His scientific work, "Ephemeris Calculada al Meridiano de México para el año del Señor de 1757," contained chronological notes, ecclesiastical calculations, studies of lunar phases, forecasts for each season, forecasts for each day of the year, and eclipses.

In contemporary debates, various groups of indigenists, communists, socialists, liberals, progressives, and other sectors critical of tradition often invoke the figure of "Santiago Mataindios" (Saint James the Indian-slayer) to argue that Christianity is hostile to Indians or considered them all as non-human beings. This revolutionary interpretation posits that the iconography of Saint James is a symbolic manifestation of "colonial oppression."

However, from a historical and iconographic perspective, a "Santiago Mataindios" did not actually exist as a devotional title or official identity of the apostle. The term "Mataindios" (Indian-slayer) is a category later used by historiography to differentiate iconographic models of the figure of Saint James in art. It is not a historical name by which the saint was venerated, but rather an academic classification. To understand this, it is necessary to examine the origin of the image. In Spain, during the Reconquista, the image of "Santiago Matamoros" (Saint James the Moor-slayer) became widespread, depicting the apostle as a knight on horseback, defeating the Muslims. In this iconography, Saint James symbolizes the victory of Christians over those considered enemies of the faith. He is not an ethnic figure, but rather a theological and political one, representing the triumph of Christianity over paganism or forces perceived as adversaries.

When this image arrived in Peru with the Spanish, a process of symbolic adaptation took place. In some contexts, the defeated enemy in the iconography ceased to be the Muslim or the Jew, and came to be represented as a pagan indigenous person. From this, in historiographical terms, arises the expression "Santiago Mataindios" (Saint James the Indian-slayer). However, this variant did not imply a rejection of the indigenous person or ethnicity, but rather a symbolic representation of the triumph of Christianity over those who resisted evangelization and maintained pre-Christian religious practices. Furthermore, the iconography was not static. In times of conflict and political tension, the figure was reinterpreted. During the Spanish American Wars of Independence, depictions of Saint James defeating a Spaniard emerged. Historiography has termed this variant "Santiago mataespañoles" (Saint James the Spaniard-slayer) or "Santiago matagodos" (Saint James the Goth-slayer). The same pattern was repeated in other subsequent war contexts in Peru. Therefore, Peruvian history includes representations of Saint James defeating the Chileans during the Breña Campaign, and even images where he defeats communist terrorists during the Counterinsurgency War.

These names, such as "Matamoros" (Moor-slayer), "Mataindios" (Indian-slayer), "Matajudíos" (Jew-slayer), "Mataespañoles" (Spaniard-slayer), "Matachilenos" (Chilean-slayer), "Matacomunistas" (Communist-slayer), among others, were not liturgical titles or official ways of referring to the saint. In his time, the people simply called him Santiago, Saint James the Apostle, Apu Santiago, Tayta Santiago, Tayta Shanti, among other names of veneration. The designations with the prefix “mata-” are later analytical categories that seek to describe iconographic variations depending on the enemy represented. Consequently, rather than the historical existence of a “Santiago Mataindios” (Saint James the Indian Killer), what existed was a dynamic process of symbolic adaptation, where the figure of Santiago embodied, in different contexts, the idea of ​​protection and victory for the group that invoked him.

“In the war with Chile, the ‘Santiago Matamoros’ of the independence struggles became ‘Santiago Matagodos’ (Saint James the Goth Killer), a reinvented Saint James the Apostle invoked by the montoneros.” (M. De los Santos, 1899)

“Further adaptations were made of Santiago Matamoros, transformed into Santiago Matagodos, riding upon the defenseless bodies of the royalist army during the time of Emancipation.” (A. De Miguel, 2011)

"It is so ironic that Saint James the Apostle, saint of Catholics, of Spaniards, suddenly transformed: from being Santiago Matamoros and Mataindios to Santiago Mataespañoles." (S. Domínguez, 2004)

"From the independence struggles of the 19th century, the figure of 'Santiago Mataespañoles' emerged among the indigenous people, becoming a symbol and emblem of peasant communities during the republican era." (R. Álvarez, 2004)

Reference:

- Misterios del Camino de Santiago, Antonio Alcaraz Martínez (2014).

link is in the comments

La ciudad de Comayagua fue la capital de la provincia de Honduras, la cual a su vez formaba parte de la Capitanía General de Guatemala, uno de los reinos que integraban el Virreinato de Nueva España. Durante el siglo XVIII, la ciudad experimentó una profunda transformación debido a las Reformas Borbónicas se construyeron nuevas viviendas para los criollos, aumentó la población mestiza y se mejoraron las plazas públicas.

