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7
Pots and Plots
The Multiple Roles of Early Colonial
Red Wares in the Basin of Mexico
(Identity, Resistance, Negotiation,
Accommodation, Aesthetic Creativity,
or Just Plain Economics?)

Thomas H. Charlton and Patricia Fournier

PROLOGUE
The Spanish Conquest brought about drastic changes in the lives of
the indigenous people in the Basin of Mexico (Figure 7.1). The immediate
results of the carnage of war included multiple disruptions of indigenous
life throughout the basin and at all levels of social, political, legal, religious,
and economic organization. More pervasive, and of greater long-term
impact, were the newly introduced Hispanic institutions. Those areas of life
would henceforth be organized on the basis of these institutions. There
can be no greater symbol of such institutional presence than the construc-
tion of the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain on the ruins of the
Mexica capital Tenochtitlan (compare with Voss, Chapter 12).
There the Spanish colonists established La Traza, an area covering
some thirteen blocks in each direction from the central plaza. Today this
area corresponds to the historic center of Mexico City (Charlton et al.
1995) (Figure 7.2). La Traza was designated as a living area in the center of
the new capital for upper-class Europeans, including Spanish (peninsulares)
and criollo elites. Lower-class Europeans, excluded from the noble class of
the conquerors and their descendants, were forced to reside in the indige-
nous zones found in the outlying neighborhoods of the city (e.g., Fournier
and Charlton 1996–97; Valero de García Lascuráin 1991).

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Figure 7.1.
Central Mexican symbiotic region and Basin of Mexico with relevant sites.

Residential areas for native inhabitants were designated throughout

the city: to the north of La Traza, the cabecera of Santiago de Tlatelolco was
established; to the west and south of the Spanish zone, San Juan; in the
northeast, San Sebastián Atzacualco; San Pablo Zoquiapan (including
Xochimilco) was located to the southeast; and Santa Maria Cuecopan
(today called La Redonda) to the south. Other important centers (with a
few Europeans but predominantly indigenous populations, some subject to
either San Juan Tenochtitlan or Santiago de Tlatelolco) included
Cuauhtitlán, Tacuba, Azcapotzalco, Texcoco, Tacubaya, Chalco, Coyoacan,
Huitzilopochco (Churubusco), and Ixtapalapa (see Figure 7.1).

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Figure 7.2.
Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, and La Traza.

The urban society of the viceroyalty was characterized by sharp social,

economic, and ethnic divisions reflected in the arrangement of residential
zones. Later, by about the middle of the seventeenth century, such divisions
were further defined within a purportedly biologically based system of castas,

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Charlton and Fournier

involving in its simplest rendition mestizaje, Spanish/Indian miscegenation.

Although the purported biological bases of such differences run as a leit-
motif through the literature, the archaeological record suggests systematic
differences in the distribution of material goods consumed by various
socioeconomic and ethnic groups in their (ideally) physically separate res-
idential zones.
One example of such systematic differences in the distribution of
material culture is the frequency of postconquest ceramics found in La
Traza on the one hand, and Santiago de Tlatelolco on the other. Given the
presence of mostly indigenous occupants in Tlatelolco, and mostly elite
Spaniards—peninsulares and criollos—in La Traza, it is not surprising that
we find proportionately more majolicas, porcelains, and glazed earthen-
wares in La Traza than in Tlatelolco. What is surprising, however, is the sig-
nificant presence in both areas of the same types of postconquest,
indigenously produced Red Wares. What does the presence of indige-
nously produced Early Colonial period Red Ware consumed in two con-
trasting areas of the colonial city tell us about interactions between the
indigenous people and their descendants, and the class-ridden society of
their conquerors and related ethnic groups and their descendants?
Early Colonial period urban society was dynamic, stratified, and multi-
ethnic. Is the development of Early Colonial Red Wares solely indicative of
aesthetic exuberance and cultural elaboration resulting from the contact
of two diverse societies? Are these vessels symbols of the development of an
indigenous colonial identity accompanied by resistance to or accommoda-
tion of the conquerors? If so, was this symbolism recognized by the con-
querors and their descendants and used to facilitate negotiations with the
indigenous elites? Or did the indigenous potters simply recognize a new
potential market and exploit it with Red Wares that were well received, and
if so, was this acceptance by the new elites facilitated by the prior existence
of an aesthetic preference among the Spaniards to which the indigenous
potters catered? Fortunately, there exist not only the archaeological data
but also documentary sources that provide us with contextual information
on the social, economic, and political systems in which the middle and late
sixteenth century Red Ware ceramics produced in the basin were heavily
used in Mexico-Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco.

BACKGROUND: PRE-1521 CERAMIC TRADITIONS IN

THE BASIN OF MEXICO AND THE IBERIAN PENINSULA
Before the conquest, several subregions in the Basin of Mexico
produced ceramics including Cuauhtitlán, Tultitlán, Otumba, Texcoco,

