Scope and Content Note
The records of the Santa Clara de Tulillo Hacienda consist of two bound volumes of material relating most broadly to Mexico and specifically to the areas surrounding La Laguna de Cuitzeo, Michoacan, 1580-circa 1800. Written in Spanish, the bulk of the documents spans the years 1580-1750. Each volume is separated into cuadernos, subdivisions based on subject content. They are intricately linked to the records of the San José de Queréndaro Hacienda also housed in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.
Documents in the volumes served as supporting evidence in multiple disputes between various owners of portions of the lands contained in the Hacienda de Santa Clara as well as with the Hacienda de San José de Queréndaro, operated by the Jesuits of the Colegio de Valladolid, and the pueblos of Zinapécuaro and Queréndaro. The items include various Real Provisiones (royal decrees), Audiencia rulings, mercedes (land grants), acts of land possession, various suits and countersuits, correspondence, estate inventories, last wills and testaments, bills of sale, rental agreements, donation of lands to religious corporations, mortagage and loan records, and fiscal accounts. Subjects include the acquisition and sale of land, ownership disputes, water rights, property boundaries, rental property, relations with indigenous villages, legal procedure, the role of women in estate operations, inheritance, and agricultural production.
During much of the period covered in this collection the Hacienda de Santa Clara de Tulillo is not the main focus of attention. Most documents discuss several smaller haciendas and estancias near Zinapécuaro which, then owned by various individuals, raised livestock and cultivated wheat, maize, chiles, and beans. Some of these properties included the Hacienda de Santa Clara, the Hacienda de Pansacola, the Hacienda de Tarifa, and the Rancho de San Antonio de los Tiradores. Seventeenth-century owners of these properties included Leonor de Cárdenas, Gerónimo Gil de Cárdenas, Diego de Espinosa Monzón, Baltasar Pérez Gallegos, Juan de la Rea, Gregorio González de Rebolledo, Juan Sánchez Paniagua, and Juan de Villaseñor.
In 1702 under the ownership of Francisco de Arteta y Verganza and Doña Leonor de Sámano y Sesati, the Hacienda de Santa Clara begin to expand considerably into neighboring estates. Their sons-in-law, Fausto Francisco de la Roca and Domingo de Bustamante, sold all of these lands to Andrés de Pina [sic: Andrés de Peña] in 1745. The Peña family continued to occupy the Hacienda de Santa Clara, as evidenced by their participation in numerous lawsuits with both the Jesuits of the Colegio de Valladolid and subsequently with the Heras/Pimentel family.