Nueva Vizcaya

Named after conqueror Francisco de Ibarra's native Vizcaya, this province (reino) of colonial Mexico at first encompassed all of the territory claimed by Spain north of Zacatecas. Even after Nuevo México and Sonora y Sinaloa were detached from it in 1598 and 1733, respectively, Nueva Vizcaya still comprised an enormous territory extending from the central plateau in southern Durango to northern Chihuahua, and from the high peaks and deep canyons of the Sierra Madre Occidental in the west to the deserts of Coahuila in the east. Except in judicial matters, which came under the Audiencia of Guadalajara, the governor of Nueva Vizcaya reported to the viceroy until 1777, and from then on to the comandante general of the Provincias Internas. In 1787, Nueva Vizcaya (with Parras and Saltillo severed) became the intendancy of Durango. The capital was located in Durango for the period 1632–1739, when the governors resided in Parral. Nueva Vizcaya was the most populous and economically productive northern province, encompassing silver mining centers like Parral and Chihuahua as well as livestock- and grain-producing areas surrounding the Valley of San Bartolomé, Parras, and Saltillo.

See alsoAudiencia; Intendancy System; Mexico: The Colonial Period; Viceroyalty, Viceroy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Guillermo Porras Muñoz, Iglesia y estado en Nueva Vizcaya (1966).

Peter Gerhard, The North Frontier of New Spain (1982).

Oakah L. Jones, Jr., Nueva Vizcaya: Heartland of the Spanish Frontier (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Deeds, Susan M. Defiance and Deference in Mexico's Colonial North: Indians under Spanish Rule in Nueva Vizcaya. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.

Olveda, Jaime. Los vascos en el noroccidente de México, siglos XVII-XVIII. Jalisco: Colegio de Jalisco, 1998.

Teja, Jesus F. de la, and Frank Ross. Choice, Persuasion, and Coercion: Social Control on Spain's North American Frontiers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.

                                         Susan M. Deeds