Luis García Pimentel Collection

The Luis García Pimentel Collection documents transactions of ownership and management of sugar mills in Mexico in the state of Morelos as well as connections with other haciendas in the nearby state of Puebla. The collection dates from early Spanish colonial times, around mid-1500, to the years after independence, early 1900s. Documents related to the Haciendas Santa Ana de Tenango and Santa Clara Montefalco record family surnames and entities that owned and managed these. Some of the most notable names are Salvide Goitia, García Icazbalceta, Solís, Rebolledo and the Jesuits of the Colegio de San Pedro y San Pablo. This collection informs in a precise manner the conflicts of land tenure that originated the Mexican Revolution, such as the type of relationship and treatment that existed between landowners and indigenous peoples. It also contains information about the slaves who worked in the haciendas. Furthermore, it illustrates the role of the Catholic Church as landowners of estates and sugar mills in Morelos.

This collection is distributed in 28 boxes and follows an organizational system for grouping documents known as legajos. Based on a Spanish archival organizational system, legajos entails the grouping of documents following a designated criteria for a specific unit or series. The legajos of this collection include documents such as mercedes (grants), affidavits, deeds of sale and rent, testimonies, inventories, licenses, applications, permits, titles, and personal papers. Legajos are stamped with folio numbers and organized by numbers and by a series of divisions. The most important legajo or series, identified simply as legajos, is numbered from 1 to 16 and constitutes the bulk of the collection. The rest of the series are the following: de aguas (of waters), de inútiles (useless), and de duplicados (duplicated), and mapas de aguas (maps of waters). Legajos de aguas are documents pertaining to conflicts over bodies of water. Legajos de inútiles are miscellaneous documents such as receipts, personal correspondence or notes. Legajos de duplicados are hand-made copies of official or legal nature. The collection has another set of miscellaneous documents organized by the following legajo series: escrituras and partitura y fotografías. Escrituras are comprised of 15 folders containing deeds of sale and testimonies all located in box 18. Partitura y fotografías are comprised of two sheet music of songs "Caperucita" and "Ya va cayendo," and two photographs of a group of unknown people reunited at the Sloppy Joe's Bar in Havana, Cuba, all organized in folder 35 of box 20. The abbreviation for folios is noted as ff; the Spanish term bis, shown in some document numbers, indicates that the previous document number is repeated.

Maps are another series of the Luis García Pimentel Collection. The maps explain territorial divisions of haciendas, bodies of water, and adjacent communities. Six maps titled as mapas de aguas are located on box 20; a small map about the Barranca de San Pedro is in box 17, folder 8, and another small map dating from 1823 and made in color is located in box 16, folder 30.

Another salient feature of this collection is the inclusion of scribes' seals. Most are made of paper and sepia ink and are written or glued to a document. The seals are all handcrafted and its design is original and unique.