Revealing the Hidden Agendas of the Relación de Michoacán’s Collaborators in the Tension between Its Text and Images.

• In Event: Hidden In Plain Sight: Text to Image / Image to Text in Ancient and Colonial Mexico

Abstract

The sixteenth-century illustrated manuscript known as the Relación de Michoacán is one of the earliest surviving manuscripts of its kind from colonial México. Its history began around 1539, when the Spanish Viceroy to México Antonio de Mendoza visited Michoacán and commissioned a Franciscan friar to record the customs of the region so that he could govern it more effectively. The friar, who remains anonymous throughout the manuscript, employed indigenous artists and nobles as his informants. Some were members of the Pre-Columbian ruling family known as Uanacaze and the only named contributor was a nobleman by the name of Don Pedro Cuiniarangari who belonged to a group that had been conquered by the Uanacaze before the arrival of Europeans to this region. The manuscript presented a unique opportunity to the collaborators of the manuscript to express their views about their Pre-Columbian past and their future under colonial rule to the Spanish viceroy. However, their views were not united, indigenous collaborators had to negotiate centuries’ old rivalries and bid for political posts in the colonial government. The manuscript contains many layers that reveal not only the process of creation, but the many interests of its collaborators. Text is often deleted to make room for new images, some images contradict the pre-existing text and others had text added to them after their creation. This presentation will focus on the tension between the text and images depicting the trajectory of Don Pedro Cuiniarángari, a complex and fascinating nobleman, who in the pages of the Relación swiftly progresses from being the descendant of conquered nobles to becoming the governor of the region, the most prestigious post during colonial times.

Author

• Angelica J Afanador-Pujol