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Tenochtitlán, Ixtapalapa, and Chalco (see Figure 7.1). Such identifications

are based on documents, instrumental neutron activation analyses (INAA),
and archaeological studies of artisan production (Charlton et al. 1999;
Charlton and Otis Charlton 1998; Elson 2006; Gibson 1980; Hodge et al.
1993; Otis-Charlton 1994). The technical and aesthetic qualities of the
wares produced reflect the craftsmen’s high degree of specialization.
Within Tenochca society many of these ceramic artisans had been in
charge of producing earthenwares to embellish the ceremony celebrating
the 1486 ascension to the throne of Huey Tlatoani Ahuízotl, the eighth
Mexica king (Durán 1967).
Following Parsons’s typology with some modifications (Parsons 1966),
the preconquest Aztec ceramic complex included four trade wares
(Huasteca, Central Gulf Coast, Chalco-Cholula, and Xochimilco) and four
wares with specific functions (Texcoco Fabric—marked for salt manufacture,
long-handled Incense Burners, loop-handled Incense Burners, and Braziers
for cooking). In addition there were two wares that numerically dominated
service and utilitarian vessels in domestic households (Red Ware—service
vessels; Orange Ware—utilitarian and service vessels). Additionally, archae-
ologists use the category of Miscellaneous Ware as a catch-all term for a
variety of wares not readily included in the other categories.
Of these, the most numerous are the Orange Ware vessels, which
include the undecorated Plain Orange type, the well-known decorated
Black-on-Orange type with numerous identified black line decorative vari-
ants on a variety of forms, usually service vessels, and less common deco-
rated types. Orange Ware vessels are followed in frequency by Red Ware
vessels, usually service vessels, including the Plain Red type and decorated
types with painted decorations in various color combinations on a red
background (Black, White, Yellow). In some cases there are identified dec-
orative variants, such as the Black-on-Red and Black-and-White-on-Red
Types. These two wares composed the majority of the preconquest Aztec
ceramics in a typical Late Postclassic household. All were made using molds
and finished, with or without decoration, by burnishing, occasionally done
so well on the Red Ware as to be considered polishing. Forms were pri-
marily flat-based hemispherical or flaring-walled bowls with simple rims
(Parsons 1966). Hourglass-shaped copas occurred in low frequencies as did
jars with vertical loop handles. These forms seem to be solely service ves-
sels. Black, white, and yellow were used to paint designs, usually on the
exterior surfaces alone, but at times on interior surfaces, and in various
color combinations. Types include Plain Red, either without designs, or
with designs in other colors being present (Black, White, Yellow) alone or

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together. In some types (e.g., Black-on-Red, Black-and-White-on-Red) design

variations were classified as decorative variants within the type (Parsons
1966). Postfiring incisions also occur on some forms.
By contrast, ceramic production in Spain at the time of the conquest
included lead-glazed earthenwares with utilitarian and service forms, and
tin-glazed majolicas, primarily service wares. The potter’s wheel and the
closed-vault kiln were also present (Lister and Lister 1987). In addition, as
we note below, a tradition of small, unglazed, polished red decorative ves-
sels persisted in Spain (Trusted 2007).

E A R LY C O L O N I A L C E R A M I C S I N T H E B A S I N O F
MEXICO (1521–CA. 1620)
Ceramic acculturation and elaboration, technical and aesthetic, flour-
ished during the Early Colonial period. The ceramics of New Spain
reached a level of excellence in the sixteenth century, when two high-qual-
ity pottery traditions, the native and the Spanish, influenced each other.
The native potters contributed a deep knowledge of local clays and tech-
niques such as burnishing, which were new to the Spanish. The Spanish
potters introduced the potter’s wheel, lead or lead oxide and tin glazes, as
well as the closed-vault kiln. The indigenous tradition provided burnished
and polished earthenware types, at times with painted and molded deco-
ration, along with some plain wares. The European tradition introduced
colorada (red) smoothed wares, amarilla (yellow) glazed wares, and blanca
(white) majolica wares. Occasionally Hispanic techniques such as glazing
were applied to some indigenous wares.
Trade wares and those with specific functions do not show any post-
conquest elaboration resulting from culture contact in the basin. However,
the technical and decorative apogee of Mexica ceramics prior to the con-
quest—the well-burnished indigenous Orange Ware and the fine-polished
Red Ware, with and without painted decorations—were elaborated further
after 1521. These developments followed both preconquest formal and
decorative conventions and new influences from the recently introduced
Iberian ceramic tradition (Charlton et al. 2007).
Such wares came into Spanish hands in a number of ways. Early
Colonial period registries (1521–1620) of appraisals and tribute lists indi-
cate that some indigenous communities held in encomienda by various con-
querors periodically provided their encomenderos with pitchers and comales
as part of the tribute they were required to pay. Many of these vessels
were the same forms that had met prehispanic needs (Paso y Troncoso
1905, 1940; Libro de las Tasaciones 1952; Valle 1993). In part, their uses were

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functionally related to the storage, preparation, and serving of new foods

such as tortillas to which Europeans had become accustomed. Many of
these persisting Plain Orange forms, such as comales, declined in surface
finishing during this period. At the same time, changes in the form and
style of Red Ware occurred (including the location of decorative attributes
and surface finish). Some of these changes appear to result from the six-
teenth century relaxing of preconquest guildlike restrictions of forms and
designs for practitioners of specific ceramic ware traditions.
The potters sold their products directly or through intermediaries, in
the most important markets in Mexico-Tenochtitlan such as Tlatelolco, the
major preconquest market, and in El Volador in Tenochtitlan. The
Tlatelolco market gradually lost importance after the fall of Tenochtitlan,
and the El Volador market became more important. According to later reg-
istries of the middle seventeenth century these markets also traded in the
raw materials needed for the production of European tradition ceramics.
In the markets all segments of the complex socioeconomic and ethnic hier-
archical pyramid of the great city came together, where all the castas
bought and sold what was necessary for daily life (e.g., Cervantes de Salazar
2000; Fournier and Charlton 1996–97; Mendieta 1945; Sahagún 1989).

