Blood and Pearls: Cazoopin (Colonial Spaniards) in the Comcaac Region of Mexico

ABSTRACT In collaboration with Comcaac (Seris) Indigenous community members from the Sonoran coast of Mexico, this study integrates ethnographic, archaeological, documentary, and oral historical data to better understand the Comcaac past relevant to the present. This is the first publication of Comcaac historical accounts about the Cazoopin, or colonial Spaniards, extending back to AD 1750 and earlier. We document Comcaac people’s first encounters with Spanish sailing ships and their opportunistic adoption of Spanish material culture. Oral accounts are combined with evidence from archaeological survey of named places and archival documents, particularly Pimentel’s Diary of Governor Ortiz Parrilla’s 1750 expedition to Tahejcö (Tiburón Island). For the Sonoran colonial period, previous reconstructions have been based on archaeological evidence and archival documents written by Spanish Empire representatives; here, we encourage the incorporation of Indigenous voices to understand economic, social, political, and ecological dimensions of the past that condition the creation of different historical narratives.