Communicators of Coerced Labor: The Interpreters as Agents of the Repartimiento and Servicio Personal in Colonial Yucatán

According to laws governing the roles of government officials in the Americas and accepted practice, interpreters in Yucatan translated Maya-language petitions into Spanish, provided indigenous versions of relevant decrees from Spain for Yucatan’s indigenous population, and mediated in court proceedings involving speakers of European and Native languages. In ideal circumstances, these were the circumscribed duties of interpreters. However, critics, both Maya and Spanish, denounced underhanded activities common to translators who benefited from their bilingualism and established status as go-betweens across the two and a half centuries in which interpreters general served as the primary linguistic intermediaries in Yucatan. Complaints ranged from demands for bribes, intimidating Maya subjects in their own language, mistranslations, and omissions, and extracting extralegal labor at the behest of powerful patrons.

As early as the sixteenth century, opponents of individual rivals complained of tribute and labor exactions imposed by interpreters. Such accounts of interpreters demanding labor from Mayas persisted into the late eighteenth century. This paper shows how interpreters general, ostensibly key agents for providing justice to Mayas, often collaborated in two of the most deeply entrenched injustices of Yucatan, servicio personal and the repartimiento. As the primary contacts for Mayas seeking to decry abuses, Mayas had little recourse to have their grievances heard when interpreters general served Spanish interests instead. This paper explores the unique position of interpreters as middlemen and analyzes instances in which denunciations did reach authorities and survived in the archival record.