antonio Bravo y Senteno who sold his capitular for 250 pesos. AAP, vol. 42, L. 336, 1771. Other references to these grants include AAP, vol. 42, L. 337, 1772; AAP, vol. 42, L. 338, 1772; AAP, vol. 43, L. 344, 1796; AAP, vol. 44, L. 362, 1803; AAP, vol. 43. L. 350, 1798.

44 AAP, vol. 42, L. 33;, 1763; AAP, vol. 44, L. 367, 1808.

45 Many authors have commented on the decline of the Poblano economy; see Thomson, Puebla de los Angeles, pp. 1–60; Grosso, Juan Carlos and Garavaglia, Juan Carlos, ‘La región de Puebla-Tlaxcala y la economía Novohispana, 1680–1810’, in Puebla de la colonia a la Revolución, estudio de historia regional (Puebla, 1987)Google Scholar and Lipsett-Rivera, Sonya, ‘Puebla's Eighteenth-Century Agrarian Decline…’. Murphy, Michael, Irrigation in the Bajio Region of Colonial Mexico (Boulder, 1986), pp. 107–8Google Scholar, asserts that the cabildo of Querétaro also issued numerous grants of urban water despite a scarcity of supplies, ostensibly to secure funds.

46 AAP, vol. 43, L. 351, fol. 64–66v, 1803; AAP, vol. 44, L. 36;, fol. 30–33, 1807.

47 AAP, vol. 43, L. 352, fol. 64–66v, 1803; AAP, vol. 44, L. 365, fol. 30–33, 1807.

48 Haslip-Viera, ‘The Underclass’, p. 297; Webre, ‘Water and Society’, p. 63, notes seven fountains and 189 occurrences of in-house service for the city of Santiago de Guatemala in the year 1696; Murphy, Irrigation in the Bajío, pp. 107–8, notes that Querétaro had 22 public fountains in 1800, but that this hardly sufficed its population. According to Humboldt, in 1793 the city of Mexico had a population of 112,926, as cited in Van Young, Eric, Hacienda and Market in Eighteenth-Century Mexico, the Rural Economy of the Guadalajara Region, 1675–1820 (Berkeley, 1981), p. 35Google Scholar.

49 Webre, ‘Water and Society’, p. 76; Meade, ‘Living Worse’, p. 246, and pp. 253–4; and Haslip-Viera, ‘The Underclass’, p. 397, all note similar spatial frameworks of public water allocation.

50 See for example the two reports by Santa María Ynchaurregui: AAP, vol. 43, L. 351, fol. 64–66v, 1803; AAP, vol. 44, L. 365, fol. 30–33, 1807.

51 AAP, vol. 43, L. 351, fol. 64v–65, 1803.

52 AGN, General de Parte, vol. 17, exp. 109, 1695.

53 AAP, vol. 42, L. 326, 1733.

54 AJP, 1765, 27.

55 AJP, 1781, 34.

56 AAP, vol. 43, L. 352, 1800; AAP, vol. 44, L. 370, 1808.

57 AAP, vol. 44, L. 367, 1808; AAP, vol. 44, L. 370, 1808.

58 AAP, vol. 45, L. 37, 1809.

59 AAP, vol. 43, L. 352, fol. 134v–136, 1802.

60 AJP, 1765, no. 24.

61 AAP, vol. 45, L. 375, 1809.

62 AAP, vol. 42, L. 326, 1733.

63 Ibid., fol. 107–107V.

64 AGN, Tierras, vol. 1436, exp. 1, 1740. Other complaints of this type can be found in: AGN, Indios, vol. 47, exp. 75, fol. 136–140, 1723; AGN, Mercedes, vol. 67, fol. 118–118v, 1708; AGN, Tierras, vol. 612, exp. 4, 1740, AGN, Tierras, vol. 1263, exp. 1, 1795.

65 Ibid..

66 Ibid., fol. 109–10, 1734.

67 AGN, Tierras, vol. 2,244, exp. 4, 1736.

68 AGN, Indios, vol. 57, exp. 250, fol. 304, 1756.

69 AGN, Tierras, vol. 2,244, exp. 4, fol. 3, 1796.

70 AAP, vol. 42, L. 343, fol. 228–234, 1795.

71 AAP, vol. 42, L. 343, fol. 252–252v, fol. 255v–257, 179.

72 AAP, vol. 42, L. 343, fol. 267v–269, 1795.

73 AAP, vol. 44, L. 371, fol. 217–220v, 1798.

74 AAP vol. 42, L. 326, fol. 107.

75 AAP, vol. 42, L. 324, 1706.

76 AAP, vol. 42, L. 323, 1704.

77 Ibid.

78 AAP, vol. 44, L. 367, 1808.

79 AAP, vol. 44, L. 374, 1809.

80 AAP, vol. 44, L. 36;, fol. 24–28, 1808.

81 AAP, vol. 42, L. 339, fol. 182, 1773.

82 AGN, Mercedes, vol. 72, fol. 284v–285, 1735.

83 AGN, Mercedes, vol. 72, fol. 282v–282v, 1734.

84 AAP, vol. 42, L. 329, fol. 119–120v, 1753.

85 AAP, vol. 42, L. 329, fol. 119, 1753.

86 AGN, Mercedes, vol. 72, fol. 299V, 1740.

87 AGN, Mercedes, vol. 72, fol. 301–301v, 1741.

88 Ibid.

89 AAP, vol. 43, L. 340, 1700.

90 AAP, vol. 43, L. 351, fol. 70–72, 1799.

91 AAP, vol. 44, L. 364, fol. 12–13v, 1804.

92 AAP, vol. 43, L. 351, fol. 72v–75, 1803. In San Andreés Chalchicomula, the residents were concerned that pigs washed themselves in the water of the town. AGN, Mercedes, vol. 67, fol. 118–118V, 1708. The residents of Epatlán also found that when livestock drank in their lagoon they sometimes remained stuck, rotting in place, and consequently and not surprisingly, sullied the quality of their drinking water. AGN, Tierras, vol. 57, exp. 3, 179.

93 AAP, vol. 44, L. 370, fol. 198v–201, 1808.

94 Cordero y Torres, Historia compendiada, tomo I, pp. 256–7.

95 AAP, vol. 44, L. 366, fol. 122–123, 1807; Murphy, Irrigation in the Bajío, p. 103, reports that in the city of Querétaro the most serious polluters were the tanneries and the obrajes, but a slaughterhouse also contributed to the problem.

96 AAP, vol. 44, L. 370, fol. 198v–201, 1808.

97 AAP, vol. 43, L. 352, fol. 47–48, 1799.

98 AAP, vol. 43, L. 351, fol. 47–48, 1799. Murphy, Irrigation in the Bajío, p. 99, notes that in Querétaro, the city employed guardians to manipulate the intakes of water within the city.

99 AAP, vol. 43, L. 351, fol. 69–69v, 1803.

100 AAp, vol 43, L. 352 fol 75v–78v, 1803.

101 AAP, vol. 45, L. 375, fol. 2–6, 1808.

102 AAP, vol. 45, L. 351, fol. 2–6, 1808.

103 AAP, vol 42, L. 340, fol. 149–201, 1800.

104 AAP, vol. 43, L. 359, fol. 268–274, 1802.

105 AGN, Mercedes, vol. 72, fol. 300–300v, 1740.

106 AAP, vol. 44, L. 365, fol. 24–28, 1808.

107 AAP, vol. 44, L. 366, fol. 133v–234v, 1811.

108 AAP, vol. 43, L. 352, fol. I43v–I44, fol. 144v–150v, 1801.