Mexico Chronology

FCA 12/24/06

1325 Los Mexicas (Aztecs) found Tenochtitlan

1491 Ignacio de Loyola born, founder of Jesuits

1492 expulsion of Arabs and Jews from Spain, got rid of intelligentsia and then conquered New World with the people left, the people left were less educated, less advanced for the time, superstitious savages as the conquistadors…., (Las Casas: the conquistadors were cruel, thieves)

1492 Colon (Columbus) voyage to New World

1507 the word America appears for the first time, in a book about the New World

1511  3^rd Sunday, Catholic King and Queen began to discuss issues of Indians, human or not?, is war against them just?, can they be slaves?

1513 Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida

1514 Royal decree authorizing Spanish to marry Indians

1515 Diego de Velasquez founds Havana, Cuba

1517 Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba discovers Mexico on expedition from Havana, Cuba, explores coast of Yucatan

1517 Hernan Cortes a Yucatan

1518 Juan de Grijalva voyage, coasts of the Gulf of Mexico

1519-1522 Magallanes (Fernando Magellan), first to circumnavigate the globe

1519 Cortes a Veracruz: can read The Five Letters of Cortes, and The True History of the Conquest of Mexico by Bernal Diaz del Castillo for vivid account of the conquest

1519 Cacique (headman) de Tabasco gave Cortes 20 slaves, one of which was la Malinche, who spoke Aztec and Maya, one of Cortes’ men spoke Maya, from being stranded for years in the Yucatan, so with La Malinche, Cortes could speak with the Aztec rulers, La Malinche is synonymous with traitor in Mexico, “malinchismo”

1520 Black Death kills Montezuma/ Moctezuma, last Aztec emperor

1521 los espanoles derrotan a los Aztecas, Spanish defeat the Aztecs, begin to build Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, FCA studies in Mexico City in 1982, sees the history first hand

1522 first Franciscans arrive in Mexico

1527 Panfilo de Narvaez, naufragio en Florida, Narvaez expedition shipwrecked in Florida

1527-36 Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Estevanico (a black slave of Dorantes), members of Narvaez expedition, walk from Florida out west and down into Sonora, create myth of Cibola and cities of gold, (mito de Cibola), are given 600 deer hearts (corazones de venado) in what may now be Ures, Sonora, Kim and Fred go to Ures in 2006 and buy pastries and walk in the plaza

-Cabeza de Vaca’s journal written as “Naufragios”, or Shipwrecked, very interesting

1530 New Spain decrees that Indians cannot use or own horses

1533 Diego de Guzman 1^st European to explore Sinaloa and Sonora, Yaqui River, majorly slaughtered Indians (documented in “Shipwrecked”), we cross Yaqui River on the way to La Mesa de Abajo, FCA visits El Novillo dam upstream in 1998

1538-1542 Hernando de Soto, voyage to Florida and explore into Mississippi River

1539 Francisco de Ulloa voyage of exploration in Gulf of CA, names it Sea of Cortez

1540-42 (1539) Hernando de Alarcon, voyage to upper Gulf of California and Colorado River delta, 2006: Fred and Kim sit atop Pinacate Peak and look into upper Gulf of California and Colorado River delta

1542-43 Juan Rodrigues Cabrillo voyage, first European to navigate California coast, went as far as Russian River but missed the Golden Gate, FCA and KDB go to the city across Golden Gate to Glide Church and hear gospel “now is your time”

1537 Pope Paul 3 declares Indians human and not animals, decrees Indians free and able to receive the faith and sacraments

1539 Fray Marcos de Niza expediton, looking for Cibola (Zuni Pueblo), expedition ends in disaster and Estevanico killed just outside Zuni, there is no gold, FCA stops in Zuni in 1998, has special tour inside early church, decides to go live in Mexico for a year after revelation of the deep history of the area

1540-42 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, up through San Simon, AZ and north, perhaps onto plains and into Kansas, had to look for those cities of gold!

1540 Melchior Diaz expedition, Agua Prieta, Sonora to Colorado River and back

1543 Fray Bartolome de las Casas arrives in Campeche, a man sympathetic to the Indians, witnesses brutal torture and genocide by Spanish, his writings provide one of the few windows into that time and place

1547 Cortes dies in Spain

1550 first chocolate from Mexico to Europe

1561 se funda la Reina de la Nueva Vizcaya, territory in northwest Mexico established, FCA moves to Tucson, AZ 1978

1563 Francisco de Ibarra, explores northern Mexico, named Nueva Vizcaya

1565 St. Augustine, Florida founded, oldest continuously inhabited city in continental USA, FCA goes in 1976 and has a few beers near the fort

