Zavala (2006) Cultural Identity and Politics of Suppression, Conformity, and Ambiguity in Late Colonial Peru

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
POSITIONS OF CONVENIENCE: CULTURAL IDENTITY AND THE POLITICS OF

SUPPRESSION, CONFORMITY, AND AMBIGUITY IN LATE COLONIAL PERU
By
Jose E. Zavala
A DISSERTATION
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of the University of Miami
in partial fulfillm ent of the requirements for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Coral Gables, Florida

May 2006
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UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
POSITIONS OF CONVENIENCE: CULTURAL IDENTITY AND THE POLITICS OF

SUPPRESION, CONFORMITY, AND AMBIGUITY IN LATE COLONIAL PERU
Jose E. Zavala
Approved:
Dr. Viviana uiaz Dr. Steven G. Ullmann

Committee-Chairperson Dean of the Graduate School
Associate Professor of Spanish
Dr. Christina Civantos Dr. Steve Stein'

Committee Member Outside Committee Member
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Professor of History
Dr. Ralph Heyndels

Committee Member
Professor of French
Zavala, Jose E. (Ph.D., Foreign Languages 6t Literatures)
Positions of Convenience: Cultural (May 2006)
Identity and the Politics of Suppression,
Conformity, and Ambiguity in Late Colonial Peru
Abstract of a dissertation at the University of Miami.
Dissertation supervised by Professor Viviana Diaz-Balsera.

No. of pages in text. (219)
My project centered on the cultural and textual productions of a
number of diverse social actors (Peninsulars, Creoles and Andean) in late
colonial Peru. By focusing on how these heterogeneous social actors
constructed or conceived their identities -- either by complying with, or
by resisting the Spanish Empire’ s cultural ideals -- I have shed light on
how the cultural identities imagined in this period similarly produced a
conservative, fearful, exclusive and hegemonic colonial discourse that
has influenced the creation of postcolonial Peru. This study spans the
periods of 1771-1773, the dates of Alonso Carrio de la Vandera’s
reformist expedition to the New World; 1780-1784, the dates of the
Tupac Amaru II Rebellion and its aftermath presented in Jose Rafael
Sahuaraura’s Estado del Peru, and; the years of the periodical El
Mercurio Peruano, 1790-1795. A recommendation for further study is
enclosed.
TO CLAUDIA, CHIARA, AND ANA MARIA
WITH
LOVE AND THANKS
iii
Acknowledgements
My first, and most earnest, acknowledgment must go to my advisor and

Chair of my Committee Viviana Diaz-Balsera. In every sense, none of this
work would have been possible without her. She never gave up on me.
She read my terrible drafts from one day to another, editing my
grammar disasters without a complaint - even when I once mistakenly
gave her a twenty-five-page paper during my first semester that I had
forgotten to spell-check. She met with me during weekends, and during
her free time, spending hours at a time working painstakingly through
page after page of my drafts.
Some people are lucky enough to have one exceptional committee

member. I have had more than one. Steve Stein has always been
overwhelmingly generous with graduate students - but it was only after
he became a member of my committee that I realized how committed
he was to training, supporting and encouraging students.
My thanks also go to Christina Civantos and Ralph Heyndels, the other

two members of my dissertation committee. They went well beyond
their duty in helping me with this dissertation, reading and copiously
commenting on earlier drafts. I have benefited enormously from their
great knowledge and patience.
A special thanks goes to Lee Williams. I don’t know how to thank him.
He has been an unwavering supporter, friend and critic since we started
the program together.
Far too many people to mention individually have assisted in so many

ways during my work at the University of Miami. They all have my
sincere gratitude. In particular, I would like to thank Michelle Warren,
Anne Cruz, David Ellison, Gylla Lucky, Elena Grau-Lleveria, Rebecca
Biron, Elena Sabogal, and Annie Mendoza, all currently, or previously, of
the University of Miami. I would never have made it without their help
and support.
This research was, at various times, supported by grants from the

