Some Features of Nuptiality in the Century of the Conquest in Puebla de los Ángeles, New Spain

Abstract

The research aims to provide some elements that broaden the knowledge of the sociodemographic dynamics of New Spain through the study of nuptiality during the beginnings of an experimental city founded for Spaniards who could subsist through the fruit of their own work, unlike the encomenderos. The first known marriages in Puebla, founded in 1531, were among the descendants of the first settlers, mainly those of their daughters, who married former conquerors, settlers, and immigrants. In a city of Spaniards, there was obviously a high ethnic endogamy, however, miscegenation emerged immediately after its first year of existence. The married founders had only European wives, but as a few years went on, three out of ten male neighbors had a woman from the land at their side. In order to conduct a broader study on the nuptial scheme of the century of the conquest, its last fifteen years were analyzed based on the information provided by the first marriage book that exists in Puebla for the parish of El Sagrario of the cathedral. The result is the ratification of the existence of a high ethnic endogamy to marriage, even greater than in the early days.