Encomienda
A grant by the Spanish crown to a Spaniard, the encomendero, of the tribute of particular Indian towns. Zorita blames the encomenderos' cattle for ruining the crops of the towns they held.
The Calpulli and Its Lands
Alonso de Zorita, Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain (written in Spain after 1565): the calpulli and its lands · written in Spain after Zorita's return from Mexico in the mid-1560s; first printed in French in 1840 and in Spanish in 1864
Así que por tener los calpullec ó barrios las tierras de común é no entenderlo, ha sido causa de haberlos dejado en términos que no tienen donde poder sembrar, en especial en los pueblos que están cerca de los de españoles, ó donde hay buenas tierras; y en esto hay gran exceso y desorden, é también en el daño que reciben de los ganados de sus encomenderos, que siempre los tienen en sus pueblos.
So because the calpullec, or neighborhoods, hold their lands in common, and this is not understood, they have been left with nowhere to plant. This is so above all in towns near those of the Spaniards, or where there is good land. There is great excess and disorder in this, and also in the harm done to them by the cattle of their encomenderos, who always keep their herds in the Indians' towns.