History With Lime and Salt – Part 3
The Battle for Bahía
The “battle” of Tintoc (again, we’re not sure if that’s the place or the chief!) is one of the most legendary chapters in regional history, even when – and maybe because – our sources are not precisely accurate. It is an episode which I recall reading in my third grade book in elementary school, and frankly, the whole reason which got me started on regional history.
So – again, drawing from the indirect source of Gutiérrez Contreras – in February or March 1525, you’ll find Cortés de San Buenaventura facing against many natives (let’s say 5,000 might be a believable number, considering what we discussed last time) in what we now call Valle de
Banderas. If you think for a second, as the orography of the terrain is practically the same, that’s the most logical point to stage a battle in Bahía: anywhere north of Bucerías, the jungle and hills would reduce anything to a skirmish. In Bucerías itself, the hills are too steep and too near from
the coastline to have a battlefront; the terrain in Mezcales and all the bay up to the river is mostly marshy. So it had to be inland.
Chroniclers tell that Cortés de San Buenaventura was simply too scared to fight, as he was outnumbered 25-to-1. One of his lieutenants, a certain Ángel de VIllafaña, was opposed to this idea. And as he will never be mentioned in this story again, let’s just quickly say that he would later explore the Carolinas (yes, North and South!) and establish a settlement in what now is Pensacola.
Villafaña, a hardened veteran even though he was only 20 years old, somehow convinced Cortés to face the natives, for the first time in the history of our region. But, as it had happened many times since the first violent encounter of two different worlds, some natives ran at the roar of
canyons. Others decided to welcome the Spaniards as friends (something that had also happened many times elsewhere) with dances and celebrations.
The chroniclers point out that they found this to be a very fertile land, with the kind of water bodies needed for agriculture, and that Cortés de San Buenaventura tried to settle there, in the Valley of Flags, which by some turn of fate are now recorded in most second-hand sources as welcoming flags, omitting the battle that caused the flags to be in formation on the first place.
Alas, the encounter of Tintoc had convinced many of the other explorers to rally around Villafaña and his stance, and this would cause Cortés de San Buenaventura to be seen as a coward on his return to Mexico City, which would have dire consequences for the history of Western Mexico.
Therefore, the men convinced Cortés de San Buenaventura to keep exploring, and so, sometime in late March 1525, the expedition crossed the Ameca River. But how? I’d like to think native barges, as they probably did not have tools, but the sources say nothing.
And so, the first Western men in history would venture into what now is Puerto Vallarta… or were they?