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of
Miami, and particularly its chairs, David Ellison and Anne Cruz - and
DGA Officer, Michelle Warren funded my research and studies for a
number of years and fostered a great, nurturing environmental for young
scholars. The Center of Latin American Studies partially funded my field
research and provided a basis for discussion on the history of Latin
America. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Claire Martin, Grinor
Rojo, and Jack Schmidt all currently, or previously of California State
iv
University, Long Beach, and many other friends in California and Lima,
Peru who were instrumental in the success of my studies and made life
during these years a lot more fun. Claire deserves particular credit for
getting me interested in Latin American Literature as well as convincing
me to continue with my graduate studies. To all these institutions and
their incredible staff, my deep gratitude.
On a more personal note, a thank-you goes to my wonderful parents,

Ana and Frank, brothers, Carlos, Sebastian, and Denisse, and extended
family and friends who have eagerly awaited this dissertation, and they
deserve full credit for it. For always being there, “ I love you guys.”
My final, and most heartfelt, acknowledgment must go to my wife

Claudia and daughter Chiara. Claudia has worked attentively, and
successfully, for a number of years to show me life outside work. Her
support, encouragement, and companionship turned my journey through
graduate school into a pleasure. For all that, and for being everything I
am not, she has my unending love.
Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter One
El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes: Colonial Contradictions and the

Construction of Cultural Identity 17
Colonial territories, peoples and knowledge production 30
Peninsulares 37
Carrio’s criticism of colonial administrators 48
Criollos 54
Mestizos and the “ Sociedad de castas” 60
Negros 67
Indios 69
Conclusion: Carrio’s contradictory words 71
Chapter Two
A World in Conflict: The Great Rebellion and the Formation of the

Andean Elite in Late Colonial Peru 80
Andean compliance 90
Viceroy Toledo’s government 102
Colonial History in the late eighteenth century 106
Authorial intentions of Estado del Peru 117
Andean divisiveness 125
The Voice of the Subaltern Masses 135
Conclusion 146
vi
Chapter Three
El Mercurio Peruano 1790-1796: Criollo Identity and its Conflicting

