Genízaro facts for kids

Genízaros were detribalized Native Americans who, through war or payment of ransom, were taken into Hispano and Puebloan villages as indentured servants, shepherds, general laborers, etc., in Santa Fe de Nuevo México in New Spain, which is modern day New Mexico, southern Colorado, and other parts of the Southwestern United States.

New Spain had a prohibition on indigenous slavery implemented from 1543 onwards, but it excluded those captured in the context of war, which is why Hispanic settlers were also captured and enslaved by Comanche, Pueblo or Navajo traffickers and vice versa. These restrictions on slavery also meant that genízaros were to be convicted and sentenced to servitude for a specific timespan, at which point they earned freedom, they were even encouraged to become landowners themselves through Spanish government landgrants or to join the regional militia. After abolition of slavery was proposed in 1810 during Mexican independence, the practice of slavery was shunned throughout the Spanish Empire, even moreso after abolition was officially included by José María Morelos in the Sentimientos de la Nación of 1813. This became law following Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America of First Mexican Republic and during the Centralist Republic era. Genízaros joined other citizen-soldiers of New Mexico during the Chimayó Rebellion, to fight for New Mexico's separation from the Centralist Republic of Mexico, in fact the leader of the rebellion José Gonzales was a genízaro.

Genízaros settled in several New Mexican villages, such as Belén, Tomé, Valencia, Carnuel, Los Lentes, Las Trampas, Socorro, and San Miguel del Vado. Genízaros also lived in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Atrisco, Santa Fe, Chimayó, Taos, Abiquiú, and Las Vegas, NM. Most genízaros were, or their ancestors had been, slaves of Indian tribes, particularly the Plains tribes who raided and enslaved members of tribes allied with the Spaniards, such as the Apaches.

By the end of the 18th century, genízaros were estimated to comprise at least one third of the entire population, as New Mexican families had diverse origins. In 2007, genízaros and their contemporary descendants were recognized as indigenous people by the New Mexico Legislature. In the early 21st century, they have comprised much of the population of the South Valley of Albuquerque, and significant portions of the population of northern New Mexico, including Española, Taos, Santa Fe, Las Vegas, in addition to that of southern Colorado.

Name

The term genízaro is a Spanish word borrowed from the Italian word giannizzero, which was adopted from the Ottoman Turkish word yeniçeri. This Turkish word referred to slaves who were trained as soldiers for the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish word was also adopted into English as "janissary." The first known use of the word genízaro in New Mexico was in the early 1660s when a politician was accused of mistreating a genízara servant, whose mother was Apache-Quivira (Wichita) and whose father was a Pueblo. The term came into general use after 1692 when the Spanish regained control of New Mexico after the Pueblo revolt.

The word genízaro also had a military meaning in New Mexico. Genízaro militia and scouts were important in defending New Mexico from raiding Comanche, Apache, and Navajo warriors. The genízaros were formally organized in 1808 into a genízaro Troop, commanded by the corporal from their ranks and with a dedicated supply system to support them.

History

Genízaros were typically indigenous Indians who had been captured and enslaved by other Indian tribes and whom Franciscan monks were under the legal obligation to rescue by paying ransom. The former slaves entered indentured servitude in order to repay such debt, typically for a period of a number of years.

During the late 1700s and early 1800s, genízaros made up a significant proportion of the population of what is now the southwest United States. They founded a number of localities, such as Belén, Tomé, Valencia, Carnué, Los Lentes, Las Trampas, Socorro and San Miguel del Vado. There were also genízaros in towns such as Albuquerque, Atrisco, Santa Fe, Chimayó, Taos, Abiquiú and Las Vegas.

The debt of a ransomed Indian, often a child, was usually 10 to 20 years of service to the person paying the ransom. Young women were especially prized. The experience of most ransomed Indians—a genízaro—was "bondage on a continuum that ranged from near slavery to familial incorporation, but few shed the stigma of servility." Descendants of genízaros typically were also considered genízaros. But, as in the case of the rest of colonial Mexico—this classification was not an absolute impediment to social mobility.

The Comanche and other tribes brought their captives to trade fairs and offered them for sale. In 1770, a female captive from 12 to 20 years old sold for two good horses and some small items; a male was worth only one-half as much.

Many of the genízaros complained of mistreatment by the Spanish. Based on a policy established by the Governors of New Mexico, they were settled in land grants on the periphery of Spanish settlements. These settlements became buffer communities for larger Spanish towns in the event of attack by enemy tribes surrounding the province. The genízaros in the frontier communities become mediators between the often-hostile Indian tribes surrounding the Spanish settlements and the Spanish authorities.

