Ganadería, tenencia de la tierra e impacto ambiental en una región fronteriza de la nueva España: La jurisdicción de la villa de Santiago de los valles de Oxitipia, 1527-1921

Abstract

In the regional and historical context of the Spanish colonial town Santiago de los Valles de Oxitipa (San Luis Potosí State), part of the Huasteca region of northeastern Mexico, this paper documents three concurrent processes: Introduction and diffusion of hvestock raising; land privatization; and their environmental impact. To illustrate these transformations, the Iberian antecedents of livestock raising practices and institutions developed in this frontier region of New Spain are analyzed. Colonial stockraising in the Alcaldía Mayor de Santiago de los Valles, given its mobile and extensive nature, could not cause the severe environmental impact that it alegedly provoked in other parts of New Sain. The low environmental immpact of regional stockraising was a result of both the incipient development of the Spanish land tenure system, which allowed high animal mobihty, and the progressive sjrinking of the regional herd. The high hvestock pressures on the regional ecosystems at the beginning of the Viceroyalty, decreased rather than increased towards the end of the colonial period. This allowed a progressive recovery of the regional, natural equilibrium by the early 1800's.