From Prison to Home: Labor Relations and Social Control in Nineteenth-Century Mexico

Abstract

In 1821, Spain formally recognized Mexico's status as an independent nation. The establishment of Mexican sovereignty resulted in a tumultuous period of national definition. While seeking to create a new, modern, and profitable nation, Mexico needed to find a way to address the chronic labor problems that had plagued the former colony since its formation. Interdisciplinary research at the Hacienda San Miguel Acocotla and in its associated descendant communities offers a case study of some of the tactics that may have been used to control agrarian workers during the century that followed. Ethnohistoric, archaeological, and ethnographic data speak to the ongoing and ever-tense labor negotiations of the nascent state. Documentary records from the municipal archives in Atlixco, Puebla, Mexico show early attempts by hacienda owners to violently coerce labor services from neighboring indigenous villages. Archaeological and ethnographic data speak to a later shift into a subtler coercive method of labor management, with attacks on the structures of home life, family, and community.

Pluriversalidad exitosa: epistemologías y ontologías de los maseualmej del municipio Cuetzalan, México

“…Así que la libertad implicaba la enajenación y despojo de todos sus recursos específicos (de conocimiento, de lenguas, etc.) para incluirlos como "iguales subordinados" a la nación (Beck, 1986;Cline, 2000;Schryer, 2000;Newman, 2013).…”

Landscapes of Labor: Architecture and Identity at a Mexican Hacienda

“…In 2003, Dr. Juli began an ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological study exploring patterns of daily life and memories of hacienda labor with members of that village (Juli 2003). The study continued for the next 4 years with help from me and students from the University of the Americas, Puebla (Juli et al 2006;Newman 2010Newman , 2013Newman , 2014aNewman and Castillo Cardenas 2013;Newman and Juli 2008). Historical research conducted in national, state, and local archives demonstrated the importance of archaeological research.…”

“…In the hundreds of pages of transcriptions we collected, we found that the Hacienda San Miguel Acocotla's 25 owners were welldocumented, and the hacienda's workers, ranging in number from 10 to 121 at any given time, were fleetingly visible (Newman 2014a, b;Romano Soriano 2005). Our best information came from irregular censuses of the hacienda's workers taken during the latter half of the nineteenth century, but the information presented in these documents offered only the barest demographic sketch of life in the worker's quarters (Newman 2013(Newman , 2014a. Quite quickly, it became clear that archaeological research would offer new avenues into developing an understanding of the day-to-day experiences of Acocotla's indigenous workers.…”

“…Haciendas were established throughout Mexico soon after the arrival of the Spaniards ostensibly for economic purposes, but they were also prime loci for the control and assimilation of indigenous populations (Chevalier 1963;Gibson 1964;Knight 2002;Newman 2013Newman , 2014aNewman , b, 2016Van Young 1983;Wolf 1969;Wolf and Mintz 1957). By 1532, Spanish settlers were colonizing the Valley of Atlixco, enmeshing it in New Spain's economy (Gerhard 1993: 56;Paredes Martínez 1991: 40).…”

“…Ultimately, Atlixco became so important to New Spain's economy that it has been called, Bthe granary of New Spain's Viceroyalty^ (Morales 2006). The popularity of the valley meant, however, that getting, keeping, and controlling a workforce was a perpetual challenge (Newman 2013(Newman , 2014a. Thus, in the first 100 years of Spanish settlement, the social, economic, and physical landscape was significantly remade.…”