B U R N I S H E D / P O L I S H E D R E D WA R E I N T H E E A R L Y
COLONIAL PERIOD
Salvage archaeology in Tlatelolco, carried out by the Dirección de
Salvamento Arqueológico of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e
Historia (INAH) in the early 1990s, recovered substantial amounts of
Colonial Red Ware in a sixteenth-century indigenous context (Charlton et
al. 1995; Fournier et al. 1995). These ceramics revealed a complex pattern
distinct from that of pre-1521 domestic households. Although there were
some preconquest forms (bowls, copas, and jars) with pre- and postcon-
quest designs on their exteriors, most exterior designs disappeared during
this time. The bulk of these vessels differed from the indigenous ceramic
assemblage in terms of new forms (plates and dishes), new styles of decora-
tion (Aztec IV Black-on-Orange designs and new curvilinear floral motifs),
new placement of decorations (on the interior of dishes and the upper sur-
faces of plates), and enhanced (but selectively applied) surface burnishing.
Some minor introductions made their initial appearances in the six-
teenth century, only to become more prevalent and elaborate in the sev-
enteenth and eighteenth centuries: incrustations of shell or stone pressed
into the clay to form a design are one example; the appearance of a new
form, a small Plain Red jar with fluting and a gourdlike appearance is

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another. Another unusual form, the globular Plain Red incurved-rim gob-
let with an annular or low pedestal base (sometimes with black decoration
over a burnished natural tan or a red painted surface) and rough surface
treatment, is present in significant numbers as well.
At Tlatelolco the indigenous Red Ware ceramic tradition continued
with modifications including the incorporation of two new forms—plates
and “dishes” (flat-based flaring-wall bowls with interior decoration and tri-
pod supports, including effigies)—that were not present in preconquest
Red Ware ceramics. The decorated interiors were probably borrowed from
the preconquest and Early Colonial Black-on-Orange tradition. The exte-
riors of the molded effigy tripod supports are similarly painted and deco-
rated but the bases of the vessels and the backs of the supports lack any
finishing (changes that only occur in low frequencies in rural occupations;
Charlton et al. 2007).
By comparison, Enrique Rodríguez-Alegría (2002, 2005a, 2005b) has
recently studied a similar complex of sixteenth-century Colonial Red Wares
recovered from good contexts associated with households in La Traza. The
associations of Colonial Red Wares with Asian porcelains provide a post-
1573 date for those materials. Rodríguez-Alegría (2002:267–72) notes the
presence of utilitarian Red Ware forms (basins and ollas) used in cooking
and storage, as well as service vessels. The service vessels include precon-
quest forms such as hemispherical bowls, copas, small ollas in gourd-
shaped forms, and jars, along with Colonial Red Ware forms such as plates
and tripod dishes, which were borrowed from preconquest Orange Ware
forms. He also notes the presence of feldspar inlay, zonal burnishing, and
fluting as new decorative techniques, although these occurred infrequently
(2002:276). The forms and designs change, but the preconquest tech-
niques and colors used in painting persist.
The Colonial Red Ware ceramics found at Tlatelolco and La Traza are
similar enough to consider both to represent subsets of the same late six-
teenth-century urban Colonial Red Ware ceramic tradition. Unfortunately
the details of the provenience and associated wares in both settings are inad-
equate to carry out detailed statistical analyses of the materials. For the
moment we shall make do with the qualitative descriptive analyses presented.
Within a half century after the conquest some Black-on-Orange ceramic
production had been moved to the Texcoco production zone (Charlton et
al. 1999). Some Red Ware production continued in the Tenochtitlan pro-
duction zone (Rodríguez-Alegría 2002:365–69). Whatever preconquest
guild restrictions had existed to maintain separate preconquest Orange
Ware and Red Ware ceramic traditions in terms of forms, colors, and

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designs appear to have weakened so that the Colonial Red Wares incorpo-
rated plate and tripod dish forms and designs from the Orange Ware tra-
dition. In addition new forms and decorative techniques, possibly from
Spanish sources, appear in small quantities. These are urban phenomena
with little presence in rural areas.
How and why did the Red Ware ceramic tradition develop along these
lines after the conquest? What might it tell us about the exceedingly com-
plex and dynamic urban society in which it occurs? What factors influence
the use of these changes by both the indigenous households in Tlatelolco
and those of the Hispanic elite in Mexico-Tenochtitlan? Let us look at sev-
eral relevant developments after the conquest that might shed some light
on these questions.

Spanish and Indigenous Aesthetic Preferences for Colonial Red Ware

It might be argued that in the late sixteenth-century urban occupa-
tions, the forms and color of the Colonial Red Ware vessels appealed to
Spanish aesthetic tastes as well as maintained memories of the prehispanic,
late Postclassic Red Ware ceramics among the indigenous people in the
Basin of Mexico. The Colonial Red Ware is comparable to the bright red
ceramics of Extremadura, the homeland of Hernando Cortés and of many
of the other conquerors (Trusted 2007:146). The vessels graced the tables
of the members of the nobility of New Spain (Rodríguez-Alegría 2002) and
were used by Tlatelolco’s indigenous residents. Their absence in the six-
teenth-century rural Basin of Mexico is probably related to the limited
presence there of Spaniards and other Europeans during the Early
Colonial period.
There is substantial literature dealing with the presence among the
Spanish (peninsulares and criollos) of a continuing desire for ceramics
that seem to be Colonial Red Ware from the sixteenth to the eighteenth
centuries. This would support the idea that the indigenous potters modi-
fied their ceramic production forms and decorations to appeal to the
Spaniards or made them according to Spanish directions. Later the Red
Wares could be found in distant territories and provinces in northern New
Spain such as New Mexico and Texas. They were also exported to Florida
and to Spain itself (Trusted 2007:99, 146). Various inventories of goods for
Mexico City as well as for northern New Spain mention Mexican or red jar-
rillos that may well have been produced in the Basin of Mexico (e.g., Boyd-
Bowman 1972; Fournier 1989; Muriel and Lozano 1995). A similar case is
in the lienzo [canvas] of 1785, the work of Francisco Clapera, “De Chino e
India, Genizara” (García Sáiz 1989; Katzew 2004).

