Indians and Mestizos in the “Lettered City” Reshaping Justice, Social Hierarchy, and Political Culture in Colonial Peru i Alcira Dueñas I Indians and Mestizos in the “Lettered City” Indians and Mestizos in the “Lettered City” Reshaping Justice, Social Hierarchy, and Political Culture in Colonial Peru i Alcira Dueñas I University Press of Colorado © 2010 by the University Press of Colorado Published by the University Press of Colorado 5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C Boulder, Colorado 80303 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of the Association of American University Presses. The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metro- politan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dueñas, Alcira, 1954– Indians and mestizos in the lettered city : reshaping justice, social hierarchy, and political culture in colonial Peru / Alcira Dueñas. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60732-018-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60732-019-7 (electronic book : alk. paper) 1. Indians of South America—Peru—Politics and government. 2. Mestizos—Peru— Politics and government. 3. Indian authors—Peru—History. 4. Peruvian literature—Indian authors—History and criticism. 5. Learning and scholarship—Peru—History. 6. Anti-imperialist movements—Peru—History. 7. Social justice—Peru—History. 8. Political culture—Peru— History. 9. Peru—Ethnic relations. 10. Peru—Intellectual life. I. Title. F3429.3.P65D84 2010 985'.01—dc22 2010015105 Design by Daniel Pratt An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open access ISBN for this book is 978-1-60732-712-7. More information about the initiative and links to the open-access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. In the spirit of the known and unknown thinkers of the Andes, and to Lucas, Mateo, and Christopher Javier for coming into my life. Contents List of Illustrations | ix Acknowledgments | xi Chapter 1. Introduction | 1 Chapter 2. Foundations of Seventeenth-Century Andean Scholarship | 31 Chapter 3. Andean Scholarship in the Eighteenth Century: Writers, Networks, and Texts | 59 Chapter 4. The European Background of Andean Scholarship | 93 Chapter 5. Andean Discourses of Justice: The Colonial Judicial System under Scrutiny | 113 Chapter 6. The Political Culture of Andean Elites: Social Inclusion and Ethnic Autonomy | 151 Chapter 7. The Politics of Identity Formation in Colonial Andean Scholarship | 195 Chapter 8. Conclusion | 233 Epilogue | 241 Selected Bibliography | 245 Index | 259 i vii I Illustrations 0.1 Colonial Andean Writers’ Places of Origin | xiv 2.1 “Cinco memoriales” by Juan de Cuevas Herrera | 39 2.2 “Memorial” by Jerónimo Lorenzo Limaylla | 44 2.3 “Representación” by Jerónimo Lorenzo Limaylla | 45 3.1 “Manifiesto de los agravios y vejaciones” by Vicente Morachimo | 64 3.2 “Representación verdadera,” facsimile | 69 3.3 “Planctus indorum,” facsimile | 72 i ix I Acknowledgments n the years since the inception of this book, many people have Ikindly contributed to its completion, beyond what I can possibly acknowl- edge here. This book was made financially possible by grants from the Ohio State University–Newark and the Ohio State College of Arts and Sciences. Special thanks to Kenneth Andrien and Joanne Rappaport, who meticulously read my work more than once and provided meaningful criticism and constant sup- port. David Garrett, Daniel Reff, Fernando Unzueta, and Maureen Ahern read and offered significant comments on one or several chapters. Sinclair Thomson deserves special gratitude for his meticulous reading of this book and his valuable suggestions. The book’s final shape was greatly improved by the constructive criti- cism and wise suggestions of two anonymous reviewers selected by the University Press of Colorado. I express gratitude to Darrin Pratt, my editor, for his efficiency, flexibility, and unyielding interest in my work. The helpfulness and time spent on my requests by the staffs of the Archivo General de la Nación (Lima), the Biblioteca Nacional (Lima), the Archivo Departamental del Cuzco, the Archivo Arzobispal del Cuzco, the Biblioteca del Palacio Real (Madrid), the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (Rome), and the Lilly Library (Bloomington, Indiana) i xi I Acknowledgments were instrumental to the successful completion of this book. Finally, a special thank-you to Jesús Alcántara for his crucial help in Sevilla and Madrid; to my student research assistant, Meghan Hensley, for her tireless work and patience; and to Mateo Zabala, graphic designer, for his contribution. i xii I Indians and Mestizos in the “Lettered City” Figure 0.1 Colonial Andean Writers’ Places of Origin. Illustration by Mateo Zabala. i 1 i Introduction he world of letters in colonial Spanish America was a terrain of cul- Ttural interaction and contention. With important antecedents in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Peruvian indigenous and mestizo writ- ers continued to make inroads into the world of the literate while attempting to achieve social change during the mid- and late colonial period. During these years, literate Andeans crossed the Atlantic, showing up in metropolitan seats of power with their writings, their demands, and their representatives and funda- mentally complicating our reflections on the nature and variety of responses to Spanish colonial impositions. This book tells the story of a group of Andean writers and their scholarly works rarely acknowledged in studies of political or cultural resistance to colonial rule in the Andes. It shows that the production of Andean critical renditions of colonialism and efforts to reform society continued and developed broadly from the mid-600s through the late 700s, far beyond the well-known pioneer- ing works of writers such as Santacruz Pachacuti Yamki Salcamaigua, Titu Cusi Yupanqui, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, and Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala. Later writers developed intellectual and social activism, engaging themselves and their i i Introduction fellow collaborators in political projects that revealed their continually evolv- ing consciousness and unstated effort to challenge the definition of Andeans as “Indians.” Andean scholars and activists contributed a significant colonial critique and carried out lengthy campaigns to reposition themselves as an autonomous “Indian nation” in an increasingly demeaning colonial world. They expressed their wish for ethnic autonomy in their struggles to have native and mestizo Andean women and men admitted to religious orders, to allow Andean men to enroll in schools and universities and to hold positions of power in ecclesiastic and civil adminis- trations, and to create their own honorific symbols and organizations. The reconstruction of this intellectual and political history is crucial for con- temporary understanding of the major late-colonial upheavals in Cusco and La Paz, since the Andean writings under question reveal that issues such as the elimi- nation of the mita (labor draft) system and the abolition of corregidores—raised by leaders of the Great Rebellion in 780–783—had been articulated earlier by the scholars under examination. This points to a preexisting discursive tradi- tion of scholarly resistance to Spanish rule by Andeans. The notion that Spanish colonialism remained essentially unchallenged for over two centuries following the military defeat of the Inca at Vilcabamba (57) has been widely accepted in narratives of Andean history. Studies of resistance to Spanish rule in the Peruvian Andes have remained focused largely on the dramatic political upheavals that swept through the area in the eighteenth century, with even greater concentra- tion on the major pan-Andean rebellions led by Tomás Katari in Chayanta, Túpac Amaru in Cusco, and Túpac Katari in the area of La Paz (contemporary Bolivia) (780–783). The complex texture of resistance in any colonial situation, how- ever, can involve layers of thought, action, and negotiation far more subtle than the armed confrontation of a political regime. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Peru, educated indigenous and mestizo subjects utilized the discursive strategies and theological knowledge available to them to question the legal and religious grounds of colonial power. The impetus for their oppositional politics was rooted in their changing daily experiences as colonized ethnic elites and their exposure to new European forms of knowledge and communication. As Andeans attempted to negotiate rights with the Spanish monarchs, they also resignified the preexisting Andean tradi- tion of mañay. This age-old tradition, crucial during the formation of the Inca empire, sought a political and religious compromise through reciprocal agree- ments—not necessarily equal agreements—between victors (who demanded “favors”) and the colonized (who “cooperated,” expecting to secure the condi-