“La animadversión, la maledicencia y el incendio”. Potzontepec, jurisdiction of Sultepec, Archbishopric of Mexico, September 1758.

Abstract

In this paper we will deal with the case of an arson attack on the house where the lieutenant priest of the Indian village of Potzontepec, jurisdiction of Sultepec, in the archbishopric of Mexico, slept. An interesting judicial enquiry carried out in the second half of September and the first days of October 1758. In it, we can clearly see how the animosity between the natives and their benefactor priest is transformed into infamous words, to the point of reaching the point of ignition to the point of attempting against the life of a priest. We can thus observe the power of words to provoke social conflicts, as well as the effectiveness of the judicial process to deactivate them, with arson as its most dramatic expression. This is not a problem between great political protagonists, but between ordinary people on the margins of the great historical narrative. And precisely because of this, the judicial dimension becomes even more relevant.