SPOTLIGHT ON THE INDIANS: WHAT YSAVEL AGAD MIGHT HAVE TOLD CAPTAIN OSPINA OR THE FIRST ONE-HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF THE ALTO MAGDALENA REGION (1535-1629) by SUSANA E. MATALLANA-PELÁEZ A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Women‟s and Gender Studies Written under the direction of Camilla Townsend And approved by ________________ ________________ ________________ ________________ New Brunswick – New Jersey May 2011 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION SPOTLIGHT ON THE INDIANS: WHAT YSAVEL AGAD MIGHT HAVE TOLD CAPTAIN OSPINA OR THE FIRST ONE-HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF THE ALTO MAGDALENA REGION (1535-1629) by SUSANA E. MATALLANA-PELÁEZ Dissertation Director: Camilla Townsend This study traces the first one-hundred years after the Spanish conquest of the Alto Magdalena Region (1535-1629) in present-day Colombia. In doing so, it focuses primarily on the indigenous actors – male and female, local and non-local – who took part in one way or another in this enterprise. As such it is based on the analysis of twenty-two unpublished archival documents dating from 1540 through 1669. This study argues that Belalcázar‟s Yanacona (Inca) allies played a major role in the conquest and colonization of the Alto Magdalena region, and that Yanacona women were an important part of this expedition. It also argues that Belalcázar and his troops encountered local matrilineal societies (Yalcones, Panches, Coyaimas, Natagaimas, Pixaos) in which women held significant political power, and that a local female (Yalcón) leader by the name of Guatepán may have given rise to the legend of La Gaitana. With regards to the wars of resistance that took place between the second half of the sixteenth century through the beginning of the seventeenth century, it claims that local indigenous groups such as the ii Coyaimas and Natagaimas who sided with the Spanish were instrumental in defeating the Pixao Indians who were the principal leaders of the revolts. Along this line, it contends that the vicious and “fratricidal” wars between the Indians who sided with the Spanish and those who sided against them were a decisive factor for Spanish victory. In addition it purports to show that local indigenous shamans known as mohanes were in fact politico-religious leaders who were persecuted by Spanish authorities not for religious but for political reasons, and more specifically for their role as leaders of the resistance. Finally, it argues that the wars that ensued after the Spanish incursion destroyed the social networks on which so much of local women‟s power was based, and that as a result, local indigenous women lost much of their traditional power and status. iii Table of Contents Introduction 1 I. Yndios Conquistadores: Yanacona Servants, Lovers, and Allies 15 II. Behetrías Tejidas por Guarichas: Unruly Land, Unruly Women 46 III. Ni Chinas ni Guarichas: Women Gone Missing 98 IV. Yndios contra yndios: Indians Against Indians 132 V. Cantares de Moaneras : Subversive Shamans 165 VI. “Como árboles en el aire:” Indians without Land 197 Conclusion 239 Appendix 244 Notes 250 Glossary 292 Bibliography 297 iv Table of Maps and Illustrations Maps Figure 1. Map 1. Indigenous settlements in Colombia at the beginning of the 16th cenruty 12 Figure 2. Map 2. Alto Magdalena Region 13 Figure 3. Map 3. “Terra Firma et Novum Regnum Granatenense et Popayan” 14 Illustrations Figure 4. La Gaitana. Héctor Osvaldo Pérez. 2008 86 Figure 5. Mural in honor of La Gaitana. San José de Isnos, Huila. 97 Figure 6. Sales receipt of Pixao slaves from the fort of San Joan del Chaparral. 164 Figure 7. Carguero. Edouard Riou 238 v Tables Table 1. Population in Juan López‟s encomienda 120 Table 2. Population in Melchor de Sotomayor‟s encomienda 121 Table 3. Population in Bachiller Venero‟s encomienda 121 Table 4. Population in Alonso Vera‟s encomienda 122 Table 5. Population in Antonio de Toledo‟s encomienda 122 Table 6. Population in Blas Martínez‟s encomienda 123 Table 7. Comparative table for all six encomiendas 123 Table 8. El Calamo‟s local population 203 Table 9. El Cálamo‟s marriages 203 Table 10. La Matanca‟s (local) population 205 Table 11. La Matanca‟s marriages 205 Table 12. Marriages in Diego del Campo‟s encomienda 206 Table 13. Population in Diego del Campo‟s encomienda 207 Table 14. La Cozanza marriages 211 Table 15. Population in La Cozanza‟s encomienda 211 Table 16. La Culata marriages 213 Table 17. Population in La Culata 213 Table 18. Population in Diego de Ibarramenez‟s encomienda 214 Table 19. Marriages in Diego de Ibarramenez‟s encomienda 215 Table 20. Population in Isabel Calderón‟s encomienda 217 vi Table 21. Marriages in Alonso de Herrera‟s encomienda 218 Table 22. Population in Alonso de Herrera‟s encomienda 219 Table 23. Cambi Indians in Andrés de Sopuerta‟s encomienda 220 Table 24. Population in Andrés de Sopuerta‟s encomienda 220 Table 25. Marriages in Miguel de Losada‟s encomienda 221 Table 26. Population in Miguel de Losada‟s encomienda 222 