Aspirations 149
A World Turned Upside Down 154
An Enlightened Response to Peninsular Criticism 169
Identity and Racism 179
Describing Otherness 186
Conclusion
Peru’s incongruent identities 193
References 204
v ii
Introduction
My project centers on the cultural productions and representations of a
number of diverse social actors in late colonial Peru. By focusing on how
dissimilar social actors constructed or conceived their identities -- either by
complying with, or by resisting the Spanish Empire’s cultural ideals -- I hope to
shed light on how certain cultural identities were imagined in this period. For
“ social actors,” I follow the distinctions made by the “ Sociedad de castas” and
its classificatory system implemented by the Spanish empire during the
eighteenth century in the New World: espanoles, criollos, indios, and castas.
This study spans the periods of 1771-1773, the dates of Alonso Carrio de la
Vandera’s reformist expedition to the New World, 1780-1784, the dates of the
Tupac Amaru II Rebellion and its aftermath, and the years of the periodical El
Mercurio Peruano. 1790-1795.
I believe that the study of the socio-racial character of Peru during the
tumultuous late colonial period can aid in the understanding of this crucial
period of Peruvian history and perhaps provide an insight into Republican
Peru’s unsuccessful efforts to construct and invent a cohesive social, political
and economic state. While earlier studies of Peruvian colonial society tend to
focus narrowly on the centers of power most new works reject this “ criollo
scholarship” and deal primarily with the Andean peoples in the rural zones and
provincial capitals. The result has been a thorough re-examination of the
Andeans contributions to colonial society, and their concerted efforts to resist
European domination.1 However, this trend posits all of its efforts in the study
of rebellious Andeans (indios and mestizos), falling into the same trap as
“ criollo scholarship” by limiting itself to a singular entity, while ignoring the
other actors of colonial society.
Moreover, many recent studies attest to the fact that little research has
been done concerning the nature and composition of Peruvian society during
the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (O’Phelan, El Peru en el siglo
XVIII 10). Most prominent among the few written sources about this period and
topic is Alberto Flores Galindo’s, Aristocracia y plebe: Lima 1750-1830. Flores
Galindo’s study; however, tends to portray Peruvian colonial social order
through a dichotomous lens, one that divides Peruvian society into an
aristocracy and the masses, into the haves and have nots, not taking into
account the various social, economic, political, and racial factors that
influenced late colonial society and its inhabitants.
Just as there is a lack of comprehensive studies dealing with the social
players of the late colonial period, there has also been limited research
analyzing colonial or postcolonial Peru through the theories of Postcolonial
Studies and/or Identity Discourse. The only prominent study that uses the first
theoretical approach for Peru is Mark Thurner’s From Two Republics to One
Divided: Contradictions of Postcolonial Nationmaking in Andean Peru, while
1 I will use the terms Andeans or the Spanish indios to refer to the indigenous
population of colonial Peru.
3
there are none for the latter discipline. Thurner’s book examines Peru’s
troubled transition from colonial viceroyalty to postcolonial republic from the
perspective of Andean peasant politics, emphasizing the Atusparria uprising of
1885, a good deal later than the period covered by my study. I believe that the
specific contribution that the use of postcolonial and identity discourse
perspectives bring to the study of late colonial Peru predicates in its attempts
to direct our attention, to the inequities and contradictions in modes of
representation. Furthermore, these theoretical approaches problematize the
very terms by which knowledge about the “ other” have been constructed while
calling into question colonialism and its ideologies.
it is against this theoretical background, then, that my study takes
place. However, there is clearly much to be learned about the application of
postcolonial theory to Spanish America. While the attention of this
dissertation centers on late colonial Peru, comparisons can and should be made
to Republican Peru, other Spanish American regions and other colonial
situations in order to help build bridges across dispersed points or histories in
order to better understand the pervasiveness and prevalence of colonialism. In
keeping with this pattern, I believe that such comparisons can help to identify
points of contact between dispersed histories. Colonialism and its after are not
everywhere and at all times the same, as Jorge Klor de Alva states, Mexico is