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Postconquest Developments: The Encomenderos of Cuauhtitlán

The community of Cuauhtitlán was a major preconquest and Colonial
period pottery manufacturing center in the basin (Gibson 1964:350–51)
although pottery was not listed among the tributes paid as recorded in the
Libro de las Tasaciones (1952:149–50). INAA (Hodge et al. 1993; Elson 2006)
indicates that there had been pottery production in the Cuauhtitlán region
at least since the Early Postclassic period. In the Early Colonial period
Cuauhtitlán was an important population center. Despite the multiple epi-
demics that had affected the area there were still 5,200 indigenous tribu-
taries in the doctrina in 1560 (Gibson 1980:100, 139) while in the region
there were 10,600 indigenous tributaries (Gerhard 1986: 131).
After the conquest in 1521, Cortés assigned Indian tribute and labor to
various conquerors through the private institution of the encomienda
(Gibson 1964:58–59). He awarded Cuauhtitlán and other northern basin
communities to Alonso de Avila, but for a variety of reasons (including his
death around 1535) this encomienda was held first by his brother, Gil
González de Avila (Benavides), and then by his nephew, Alonso de Avila
(Alvarado) the younger (son of Gil González de Avila) (Gerhard 1972:
127–28; Gibson 1964:416; Thomas 2000: 17–19). The encomienda reverted
to the Crown on August 3, 1566, with the executions of Alonso the younger
and his brother, Gil González de Avila the younger (Gibson 1964:416–17;
Libro de las Tasaciones 1952:149–50).
In 1525 the municipal government of Mexico-Tenochtitlan granted to
Alonso de Avila the elder a lot located between Cortés’s house and the
monastery of San Francisco in the central part of La Traza (now the pre-
sent-day street of Santa Teresa). In 1527 his brother received a contiguous
lot on the street of the Relox (today Argentina) “that is in the third part
where the temple of Huitzilopochtli was located” (Muriel 1978:6; authors’
translation). Both house lots were bequeathed to the children of Gil
González de Avila (Benavides). After the execution of Alonso the younger
and Gil González the younger, the houses were torn down and the lots
sown with salt. A plaque located near the Aztec Templo Mayor marked the
approximate location of their residences along with their executions.

El Códice de los Alfareros

The best-known chronicle of Cuauhtitlán is the Annales or Codex of Chi-
malpopoca, written around 1570. However, there also exists another
sixteenth-century document, the 1564 Códice de los Alfareros (or the Codex of
the Potters) (Figure 7.3), which has received only limited attention (Barlow
1951; Charlton 1995; Charlton et al. 1995) but is relevant for archaeological

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Figure 7.3.
Sections I–III of the Códice de los Alfareros of Cuauhtitlán.

investigations of the Early Colonial period. The codex incorporates images

drawn in much-modified prehispanic stylistic conventions (Barlow 1951:6)
and is supplemented with Spanish glosses. This document was either written/

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Charlton and Fournier

painted by the indigenous protagonists of a lawsuit in 1564 or was made at

their initiative (Mohar and Fernández 2006:13–14). It is important for our
study because it documents graphically the kinds of ceramics produced in
Cuauhtitlán close to the time of the Colonial Red Ware ceramics encoun-
tered in Tlatelolco and La Traza.1
The Códice de los Alfareros presents a complaint by four potters from
Cuauhtitlán concerning a lack of payment for some of the commissioned
vessels they had made and delivered. The suit was directed against Juan
Suárez de Peralta, the magistrate and the alcalde of Cuauhtitlán until 1567
(Silva Tena 1990:19). Suárez de Peralta had ordered the vessels, which
were subsequently delivered, but the potters claimed that he had paid for
only some of the vessels and still owed them for the others (a claim that he
disputed). Juan Suárez de Peralta’s father was a friend and brother-in-law
of Hernando Cortés, as well as a close friend of Alonso and Gil González
de Avila, the original encomienderos of Cuauhtitlán. Obviously Suárez de
Peralta was a member of the sixteenth-century elite in New Spain.
Included in the codex are representations of the vessels whose forms
and decorations correspond (for the most part) to those of archaeologi-
cally known Colonial Red Ware vessels. The vessels for which payment had
been received are painted in red to the left side of a vertical line. Those for
which payment was still due are to the right of the line and are not colored.
In the codex there are images of drinking cups, tankards, pitchers, water
jugs, ollas, bowls, tripod dishes, anthropomorphic effigy vessels of bearded
Spaniards and of Africans painted in black, plain and decorated jars
(stamped or painted eagle heads, “squash type fluting”), bowls with pedestal
bases and plain or fluted bodies, and ollas with lids. Ollas with lids are dec-
orated with geometric and undulating lines, possibly incisions. Missing are
any representations of plates.
The vessels depicted far exceed the varieties and frequencies of vessel
forms and decorations encountered in Tlatelolco and La Traza as
described earlier. Many of the forms and decorations do occur archaeo-
logically in greater frequencies in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
deposits, both urban and rural. In rural areas the Colonial Red Ware type
attains its greatest frequencies and varieties during the Middle and Late
Colonial periods and is associated with the introduction and growth of
ranches and haciendas. Colonial Red Ware was either not favored by or was
not readily available to the indigenous people in the Otumba area in the
sixteenth century and was present there only in relatively minor quantities
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Charlton 1996;
Charlton et al. 2007).