The following description from the 1740s of the Tome-Valencia settlements by a Spanish religious official, Fray Menchero, describes genízaros and their settlement on land grants:

"This is a new settlement, composed of various nations [tribes], who are kept in peace, union, and charity by the special providence of God and the efforts of the missionaries,... the Indians are of the various nations that have been taken captive by the Comanche Apaches, a nation so bellicose and so brave that it dominates all those of the interior country...They sell people of all these nations to the Spaniards of the kingdom, by whom they are held in servitude, the adults being instructed by the fathers and the children baptized. It sometimes happens that the Indians are not well treated in this servitude, no thought being given to the hardships of their captivity, and still less to the fact that they are neophytes, and should be cared for and treated with kindness. For this reason many desert and become apostates.

The settlements of Tomé and Belén, just south of Albuquerque, were described by Juan Agustín Morfi as follows in 1778:

"In all the Spanish towns of New Mexico there exists a class of Indians called genízaros. These are made up of captive Comanches, Apaches, etc. who were taken as youngsters and raised among us, and who have married in the province…They are forced to live among the Spaniards, without lands or other means to subsist except the bow and arrow which serves them when they go into the back country to hunt deer for food… They are fine soldiers, very warlike… Expecting the genízaros to work for daily wages is a folly because of the abuses they have experienced, especially from the alcaldes mayores in the past… In two places, Belen and Tome, some sixty families of genizaros have congregated."

Tribal origins

According to DNA studies, Hispanos of New Mexico have significant proportions of Amerindian genes (between 30 and 40% of the Nuevomexicano genome) due to the interbreeding between Spanish and genízaros. Most genízaros were Navajo, Pawnee, Apache, Kiowa Apache, Ute, Comanche, and Paiute, who had been purchased at a young age and worked as domestic servants and sheepherders. Throughout the Spanish and Mexican period, Genízaros settled in several New Mexican villages such as Belén, Tomé, Valencia, Carnuel, Los Lentes, Socorro, and San Miguel del Vado. Genízaros also lived in Albuquerque, Atrisco, Santa Fe, Chimayó, Taos, Abiquiú, and Las Vegas, NM.

By the mid-18th century, the Comanche dominated the weaker tribes in the eastern plains and sold children that they kidnapped from these tribes to the Spanish villagers. By the Mexican and early American period (1821–1880), almost all of the genízaros were of Navajo ancestry. During negotiations with the United States military, Navajo spokesmen raised the issue of Navajos being held as servants in Spanish/Mexican households. When asked how many Navajos were among the Mexicans, they responded: "over half the tribe". Most of the captives never returned to the Navajo nation but remained as the lower classes in the Hispanic villages. Members of different tribes intermarried in these communities.

Today their descendants comprise much of the population of Atrisco, Pajarito, and Barelas in the South Valley of Albuquerque, and significant portions of the population of Las Vegas in Eastern New Mexico.

19th century

In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain, and New Mexico became a territory within the First Mexican Empire. The Treaty of Córdoba enacted by Mexico decreed that indigenous tribes within its borders were citizens of Mexico. Under Spanish rule, genízaros and Pueblo natives had often been treated as second-class citizens, although they were protected by the Laws of the Indies.

Officially, the newly independent Mexican government proclaimed a policy of social equality for all ethnic groups, and the genízaros were officially considered equals to their vecino (villagers of mainly mixed racial background) and Pueblo neighbors. During this period, the term genízaro was officially dropped from church and government documents. In practice, however, Mexico was far from egalitarian. Many genízaros remained culturally and economically marginal in New Mexican society.

Economic and social conditions under Mexico were so bad that in 1837, the Pueblo, genízaros, coyotes, and vecinos revolted against the Mexican government. Rebels killed the head of Albino Perez (the Governor of New Mexico) and all of the Mexican troops in Santa Fe. They formed a new government and elected as governor José Ángel González, a genízaro of Taos Pueblo and Pawnee ancestry. The revolt was often referred to as the Chimayoso Revolt, after the community of Chimayó in northern New Mexico, which was home to José Ángel González and many other mixed-blood indigenous peoples. The Chimayoso revolt was one of many against the Mexican government by indigenous groups during this period, which included the Mayan revolt in the Yucatán.

See also

In Spanish: Genízaro para niños