not India; nevertheless, there are some points of contact, some clusters of
themes between colonial and postcolonial histories everywhere that can help
us understand the still ominous presence of colonialism. Peru and the majority
of Spanish American societies began emerging from colonial rule over one
hundred and seventy years ago, but they have continued to emerge, and have
not fully emerged, from colonial relations that cannot be easily cast off as
historian Mark Thurner declares (13). I believe that the present study of late
colonial Peru can aid in the comprehension of colonialism’s pervasiveness and
prevalence, and hopefully provide some input into the ongoing discussion about
the postcolonial dilemma in the region.
In order to better understand the importance of identity discourse
theory and its contemporary application, it is necessary to explore the political
and social situation in the Andean region during the last couple of decades.
The numerous reinvidication movements in the Andean region that have
emerged lately have shown deep cracks in the “ homogenous” national
constructs of the region. Conflicts between a white minority and non-white
masses, criollos and Andeans, and socio-economic stratification or
pigmentocracy are not problems from the past, but serious fissures that are
presently endangering these nation-states. These incidents have wider
significance as well, since contemporary Peruvians, Ecuadorians, and Bolivians,
for instance, are currently reassessing their links to the nation-state and in the
process reaffirming or discarding their ties to these constructs. In fact, it is
precisely identity construction theories, as well its applications in this study
that can hopefully provide some needed understanding to the present day
processes afflicting the Andean region.
5
My dissertation examines the following texts in the general order of my
chapters: Alonso Carrio de la Vandera’s, El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes
(1772); Estado del Peru (1784) by Jose Rafel Titu Atauchi Sahuaraura, and; El
Mercurio peruano (1791-1795). These three texts, penned between 1772 and
1795, have to my knowledge failed to receive any significant if any scholarly
attention regarding their socio-racial descriptions, but they are extraordinary
documents that help us to better understand this crucial period of Peruvian
history. Their contributions extend far beyond their beneficial portrayals of a
conflictive late colonial society. All three of these texts start off as definite
projects only to eventually deviate from their north, by revealing ambivalences
and inconsistencies in their hegemonic discourse. Moreover, these texts were
attempts to set the record straight according to its authors. In the process their
endeavors also invite contemporary readers to re-examine the nature and
validity of some episodes of Peruvian history, by questioning the very concept
of the homogenous nation-state, the creation of national heroes, and the
conflict ridden relationships between these heterogenous social actors, all the
while providing the reader with an insight into the period, and inviting us to
make comparisons to the problems afflicting contemporary Peru.
In order to address the need for an inclusive inquiry on the subject of
late colonial society in Peru, I examine, explicate and analyze Peru’s
heterogeneous late colonial society by concentrating on three of its main social
actors: espanoles, criollos, and indios.2 I intend to show that even though the
“ identities” produced in Peru during the later stage of the colony’s existence
were decidedly heterogeneous, culturally and racially diverse, theses social
actors fashioned an ideology that was unquestionably homogenous:
conservative, fearful and exclusive, and hegemonic. An attempt is also made
to consider how these dissimilar social actors constructed their “ identities”
through their interpretation and portrayal of “ sameness and otherness,” by
their attempt to set the record straight, and by an ardent defense of their
position within the established colonial order. Moreover, my project briefly
invites comparisons between late colonial Peru and the early Peruvian state
since I believe that the architects of the nation also reproduced this assortment
of identities: conservative, fearful and exclusionary, and hegemonic.
Conceptually, the early Republican draftsmen of Peru regarded the concept of
nationhood as a unitary and congruent ideal. However, in its place, they
achieved a disjointed nation fraught with deep socio-racial and economic
inequities that still haunt it today.
As critic Benedict Anderson states, nations are not naturally occurring
phenomena. They, like buildings, are planned by people and built upon
particular functions. Thus, a nation is first and foremost “ an imagined political
2 This project primarily concentrates on the cultural productions of