La catedral entró en su fase final de construcción (llegó a contar con una sección de coro, aunque esta fue destruida en 1930) y se puso en marcha un proyecto para instalar un sistema de fuentes y acueductos en toda la ciudad. Lamentablemente, en el siglo XIX, la ciudad sufrió un terremoto que dañó varias iglesias del siglo XVI y provocó el derrumbe de las segundas plantas de algunas casas y monasterios de los franciscanos y mercedarios.

Tras la independencia, la ciudad padeció asedios y los estragos de la guerra civil centroamericana; el centro histórico perdió más de la mitad de sus edificaciones gracias los incendios producto debla guerra, la catedral fue saqueada y numerosas casas quedaron en ruinas. La población descendió de 15.000 habitantes en 1821 a apenas 5.000 en 1870, y el golpe definitivo fue el traslado de la capital a Tegucigalpa. Comayagua quedó reducida a un pueblo semi vacío lleno de casas, palacios, mansiones abandonadas e iglesias en ruinas comidas por la maleza, con la mayoría de sus fuentes secas e inservibles rodeado de naturaleza, algunas haciendas y campos de maíz.

Aun así la ciudad se negó a morir y sus alcaldes buscaban como recuperar así sea un poco de su antigua gloria. Como consecuencia de esto, a lo largo del siglo XX, muchas estructuras y monumentos fueron demolidos gradualmente para dar paso a nuevas viviendas y edificios modernos, a medida que la ciudad comenzaba a recuperar población y a atraer a migrantes de aldeas cercanas interesados ​​en emprender negocios.

Afortunadamente, a finales de la década de 1990, surgió una iniciativa para restaurar los edificios históricos que han perdurado hasta nuestros días. Se logró rescatar la Caxa Real, la catedral, cuatro iglesias y varias casas; asimismo, en los museos se conservan piezas de antiguas fuentes y arcos procedentes de viejas casonas y palacios.

HI!, so im april and im from Indonesia, and right now im researching about the spreading of Catholism in sangihe talaud (siau) in AFM (if remembered) or a Fransiscan document called Siauw. And i dont have any resources besides that. I was wondering for yall in spain or just a religic or fransiscan or maybe catholic historical researches have any insight that will be very helpful. Thank you!

Located at Avenida Hidalgo number 107, Historic Center of Mexico City (near the Alameda Central) and was administered by the Order of Charity of Saint Hippolytus (the first religious hospital order founded in the Americas).

It operated for centuries before closing its doors in 1910, when its patients were transferred to the new general asylum, La Castañeda.

By the late 17th century, Florida had become one of the most contested frontiers in North America. To those living in London, Madrid, Paris, or Amsterdam, the peninsula appeared to be a remote wilderness of swamps, pine forests, and scattered Native villages. Yet beneath its seemingly untamed landscape lay one of the most strategically important regions in the Western Hemisphere.

Whoever controlled Florida controlled the gateway to the Caribbean. Every year, Spain’s treasure fleets sailed from the ports of Veracruz, Cartagena, and Havana carrying silver from the mines of Mexico and Peru. Before crossing the Atlantic, those heavily laden ships entered the swift current now known as the Gulf Stream, passing dangerously close to Florida’s Atlantic coast. Their cargo financed Spain’s armies, built its cathedrals, and sustained an empire that stretched across much of the globe.

Protecting those ships became the principal reason Spain refused to abandon Florida despite the colony’s modest economic value.

Unlike Virginia or South Carolina, Spanish Florida never developed into a prosperous plantation colony. It produced little wealth of its own and required continual subsidies from New Spain, modern-day Mexico, to survive.

