Sánchez Navarro Collection of Documents for a History of Texas and Coahuila
Scope and Contents Note
Correspondence, legal and financial documents, reports, lists, and other materials relating to the business and personal concerns of the Sánchez Navarro family, especially ownership and operation of haciendas and a retail store in the Mexican state of Coahuila, during the 17th through the 19th centuries. The bulk of the correspondence relates to matters of hacienda operation and concerns livestock and crops, Indian raids, labor problems, illnesses and deaths, weather and natural disasters, debts, water resources, boundary disputes, building projects, and military, legal, and political problems. Religious matters are the subject of some of the letters and notes to José Miguel Sánchez Navarro
The papers also contain a small quantity of uncalendared material, which includes financial documents, correspondence, literary productions, legal documents, lists, recipes, fragments, photocopies of typescripts and documents held by Pedro Sánchez Navarro
The Sánchez Navarro Collection calendar guide describes the collection chronologically to the item level. Materials should be requested by the item number located at the beginning of each entry
Dates
- Creation: 1658-1895
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1740-1866
Language of Materials
Spanish
Restrictions on Access
Unrestricted
Restrictions on Use
Photocopying of some materials may be limited due to preservation concerns. Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Biographical Sketch
The Sánchez Navarro family owned the largest private estate in the history of Mexico. Circa 1763, José Miguel Sánchez Navarro, the curate of Monclova, Coahuila, began to accumulate property in Coahuila. Until his death in 1821 he attended to church matters and to his private interests in farming, ranching, commerce, and rental properties. The estate was inherited by his nephew, José Melchor Sánchez Navarro, who continued to enlarge it. His sons, Carlos and Jacobo Sánchez Navarro y Beráin, inherited the estate when José Melchor died in 1836. In 1840 Carlos purchased the marquisate of San Miguel de Aguayo, increasing the Sánchez Navarro landholdings to their maximum size of over 16 million acres. Between 1861 and 1865, most of the property was confiscated, first as payment for back taxes, then as punishment for Carlos and Jacobo's collaboration with Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico. After Maximilian was overthrown in 1867, Carlos was imprisoned for one year, then exiled. In 1870 he returned to Mexico City where he lived in poverty until he died in 1876. Carlos' heirs recovered some of the family property but subsequently sold it
Full Extent
6 linear feet
Abstract
Correspondence, legal and financial documents, reports, lists, and other materials relating to the business and personal concerns of the Sánchez Navarro family, especially ownership and operation of haciendas and a retail store in the Mexican state of Coahuila, during the 17th through the 19th centuries
Acquisition Information
The Sánchez Navarro Collection were purchased by the Benson Latin American Collection in 1943 from the heirs of Carlos Sánchez Navarro y Beráin
Processing Information
The papers were described by the Benson's Mexican Archives Project in May 1994
Topical
- Coahuila (Mexico: State)--Church history--Sources
- Coahuila (Mexico: State)--Economic conditions--Sources
- Coahuila (Mexico: State)--History--Sources
- Coahuila (Mexico: State)--Social conditions--Sources
- Haciendas--Mexico--Coahuila (State)--History--Sources
- Indigenous peoples of Mexico--Coahuila (State)--History--Sources
- Indigenous peoples of North America--History--Sources
- Land tenure--Mexico--History--Sources
- Sánchez Navarro family--Archives
- Title
- Sánchez Navarro Collection
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Prepared in part by the Mexican Archives Project, February 9, 1995
- Date
- 2003
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English
Revision Statements
- 20030930: File divided into 4 parts to fit 500 Kb size restrictions imposed by TARO
- 2020 September: Finding aid combined via script and manually edited by Rachel E. Winston to remove mentions of other parts because file size limitation is no longer a concern
- 2020 October: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez to fix compliance check errors to prepare for the migration to new TARO website
- 2021 November: Edited by Devon Murphy to update control access terms and formatting based on the TARO Control Access List
- 2025 July: Revised by Ryan Sullivant to fix validation errors prior to ingestion into ArchivesSpace.
Repository Details
Part of the Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Repository
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578
bensonspecialcollections@austin.utexas.edu