La minería y la horticultura: base de la economía colonial en el norte de la Nueva España

Abstract

The city of Zacatecas emerged as a settlement focused on the exploitation of minerals, however, the population generated strategies to appropriate the environment by applying inherited technical and cultural knowledge to adapt and benefit from the resources offered by the environment. The most effective and generalized strategy was the establishment of vegetable gardens, in which the products rooted in their traditions for the different groups that participated in the formation of the settlement (Spaniards, Tarascos, Mexicas and Tlaxcaltecas) were cultivated, thus generating the construction of a varied and colorful landscape, which over time laid the foundations of traditional Zacatecan food. Based on the hypothesis that the Zacatecan groves were composed of a combination of Hispanic and indigenous products, both aesthetic and nutritional sense that accompanied the daily activities and celebrations of the population, soil samples associated with colonial horticultural work spaces which were recovered macrobotanical remains that allowed the identification of crops rooted in the preferred consumption patterns of each group. From the archaeological, historical and botanical record it was possible to reconstruct the horticultural landscape related to the origin and consolidation of Zacatecan society. In this way it is concluded that the mining companies settled down with the interest of exploiting the deposits; however, what determined the pattern of appropriation and construction of the inhabited space was the food supply, where the gardens played a prominent role.