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Nevertheless the illustrations do include the tripod dishes mentioned

earlier as well as some of the ollas, jars, and bowls with fluted bodies, which
occur in low frequencies in the Tlatelolco and La Traza excavated collec-
tions. Some examples of the anthropomorphic effigy jars featuring African
heads and painted in black were found in a shipwreck in Pensacola Bay.
The wreck is believed to date from the ill-fated expedition of Tristán de
Luna in 1559 (Smith 1999:109), which coincides nicely with the illustra-
tions in the codex.

T H E P O L I T I C S O F R E S I S T A N C E : N E W L AW S A N D
ENCOMIENDAS
The conquerors had divided and distributed between themselves the
labor, lands, and tribute of the indigenous population in New Spain
through encomiendas later inherited by their descendants and sought by the
Crown. Among the privileged classes of late sixteenth-century Mexico—the
conquistadores and their heirs—there was a profound resentment of the
Crown in general and the viceroys in particular. This was due to a looming
threat to enforce the New Laws of 1542 to “limit all encomienda grants to a
single lifetime and to abolish Indian personal service” (Knight 2002:18).
Those who had aspired, without success, to gain an encomienda, those who
had already lost encomiendas, and those who were in danger of being dis-
possessed opposed implementation of the New Laws (Porras Muñoz 1968).
Included, of course, would have been Alonso de Avila Alvarado the
younger, the encomendero of Cuauhtitlán.
Luis de Velasco was the viceroy from 1550 to 1564. His unexpected
death in 1564 left a power vacuum in New Spain for over two years before
his replacement arrived in October 1566. The audiencia took the reins of
government for two years but did not effectively fulfill its functions and
failed to ensure that its orders were respected (Vincent 1993). In the
absence of a viceroy the situation became fertile soil for the young, disaf-
fected encomenderos to forge ideas and to plan violent measures with the
ultimate goal of separating Mexico from Spain. It is not clear that such a
conspiracy was ever more than indiscreet talk, however. The audiencia’s
heavy-handed response could have been an attempt to cover its own inep-
titude before the arrival of the newly appointed Viceroy, Gastón de Peralta,
Marqués de Falces (1566–68).
An additional factor aggravating the situation was the return of Martín
Cortés de Zúñiga in 1563. He was the legitimate son and heir of Hernando
Cortés from his marriage with Juana de Zúñiga, second Marquesa of the
Valley of Oaxaca. Born in Cuernavaca in 1532, he lived in Europe from

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eight years of age and inherited his father’s estate, title, and prestige, the
equivalent of an aristocratic position and titles. His status was reinforced by
his proximity to the Spanish court for several years. In his 1563 return to
Mexico, Cortés de Zúñiga was accompanied not only by his wife but also by
two of his half brothers, Luis and Martín, illegitimate sons of the con-
queror, but both legitimized by Pope Clemente II in 1529. During his
youth in Spain, the second Marqués of the Valley of Oaxaca had inherited
a peculiar prideful demeanor in public, which was worthy of a king in
ostentation and pretension. In New Spain many viewed this as not only star-
tling but above all threatening, due to the fact that he was at the time the
only “nobleman” born in Mexico. As his holdings were also threatened by
the Crown’s intention to eliminate the encomienda system, some
encomenderos (such as Alonso de Avila) saw him as a future king of an
independent New Spain.
The attitudes of Martín Cortés, along with his occasional rivalry with
the Spanish viceregal authorities, garnered him a great deal of hatred
among those in high positions but much friendship among his fellow criol-
los, encomenderos, and fortune hunters eager to live the licentious life in
the fashion of the Iberian courts and to capture absolute power over the
lands and the natives of New Spain. After his arrival, the second Marqués
del Valle promoted celebrations or was a cocontributor to these, common
among the privileged classes of Mexico City. These galas were graced with
indigenous ceramics made in the Basin of Mexico and indigenously pre-
pared foods. It was at these galas that a plot was eventually hatched to
declare Martín Cortés king of an independent New Spain.

THE HISTORICAL INTERSECTION OF POTS AND PLOTS

In various accounts and chronicles the polished Red Ware of
Cuauhtitlán appears at splendid celebrations organized in 1566 by the
criollo Alonso de Avila the younger, an intimate friend of Martín Cortés.
The Cuauhtitlán ceramics described in the Códice de los Alfareros of 1564 are
linked to the Cuauhtitlán ceramics associated with the ostentatious feasting
in La Traza and hence with the developing plot to crown Martín Cortés king
of New Spain. There is a compendium of documents about the case of the
“alzamiento con la tierra,” or the so-called conspiracy of Martín Cortés, pub-
lished by Orozco y Berra (1853b:193), which includes a good part of the tes-
timony of the defendants and the witnesses in the legal process against the
separatists, whose pretensions the audiencia frustrated in 1566.
Another account, perhaps based on hearsay, was written at the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century by fray Juan de Torquemada (1969). He

