By Luis Felipe Rodriguez
On December 15, 1555, Viceroy Velasco ordered the creation of a Spanish Town in San Miguel with basically a military purpose. He was going to supervise the project personally, but an illness immobilized him in Apaseo. He commissioned Captain Ángel de Villafañe to found the town assigning the lots for houses, land for crops, and orchards to 50 Spanish settlers. The Spanish lands were separate from the lands already occupied by the Indians.
Three days later, while in Querétaro, the viceroy ordered the authorities of Guango, Cuitzeo, Acámbaro, and Querétaro to send a total of 50 indigenous people to work on the construction of the town. He also commissioned Villafañe to annul all the ranches that were within a radius of three leagues around the town. That same day the indigenous governors were appointed—one for the Otomi, who was Don Juan de San Miguel; and another for the Chichimecas and Tarascans, Don Domingo.
On December 17, 1559, Velasco granted the title of Villa de San Miguel—the town of San Miguel, and ordered the Spanish settlers to organize a town hall on January 1, 1560. In this way, the border settlement was integrated into the viceregal political system. In July 1561, Viceroy Velasco sent instructions to the mayor of the province of Jilotepec (which includes the towns on the road to Zacatecas, from Jilotepec to San Miguel) to give the residents of San Miguel two caballerias of land—around 60 acres—in the area that was part of the demarcation of Indian Territory. They were also given one lot for sale on the edge of the town, and four lots to build houses. Villafañe served as mayor of San Miguel in 1555, but his office did not last long. In 1559, when Viceroy Velasco issued the title of Villa to San Miguel El Grande, this settlement still belonged to the mayor’s office of the province of Jilotepec and Chichimecas. And in 1561 it was still under the Mayor of Jilotepec. Shortly after the founding of the Villa de San Felipe, in 1562 a major mayorship was again elected for the region, including the new Villas of San Miguel El Grande and San Felipe.
Taken from: «The Conquest of the Bajío and the Origins of San Miguel de Allende» by David Charles Wright Carr.
