page_title: Vasco de Quiroga
section_title: Información en Derecho
hierarchical_section_title: Vasco de Quiroga / Información en Derecho
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Vasco de Quiroga (ca. 1470–1565) Español: es:Vasco de Quiroga
context_page_description: Vasco de Quiroga was the first bishop of Michoacán, Mexico, and one of the judges in the second Audiencia that governed New Spain from January 10, 1531, to April 16, 1535.
  Coming from a background as a lawyer and a judge he was appointed to be a judge in the second Audiencia after the first Audiencia's failure. As an oídor he took a strong interest in restoring order to the Michoacán area which had been ravaged by rebellions and unrest. He employed a strategy of congregating indigenous populations into congregated Hospital-towns called Republicas de Indios, organized after principles derived from Thomas More's Utopia. The purpose of this policy was to make the dispersed indigenous populations easier to control and instruct in Christian values and lifestyles. He established multiple such hospitals: Santa Fé de México close to the town of Tacuba in the Valley of Mexico, and Santa Fé de la Laguna close to Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, and Santa Fe Del Rio close to La Piedad, Michoacan.
  Because of his reputation as a protector of the Indians, Vasco de Quiroga is venerated as a saint in some communities in Michoacan to this day.
context_section_description: "Información en Derecho" is the lengthiest piece of writing from Vasco de Quiroga's hand that we have knowledge about; it is dated México July 1535. It was partly a response to the Crown's reversal of a previous prohibition of the enslavement of the native population. It contains a detailed analysis of the legal and ethical issues concerning slavery in the Americas and includes a recommendation of a new policy towards the Indians based on the model laid out in Thomas More's Utopia.
  Since 1530 the second audiencia had worked in accordance with a royal decree of 1530 forbidding all further enslavement of Indians, which had previously been allowed only during warfare or by buying Indians that were already slaves. In 1534 the Crown responded to appeals by colonists who argued that they needed slave labor to continue to make profits by repealing this law and legalizing a limited form of slavery once again. The argument put forth was that Indians were recently becoming unruly, that there were no longer any causes for "Just War", and that already enslaved Indians would benefit from having Christian masters rather than Indian ones.
  In Información en Derecho the lawyer Vasco de Quiroga undertook a complex legal argument refuting the reasoning behind this royal decree. The letter was probably directed to his friend Bernal Diaz de Luco, member of the Council of Indies. He argued that Indians did not have slavery in the European sense and that therefore there was no class of already enslaved Indians that could be bought by Spaniards, and that allowing this was therefore unjust.
  He argued that the right way to avoid problems with unruly natives was to gather them into congregations where they would be able to be better controlled and administered, and indoctrinated into the Christian faith and a Spanish way of life. He proposed that this system of congregations should be based on the organizational principles laid out in Thomas More's Utopia.
  As in More's Utopia the basic social unit would be the family headed by the "padre de familia" corresponding to More's "Paterfamilias". Every thirty families would be overseen by a "jurado" corresponding to More's office of "Syphogrant". Above every ten jurados would be a regidor, corresponding to More's office of "tranibore" or"philarch". On the top of the hierarchy there would be two alcaldes ordinarios and a "tacatecle" corresponding to the Utopian prince. All of these offices were to be held by natives. The highest office of the city—that of "corregidor"—would be held by a Spaniard, appointed by the audiencia.
  Accompanying the información en derecho, De Quiroga also sent his own translation into Spanish of More's Utopia (written in Latin), but this document has been lost.
caption: Vasco de Quiroga (ca. 1470–1565)
exif: {}