Table 27. Marriages in Bernardo de Villareal‟s encomienda 225 Table 28. Population in Bernardo de Villareal‟s encomienda 226 Table 29. Forasteros in Bernardo de Villareal‟s encomienda 226 Table 30. Marriages in Francisco Calderón‟s encomienda 228 Table 31. Population in Francisco Calderón‟s encomienda 228 Table 32. Population in Nicolás Calderón‟s encomienda 229 Table 33. Marriages in Nicolás Calderón‟s encomienda 230 Table 34. Comparative table for marriages 231 Table 35. Comparative table for local/forastero/runaway population 232 Table 36. Comparative table for adult/children population 232 Table 37. Gender distribution 233 Table 38. Approximate values for marital status 233 vii DEDICATION A mi gente Al páramo viii Acknowledgments This work is the culmination of a journey that began with a childhood fascination for the legend of La Gaitana. The Fulbright scholarship I received in 2006 as well the Universidad del Valle‟s generous support have made it possible. I am also deeply indebted to a great number of people. I would like to start by thanking professor Virginia Yans from Rutgers History Department whose warm reception and encouragement in her 2006 Fall Seminar on the History of Women had a significant influence in my decision to pursue this project. I would also like to thank the members of my committee, among them professor Nancy Hewitt in whose Spring 2008 Colloquium in Women and Gender History this project first came into being. Her early enthusiasm for the idea when it was only a 1500-word biographical entry on La Gaitana was decisive. I also want to acknowledge professor Temma Kaplan who graciously took time out from her busy schedule to review a grant proposal I submitted back in 2009. Her comments and orientation proved invaluable. I also want to express my gratitude to professor Michael Francis from the University of North Florida who was my outside reader. His knowledge of the Colombian archives proved invaluable in guiding me through this entire processs. At the same time, his incisive critique allowed me to consider from a very different angle the issues I set out to explore in this dissertation. My work is all the richer for it. I am also deeply grateful to professor Carlos Ulises Decena whose unfailing, warm and good-humored support as committee member and academic advisor will always be remembered. As for the people in the Women‟s and Gender Studies Program here at Rutgers, needless to say I owe all of them much. I feel deeply privileged to have been a part of the unique intellectual and multidisciplinary project that they represent. I am also well aware that they have left an indelible mark in the scholar that I have become. ix To my friends and peers in the department and wider Rutgers, Anahi Russo, Bahia Munem, Fatimah Williams Castro, Ashley Falzetti and Carolina Alonso: thank you for believing. In Colombia, I would like to thank all the staff at the Archivo General de la Nación and the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia. In particular, I am much indebted to Fabio Castro for his generous assistance. Professors Bernardo Tovar Zambrano and Ramón Gómez Cubides‟ timely guidance and advice were also crucial to this project. I am also profoundly grateful to Silvio Anacona who was my guide in San Agustín during my field trip in the summer of 2009. He generously shared with me and my two children not only his world, but also that of his ancestors. I owe of course a special intellectual debt to all the American women historians whose groundbreaking work in Native American women‟s history has made this dissertation possible. My profound admiration goes out to all of them. To my chair, mentor and friend, professor Camila Townsend, my deepest appreciation. Your kindness, patient guidance, respect, unwavering support and friendship in what were at times very challenging circumstances in my personal life have made this project come to fruition. Al parche colombiano (y cubano), a mi Palomita del alma, a Fabito, a Ximena, a la Cuba, a Luisito, a Mafer, a Glorita López, a las dos Pilis (la que está aquí y la que está en España), a Alcira Dueñas, a Vilma y Alvaro, a Fanny y Alberto, a Omaira, a Aida: gracias por estar al otro lado del teléfono. A mi Canelita, a mi Conejo: esto se escribió pensando en Ustedes. Los amo entrañablemente. A mis padres, por supuesto, mi eterna gratitud por su respaldo incondicional, su bondad y generosidad. x 1 Introduction On Friday, December 22, 1628, Captain Diego de Ospina went to visit the Coniabongo Indians in the village of La Matanca.1 There was one person it was a pity he never bothered to interview: her name was Ysavel Agad and she was ─ according to Alonso de Torralva, the notary public who accompanied Ospina on his tour of the encomiendas in the Timaná area2 ─ one-hundred years old.3 If true, Ysavel was probably only seven years old when the Spaniards first entered the Alto Magdalena region in present-day Colombia.4 She was most likely a member of the Yalcón people, which at the time inhabited that part of the country.