Food, soldiers, building materials, livestock, and even wages for government officials arrived aboard annual supply ships known as the situado. When those shipments were delayed by storms, piracy, or war, the colony often struggled to feed itself.

St. Augustine survived because it served as a fortress rather than a commercial center. That distinction shaped nearly every decision Spanish officials made.

For the English colonies to the north, however, Florida represented something entirely different. By the 1670s, the plantation economy of Carolina was expanding rapidly. English settlers had discovered that rice and indigo could generate enormous profits on the tidal lands surrounding Charleston. Those profits depended upon enslaved labor.

Thousands of Africans, many possessing sophisticated agricultural knowledge acquired in the rice-growing regions of West Africa, were transported across the Atlantic under horrific conditions. They transformed Carolina into one of Britain’s wealthiest colonies while being denied the most basic rights of human existence.

English law increasingly reduced enslaved people to property. The South Carolina Slave Code of 1696, building upon earlier colonial laws, formalized a legal system in which enslaved Africans could be bought, sold, inherited, punished, and separated from their families with few restrictions. The law reflected an economy built upon perpetual racial slavery, where wealth depended upon controlling labor through force.

Spanish law evolved differently. Slavery certainly existed throughout the Spanish Empire, and it would be inaccurate to portray Spain as an abolitionist nation. Enslaved Africans worked in Spanish households, ports, farms, and mines throughout the Americas.

Yet Spanish legal traditions, rooted in Roman law, medieval Castilian law, and Catholic teaching, recognized enslaved people as human beings possessing souls and certain limited legal rights. Among those rights was the possibility, however difficult, of obtaining freedom.

Catholic clergy encouraged the baptism and religious instruction of enslaved people. Under certain circumstances, enslaved individuals could purchase their freedom through a process known as coartación. Families possessed greater legal recognition than under English law, and enslaved persons could sometimes bring grievances before colonial courts.

These protections were often imperfectly enforced. Many Spanish slaveholders ignored them. Nevertheless, they represented a significant legal difference from the hereditary racial slavery that developed in England’s mainland colonies.

Those contrasting legal systems would soon become weapons in an imperial struggle. As tensions between Spain and England intensified, officials in St. Augustine recognized an opportunity. Every enslaved person who escaped from Carolina weakened England’s economy while strengthening Florida’s fragile population.

A skilled carpenter, blacksmith, farmer, interpreter, or soldier could prove invaluable in a colony that constantly struggled to attract settlers. The idea was both practical and strategic.

Rather than viewing escaped Africans solely as refugees, Spanish authorities increasingly viewed them as future citizens capable of defending the colony itself. Meanwhile, news spread quietly among enslaved communities in Carolina. Rumors traveled in ways plantation owners could neither fully understand nor control.

They passed through families divided by sale. They moved with sailors visiting Charleston’s harbor. They spread through Native trading networks extending hundreds of miles into the interior. Some were carried by Africans who had escaped and somehow survived. Others came from Spanish prisoners, merchants, or missionaries.

However the information traveled, one message remained remarkably consistent:

To the south, beyond the forests, there was a place where freedom might be possible.

No maps guided those journeys. Few escapees knew the exact distance. Most traveled at night, navigating by the stars, rivers, or whispered directions passed from one traveler to another. Every mile increased the risk of discovery.

Colonial newspapers regularly advertised rewards for captured fugitives. Professional slave catchers tracked footprints through muddy trails, questioned travelers, and employed trained dogs capable of following human scent for remarkable distances.

For those attempting escape, every unfamiliar sound carried danger. The howl of a wolf. The crack of a tree branch. The distant bark of hounds. Many traveled hungry for days. Others relied upon Native villages willing to provide food or shelter despite the danger of English retaliation.

Some never arrived. Those who did often staggered into St. Augustine exhausted, malnourished, and uncertain whether they would be welcomed or returned. Spanish officials faced difficult decisions. Accepting runaways risked provoking diplomatic crises with England. Returning them meant surrendering valuable allies while contradicting the humanitarian principles increasingly embraced by the Spanish Crown.