1572 first Jesuits arrive in Mexico

1592 Iaonnis Phokas, greek captain employed by Spanish, known as Juan de Fuca reports finding current Straight of Juan de Fuca off Washington state

1598 Juan de Onate, slaughter of 800 at Acoma Pueblo, NM, in other judgment against Indians, ordered the amputation of one foot of each male over 25, Indians cut the foot off a statue dedicated to Onate in 1991

1602-1603 Sebastian Vizcaino, reconnoiters California coast, names many places, including San Diego, Monterey, misses the Golden Gate

1608 Jesuitas al Rio Mayo, Jesuits arrive at Mayo River

1617 primeras misiones en los pueblos Yaqui

1619-29 misiones en Sonora central

1630-40 misiones en el valle del Rio Sonora, FCA attends University of Sonora in 1998 and studies Spanish/ Mexican history of the region, visits many mission in Sonora River Valley

1680 silver mines developed in Alamos, Sonora, for 2 centuries Alamos is biggest place in NW Mexico, FCA took Beto here and treated him to dinner in the plaza a few months before he died

1681 (1687) Kino llega a la Pimeria Alta, Kino gets to Sonora area, Kino’s footsteps provide many with a sense of fascination and regional history

1692 presidio en Fronteras, Sonora, 1^st garrison in Sonora

1591-1687 period of Jesuit Missions, sistema de encomienda, encomienda system of state control of land and labor

1699 San Xavier del Bac mission founded in Tucson by Kino

1711, 3/15 Fray Francisoc Eusebio Kino dies in Magdalena, Kino’s skeleton can be seen in the Magdalena plaza

1741 Mision Cusarare founded by las Jesuitas, Fred and Kim meet Jose Maria Patricio Safeda, “10,000 generations of Tarahumara” lived there he says, bought instrument for George from him, up on edge of la Canada del Cobre (Copper Canyon, 2006)

1742 Pitic established, became Hermosillo

1752 Tubac presidio (garrison) established

1767 Jesuits expelled by Spanish crown

1769 Gaspar de Portola, first documented discovery of San Francisco Bay

1775 Tubac presidio moved to Tucson

1775 (1776) Juan Bautista de Anza, voyage from Baja to northern CA., founded San Francisco

1810 Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla gave the Grito de Dolores, starting the fight for Mexican independence from Spain, during war for independence, supplies cut to Sonora, poverty and assaults, ranches and pueblos abandoned, cattle ran free and caused a lot of environmental damage, contributing to desertification of region and current plant distributions

1820 Inquisition ended in New Spain

1821 Mexican Independence

1823 Nicaragua y Guatemala separate from Mexico, Chiapas decides to stay with Mexico

1824 Chihuahua becomes a state

1824 slaves decreed free

1831 Sonora became independent state, disintegration of missions, opened period of haciendas, which succeeded encomienda system, hacienda system moved more into modern era of private ownership

1834-1836 Richard Henry Dana sails from Boston to California coast as crew on ship working the hide trade, wrote Two Years Before the Mast, documents LA, Santa Barabara and San Francisco Bay during Mexican period of CA history, on his entry to San Francisco Bay, there was one shack in the whole area

1835 (1836) US citizens in Mexican province of Texas declare independence of Mexico

1845 US approves annexation of Texas

1848 Treaty de Guadalupe Hidalgo, US wins war with Mexico, annexes huge area of what is now western US

1850 California annexed to USA

1853 Tratado de la Mesilla, (Gadsden Purchase), area including Tucson becomes part of USA

1859 Benito Juarez nationalizes church land holdings and property

1860s ancestors, (Clark, Moore and DeMoss) of our friends in La Mesa de Abajo, Chihuahua leave US to flee effects of Civil War

1885 Yaquis lost control of land in valleys near Ciudad Obregon, FCA goes to visit area and live in Ciudad Obregon while on hiatus in 2002

1869 Dana returns to Bay Area after the California gold rush, comments on the changes, FCA works in Trinity Alps in 1994 and sees results of hydraulic mining

1904 Tiburon island campaign against Seris, FCA goes to Tiburon Island with Mike Gray and AFSC project in 1997, Seris bring Toyota truck across channel, with truck half way between 2 ponga boats

1910 begin Mexican Revolution

1929 end Mexican Revolution

1934 ejido system of communal lands established, to reclaim unproductive land and give poor a chance, FCA visits ejido of Tavo’s brother Emilio near Rosario, near Ciudad Obregon, sees many sacks of buffel grass seed to be used for forage

1992 Mexico establishes relations with the Vatican

2006 FCA and KDB meet Seri and buy a turtle carving at Kino Bay, move to California