In the mid-sixteenth century, the secular priest Vasco de Quiroga, who had served as an audiencia judge, founded communal villages among the Tarascan Indians who lived around Lake Patzcuaro in Michoacan. Each village, inspired by Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, centered around a “hospital,” in the medieval sense of the word. These hospitals not only cared for the sick but also welcomed the poor, the hungry, and travelers in need of shelter.
Although they were forced to renounce their old religion, village residents were housed, fed, and protected from the demands of encomenderos. The Tarascans could elect their own officials, and they shared communal lands. Quiroga stressed the need for all adults—men and women—to work a six-hour day and felt that well-rounded adults needed to combine urban and rural work. All residents had access to land and tools for artisanal activity. No one could hire domestic servants. Each village received instruction in a particular craft, such as weaving, ceramics, or woodcarving. Assigning one craft to each village avoided competition between villages and created a trade network throughout the Tarascan area. Villagers sold their crafts to obtain cash. Quiroga established almost a hundred of these new communities, where corregidores and encomenderos could not abuse Indians.234
Because of Quiroga’s success with this, the Crown appointed him bishop of Michoacan. The Council of the Indies commented that his selection occurred because
There is a good report of his life and example and he is much inclined to the conversion and good treatment of the Indians and to their instruction in the matters of our holy faith on which he has spent a large part of the salary that Your Majesty has commanded to be given him.235
Even though it rewarded Quiroga with a bishopric, the Crown was reluctant to extend his model since it removed Indian labor from Spanish control. The towns Quiroga founded continued to
Figure 3.4 Surviving Quiroga-era hospitai, Santa Fe de la Laguna Source: Philip Russeii
Function under the rules he laid down. Some of these towns, such as Santa Fe de la Laguna, still exist. The hospital and church Quiroga built there can still be seen. Today the people of Michoacan fondly remember Quiroga and still practice many of the crafts he introduced.236
World History
