The persistence of native pueblos and native languages stands as one of the most remarkable outcomes of Mexican history. Dorothy Tanck de Estrada examines a crucial period of challenge to Indian society, the late Bourbon period, when native Mexican communities faced repeated demands to subjugate themselves further to the Spanish Crown. Bourbon policies sought to regularize and control pueblo finances, religious life, and land use. Indians even found their languages under attack. At its most strident, the Crown declared in 1770 its goal “to extinguish native languages.” This book details Bourbon policies regarding village life and the pueblos’ fight to retain their autonomy.
The volume’s title misleads in two ways. First, while pueblos de indios are Tanck’s subject, this is hardly an ethnohistorical study. Royal policymakers and officers stand out as protagonists; Indians themselves play little role in nearly half of the book. Second, readers interested in Indian education may...
