España. Ministerio de Cultura. Archivo General de Indias. MP-Santo Domingo, 467. Real de Minas del Cobre. Pueblo Santiago del Prado,1780
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The last local map of El Cobre is based on the previous land survey maps but this one is also an assessment of the value of the land within the jurisdiction and an update of the status of the private landholders whose property encroached into El Cobre's jurisdiction. More importantly, this map which now identifies the jurisdiction as the Real de minas, recognizes the privatization of the jurisdiction or its transfer into the private hands of the heirs of Eguiluz, a private contractor who exploited the mines in the early 17th century, before the Crown took them over in 1670. The privatization of the domain turned the royal slaves residents of the pueblo into private slaves of the heirs claiming ownership, a controversial matter that sent the cobreros (natives and residents of El Cobre) to the courts to reclaim their rights. The local community even sent the cobrero Gregorio Cosme Osorio to Madrid to litigate the case on their behalf until a royal edict of freedom was obtained in 1800. The production of these local maps was informed by a complex and fascinating history of claims over the status of the jurisdiction of El Cobre and its enslaved inhabitants. The crude local map notes mines and the (Marian) Sanctuary next to them, the parish church and houses denoting the center of the pueblo,family farms (estancias), land boundaries, encraoching property, rivers, mountains, vegetation, and land value. The map points to the strong contestation of claims over the territoritorial jurisdiction of thislocality among different sectors of colonial society. It also speaks to the presence of the state whose immediate seat was in Santiago de Cuba, in the protocols informing the production of these land survey maps, in the royal claims over the mining jurisdiction. It notes as well the presence of the Church in its representation of the Sanctuary and the parish church. And finally it locates the presence of a human settlement in the form of a pueblo without noting the anomalous status of the residents in that community.
