The history of the Mexican city of Monterrey is closely linked with the history of the state of Nuevo León. When the New Kingdom of León was founded, it included Monterrey, Monclova, Saltillo and Cerralvo. The founding families formed a group of about thirty people in each locality. Gradually, Nuevo León was populated with families of nomadic herders of Portuguese origin who fought and displaced the native indigenous groups in the region. The city was a step away from the border with the United States and it began to be a strategic location for industry and trade between the two countries. Originally isolated by the Sierra Madre and far from the center of New Spain and independent Mexico, in the late 19th century and throughout the twentieth century various demographic, social, political, and economic issues began to unfold.This history of Monterrey synthesizes and follows the structure of the Breve Historia de Nuevo León by Israel Cavazos González.
First settlers
The first settlers were the Chichimecas. Current research has shown a culture of twelve thousand years old.
They were generally called Chichimecas to distinguish them from the larger and more powerful cultural groups of Mesoamerica: the Mayan, Olmec, Zapotec, etc. It is said they were nomadic or semi-nomadic, not wandering aimlessly, but obeying regular movement patterns inside recognized territories; what anthropologists call territorial nomadism.Breen Murray, W., (compilador) Arte rupestre en el noreste Colección: La Historia en la Ciudad del Conocimiento. They did not create large urban complexes like other peoples in central Mexico, the splendor of whom sometimes overshadowed them. The Spanish settlers "baptized" them by erasing their original names. Specialists have differentiated several linguistic nuclei between the tribes that inhabited the region but have failed to find a uniform approach, placing them in the family of the Athabascans, the Hokan or Macro-Yuma, subgroup Coahuilteco-Karankawa. Those who inhabited the region of what is now the city were called the Aguaceros ("heavy rains") and the "Malincheños".Cfr.
They lived in caves and river ravines where they left traces of their passage in paintings, engravings, and movable items which might have been amulets used in fertility rites or initiation of puberty,Eling, Herbert H., El Arte Mobiliario del Noreste de México INAH Vol XXIII Coahuila 2002 as well as mortars, hollowed stones and spearheads of all kinds ranging from those dating back millennia like those found in the municipality of Ramones with more than 11,000 thousand years of antiquity, to those used by the tribes of the Comanches in the 19th century. The density of prehistoric domestic waste found in the area confirms that there was a relatively large population, at least seasonally. Radiocarbon tests placed the earliest occupation in Boca de Potrerillos about 8000 years ago.Valadez Moreno, Moisés Expiración, Luto y defunción.
Between 1960 and 1967, a group of archaeologists from the University of Texas at Austin headed by Jeremiah F. Epstein, undertook an extensive research program in the entire area.Entre los principales especialistas de este tema se encuentran William Breen Murray, Solveig Turpin, Herbert H. Eling, Jr. y Moisés Valadez Moreno.Turpin, Solveig A., Herbert H. Eling, Jr. y Valdez Moreno Moisés, From Marshland to Desert: The Prehistoric Environment of Boca de Potrerillos, Nuevo Leon México, North American Archeologist 14 (4) Nueva York, Baywood Publishing Co., 1993 pp. 305–323
There is also an archaeological museum in the town of Mina and another in Linares created by Pablo Salce.Cfr.
Sixteenth century: foundation of the City of Monterrey
First settlement: Saint Lucia (1577).
Born in the Azores in 1547, Captain Alberto del Canto was commissioned by Martin Lopez de Ibarra to make settlements in name of New Vizcaya. Del Canto in 1577 the town of Santiago del Saltillo Minas de la Trinidad (Monclova), Minas de San Gregorio (Cerralvo) and villa de Santa Lucia at the Extremadura Valley and practically just marked a place called Santa Lucia on which today is the center of modern-day Monterrey.
Second settlement: "Villa de San Luis Rey de Francia" (1582) In 1567, the Portuguese Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva, from a family of New Christians, arrived in New Spain aboard a wine ship. As mayor of Tampico (modern state of Tamaulipas next to the Gulf of Mexico), he was entrusted with the "pacification" of the Huasteca and participated in several campaigns of exploration. One of the most important was achieved with Francisco de Puga Valles and Zacatecas, where a route from there to Mazapil (modern state of Zacatecas name after Pugas Valles) and New Galicia (most of the Southwest, near Guadalajara) was discovered in 1573.
The kings of Spain did not finance companies of discovery, but allowed the explorations to be made on behalf of the conquerors. Carvajal traveled to Spain and negotiated a contract with Philip II of Spain in which he was awarded the pacification and population of a vast territory of "200 leagues inland"—about 1,000 km.
In 1580 Carvajal's men, aboard the ship the Santa Catarina, joined the fleet in which the viceroy Lorenzo Suárez de Mendoza, Count de La Coruna, was traveling. Once in Veracruz, the Carvajal group continued on their own to the port of Tampico where they arrived on 25 August.
Carvajal immediately took charge of his commitment. He spent long periods in Tamapache, Temptela, Xalpa and Sichu. On 12 April 1582, he founded the city of Leon—today called Cerralvo—and half a league from there founded another settlement which he called Villa de Cueva. That same year, in the old Saint Lucia, Carvajal founded the Villa de San Luis Rey de Francia. According to one chronicler, in these places there came to be as many as 200 men who undertook the capture of Indians thereby bringing more soldiers to the villages.
