Cultivation of Cochineal

1620

Name(s) currently unknown

Seville, ESP, Archivo General de las Indias (current Location)

This is one of the few images from the 17th century that offer a picture of quotidian activities—in this case, ones of considerable importance to the economy of the Americas. In this hand-drawn picture, an indigenous man and woman are shown harvesting cochineal, a parasitic insect that was used to make a brilliant cherry-red dye. This New World product was highly prized in Europe.

Cochineal, a kind of insect, grew in colonies on nopal (prickly pear) cactus. Since only female insects produced the dye, collecting and sorting them by hand was a labor-intensive project. The cochineal insect had been long cultivated as a dye both in Mesoamerica and the Andes. Before the conquest, its consumers were the indigenous elite, afterwards, European elites. Even though cochineal was a cash crop, much of its production was handled by indigenous producers, who sold their harvest to Spanish or Creole middlemen. In this depiction of the indigenous couple, the woman wears a huipil over a long skirt, traditional female dress of Mexico and Central America. By the early 17th century, many indigenous men, like this one, wore Spanish style clothing: a hat, a short belted shirt over pants and closed shoes. The text reads: Esta es figura de un nopal esta de todo punto cultibado y la cochinilla [h]a enjambrado bien y ansi estan los yndios gozando de su cosecha. ("This is a picture of a nopal cactus. It is entirely planted with colonies of cochineal which have grown well. And here are the Indians collecting their harvest.")

The name of the painter that made this work is not known. However, the work itself shows both skill in composition and first-hand knowledge of cochineal production.

The work is hand drawn on paper, and it measures 28.8 x 21 cm (ca. 11 x 8 inches).

The picture, now in the Archivo General de Indias, is part of a short account by don Antonio de Figueroa, the governor of Yucatán in New Spain, written and addressed to King Philip III. His account of cochineal production describes the steps Figueroa had already taken to introduce cochineal to the Yucatán from Tlaxcala, the center of cochineal production in New Spain. This document seems to have been part of a larger attempt to spread the cultivation of cochineal across Spain’s colonies, including parts of Venezuela.

The demand for cochineal in Europe and Asia made it an incredibly valuable New World product. This image offers a window onto the role of indigenous people in that international economy. Cochineal production was largely in the hands of indigenous communities, who had mastered the agricultural technology needed to raise the insects. But since this cherry-red dye was a product for the European market, Spanish-run export companies could control its price, and they, not its producers, kept the lion’s share of profits.

España. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura, y Deporte, Archivo General de Indias

Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.

Cervantes, Mayán. 2004. La grana cochinilla del nopal: patrimonio cultural y propuesta económica. Mexico City: Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia and CONACULTA.

Hamann, Byron. 2010. "The Mirrors of Las Meninas: Cochineal, SIlver and Clay." Art Bulletin XCII (1-2): 6-35.

Rubio Sánchez, Manuel. 1994. Historial del cultívo de la grana o cochínílla en Guatemala. Guatemala City: Tip. Nacional.