peninsulares, Andean elite and criollos; however, the other participants of late
colonial Peru, castas and negros are also present in this study albeit as objects
of representation.
community.” 3 In like manner, the architects of the Peruvian Republic in the
nineteenth century planned, built and imagined a “ nation” similarly to the
identities of late colonial society built on a set of binary constructions: “ us”
and “ them,” white and non-white, and civilized and barbarous. Additionally,
the nation envisioned by Peruvians during this period operated through the
exclusion and silencing of most of its “ others.” Anderson’s concepts about the
“ nation” and its foundational mechanisms should not be limited to the
Republican period, since it is also acceptable to envision the formation of
Peruvian society during the late colonial period as an attempt by its social
actors to accordingly build and imagine “ their” society.
Similarly, critic Stuart Hall posits in his book, Questions of Cultural
Identity that “ identity” is erected on the recognition of a common origin or
shared characteristics with another person or group, or with an ideal
identification. Identity will then lead to the natural conclusiveness of solidarity
and allegiance. Viewed from this perspective, Hall’s definition of “ identity”
similarly to Anderson’s concept of a “ nation,” involves the key concepts of “ to
construct” and “ to imagine.” Furthermore, “ identities” are built within, not
outside, discourse and representation. Accordingly, we need to understand that
identities are not produced in a vacuum; rather, they are the products of
specific historical and institutional sites, within specific discursive formations
and practices, and by specific enunciative strategies (Hall 2, 4).
3 The particular functions that Anderson points out with regards to the concept
of nationhood are a sense of comradeship, fraternity and kinship (Anderson 6-
7).
8
In the same way, identities can function as positions of identification
and relationship only because of their power to exclude, to leave out, and to
portray someone “ outside.” Hence, identities are the outcome of difference
and exclusion, and it is only through the relation to the “ other,” the relation to
what identity is “ not,” to what it lacks, to what Hall calls “ its constitutive
outside” that the meaning of “ identity” is built. In summation, the concept of
“ identity” like that of a “ nation” is imagined, constructed and always in the
process of excluding perceived “ others” in order to consolidate
itself/themselves.
The primary theoretical model that I propose to use in analyzing Peru’s
late colonial society is Postcolonial Studies. My objective is to assay the above-
mentioned colonial cultural productions in order to demonstrate how cultural
identity was imagined or constructed during the late colonial period. I will
examine these productions by reading them against the grain, by locating
colonial strategies of resistance and/or compliance, and by analyzing the
mechanisms in the construction of identity in these texts.
Critic Gayan Prakash describes Postcolonial Studies as a radical re
thinking and re-formulation of forms of knowledge and social identities
authored by colonialism and Western domination. In addition, postcolonial
criticism works against the Eurocentrism produced by the West’s trajectory (a
challenge to colonial ways of knowing) and its appropriation of the “ other” as
history (Mongia 5). Moreover, an integral point for the articulation of
Postcolonial Studies as it is known today are the claims made in the first
volume of the Subaltern Studies Journal (1981). In it, critic Ranajit Guha
defines how the Subaltern Studies Group proposed a revision of Indian history:
to demonstrate in what way, in the political transformations occurring in
colonial and postcolonial Indian society, subalterns not only developed their
own strategies of resistance, but helped define and refine elite options. The
Latin American Subaltern Studies Group has extended the claims of the
Subaltern Studies group, so essential in the construction of Postcolonial
Studies. This group went further by including the need to call the nation into
question as a concept and as a boundary, since the nation is an elite creation
that has “ obscured, from the start, the presence and reality of the subaltern
social subject in Latin American history” (Mallon 115).
The nations imagined and built by the criollo elites during the early
nineteenth century promised a new dawn of independence and political self-
determination. However, the new nationalism constructed by criollo elites in
Peru simply replaced the Spanish colonial ruling class with a western educated,
hispanicized one -- their own. In addition, the Empire’ s colonizing discourse
was basically replaced by a Republican nationalist discourse that appeared to
speak for “ all” the people in Peru, but in actuality kept the non-white masses
even more disempowered than during the late colonial period. In like manner,
the official discourse of national solidarity and Peruvianness drowned out the
voice of the subaltern. It is clear then, that a sense of Peruvian national
identity was gained by ignoring the voices of subalternity, through exclusion
and denigration.
Another fundamental component of Subaltern Studies applicable to
Postcolonial Studies is the possibility of re-reading colonial and postcolonial
documents. This tactic questions the representation of the colonized subject
in a variety of colonial texts and considers moments when the subaltern
subject passively resisted being characterized or fixed in a specific location, as
a result showing the ambivalent nature of the colonizer’s discourse. Cultural
productions of the late eighteenth century, such as Spanish travel writings,
Andean elite letters and Criollo enlightened newspapers can perform as
examples of the widespread presence of colonialism’ s discourse of power in
which to apply the strategy of reading contrapuntally, by which it may be
possible in some instances to find the hidden or disguised voice of the
subaltern, and/or the deep rootedness of colonialism’s ideology.4 For instance,
Alonso Carrio de la Vandera’s El lazariUo de ciegos caminantes illustrates an
instance of Spanish eighteenth century travel writing that reveals ambiguities
and contradicitons in the colonizer’s discourse as well as the hidden or
disguised voice of the subaltern in late colonial Peru.
Taking these assessments into account, a number of people have also
begun to study the moments of active resistance when the subaltern attempted
to imagine his/her own cultural identity by means of his/her cultural
productions or manifestations. It is important to note that the term
“ subaltern” can have very dissimilar meanings and nuances. For example,
4 To read contrapuntally, according to critic Edward Said, implies the act of

