Zorita, Alonso de (1511–c. 1585)

Alonso de Zorita (Zurita; b. 1511/12; d. ca. 1585), judge of the Audiencia of Mexico (1556–1564). Zorita held various legal posts in the Caribbean and South America before reaching New Spain and, after ten years there, returned to Spain. Zorita's early career experiences in the fringe areas influenced the direction he took in Mexico attacking the encomienda system and promoting the role of the regular clergy, particularly the Franciscans, in dealings with the indigenous peoples.

Zorita left writings on New Spain's indigenous cultures, Nahua government and tribute systems, the Spanish invasion and post-Conquest Christianization efforts, published partly in his Breve y sumaria relación de los señores de la Nueva España. Although portions of his writings are based on earlier (now lost) sources, making them especially valuable, controversy nevertheless exists regarding some of his interpretations of the meaning of terms such as mayeque and calpulli and his remarks about Nahua nobility and municipal officers.

See alsoAudiencia; New Spain, Viceroyalty of.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The most recent biography is Ralph H. Vigil, Alonso de Zorita: Royal Judge and Christian Humanist, 1512–1585 (1987). Skepticism about the reliability of some of Zorita's information comes out, for example, in James Lockhart, The Nahuas After the Conquest (1992), pp. 97, 111, 112, 506, 508.

Additional Bibliography

Frost, Elsa Cecilia. "Fray Andrés de Olmos en la Relación de Alonso de Zorita." Revista de Indias 51, no. 191 (Jan.-Apr. 1991): 169-178.

                                           Stephanie Wood