Tempest in Tehuantepec, 1529: Local Events in Imperial Perspective
URING THIE SUMMER Of 1529 two small elusters of Spanish horsemen traversed the 140 leagues of mountains, valleys, and plateaus between the city of Mexico and the pueblo of Tehuanltepec.1 Heading southeastward from the seat of the audiencia late in June went a hanidful of newly appointed officials. Centerinig about the figure of tall, 40-year-old Martin Lo6pez -off to his jurisdiction as alealde mayor-went a company destined to serve as tax collectors, constables and the like. Optimism and high humor surely keynoted the exchanges of men headed for salaried responsibilities and honors. The second lot of horsemen, like the first only in niumbers, was a plodding, grimly uncommunicative group. Francisco Maldonado, the dominant figure, had reason to be sullen, dejected and angry-as might any discredited ex-officeholder approaching prison. The several guards attending him looked to muleteer Crist6bal de Castromocho, momentarily serving as constable, for orders those September days in the saddle. Between the coming of Lo6pez and the departure of Maldonado, the tiny and not too prosperous looking frontier pueblo of Tehuantepec played host, that summer of 1529, to a bitter and revealing demonstration of the power struggle between Hernando Cortes and Nu-no de Guzman. Initially a Narv'aez man, Maldonado speedily shifted to the side of Cortes.2 Appointed by the captaini general to superintend the