Introduction

In 1671 a memorial was published in Madrid with the purpose of explaining the origins and importance of the office of Protector of Indians in the vice-royalty of Peru to the Court of the Spanish Habsburgs. Its author, a Lima-born creole, affirmed that noble Peruvians were bound to undertake the protection of Indians for two reasons: love for their patria and compassion towards the mis- eries of Indians. The memorial gives an account of how the protectors came into existence during the reign of Manco Cápac, the first Inca ruler, and were considered one of the most ‘secure foundations’ of the monarchy during this period. Upon the arrival of the Spaniards, Emperor Charles v (1500–58) had ‘acknowledged’ the positive effects of this office and, ‘not wishing to change such a just law’, resolved to maintain the institution appointing the first bish- ops as protectors of Indians.1 In other words, by the time the memorial came off the presses, its author, Nicolás Matías del Campo, estimated that Protectors of Indians had been around in Peru for the last 700 years. Including speculation about the Inca origins of the protectors or otherwise, the title of Protector of Indians has enjoyed widespread use in Spanish America. Bartolomé de las Casas (1474–1566), the prolific Dominican friar, was appointed Procurator and Universal Protector of Indians in 1516. A number of sixteenth century prelates, such as Hernando de Luque (Bishop of Tumbes), Vasco de Quiroga (Bishop of Michoacán), Antonio de Valdivieso (Bishop of Nicaragua) and Juan del Valle (Bishop of Popayán), were also named protectors in their own dioceses. Almost a century later, another ecclesiastic, Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (1600–59) of Puebla (Mexico), called himself the Protector of the Indians of New Spain. In the late seventeenth century, the Spanish Crown started appointing professional lawyers to defend Indians at the local courts and the royal audiences. Between 1864 and 1867, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico appointed a number of advocate-defensors in rural areas to defend Indian interests. Nicolás de Piérola (1839–1913), President of Peru, restored the title by appointing himself Protector of the Indigenous Race during the Peru-Chile war of 1879–84. As late as 1922, Emilo Lissón (1872–1961), Archbishop of Lima, presided over the Patronage of the Indigenous Race, a state sponsored institution created to improve the living conditions of Andean communities.

1 Nicolás Matías del Campo y de la Rynaga, Memorial historico y ivridico, que refiere: El origen del Oficio de Protector general de los Indios del Perú (Madrid, 1671), 1–2v.

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The legal nature of these institutions, however, varied considerably. The fact that modern historiography considers the appointment of Las Casas as the direct antecedent of all other modern protectorships of Indians, hides the fact that he never possessed the attributions granted to the men of letters who, either as magistrates or officials, pleaded on behalf of indigenous communities before the high courts of justice until the end of colonial rule.2 Similarly, despite his formidable efforts in favour of the Indian cause, Las Casas lacked the civil and criminal jurisdiction in Indian matters exercised by the Bishop of Mexico between 1527–28—as indeed did every other prelate appointed to Spanish American bishoprics after this period. Even if the advocates-defensors of the Mexican Empire drew upon the experience regarding the representa- tion of Indians before colonial law tribunals, their role went far beyond the courts of justice. In turn, the nineteenth and twentieth century Peruvian protectors lacked any of the effective powers of their namesakes during the vice-royalty. The subject of this book is the study of the defensors, advocates and protectors- fiscales of Indians, a group of royal offices commonly referred to as Protectors of Indians that developed in the audience of Lima during the vice-regal period. These officials were the product of a series of measures passed by the viceroys of Peru and the Council of the Indies between 1575 and 1775; hence the chrono- logical boundaries of this book. As a result, the Protectors of Indians were defined as the crown representatives charged with the protection of the indigenous population before the courts of justice. The book examines the institu- tional and legal foundations of the Protectorship of Indians in the audience of Lima and provides an account of the background, legal culture and work of the men who served in these posts. The study thus surveys one the most emblem- atic institutions of Spanish American Law and examines the formation of a learned elite that helped to consolidate the vice-regal legal order. It argues that the characteristics of the professionals who staffed the Protectorship of Indians allowed them to be successful in their court disputes, as well as to develop legal strategies which, in some cases, translated into the juristic doctrine that defined indigenous status throughout the Colonial period. The present book could not have been so much as thought of without the path-breaking research of other legal historians, both past and present, who

2 Cf. Constantino Bayle, El protector de indios (Sevilla, 1945), 14–15; Enrique Dussel, El espico- pado latinoamericano y la liberación de los pobres, 1504–1620 (Mexico, 1979), 11ff; Manuel González Calzada, Las Casas, el Procurador de los Indios (Mexico, 1981) and Carmen Ruigómez Gómez, Una política indigenista de los Habsburgo: El Protector de Indios en el Perú (Sevilla, 1988), 47–50.