To govern these vast territories, in 1585 Carvajal named three lieutenants: Felipe Nuño for the Panuco region, Gaspar Castaño de Sosa for the northeast and Diego de Montemayor for the center, from Santa Lucia to Laguna. At that time, the count of the Coruña began a legal process against Carvajal accusing him of invading territories that were not his. Carvajal asked for and was granted protection by Pedro de Vega, solicitor of the Royal Court, on 18 January 1582. The resentment of the Viceroy turned into a struggle without quarter against Carvajal who could no longer continue his government.
While Carvajal was in Mexico, his nephew, Luis de Carvajal the Younger, took over the duties of governor. But then violent clashes which arose between Indians and conquerors resulted in the depopulation of the town of San Luis. The city of Leon and the town of Cave suffered a similar fate. Finally Diego de Montemayor decided to leave his territory. He and the few neighbors who were gathered in San Francisco (Apodaca) departed for Saltillo.
Meanwhile, around 1588 Luis de Carvajal managed to get released and undertook the task of repopulating the mines of Trinidad, which he called New Almaden -Monclova- and appointed Diego de Montemayor lieutenant governor of Coahuila with jurisdiction over St. Lucia extending to the Parras and from the Rio Grande to Lagua. With this appointment he gave him the task of repopulating the city of Leon as well as las Parras. But Carvajal's problems were not over.
Religion and government during that era were considered the same thing. The charges against Carvajal that he had invaded foreign territory weighed heavily against him. That he belonged to a family of New Christians was held against him and he ended up being excommunicated. He was arrested by Alonso López and taken back to Mexico for trial by the Inquisition. His excommunication was withdrawn after abjuring, but he was sentenced to exile for 6 years, a term he did not complete because shortly afterwards he died in prison. Cfr.
Gaspar de Sosa, who had been Caraval's lieutenant in Almaden, left the region and went to New Mexico, which earned him banishment to China where he died. The New Kingdom of León was again deserted.
Metropolitan city of Our Lady of Monterrey (20 September 1596) It was proving difficult to establish this New Kingdom of León, where so many previous attempts had failed. Diego de Montemayor, who had been appointed lieutenant by Carvajal returned after eight years of absence and established the Metropolitan City of Our Lady of Monterrey where Saint Lucia and the failed Villa of San Luis King of France had been.
Although his abandonment of the settlement, years earlier, could have invalidated the claims of Carvajal on Montemayor and any consequent privileges, this did not happen. Years later, on 11 February 1599, Montemayor was given title to the region by the same Viceroy after the Viceroy had consulted Spain, ruler of the Kingdom.
Seventeenth century: colonial period
Early years. Seventeenth century
But this Kingdom was only that in name. The first few people-about 34, including children -had to go through many hardships, eating burdock offered them by the springs of water, raising small livestock and farming. Their houses were made of adobe and everything built was gradually destroyed by the rains and floods of 1611. With the death of Montemayor, his son Diego replaced him in office but died the following year. The viceroy then appointed Lieutenant General Agustin de Zavala. He was a rich Zacatecas miner and managed the city through magistrates. Successively these magistrates were Cristobal de Irurrea, Diego Rodriguez and Alonso Lucas el Bueno.
After the floods of 1611, the people again began to build the city, this time in a slightly higher place (Plaza Zaragoza), where general Zavala maintained for more than 10 years a flour store, seeds and other supplies to distribute to the families. He also continued pacification campaigns and established a military detachment under the command of Hernando Huarte de la Concha.
This small kingdom already had a convent by 1602 under the patronage of San Andrés and after the floods of 1611 was moved to its new site in 1626 where it had a cemetery, cell tower and bells. The work of the church here was decisive in the so-called "pacification" of the local native peoples (actually the goal was to enslave them and use them as labor) : the Bozalos in Matehuala, the Gualaguises in San Cristobal (Hualahuises ), the Janambres in San Antonio de los Llanos. In addition, in the early seventeenth century the following missions were established: Santa Maria degli Angeli White River (Aramberri), Santa Teresa del Alamo (1659), San Nicolas de Gualeguas (1672) and others in the north of the kingdom and in southern Texas. the convents of Our Lady of Conception (in Cerralvo 1630) and San Lorenzo (in Cadereyta around 1640) were also established.
The Tlaxcalans Another element that helped to pacify and establish the towns in the New Kingdom of León was the alliance of the Spanish with the Tlaxcalans made by Hernán Cortés. Later, throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, hundreds of Tlaxcala families moved to the northern region of Mexico. They taught the natives (Chichimecas) when they related peacefully, agriculture and handicrafts. Those who passed north were granted the same privileges as Spaniards: receiving land grants, using weapons, putting the Don before their names, riding horses, etc.
In the 18th century, next to Monterrey, the town of Guadalupe was established with the Tlaxcala families who were already in the towns of Purificación and Concepción (in Montemorelos).
Haciendas y Pastores
Feudal lords