DOI: 10.25549/rbm-m66
title: Records of the estate inventories, division and partition of Hacienda Buenavista del Coxo, Opichán and adjacent lands, 1821-1831
title: Ymbenta, División y Partición, 1823; Mexican hacienda manuscript

description: This Mexican hacienda manuscript consists of one leather bound volume containing the inventories, division and partition of major landholdings and other property among surviving heirs of Juan Quintero [Romero] according to his testament. The manuscript, prepared in 1823 and first signed at Hacienda Buenavista del Coxo in September, 1824 by his brother and testamentary executor Cayetano Quintero [Romero], describes the property as it was in 1821 at the death of Juan Quintero, with additions to the manuscript up to 1831.  The two male figures in the first illustration are presumed to be Juan and Cayetano Quintero, principal co-owners of the haciendas and other properties described in the manuscript.  Illustrations, maps, and possibly much of the text, measurements and financial accounts, of the haciendas, were created by J.A.Q, or José Antonio Quintero, brother of Juan and Cayetano. The largest and most opulent of the properties described in the manuscript is the Hacienda Buenavista del Coxo [cited on recent maps as the ex-Hacienda del Cojo], with a detailed inventory of its houses, equipment, crops, servants, cattle and other livestock, coaches, silver objects, furniture and a chapel with sacred objects and images.   The document also contains detailed measurements of all property boundaries and areas,  estate inventories and valuations, active and passive debts, funeral expenses, division and partition of land holdings and allocations of the properties among Juan's brothers, his wife María Gertrudis Barverena (sic.), their eldest son Rafael Quintero y Barverena (sic.) and his two other sons, two daughters and two grandchildren.  Numerous other individuals are mentioned in the document, with signatures of their accountant and witnesses from the Barberena family.; From the mid 18th century the various haciendas, ranchos, villages, indian lands, a mission, rivers, streams and other geographic landmarks identified in the manuscript were located in the south eastern region of the province of Nuevo Santander, known today as the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, between the colonial villages of Escandón (founded in 1751, known today as Xicotencatl) and [H]orcasitas (founded in 1749, known today as González) and near the coast of the Seno Mexicano, the present Gulf of Mexico. The manuscript indicates the haciendas' lands were at latitude 22 degrees and longitude 93 degrees (sic., 98) west of Cadiz, Spain.; [research and description provided by Barbara Robinson]; Supplied title. "Ymbenta, División y Partición, 1823" -- spine. Juan and Cayetano Quintero were royalists and military officers who fought for the Spanish Crown in 1811 in the Mexican War for Independence. (Dicc. Bio. Tamaulipeco p. 388-389)  The manuscript provides insight into the social status and economic conditions of this leading family of "hacendados" during the turbulent period of struggle for independence.  In 1821, year of Juan Quintero's death, Mexico declared its independence from Spain and by 1824, the year the manuscript was first signed, the eastern internal province of Nuevo Santander had been declared the free and sovereign state of Tamaulipas, under the new Mexican Federation. In 1835 Spain recognized Mexico's independence in a treaty.  José Antonio Quintero became one of the first senators in the Constitutional Congress of independent Mexico and was elected governor of the independent state of Tamaulipas in 1837 and again in 1839, following the treaty with Spain.  He also is recognized as having authored the first statistical record of the state, edited a newspaper, and drafted a geographical chart of the mouth of the Soto la Marina River, (Dicc.Bio.Tamaulipeco, p. 389-390.) the historic landing site in 1817 of Spanish liberal Francisco Javier Mina and Mexican Fray Servando Teresa de Mier who on arrival in Nuevo Santander succeeded in winning over many in that region to their cause and initiated a new chapter in the War for Independence. (Tamaulipas y los retos del desarrollo p. 26).