A native of Santiago Atitlan before the Holy Office in Mexico. Against Matheo Perez [say they] mestizo pact with the devil (1671-1688)

Abstract

In the second half of the seventeenth century the well known investigation into the activities of the Maestros de Idolatria in Sola de Vega, undertaken by Bachiller Balsalobre, sparked an intense period of legal activity against idolatry and superstition among Oaxacan Indians, that culminated in the famous events of San Francisco Cajonos (1700-1701) and the inquiry into idolatry conducted by Bishop Maldonado shortly thereafter. Though this activity —investigations and trials— was normally sponsored by either the ordinary civil or ecclesiastical court, Matheo Pérez, native and governor of a Mixe town in Villa Alta, was nevertheless also tried by the Inquisition that claimed jurisdiction in his case, regarding him (though not unanimously) as a “mestizoâ€. This article analyzes some of them:the jurisdictional conflict among the various entities involved in the campaign against idolatry; the meaning of the "idolatrous" ceremonies for the Indian communities and their officials; and, finally, the vision of the indio held by the Mexican Inquisitors, a century after native people were excluded from the jurisdiction of the Tribunal of the Holy Office.