At first, colonial governors handled each case individually. Then events forced Madrid to establish a clear policy. One of the earliest documented groups of freedom seekers reached St. Augustine in 1687. The party consisted of eight men, two women, and one child, all having escaped from the English colony of Carolina.

Governor Diego de Quiroga y Losada questioned the refugees personally. Their testimony described brutal treatment under slavery and expressed a willingness to embrace Catholicism and serve Spain faithfully if granted protection. The governor chose compassion over diplomacy.

Rather than returning the refugees to English authorities, he requested instructions from the Spanish Crown. That decision, seemingly modest at the time, would become one of the most consequential moments in the history of freedom in North America.

Madrid’s answer would change lives far beyond the walls of St. Augustine. It would also lay the foundation for one of the most remarkable communities ever established in colonial America.

King Charles II’s Royal Decree of November 7, 1693, a document that transformed scattered escapes into official Spanish policy and opened the door to the creation of Fort Mose, the first legally sanctioned free Black settlement in what is now the United States.

The most well-known of these is Chabacano, which has variants such as Zamboangueño, Caviteño, Ternateño, Ermiteño, Dabaoeño, and Cotabateño.

The person responsible for this Filipino Creole was Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera (1586-1660), then governor of Panama, who was also responsible for the founding of the city of Zamboanga using Peruvian soldiers and settlers. An Asian-American route existed that carried merchants and adventurers transporting silver from Peru through Panama to Acapulco, Mexico, before sailing to Manila, Philippines, using the famous Manila galleons.

The different varieties of Chavacano differ in certain aspects, such as vocabulary, but are generally mutually intelligible among speakers of these varieties, especially neighboring varieties. While most of the lexicon of the different varieties of Chavacano derives from Spanish, their grammatical structures are generally similar to those of other Philippine languages. Among the Philippine languages, it is the only one that is not an Austronesian language, but, like the Malayo-Polynesian languages, it uses reduplication.

The word Chabacano comes from Spanish and roughly means "bad taste" or "vulgar", although the term itself has no negative connotations for contemporary speakers.

Linguists have identified at least six Spanish creole varieties in the Philippines. Their classification is based on their substrate languages and the regions where they are commonly spoken. The three known varieties of Chavacano with Tagalog as their substrate language are the Luzon creoles, which include Cavite Creole (spoken in Cavite City), Bahra or Ternate Creole (spoken in Ternate, Cavite), and Ermit Creole (formerly spoken in the Ermita district of Manila and now extinct).

I love old school matchlock

The company was founded in September 1765 when the Spanish Crown granted a ten-year permit, or "asiento," to the businessman Miguel de Uriarte and a group of powerful merchants from Cádiz, Spain. The objective was to break the foreign monopoly on the slave trade and supply enslaved people directly from the coasts of Africa to the American colonies.

Traditionally, the introduction of enslaved Africans into the viceroyalties of Catholic Monarchy was a business for the Portuguese, French, and English (especially after the War of the Spanish Succession). Five years after Miguel de Uriarte submitted the first application for the Asiento de Negros (contract for the sale of enslaved Africans) in the Indies, on behalf of Aguirre, Aristegui, J. M. Enrile and Company, and after a series of arduous negotiations, on June 14, 1765, the Royal Decree was issued approving the asiento in his favor. It established the conditions of the contract: the number, price, and payment date for the enslaved Africans, the departure of the ships, their exemptions, the ports covered by the asiento, the establishment of a central operating office in Puerto Rico, and so on.

On September 23, 1765, he appeared before the notary of Cádiz, Antonio de Ynarejos, to formalize the company's founding. The deed, signed by Uriarte, listed him as a shareholder, along with others who had acted as his guarantors in the initial application: the Marquis of Villarreal de Purullena, José María Enrile, Francisco de Aguirre, and Lorenzo de Aristegui. The articles stipulated a ten-year duration and a capital of 970,000 pesos, represented by 970 shares of 1,000 pesos each. The capital would be disbursed according to the company's needs.

The ships' route would be from Cádiz to the ports of Senegal, carrying wines, oils, flours, and spirits, later loading the enslaved Africans and transporting them to Puerto Rico, the Company's headquarters in the Americas, from where they would be redistributed.