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reviews some facts related to the conspiracy in his Monarquía Indiana. A fur-
ther source of substantive importance is the Tratado del Descubrimiento de las
Yndias y de su Conquista (Suárez de Peralta 1990), a manuscript authored by
the same Juan Suárez de Peralta who was sued in 1564. (This manuscript
was completed in 1589, but it was not published until 1878.) Juan Suárez
de Peralta was born in Mexico around 1537 (1544 according to Thomas
2000:389) and was a witness to and a participant in the way of life of the
criollo descendants of Hernando Cortés and the conquerors.
When these three sources are compared, some inconsistencies and
contradictions regarding the nature and timing of the events become
apparent. However, here we are mainly concerned with the late sixteenth-
century Colonial Red Wares and their use by the elites of the Viceroyalty of
New Spain, and not the precise details of the purported plot. Despite diffi-
culties regarding the sequence of the events, the documentary information
available on the presence and use of Cuauhtitlán Colonial Red Wares is
clear and, in some cases, detailed. The late sixteenth-century Colonial Red
Wares and indigenous foods may in this context be viewed as symbols
reflecting the degree to which the children of the conquerors and other
elite personages in Mexico-Tenochtitlan had adopted modified indigenous
products and foods.
The chronicle by Juan Suárez de Peralta is of special importance to the
purported insurrection of Martín Cortés and the young encomenderos
who may have incited it. Suárez de Peralta relates that in June 1566 the
recently born son of Martín Cortés, the second Marqués of the Valley of
Oaxaca, was baptized as Pedro Cortés de Ramirez de Arellano. He would
eventually inherit the marquesado from his father (Goldberg 1971; Orozco
y Berra 1853a). The baptism festivities included mock battles, music, and
the building of a passage from the house to the church covered with flow-
ers and with triumphal arches. By this time rumors of a plot had spread and
many participating in the baptismal festivities were armed. Viceregal per-
sonnel did not attend (Suárez de Peralta 1990: 198–201). There was a
sumptuous feast following the baptisms, described by Suárez de Peralta:

Alonso de Avila invited the marchioness to a very superb dinner

party prior to which there should be celebrated and was cele-
brated a masquerade on horseback.
In all these occasions they thought that arms would be taken
up, and secretly the judges and those loyal to the king were
armed and showed prudence. A merry masquerade was cele-
brated and afterwards the dinner, very expensive and abundant,

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Charlton and Fournier

Figure 7.4.
Symbol of the Crown and Monogram (R-Rex) used on Colonial Red Ware ves-
sels from Cuauhtitlán by Alonso de Avila Alvarado

served in pots known as alcarrazas, and clay mugs, all made in the
town of Alonso de Avila, in Cuauhtitlán, where a lot of pottery is
produced. And to decorate the pots, they ordered that all had
signs as follows: A letter R and above it a crown [Figure 7.4]. All
mugs and pots had them, and Alonso de Avila himself gave the
marchioness a larger alcarraza with this sign. I believe as soon as
the meal started that the oidores had one and said that the sign
meant “you will reign.” They kept the vessel and after the dinner
everyone went home, and as I have said, nothing was said that
the judges did not know and write down (Suárez de Peralta
1990:198–201, authors’ translation).

According to another source, great celebrations that were worthy of

a king followed one another throughout one whole week: “Banquet fol-
lowed banquet without interruption” (Orozco y Berra 1853a:47, authors’
translation).

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Pots and Plots

The Plot Unravels, The Pots Appear

While the feasting continued after the baptisms on June 30, Luis de
Velasco, the former viceroy’s son, and others presented testimony to the
audiencia about the suspected conspiracy whose goal was to place Martín
Cortés on the throne of an independent New Spain. The two brothers,
accused as conspirators, were taken into custody at their residences
(located on the present-day corner of Guatemala and Argentina streets).
They and others, including Martín Cortés, were interrogated and their tes-
timonies recorded.
Orozco y Berra (1853b) summarized additional data about the con-
spiratorial behavior of the two ill-fated encomenderos involving earlier fes-
tivities in which allusion in writing and behavior was made to the marqués
and his wife as being rulers of New Spain (Orozco y Berra, 1853b:7–8).
Torquemada (1969:629) concurs and other data (Vincent 1993:133) from
the Archivo General de Indias (AGI) agree with those recorded by fray
Juan de Torquemada about the brothers’ inappropriate regal references to
the marqués and the marquesa at the fiesta in March.
Of particular relevance to our study is the testimony of a Pedro de Aguilar
from Seville. He acted as a messenger between the conspirators (Vincent
1993:135). His declaration of April 1566, details what had happened in the
festivities organized by Alonso de Avila the younger in honor of the Marqués
and the Marquesa del Valle in March 1566, months before the festivities asso-
ciated with the baptism of the Cortés twins as described by Suárez de Peralta.
According to Pedro de Aguilar, Alonso de Avila had ordered:

all the tasty dishes to be prepared the way the Indians do, so he
ordered the prepared meal to be brought from his subject
towns, with the complete dinner service of plates, pitchers, jugs,
candlesticks, tijeras, and saltcellars (Orozco y Berra 1853b:198).

Among the testimonies associated with the judicial process brought

against the conspirators, several potters from Cuauhtitlán related that they
had produced for the household of Alonso de Avila various water jugs and
other vessels decorated with a crown as a coat of arms (see Figure 7.4).
These were produced before the celebration of the masquerade in March,
1566, although clearly pieces with the same coat of arms were made for that
occasion as well (Vincent 1993:133).

