Lis[enci]a Concedida Para Que en una Capilla de la Jurisdiccion de Alfaxa... Se Celebre el S[an]to sacrificio de la Misa [cover manuscript title]

Mexico City: August 6, 1772. About very good.. [3] leaves. Small folio. Stitched at left margin. Previously folded. Light edge wear and foxing. An official manuscript document, dated August 6, 1772, granting license from Mexican religious and civic authorities to a small parish in what is now the state of Hidalgo for the celebration of Mass and other official sacraments in their newly constructed chapel. The initial Spanish text reads, "En atencion delo que se representa en esta Consulta, concedemos uno permiso para que esta Capilla de la hacienda ò rancheria nombrada Xigui se celebre el santo sacrificio dela Misa en todos los dias festivos del año." The main body of the text goes on to describe the chapel, the parish residents, and the specific permissions it has for rites it can perform. Of particular note, the text says that the resident population of the hacienda is only native Mexicans and numbering eight hundred people of all ages -- "Siendo el Numero de sus Moradores solamente de Indios, y conforme a el Padron General, llega su Numero, asta ocho cientoas Personas de todas Edades." The name of the hacienda, Xigui, likely makes its location the modern-day farming community Santa Maria Xigui in central Hidalgo. A very interesting record of the administration of Catholic Indian worship in rural 18th-century Mexico.