Indian communities in colonial Mesoamerica employed a wide variety of strategies to defend their interests, including the use of written petitions. Indigenous-language petitions, which appeared as early as the 1550s, were usually addressed to a high-ranking Spaniard, often the district magistrate but at times the viceroy or king. They sought to lighten tribute and labor demands, defend community lands, or rein in local priests and often initiated litigation. They had their own conventions and vocabulary. They addressed Spanish authorities in reverential language and referred to the petitioners, themselves often members of the indigenous high nobility, in humble, deferent terms, characteristic of preconquest speechmaking. Because petitions were generally longer, more varied, and less formulaic than more mundane genres of indigenous-language documents, they are extraordinarily rich as ethnohistorical sources. The editors view this edition as analogous to The Broken Spears, the well-known compilation of Nahua accounts of the Spanish conquest, edited...

You do not currently have access to this content.