Space, Time and Documents: Land Titles and the Communication Network Between the Pueblos de Indios of Yucatan

Abstract

By 1557, and taking advantage of the situation created by the congregación policy, Don Juan Cocom and Don Francisco de Montejo Xiu drafted the Títulos de tierras (land titles) to register their dominions of pre-Hispanic affiliation under the colonial regime. This is where the limits agreed with the subordinate towns were established with a long list of the names of the Mayan rulers who participated in the demarcation. After the disintegration of the polities of the Cocom and the Xiu, the towns that were part of them saw the need to have their own land titles as independent pueblos. Thus, the representatives of their cabildos went to the archives where those Títulos de tierras drafted around 1557 were kept, and they transcribed (copied) the necessary parts to be able to then draft their own Títulos adjusting their content to the local realities. Throughout the colonial period, these sixteenth century Títulos were consulted and transferred several times, thus establishing a hierarchical communication network between the parent document and those derived from it. This work, therefore, analyzes in detail the characteristics of the drafting and management of land titles within the dynamic and active context of colonial inter-community communication in the Colonial Yucatán.