Llamamiento General, Repartimiento, and the Empire of Acolhuacan
A PASSAGE in the Relaciwn geogr6fica of the city of Texcoco, written in 1582 by Juan Bautista Pomar, provides the point of departure for this study of fifteenthand sixteenth-century jurisdictions in central Mexico. Pomar's duty was to prepare a description of Texcoco in response to the general questionnaire distributed by the government of Philip II. Pomar fulfilled his duty in a characteristic, almost predictable, way. He remarked upon the geographical disintegration of the Texcocan area under Spanish rule, observing that an alcaldia mayor had been created with authority over Texcoco and four near-by towns, Huexotla, Coatlichian, Chiauhtla, and Tezayuca. In Indian government these towns and others formerly dominated by Texcoco had become "pueblos de por si," i.e., they were in the 1580's administered by native gobernadores with ayuntamientos of alcaldes and regidores, all separate from the authority of the Indian government of Texcoco. Pomar contrasted these conditions of the 1580's with the far-flung Texcocan hegemony of the era of Nezahualcoyotl and Nezahualpilli, the imperial area that had formed a part of the territory of the Aztec Triple Alliance. In only one respect, Pomar asserted, was the ancient dominion of Texcoco still recognized as such, namely in the llamamientos generales. And these, he stated, had become rare.' Pomar's reference is an obscure one, for liamamiento (calling) is not a word of frequent usage in the socio-political vocabulary of sixteenth-century New Spain. A number of instances may be cited, nevertheless, to suggest the kinds of situation for which it was regarded as appropriate. Thus a Spanish document of 1580 mentions that diirino Cortes' rpsidenee in Covoaean following the conouest. he