C O N S I D E R AT I O N S O F C A U S A L I T Y
The manufacture of late sixteenth-century Colonial Red Ware main-
tained the use of prehispanic techniques of vessel shaping (molds) and

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Charlton and Fournier

finish (surface burnishing and polishing), and retained some design ele-
ments as well. At the same time the Colonial Red Ware potters incorpo-
rated forms and decorative elements previously associated only with the
Black-on-Orange ceramic tradition. How should we understand these
changes?

1. Economically Motivated Creation through Agency

One approach would be to consider these changes as evidence of a suc-
cessful expression of creativity and originality on the part of the indigenous
potters after the conquest. Within the new social, political, economic, and
religious context of the viceroyalty the artisans may be considered as active
agents producing ceramics based on a complex combination of indigenous
knowledge, skill, and aesthetics with an understanding of Spanish prefer-
ences for forms and colors of service wares. There does not seem to be any
direct impact on the forms and designs of Colonial Red Ware from the
European ceramic manufacturing tradition. Rather, the Black-on-Orange
indigenous ceramics provided forms and decorations perhaps as a result of
a breakdown in preconquest guild restrictions. At the same time, since the
vessel forms and new designs are from within the indigenous form and
design conventions, the urban indigenous people also used the same ves-
sels.
An incentive to make these changes may simply have been economic.
The potters were asked to produce certain vessel forms for which they were
supposed to be paid an agreed-upon amount of money, as the Códice de los
Alfareros indicates. What the indigenous Colonial Red Ware potters did was
incorporate in their products formal and stylistic characteristics desired by
both Spaniards and native peoples. These actions could be part of
processes leading to the construction of new identities and value com-
plexes. Thus they used new combinations of indigenous elements to
accommodate the formal and aesthetic preferences of both their Spanish
and indigenous customers (van Dommelen 2005).
Liebmann (Chapter 10) discusses Puebloan ceramic assemblages as
indices to gauge Pueblo interactions following the 1680 revolt, suggesting
that the adoption of technological and stylistic changes reflected social and
political linkages between the interacting pueblos. This to some extent is
comparable to our suggestion that in the Basin of Mexico the use of simi-
lar ceramics indicated a developing bond between the two groups, indige-
nous and criollos. Similarly, Beck et al. (Chapter 2) discuss the Juan Pardo
expeditions in the southeast United States where creativity in response to
Spanish presence and demands occurred. They suggest this is best viewed

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Pots and Plots

within the context of indigenous politics, which in turn could be under-

stood as active native agency rather than simple dominance and a resis-
tance response. The successful results for the indigenous people in their
case, they argue, are related to the absence of a long-term Hispanic pres-
ence and institutions, quite unlike the situation in Basin of Mexico.

2. Tools of Negotiation
The consumption of these wares by both the indigenous residents of
Tlatelolco and the Spanish residents of La Traza is of particular interest.
Obviously the wares were desirable to both ethnic groups as noted above.
Rodríguez-Alegría (2002, 2005a, 2005b) has suggested that Europeans,
both peninsulares and criollos in New Spain, used these burnished Red
Wares to reach out to indigenous leaders over meals served on native pot-
tery. The meals would serve as situations in which power would be negoti-
ated. Since the only historically documented instances of the use of this
type of pottery are by Europeans alone, Rodríguez-Alegría’s position does
not seem to be supported.
From the documents relating to the Avila-Cortés “conspiracy,” however,
it readily becomes apparent that in late sixteenth-century Mexico-
Tenochtitlan there was a strong interest in consuming native foods pre-
pared by natives and served on “native” vessels. There were also
masquerades and reenactments of the meeting of Cortés with Moctezuma
and episodes of the conquest, carried out by Europeans—some dressed as
natives were supposed to have dressed. So perhaps there was no use in
negotiation, but surely there was use based on the criollos’ demonstrated
interest in things Indian. Such interest might indicate the development of
a “national” identity, locally rooted and separate from the identity of the
peninsulares (Berkhofer 1978).

3. Memories of Home
Why did the Spaniards and their descendants adopt the use of the
modified Red Ware ceramics for grand occasions? Had they used similar
pottery previously? In the sixteenth century the Iberian region of
Extremos-Estremoz as well as others in Portugal (Dias Diogo and Trindade
2002; Queirós 1987) were famous for their fine burnished pottery, which
was vermillion or bright red and occasionally white. Archaeologists have
called this ware terra sigillata similar to pieces registered in seventeenth-cen-
tury sources. This ware was esteemed in the Iberian Peninsula and other
regions in Europe such as the Low Countries (e.g., Baart 1992; Casanovas
2001; Gaulton and Mathias 1998; Gutiérrez 2000:74–78; Gutiérrez et al.

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Charlton and Fournier

2003; Veeckman 1994). The búcaros and other red vessels with highly pol-
ished surfaces were items consumed by the Iberian nobility during the first
half of the sixteenth century. Some pieces were part of the dowry of Isabel
of Portugal, who married Carlos V in 1526 (Vasconcellos 1921). The pro-
duction of such burnished ceramics in the domains of the Spanish Crown
and later those of Portugal was ongoing according to archaeological infor-
mation available for Central Mexico, the Province of Michoacan, New
Vizcaya, New Santander, Sinaloa, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, and the
Jesuit missions among the Guaraníes in South America (e.g., Brown et al.
2004; Fournier 1997; Fournier and Santos 2007; Fournier et al. 2007;
Galindo 2003). Colonists would look to the indigenous ceramics for some-
thing similar to what they had known in the old country. There it would
have been outside their daily lives and consumed by the Iberian nobility.
Where no similar pre-Columbian pottery tradition existed they established
the production of red wares with highly burnished surfaces.