reading a text with an understanding of the power relations involved in its
conception (Said, Orientalism 66).
studies of the Andean sector of late colonial society up to the present are
incomplete since there are very few accounts or inquiries dealing with Andean
compliance and/or acceptance of Spanish colonialism. Moreover, resistance
and compliance to colonialism’s machinations was not limited to the Andean
sector of Peru’s late colonial society, since it expanded to the highest echelons
of criollo society as well, as seen in the treatment of language, themes and
forms by Peruvian criollos involved in the “ Sociedad de amantes del Peru”
during the last decade of the eighteenth century. However, criollo productions
of the period such as El Mercurio Peruano were in great part feverish
arguments against the new Bourbon imperative of the period that attacked
criollos by subalternizing them as racially and culturally inferior. In this
manner, the criollo elite of the era forged an identity that was in great part
contradictory, since they wanted to be seeing on an equal intellectual and
racial footing with their Spanish counterparts while affirming the uniqueness of
their “ patria” and culture. As such, reading against the grain and recognizing
the strategies of resistance and/or compliance in the late colonial period are
the specific modes of analysis that I w ill use in my dissertation.
As stated, identities are not created in a void; to be more precise, they
are the constructs of specific historical and institutional locations, erected by
particular discursive structures and procedures, and by specific enunciative
strategies. Along these lines, the reform of the Bourbon state can be seen as
the most significant historical and institutional feature of the eighteenth
century in the Spanish New World. According to historian John Fisher, the
12
primary purposes of the Bourbon reorganization were centralization, efficacy
and the need for new income. The Bourbon modifications in viceregal Peru
comprised a complex net of administrative, fiscal, judicial and military changes
that transformed Spain into an absolutist empire (Fisher 105).
Furthermore, historian John Lynch states that new Bourbon government
believed that in order to succeed it had to advance the role of the official
state, end its compromising ways when dealing with criollo and Andean
authorities and diminish criollo participation in local politics and in the
religious sphere. At a time when the non-peninsular population increased in
number, and when the bureaucracy itself expanded, in short, when the
demand or pressure for jobs and recognition were at their height, the Bourbon
dynasty returned the power to the hands of peninsular administrators (Lynch
78, 80).
Chapter 1 of my dissertation, El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes: Colonial
Contradictions and the Construction of Cultural Identity, discusses the fragile
and contradictory nature of colonialism’s discourse as exemplified by the
Spanish travel narrative of Alonso Carrio de la Vandera’s, El lazarillo de ciegos
caminantes.5 In my opinion, the text embodied Spain’s desire to re-articulate
and administrate its colonies more rigidly in the New World. These endeavors
represented Spain’s efforts to immerse itself into the enlightened eighteenth
century, a century described by some as the age of reason, science and
knowledge. The aim of this chapter, then, is to find instances in this text
5 The general quotations from the primary texts, El lazarillo de ciegos

