1. Theme 3 Part 3. The People of
Portuguese and Spanish Colonies
Stuart Osborne
2. Portuguese Americans:
Antonio de Gouveia
• Antonio de Gouveia, 1528-1580, was a
European born in Terceira and left for
opportunity in Lisbon when he was about
twenty.
• While there, he became a clergyman and
quickly rose in the ranks of the church.
• During his priesthood Gouveia would
dabble in many areas that priests were
not supposed to, such as becoming a
mercenary, practicing medicine, and
inciting numerous allegations of
"witchcraft” against himself.
• All of these acts attracted the attention of
the Inquisition, who arrested Gouveia on
May 9, 1557, and held him for four years
before convicting him of heresy. Spanish Inquisition
3. Portuguese Americans:
Antonio de Gouveia, part 2
– After an unsuccessful escape attempt in 1564, Gouveia
appealed his case vehemently until he was finally released. He
was however to be banished from Portugal and sent to the
Azores.
– After another run in with the Inquisition about escaping his
punishment and being employed in a mining project in Aljustrel,
Gouveia was finally sent to Brazil in 1567.
– In this new land, Gouveia was officially a priest, but soon he
again developed a reputation for practicing alchemy, witchcraft,
medicine and other things unbecoming of a priest.
– After moving around quite a bit, he acquired many friends and
enemies. His enemies were mostly members of the church and
again in 1571 Gouveia was arrested by the Inquisition and sent
back to Portugal. Gouveia would spend the remainder of his
years appealing his convictions from prison.
4. Portuguese Americans:
Catarina de Monte Sinay
• Catarina, 1680-1758, was born into a
financially well European family in
Bahia, Brazil.
• Her father was a savvy business man
who knew how to turn a profit, a skill
that would rub off on Catarina.
• From childhood, she was ordained to
become a nun and religion was
extremely important to Catarina.
• Becoming a nun was highly desierable
to Catrina, as she did not want to
become part of the depravity she
observed occurring in Bahia.
5. Portuguese Americans:
Catarina de Monte Sinay, part 2
• Because of Catarina’s father’s status, she was admitted to the highly
respected Desterro Convent.
• Due to Catarina’s business savvy, over time she would amass quite
a considerable sum of money for a nun.
• Her dealings included rental properties, loans, and most
importantly “sweets”, the latter becoming quite a lucrative venture.
• She was a very generous lender, and would often use the money
she collected to help provide for the church.
• Approaching death, Catarina became considerably worried that she
had violated her vows of poverty. She tried to redeem herself by
giving nearly all of her wealth and possessions to the church in
hopes of forgiveness, a forgiveness she apparently never received.
6. Spanish Americans:
Diego Vasicuio
• Diego Vasicuio, 1580-
1670’s, was a native of
Peru who had inherited
the difficult task of
preserving the beliefs of a
disappearing religious
cult.
• Diego’s family had passed
on to him the idol of their
god Sorimana, and the
rituals and prayers needed
to worship it.
7. Spanish Americans:
Diego Vasicuio, part 2
• Diego had numerous opportunities to improve his situation
by leaving his hometown and abandoning his priesthood,
but instead persisted.
• Being a “heretical” priest was not an easy occupation, as
the Spanish believed it to be their duty to convert the
natives to Catholicism.
• This conversion was a slow process, and Diego managed to
prolong his priesthood by keeping his religious rituals more
subdued than that of other cults and also by “converting”
the local leaders.
• Vasicuio was a very old man of at least ninety when
eventually jailed for his practices and the idol, or guaca, of
Sorimana was supposedly taken by the Spanish.
8. Spanish Americans:
Francisco Baquero
• Francisco Baquero, 1748-
1810, was a mestizo who
resided in Buenos Aires as a
shoemaker.
• Shoemaking was a harsh and
tiring occupation, which
involved many years of skilled
labor to get it right.
• Baquero developed a
reputation among non-whites
by being a master shoemaker
and officer in the militia.
9. Spanish Americans:
Francisco Baquero, part 2
• In 1779, seventy-one master shoemakers, including Baquero,
proposed creating a guild monopolizing the industry to increase
their economic standing and “stabilize the marketplace”.
• The proposed constitution for the guild placed numerous
restrictions on free “castas”, and excluded many privileges and
rights based on race.
• Because of this racial discrimination, Baquero would become the
leader of the “castas”, fighting to increase their rights in the
proposed guild.
• However, due to the legal and social conditions favoring the white
shoemakers this would become impossible, so Baquero and other
“castas” master shoemakers tried forming their own guild.
• Though this to ultimately failed due to lack of support, internal
politics, and the mounting debt of its supporters.
10. Spanish Americans:
Isabel Moctezuma
• Isabel Moctezuma, 1509-1550,
was the daughter of Aztec
emperor Moctezuma II.
• After the initial invasion of the
Spanish and the subsequent
Aztec rebellion and death of
their emperor in 1520, Isabel
became a highly desired wife
among Aztec royalty.
• She would be wed to the last
two Aztec emperors, and
married a total of five times
during her life.
11. Spanish Americans:
Isabel Moctezuma, part 2
• When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs in 1521, Isabel
was spared at the request of her husband Cuauhtemoc.
• Being Aztec royalty, Isabel became an important political
asset to the Spanish in establishing relations with her
people. She would become the model of the “Hispanicized
Indian”, helping to ease the conversion of her peoples from
natives to Spanish and Catholic subjects.
• As the daughter of Moctezuma II, Cortes had initially
granted to her and her descendants the incomes from
various towns and villages. Later in her life Isabel would
fight unceasingly, but unsuccessfully, for the rights of her
father’s lands for her and her successors.
12. Spanish Americans:
Enrico Martinez
• Enrico Martinez, 1557-1632,
was a European
engineer/printer and
intellectual.
• Enrico would live in Mexico city,
where he was first employed as
a translator by the Inquisition
until he had located a press.
• The life of a printer was heavily
scrutinized and filled with
danger, as to print books not
authorized by the Inquisition or
higher authorities was an
extremely grievous crime.
13. Spanish Americans:
Enrico Martinez, part 2
• Enrico managed to make a suitable living from printing,
though was always more interested in maters “scientific”.
• He would carefully dabble in astrology and natural science,
even publishing works, however misguided, on these
subjects.
• Enrico was very careful in his scientific work, as any findings
or theories that did not coincide with established principles
of the Church could have drastic consequences.
• His most notable, however not successful, undertaking was
the construction of the desague, a drainage canal to help
alleviate the flooding of Lake Texcoco.