Pátzcuaro and Tzintzuntzan

On Friday in Morelia, our tour included being bused to 2 nearby towns, Pátzcuaro and Tzintzuntzan (it has a rythmn). Much of the present day state of Michoacán was part of the Tarascan Empire.[The name of Tarascans was given to the local Indian population by the Spanish. One story I was told for its origin may well be apocryphal; to the local Indians, the Spanish men were promiscuous. When the Indians were hailed by the Spanish, they jeered back refering to the Spanish as “Tarascans” which meant ‘adulterers’ or perhaps stronger epithet. The Spanish did not understand and thought that was what the Indians were calling themselves.] It had successfully resisted attacks and being conquered by the Aztecs. It had more extensive metal working than most pre-Spanish kingdoms. Because some of that metal included gold, the Spanish were soon attacking and conquering it too by the middle of the 16th C. Pátzcuaro had been the original capital, but the latter had been moved to Tsintzuntzan. When the Spanish conquered the area, they made Pátzcuaro their capital. You can read the history in the above links to Wikipedia. The Spanish later moved their capital to what is now called Morelia. The explanation we were given by a guide was that the Spanish were worried by too much inter racial mixing in Pátzcuaro so moved the capital to the newly founded Spanish city. However, the early and rapid emergence of mestizos seems to indicate that concerns about racial mixing had little inhibiting effects on fraternizing with Indian women. There was certainly a rigid chaste system in the colonial period--Spaniards from Spain, those of Spanish parentage but born in New Spain, mestizos, and finally Indians and imported African slaves at the bottom. However, as is usual, males in dominant social positions frequently fraternized sexually with women lower on the social scale. I suspect that there were other, more significant reasons for the move.

What was noticable was how Indian the population of the 2 towns are. Although the area is kind of central in Mexico and subjected to early and continuous religious and political pressures, there seems to be lots of continuing influences from the pre-Spanish past. The area is especially noted for its elaborate ‘Day of the Dead’ celebrations. Oct. 1 - Nov. 1. Although it was a month ago, we noticed that the cemeteries are elaborately decorated. In Pátzcuro, I bought a t-shirt illustrating the humor Mexicans display towards death. I’ll put a photo in a day or so. It has the skeleton people standing at a bar. The inscription is: “Comamos y bebamos que manaña moriremos” It is a very emphatic “Let’s eat and let’s drink as tomorrow we shall die!”

Pátzcuaro has 2 plazas, grande and chico (large and small). The large one is on a grand scale like one sees in large cities planed by the Spanish in the colonial period; itis surrounded by buildings with porticos. In these buildings there are numerous restaurants and stores, many of the latter catering to the tourist trade with correspondingly higher prices. The smaller plaza is more like small Mexican pueblos with loads of street vendors of foods and a wide variety of other things. There were relatively few people in the large plaza while the small one was bustling with local people. Ultimately, it was the more interesting one for us.

In Tzintuntzan we had a tour of the Franciscan convent of San Francisco de Asis (the photo shows the entrance with members of our tour). It was founded by a nobleman who led the order’s mission to the area. He had big, grandeous plans and built to house over 100 monks. However, none of the orders were allowed to recruit Indians and this convent never had more than 10 monks. Eventually, in the effort to separate church and state, most of the orders had their property confiscated and they had to leave or disband. Subsequently, it was used for a number of purposes, including as stables. It was in serious decay and ruin. However, the community has been undertaking a huge restoration, including refreshing the murals and decorations that are left using the pigments that were used in the late 16th and 17th Cs. One wing has been substantially restored and work is in progress shoring up and restoring the cloister in the center square. The community owns the property and gets no money from the government, but they have raised substantial amounts from businesses. The community uses it for weddings and fiestas.

In front of the convent itself is a large park. The monks planted many olive trees and set up processing of olive oil. However, producers in Spain wanted to eliminate competition and got the Spanish government to order the destruction of all olive trees. To comply, the monks cut down all the female trees (except for a couple in the back where they couldn’t be seen), but left the male trees (I hadn’t known that olive trees are either male or female; only the latter bear fruit). As a result, the park has rows of olive trees over 350 years old. The photo shows one.