1. Struggle & Survival in Colonial America
History 140: History/Americas thru 1800
Dr. Arguello
Patricia Fonseca
November 1, 2011
2. Catarina de Monte Sinay
Catarina de Monte Sinay became a nun in 1696.
She was admitted to the only convent in Brazil, Desterro Convent.
The competition was extreme to be admitted into this convent.
Bahia was experiencing droughts, floods, epidemics, and financial
devastation. Many people were losing their fortunes.
Madre Victoria was an example of saintly behavior to Catarina.
Madre Victoria was known for self-inflicted punishments as well as for
her miracles and charitable deeds.
With the gold rush of the 1690’s bringing in a flood of adventurers
seeking their fortunes, Bahia became known as the Bay of
All Saints and All Sinners.
Catarina feared for the salvation of the community and the
city.
Catarina prayed that Madre Victoria’s self-inflicted suffering
would be enough to save the city from its sins.
3. Catarina de Monte Sinay
Catarina was fully aware of the sins her brother committed in his
business dealings and home life.
She was grateful that a life in the convent spared her of the possible
abuse she may have endured as a wife to an unpleasant husband.
As she grew older, she found the rituals of convent life satisfying and
comforting.
As Catarina neared the end of her life, she knew her sins had
included the lack of humility and her satisfaction of her intelligence.
Catarina had built up a large sum of money by the end of her life.
She made loans, rented out property, and prepared and sold sweets.
During the course of her life, Catarina had donated money and a
slave to the convent in order to make the chapel a place worthy of
worshipping her Savior.
Catarina passed away in August of 1758.
4. Antonio de Gouveia
• Antonio de Gouveia was a male adventurer and Priest
during the sixteen century.
• Antonio was born to Christian parents in Terceira, 1528.
• Antonio practiced alchemy, astrology, read fortunes,
fortold happenings, practiced medicine, and believed he
knew the key to invisibility.
• On a return voyage from Italy to Portugal, Antonio was
shipwrecked near Barcelona.
• After having lost all of his possessions, he used his knowledge of
medicine to earn his way home again.
• As he traveled across Spain, he was arrested for the first time but was
released on bail.
• In 1557 he was again arrested by the Inquisition on charges of
superstition, divination, witchcraft, and commerce with the Devil.
• Many people testified against him during this time.
5. Antonio de Gouveia
After four years in jail, Antonio was found guilty. In 1564 he escaped
during the night and voluntarily turned himself in during the next
morning.
Antonio was sentenced to the galleys where he stayed for months.
Soon, Antonio begged to be released from this forced labor. His
request was granted and he was ordered to leave Portugal and never
return without permission.
Antonio started heading expeditions in search og gold and silver and
the capture of Indians for the slave markets of Brazil.
In 1571 Father Manuel Fernandes Corticado asked that Antonio be
arrested again due to heresy, Judaism, and the desecration of the
blessed sacrament.
After three years and three months in jail, Antonio’s story trails out of
record.
6. Isabel Moctezuma
• Isabel Moctezuma was born in 1509 or 1510.
• She was the Aztec Princess of Aztec Emperor
Moctezuma II in the Aztecs of Central Mexico.
• By 1520 her father had his family had been conquered
by Fernando Cortes.
• Moctezuma II asked Cortes to take possession of daughters upon his death.
• At 11 years old Isabel was wed to her first husband, her uncle, Cuitlahuac.
Sixty days later he died of smallpox.
• She was then married to her cousin, Cuauhtemoc. In 1521 Cortes captured,
tortured, and hanged Cuauhtemoc.
• In 1526 Cortes granted the revenue and income of 1,240 homes and several
thousand Indian vassals be given to Isabel and her descendants.
• This was important in establishing legal principle that Spanish law was
superior to any natural rights of Indian inheritance.
7. Isabel Moctezuma
• In 1526 Isabel was given as a bride to Alonso de Grado by Cortes.
• Cortes believed Isabel would become an example of Hispanicized
womanhood for others to copy.
• Cortes also believed the marriage would speed up the process of
converting the natives into Catholics.
• Within two years time Alonso de Grado died and Cortes took Isabel as
his mistress.
• Isabel gave birth to her first child, a daughter with Cortes, after her
fourth marriage to Pedro Gallego. She then had a son with Pedro. Two
months after their son’s birth, Pedro died.
