Upon first hearing about this topic, one might be inclined to think how odd it must have been to meet a Japanese person in seventeenth-century Guadalajara, but the reality was rather different: it was not totally unusual to see a person with East Asian racial features in Guadalajara.  For example, in Guadalajara’s  Sagrario Metropolitano records of sacraments dating back to the seventeenth century, we have found over twenty people with this racial description. 

 

Moreover, as Thomas Calvo points out, “this pioneering society was not xenophobic”,  and professional success was recognized above all else, no matter the persons’ origins.[13]  Nevertheless, for Asian immigrants such as Luis de Encío to adapt, he faced challenges, beginning with speaking the language and later on, writing skills as well, in addition to foodways and to the way of life in general. We estimate that by 1620, when he appeared to have arrived in the town of Ahuacatlán, he must have been around twenty-five years old.  According to Hayashiya, it is likely that he had been a samurai in Japan, thus a member of the military nobility.   Nevertheless, in Mexico, he was humble and tried hard to fit in fully in this society.  Eventually he came to play leading roles, as when he took over the monopoly of the coconut and mescal wine sales in 1643,  or when he became the supplier of some delicacies that the president of the Real Audiencia (high court) bought for his wife.[14][15]

On the other hand, his economic advancement was not big enough for people to forget his origin; some of the documentary records about his daily life referred to him as “Luis, el chino.”[16] Though it may have been an ordinary label, we do not doubt that the term “chino” was occasionally used pejoratively.  The label was most often applied to the galley slaves on the Manila galleons who could have been Chinese from Manila or a native Filipino. In the case of Encío, as in so many others where the ethnic origin was invoked, traces of envy might have led them to use the racial description in a pejorative manner. 

Encío’s economic curve peaked in the 1640, after which it took a nose dive.  At his height, he was a fortyish gentleman, better adapted, having learned to spell his name in Spanish. As already noted, he arrived in Guadalajara in the mid-1630’s to manage a shop as a junior partner; a little over ten years later, it was he who contributed capital to set up a business.[17][18] At his peak, Encío also became a godfather to “children of the church”--orphaned or abandoned children—along with his wife Catalina.  As guardian of nine such children, they took care of their upbringing, a generous undertaking that indicated they were citizens of some economic wealth. 

We can piece together the approximate location of Luis de Encío’s shop and house, which he rented from the church. The property was located in the vicinity of the Plaza Mayor (the Main Square), specifically, according to our sources, we believe that it was on the corner of the streets named at present Pedro Moreno and Av. 16 de Septiembre, [can we show map of this location?] on the sidewalk across from the Plaza. Luis de Encío began to rent the premises in 1640,  maintaining his residence and business there until 1655.[19] As part of a group of lessees of Church property, he paid an annual rent of 84 pesos.[20]

In 1647, Encío signed a partnership with a merchant named Francisco de Castilla to set up a shop of “goods and simple foods”. The shop was actually the same that Luis de Encío already had; it seems that the contract was about a resupply of goods with an investment by Encío of 1,340 pesos, plus 203 pesos that Castilla contributed.  This time, Castilla the junior partner had to manage the shop, as Encío was the majority partner, with profits shared equally. 

It is worth speaking about Francisco de Castilla in detail. There is a record of a burial in 1661 (in the Archives of the Guadalajara Sagrario Metropolitano) of a Francisco de Castilla “a Chinaman.” Was this the same person as Encío’s partner? If so, it appears he underwent a similar economic improvement to Encío’s, using the same formula. In the same burial record, it is noted that Castilla left a chaplaincy fund of 2,000 pesos taxed on his properties. Our attention is also drawn to a 1658 burial record of a María de Silva, “the Chinese woman married to Francisco del Castillo.” 

As Calvo notes, Luis de Encío emerged as the “center of the whole Asian nucleus in Nueva Galicia.”[21]In addition to his business partner Francisco de Castilla, as with Encío himself also labeled “el chino,” and with his Japanese son-in-law Juan de Páez, at least two more cases are known of Encío's association with Asians. One is Agustín López de la Cruz, whose 1642 burial record noted his identity as “de nación Japón,”  and listed “Luis de Encío Japón” as his executor. Another associate was Juan de la Cruz, “de nación China” from the town of Sayula; in 1643, he gave Encío a letter of power of attorney.[22]

Luis de Encío died in 1666, a widower of around seventy-one years old. In his will, he complained bitterly about being broke, the result of bad business decisions and bad handling of money.  He pointed out that he had survived in his last few days thanks to the assistance rendered by his son-in-law Juan de Páez, whom he fondly called “son.”  One can only imagine Luis de Encío in his death bed accompanied by his daughter, by his son-in-law Juan de Páez and by their children, that is, Encio’s grandchildren. We did not find a record of his burial, but on the basis of his will, we believe that he died either in the last days of September or the first days of October, 1666. As was the custom of the time for a person of his civic standing, he was buried in the cathedral.