UCLA

This dissertation studies the replacement of Zapotec dynastic rulers or coquì by làhui, Spanish-style municipal councils called cabildos, in the Valley of Oaxaca during colonial times, from the early sixteenth to the late eighteenth centuries. This transition involved a replacement of the ancient Zapotec palace, the quèhui, with the town hall or community house, the yòholàhui. Using Spanish and Zapotec-language archival sources and texts and pictorial writings, I examine the conversion of Zapotec quèche and lordships in the region into colonial pueblos and cabildos. But I also trace cultural and political continuities, for the new institutions succeeded because they were based on ancient sociopolitical structures and continued many of their functions in a new colonial context. First, I study the traditional organization of Zapotec lordships, which articulated two or more semi-autonomous traditional collectivities that organized internally around a common head, a real or symbolic ancestor, shared lands and obligations, and collective ritual acts. Second, I analyze the establishment of the first cabildo office, the governorship, and the conflicts and negotiations that ended the caciques' control of civil government and gave way to a corporate government. Third, I examine how bèniquèche or commoners organized and pressed for new arrangements of governance that would alleviate their workloads and the many contributions they were obligated to make to their towns’ funds, which were managed by the làhui or community. The bèniquéche’s overseers, called collaba, represented their demands before the làhui, and as a result commoners gained entry to cabildo membership. Fourth, I analyze conflicts between nobles and commoners over governance and the management and defense of community assets. Finally, I examine two conflicts from the early decades of colonial rule that involved the làhui and many other actors, especially the Spanish Crown. One is a dispute between local authorities and the crown over tributes and tributaries. The crown sought to monopolize tribute entitlement, but native rulers resisted Spanish attempts to deprive them of community funds and labor. The second is a dispute over native lands and the concept of baldíos (vacant lands) that legitimized land dispossession by Spaniards, including the crown. The legacy of the làhui persists in the ways that Zapotecs govern themselves in Oaxaca, where all of the communities studied in this dissertation continue to exist in the present day.