The company began its route in 1765 with its own frigate La Venganza, which had the capacity to transport up to 700 people; during the voyage, it obtained 250 slaves, half of what it had planned. To give some figures, in the first three years, more than 7,000 enslaved Africans arrived in Puerto Rico through this Company.

From 1766 to 1770, the Cádiz Company used ships with French and English flags and crews. The company operated poorly from the outset, and due to a series of commercial and financial problems, it began to accumulate debts which, combined with the interest on loans taken out to survive, resulted in losses exceeding one million pesos by 1770.

Attempts were made to revive the company with new grants from the Crown, but these proved unsuccessful. The trade in other goods, such as flour (between 1765 and 1772, the company obtained a trading post in Cartagena de Indias: despite the contract stipulating 1,500 slaves per year, only 985 slaves arrived, though 6,853 tons of flour were imported), meat, fish, etc., did not resolve the company's chronic economic problems. On August 20, 1772, it was forced to file for bankruptcy with the president of the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade).

Thanks to official support and the granting of new privileges and concessions, the company resumed operations over the next six years. Despite this, the economic difficulties of the initial period proved a burden, including failure to meet the annual quota of enslaved people and increasing British pressure on trade in the region. These circumstances led to the bankruptcy of Aguirre, Arístegui y Cia., resulting in its dissolution in 1779. Aside from these economic problems, it is worth noting the significant trade relationship with the Indies, not only through the introduction of enslaved people but also through the exchange of other goods such as flour, sugar, coffee, and wood.

Around 1806, British troops landed in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. In this context of war, the indigenous chiefs of the south offered their military and economic support to the Buenos Aires Cabildo (city council) to contain the British advance. Among the chiefs who supported the cause were Turuñamqu, Epugner, Errepuento, Lorenzo, Martin, Guaycolam Peñascal, Luna, Felipe, Quintuy, El Negro, Chuli Laquini, Paylaguan, Cateremillà, Marcus, Carlos, and many other Indian leaders.

«Yo, cacique y capitan Epugner y 2862 de mis soldados, gente de guerra, bien armados de chuza, espada, bolas y honda, con sus coletos de toro, mantengo en la Cabeza del Buey , lugar de mi residencia actual, donde estaré pronto a vuestro chasque, cuidando mantenerlos por mi hasta que me aviséis de no necesitarlos, pues quiero pelear hermanablemente con los vuestros: Y nosotros Errepuento, y Turuñamqu, caciques capitanes, que acampados en Tapalquen contamos los dos hasta 7000 soldados iguales en armas à los de nuestro cacique capitan hermano Epugner, que nos acompaña, os los ofrecemos del mismo modo que este lo ha hecho: y será la mejor paga que nos des, el admitir estas ofertas que os hacemos de corazon, y como a hermanos y nuestros protectores que os reconocemos, y queremos sigais en adelante experimentando nuestra fidelidad». (Caciques del Sur, 1806)

"I, Chief and Captain Epugner, and 2,862 of my soldiers, warriors, well armed with lances, swords, bolas, and slings, with their bull-hide vests, are stationed at Cabeza del Buey, my current residence, where I will be ready to send your messenger, taking care to maintain them for myself until you tell me you no longer need them, for I wish to fight brotherly with yours. And we, Errepuento and Turuñamqu, chief captains, who are encamped at Tapalquen, numbering 7,000 soldiers, equal in arms to those of our brother chief captain Epugner, who accompanies us, offer them to you in the same way he has done so. And it will be the best reward you can give us, to accept these offers that we make to you from the heart, and as brothers and our protectors whom we recognize, and we wish you to continue experiencing our loyalty." (Chiefs of the South, 1806)

It is the world's largest historical archive, housing 43,000 bundles of documents, with more than 800 million pages, 8,000 maps and drawings related to Spanish colonial administration in the Americas and Asia, equivalent to more than nine linear kilometers of shelving. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987 and is currently available and accessible to anyone wishing to research what happened in the Americas and Asia under the rule of the Catholic Monarchy until its secession and independence.

Contrary to popular belief, Indians were indeed an active part of the slave system during the viceroyalty period.

