Sánchez Navarro Family Papers

The Sánchez Navarro Family Papers were purchased by the Benson Latin American Collection in 1943 from the heirs of Carlos Sánchez Navarro y Beráin. The papers were described by the Benson's Mexican Archives Project in May 1994.

The physical extent of the papers comprises six linear feet. The materials are in Spanish; their bulk dates are 1740-1866. A partial calendar is available in the library.

The suggested citation for the papers is "Sánchez Navarro Family Papers, 1658-1895, Benson Latin American Collection, General Libraries, University of Texas at Austin."

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.

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.

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