Scope and Content Note
The records of the San José de Queréndaro Hacienda consist of two manuscript volumes relating principally to the areas surrounding La Laguna de Cuitzeo, Michoacán de Ocampo, in the period 1543-1922. Written in Spanish, the bulk of the documents span the years 1580-1883, with the years 1700-1731, 1805-1839, and 1862-1883 especially well covered. Each volume is separated into cuadernos, subdivisions based on subject content.
The Compañía de Jesús (Society of Jesus) received official royal title to the lands in 1643. As early as 1631 the Hacienda de Queréndaro, under the jurisdiction of the Colegio de Valladolid, produced 1000 bushels of wheat, 600 bushels of maize, and raised 200 cattle and 30 horses. The Jesuit occupiers of the land added to their holdings, most notably entering into an agreement in 1720 to purchase the adjoining haciendas of San Antonio, San Bernardo, Zinzimeo, and la Trasquila from the Conde de Lizarraga. By 1767 production included wheat, maize, chiles, beans, sugar, and both large and small livestock. In 1767 the expulsion of the Jesuits from all Spanish territory as enemies of the Crown resulted in the expropriation of Queréndaro by the Ramo de Temporalidades.
In 1804 the Condes de Heras Soto purchased the estate from the Crown. Sebastian de Heras Soto served as a royalist commander in the War of Independence. His son, Manuel de Heras Soto, signed the Act of Mexican Independence, and his decendant, Tómas López Pimentel, was a supporter of the Mexican empire of Maximillian of Hapsburg. During the nineteenth century, the Heras/Pimentel family were accused of claiming or purchasing lands which ostensibly belonged to the neighboring indigenous towns of Zinapécuaro and Queréndaro.
Documents in these volumes served as supporting evidence in disputes between the owners of the Hacienda de Queréndaro, neighboring estates, and nearby indigenous pueblos. The majority of the litigation revolved around the claims of the Jesuits and subsequent owners of the Hacienda de Queréndaro to various lands and waters in the region. These claims were frequently disputed by the Hacienda de Santa Clara de Tulillo and the Pueblos de Queréndaro and Zinapécuaro.
The records include various Real Provisiones (royal decrees), Audiencia rulings, mercedes (land grants), acts of land possession, various suits and countersuits, correspondence, estate inventories, wills and testaments, bills of sale, rental agreements, mortgage/loan material, and fiscal accounts. Subjects include the acquisition and sale of land, ownership disputes, water rights, the establishment of property boundaries, rental of property, relations with indigenous villages, legal procedure, the role of women in estate operations, inheritance, Temporalidades (the royal branch responsible for the sale of Jesuit properties), the impact of the Mexican War of Independence, agricultural production, the functioning of an obraje, and railway construction. The documents may have been assembled in their present form in the 1920s-1930s as part of the last recorded dispute between the Hacienda de Queréndaro and Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México y Anexas.
Individual owners and important figures appearing in the text include Manuel Abad y Quiepo, Juan Bárcena, Miguel Bárcena, Sebastian de Heras Soto, first Conde de Heras Soto, Ignacio de Heras Soto, Mariana de Heras Soto (b. 1791), Mariana de Heras Soto (b.1809), Tomás López Pimentel, José Antonio López Peña, and José Pimentel y Heras.