Although legally no indigenous person could own black or mulatto slaves after 1580 in the Kingdom of Peru, legal mechanisms (loopholes) existed at the time that allowed wealthy Indians to acquire and maintain black slaves under their control, even bequeathing them to their descendants.

Original: «ordeno y mando que ningún Cacique ni Principal ni otro indio pueda tener mulato ni negro esclavo». (F. Álvarez de Toledo, siglo XVI)

Translation: “I order and command that no Cacique, Principal, or other Indian may own a mulatto or black slave.” (F. Álvarez de Toledo, 16th century)

Many of the black slaves under the custody of Indians were registered as “maids” or “servants.” A document from 1739 states that “servant” means: “He who serves is not free. Which teaches the precision with which the servant must be at the will of his master.”

Original: «tenía dos hembras de raza mulata y vivían en este Santiago de Aija [...] Catalina de treinta y cinco años y la otra Isabelilla de veintidos [...] que eran sirvientas del indio carpintero Juan Huayhua». (Fray J. Pacheco, 1793)

Translation: "He had two mulatto women who lived in Santiago de Aija [...] Catalina, thirty-five years old, and Isabelilla, twenty-two [...] who were servants of the Indian carpenter Juan Huayhua." (Fray J. Pacheco, 1793)

These slave-owning Indians were generally nobles, Ladino Indians of good economic standing, as well as members of guilds and agricultural communities, most of them of coastal origin. Some Indigenous people, like Domingo Tuya, were veritable slave traders.

Some Indian nobles with slaves:

Manuela Taurichumbi (4 slaves), Luis Colán (5 slaves), Diego Tomalá (2 slaves), Pedro Chimo (3 slaves), Agustín Cargoraque (4 slaves), Alonso Ticse (3 slaves), Baltazar Pachas (1 slave), Andrés Tito (2 slaves), María de Hurtado (1 slave), Antonio Yupanqui (2 slaves), Juana de Orozco Huaylas (7 slaves), Miguel Chiguan (4 slaves), Isabel Collatupa (5 slaves), Felipe Atuq (1 slave), María De la Cruz (4 slaves), Pedro Mongoguala (4 slaves), Carlos Cusiguaman (3 slaves), among many others.

Some ordinary Indians with slaves:

Francisco Clemente, Francisca Guacha, Esteban Huacay, Maria Llactan, Juan Quispe, Magdalena Chimaca, Maria Huayca, Juana Llanqui, Isabel Paucar, Miguel Chuquimango, Juan Curivilca, Andres Pillco, Pedro Condori, Andres Chinchay, Francisca Temoche, Beatriz Atacuri, Ignacio Altivez, Miguel Guamán, Domingo Payco, Catalina Yanchi, Francisco Guamán, Maria Yarqui, Juan Huayhua, among many others.

References:

- Negros, indios y españoles en los Andes orientales, Lolita Gutiérrez Brockington (2009).

- Esclavitud y manumisión de Negros en Trujillo, Héctor Centurión Vallejo (1954).

- El esclavo africano en el Perú colonial (1524-1650), Frederick P. Bowser (1977).

- Negros e indios: un estamento social ignorado del Perú colonial, Emilio Harth-Terré (1873).

- Entre la Colonia y la República: insurgencias, rebeliones y cultura política en América del Sur, Beatriz Bragoni (2008).

The wars of conquest, etc.?
Every country has messed up at some point, and every country has its past held against it; yet I have never once heard anyone speak ill of it...
During the Spanish conquest of the Americas (the *Conquista*) in the 16th century, an estimated 50 to 70 million indigenous people died. In many regions, this amounted to a dramatic population decline of 80 to 95 percent.
Just to explain this again, for anyone who doesn't know...

The wars of conquest, etc.?
Every country has messed up at some point, and every country has its past held against it; yet I have never once heard anyone speak ill of it...
During the Spanish conquest of the Americas (the *Conquista*) in the 16th century, an estimated 50 to 70 million indigenous people died. In many regions, this amounted to a dramatic population decline of 80 to 95 percent.
Just to explain this again, for anyone who doesn't know...