• In 1532 she married her fifth husband, Juan Cano de Saavedra. She
gave birth to six children.
• After her death in 1550, Tacuba became the center of court battles in
Mexico and Spain for many years.
8. Enrico Martinez
Enrico Martinez was born in Hamburg in 1557. He grew up in Seville,
Spain.
He spent the majority of his adult life in Veracruz and Mexico City,
Mexico.
He worked as a printer and engineer.
In his late teens, Enrico traveled to southern Europe
to study mathematics, astronomy, physics, and
astrology while learning to speak German and Flemish.
In 1589, Enrico traveled to Veracruz, Mexico. He first earned a living
as a translator for the Inquisition.
He soon came into possession of a press from a man convicted by the
Inquisition of Lutheranism.
In 1606, Enrico published his own book, Reportorio de los tiempos e
historia natural desta Nueva Espana.
9. Enrico Martinez
In 1607, Mexico City was trying to come up with a plan to build a large,
all-valley drainage canal to prevent Lake Texcoco from flooding and
damaging the city.
The authorities decided to use Enrico’s plan for this project and he was
hired as chief engineer.
Enrico handed over the printing responsibilities to his son.
The desague was a failure for many reason. One, Enrico wasn’t
experienced. Two, hydraulic engineering wasn’t efficient at the time.
Three, interest groups opposing the project didn’t want to pay for it.
The last reason fell onto the political officials failure to make them pay
for the upkeep.
In 1629, Enrico was imprisoned on the grounds of sabotaging his own
work.
In that year, Mexico City was again flooded until 1634.
Enrico died in 1632.
10. Francisco Baquero
Francisco Baquero was a dark-skinned mestizo shoemaker who was born in
Buenos Aires.
He lived from 1748- until approximately 1810.
Francisco operated his business on such a small
scale that he gladly joined the force pushing to organize
a guild.
A guild would stabilize the marketplace and guarantee the economic well-
being of the existing masters.
The first attempt to create a guild was put on hold for 8 years.
The second attempt at creating a constitution for the new guild was met
with resistance between the group of creators and the cabildo.
During this time Francisco had become more wealthy. He bought a small
house for his family where heworked fourteen hour days with his son and
an apprentice repairing and making shoes. He had also joined the militia
and worked himself up to the position of officer.
The constitution agreed upon on march 14, 1791.
11. Francisco Baquero
After the constitution had been printed, elections were held for the
offices supporting the guild.
Three groups of opposition were formed. During the initial set of
elections, chaos broke out resulting in Francisco’s election of a seat
designated to an Indian.
The court soon ordered a new set of elections to be held which was
followed by a royal order to suspend the guild completely.
Francisco then decided to create a separate guild of nonwhite masters.
This new guild was opposed by the original guild who could not
financially afford to loose the nonwhite members. The viceroy agreed
and denied the request for a new and separate guild.
Francisco went to Madrid to appeal the denial. A new constitution was
created but denied by the cabildo again.
12. Beatriz de Padilla
Born in the 1620’s, Beatriz was of mulatto decent but claimed to be a
lighter-skinned morisca.
She worked as a housekeeper and mistress to
don Diego de las Marinas, the lord mayor of Juchipila.
Beatriz gave birth to four children even though
she never married.
Beatriz began a relationship with the priest Diego Ortiz as a young girl.
When she was fourteen she had gotten into some trouble and was sent
to Guadalajara for two months.
When she returned, she lived with Diego de las Marinas. Diego Ortiz
decided to take Beatriz away from Marinas. He took her to live with
him and made their relationship public.
13. Beatriz de Padilla
Two years after they moved in together, Diego passed away. Many
people believed that Beatriz drove him crazy and posioned him to
death.
After Diego Ortiz passed away, Beatriz was arrested and charged with
poisoning Ortiz and of driving the lord mayor of Juchipila crazy
through the powers of magic.
Ortiz had left his house and all of his estate to Beatriz upon his death.
His family was not happy in this instance. They devised a plan to
accuse her of murdering the priest.
A ex-servant girl that Beatriz had treated cruelly went to work for
Ortiz’s sister. During this time she had fabricated many details of
Beatriz mistreating Ortiz and causing his death.
During the trial, the servant girl admitted to her lies and Beatriz was set
free without being punished.