4. The Seeds and Symbols of Separatism and Local Patriotism in

Sixteenth-Century New Spain: Resistance to the Crown
We like to attribute resistance to colonized native peoples (see
Liebmann and Murphy, Chapter 1). However Deagan (Chapter 3) points
out that resistance may not be practiced by only the conquered indigenous
people but also by various other subordinate groups within heterogeneous
multitiered conquest society. Such resistance may take various forms. The
colonizers in the Basin of Mexico formed no simple homogenous domi-
nant group but rather were quite diverse in the social, economic, and polit-
ical arenas. Such diversity harbored antagonism and resistance.
So it was in the capital of New Spain where the Crown was trying to take
the encomiendas away from the heirs of the conquerors. The Spaniards and
their descendants, the Avila brothers and the Marqués del Valle, in 1566
organized and participated in a masquerade with indigenous overtones in
the house of Alonso de Avila. In this masquerade the emperor Moctezuma
receives Hernando Cortés upon his arrival in Tenochtitlan in 1519. On the
one hand, the son of the conqueror, the second Marqués del Valle, took
the role of his father, while on the other hand the young encomendero
Alonso de Avila Alvarado adopted the persona of Moctezuma and dressed
in Indian guise.
For the judges conducting the legal process against the insurrection-
ists, the procession organized by Avila Alvarado in the streets of Mexico
City, in which the participants dressed as Indians and gave Martín Cortés a
crown, was a clear indication that the marqués intended to become the

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Pots and Plots

king of New Spain. In the ritual masquerade the instigators of the revolt
and the Marqués del Valle had presented a theatrical version of the sub-
mission of Tenochtitlan to Spain (Drake 2004) but with overtones of criollo
resistance.
Events in 1566 demonstrated the use of a symbol of royalty on vessels
from Cuauhtitlán, the crown and the letter R (see Figure 7.4), suggesting
some resistance against the Crown further supported by the attempt to
install Martín Cortés as the king of New Spain. This use of a European sym-
bol on indigenous ceramics and the failed conspiracy provide early evidence
of the construction of a form of patriotic ideology (e.g., Cañizares-Esguerra
2005; Mazzotti 2005). This is the first expression of a criollo patriotism that
increased toward the end of the sixteenth century and continued during
the seventeenth century, arising from the threat of the Crown to end the
inheritance of encomiendas. Of interest in these interactions is the impor-
tance of how the sons of the conquerors constructed their identity with
indigenous overtones and how they perceived the actual indigenous peo-
ple, a subject worthy of further investigation (Berkhofer 1978).
If we examine suggestions made by Mazzotti (2005), in our case study
it is possible to postulate that the commensurate scale of the festivities was
considered equivalent to the style of the Iberian nobles and thus was a fur-
ther demonstration that the criollos aligned themselves ideologically with
the peninsulares. Yet at the same time they incorporated indigenous tradi-
tions by employing indigenous foods and ceramics. Thus, in the setting of
the conspiracy of 1566 the criollos presented characteristics of an elite
group commemorating the honor and courage of their ancestors during
the conquest, but incorporating indigenous foods and ceramics into those
commemorations. This was a fundamental element in support of their
demands for social and political recognition.

CONCLUSION
By the late sixteenth century Colonial Aztec Red Ware had developed
on the basis of an indigenous Red Ware tradition combined with indige-
nous forms originating in the Black-on-Orange ceramic tradition. Colonial
Aztec Red Ware vessels were used by indigenous people in Tlatelolco and
Europeans in La Traza. These developments occurred at least forty years
after the conquest and were probably market based, the potters manufac-
turing indigenous-tradition vessels modified to appeal to both ethnic
groups. Special orders are known to have been placed by Europeans so
these may have been purely economic transactions. Not all vessels illus-
trated in the Códice de los Alfareros occur in the deposits examined, which

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suggests that some forms and styles were uncommon at this time. European
acceptance may have been due to memories of desirable pottery in Spain
or due to a fascination with things “Indian” (similar to nineteenth-century
American fascination with chinoiserie). This fascination may have under-
written the use of Colonial Red Ware ceramics to mark the identity of the
criollos with symbols of resistance against the Crown marked on them.

Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Yuki Hueda for having located the Códice de los Alfareros
and obtaining a color microfilm copy. John DeBry earlier had provided full-scale pho-
tocopies of the document to Thomas Charlton. Cynthia L. Otis-Charlton prepared the
figures and translated an earlier version of this paper from Spanish to English. She
also provided proofreading assistance. We thank Luis Alberto López Wario, Director,
and Margarita Carballal, Sub-Director of La Dirección de Salvamento Arqueológico of
INAH, for permission to analyze the materials from Tlatelolco. We also thank Melissa
Murphy and Matthew Liebmann for asking us to participate in the SAR symposium and
for their helpful suggestions and editing while we rewrote the paper for publication.

Note
1. The codex is now housed in the Mexican stacks of the Bibliothèque nationale
de France (BnF), in volumes 103–18 with the catalog number Mex 109 ICR q1487 bis,
a catalogue reference that differs from that cited by Robert Barlow (1951). According
to the BnF description the codex is an “accounting record of a factory of indigenous
ceramics subsequent to the conquest” and is “an original figurative manuscript on
European paper 1.90 m in length and 0.32 m in width” (authors’ translation).

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