caminantes, Estado del Peru, and El Mercurio Peruano are given in Spanish.
13
where, in the process of producing knowledge about the “ other,” the discourse
of colonialism fragments due to its contradictory aims.
Carrio de la Vandera’s enterprise fell within the confines of the Bourbon
attempts to re-articulate its colonies. His main objective was to re-establish
land communications between the colonies, with the aim of increasing the
funds sent from these to the metropolis. It is within this commission that we
can situate the Visitador ’s text and project. Correspondingly, the enlightened
author fashioned himself, his project and his text as paradigmatic of this new
age of knowledge, and reason that sought to characterize and describe
“ otherness” with the purpose of dominating it. However, in the case of Carrio
de la Vandera, his text and project went off course from this location, as seen
by his cutting criticism of Spain’s administration in the New World, an
undertaking that exposes colonialism’s impossible mission to dominate and
catalog “ otherness” completely and accurately. As a result, the author of El
lazarillo fashioned an alternative mode of criticism by means of the creation of
another “ author” and another “ text.” However, this “ other” author and text
still privileged a colonial ideology.
Chapter 2, A World in Conflict: The Great Rebellion and the Formation of
the Andean Elite in Late Colonial Peru, investigates the cultural productions or
manifestations of the Andean elite of Cuzco, in this case, Rafael Jose
Sahuaraura Tito Atauchi’s text Estado del Peru. In this chapter, I attempt to
recognize and find the different strategies of resistance or compliance utilized
14
by these privileged subalterns as well as analyze their liminal position as
intermediaries within the colonial order.
It is against the background, the new Bourbon reformist imperative of
the period and the Tupac Amaru II rebellion of 1780-1781, that this chapter
points out the variable, divisive, and in some cases hostile character of Andean
world relations during the colony. This picture of Andean discordance and
conflict arrived at its highest point during this struggle, an event mainly
triggered by the new Bourbon reorganization of the period and an episode that
confronted diverse sectors of the Andean elite of Cuzco, between Incas de
sangre (Sahuaraura and the elites he represented) and Incas de privilegio
(Tupac Amaru II and lower ranking elites), and the insurgent masses. It is
through Estado del Peru that Sahuaraura presented the events surrounding this
conflict, a quarrel that contested the lines of heredity of the Andean elite, the
benefits obtained by them throughout the colonial period, and even their own
survival as a colonial institution. Moreover, the impact of this confrontation
between the Andean elite of Cuzco and the leader of the rebellion, Tupac
Amaru II, has had profound and devastating repercusions on the history of Peru
to this day. Along these lines, this text confronts contemporary Peruvian
history since it goes against the grain, by de-mithifying the image of Tupac
Amaru II as a national hero and precursor of the movement for independence.
All told, as critic Ania Loomba affirms, colonialism reshapes, often violently,
physical territories, social terrains as well as human identities (Loomba 185).
15
Chapter 3, El Mercurio Peruano 1790-1795: Criollo Identity and its
Conflicting Aspirations, considers the complexities of colonial subjects and
identities, specifically that of the criollo elites during the late colonial period,
using the following text: El Mercurio Peruano (1791-1795).6 This periodical
personified in my opinion crio llo ’ s dual and problematic colonial position as
colonial entities that strived to belong racially and politically to the Empire,
and as a social class that desired to be socially and culturally distinct. By
problematic, I mean the apparently ambivalent and conflictive criollo
aspiration of wanting to belong to the empire and the pronouncement of their
Peruvian uniqueness/difference. As such, this chapter outlines the
development of a distinctive type of Peruvian criollo identity, analyzed and
theorized through the prism of cultural identity in the context of colonialism.
The chapter continues with an account of the changes involving or
affecting Peru during the late colonial period, starting with the expulsion of
the Jesuit Order in 1765, and culminating with the aftermath of the events
surrounding the “ Great Rebellion” of 1780-1781. Following this, it
distinguishes the cultural and political complexities that developed within the
6 The selections that I w ill use from El Mercurio Peruano are the following:
Volume I (Idea general del Peru; Ideas de las diversiones publicas de Lima;
Rasgo historico y filosofico sobre los cafes de Lima; Mineria practica, and;
Disertacion historica y politico sobre el comercio del Peru); Volume II
(Botanica: Introduccion a la descripcion cientifica de las plantas del Peru, and;
Discurso sobre la falsa religion y costumbres supersticiosas de los indios del
Peru); Volume V (Carta sobre los monumentos antiguos de los peruanos);
Volume VII (Decadencia y restauracion del Peru); Volume IX (Discurso sobre la
utilidad e importancia de la lengua general del Peru); and Volume X (Discurso
sobre el destino que debe darse a la gente vaga que tiene Lima, and; Oracion
funebre del Mercurio Peruano).
criollo colonial situation (conflictive or ambivalent social and political position,
and the loss of power), and the different strategies used by criollos in this
colonial situation (cultural response, in this case through the creation of criollo
newspapers). Finally, in undertaking this analysis, I seek to point out the
nascent and emerging patriotism of Peruvian criollos, while delineating its
particular development. To this end, the crux of this chapter w ill examine
these texts in order to demonstrate the far reaching nature of colonialism and
the complexity of its colonial subjects and identities.
In the conclusion of my dissertation, I will explore how the social and
cultural heterogenous productions of the late colonial period and their
homogenous ideology: conservative, fearful and exclusive, and
colonial/hegemonic, reproduced themselves in three seemingly distinct texts
produced by three distinct social actors. Moreover, I w ill briefly explore the
reproduction of late colonial ideology during the early Republican era,
specifically through a short analysis of the works of historian and critic Felipe
Pardo y Aliaga. The poetry and essays of Pardo y Aliaga representPeru’s
postcolonial transition from a pluriethnic colony of castes toward a unitary
nation of citizens. The aim of this mission, then, is to explore the perduring
nature and deep rootedness of colonialism even after the end of the colonial
period.
Chapter 1
El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes: Colonial Contradictions and the

Construction of Cultural Identity
El indigena es un ser vicioso y vil, quien ha estorbado la

labor de exploracion de las Americas. (El lazarillo 96)
Colonialism and its exercise of power depended upon the use of force
and physical coercion, but they could not occur without the existence of a set
of beliefs that were held to justify the possession and continuing occupation of
other people and their lands. These beliefs were encoded into the language
and discourse of empire, which the colonizers and some colonized spoke and
proclaimed. Assumptions were made about the relative differences between
peoples of allegedly dissimilar cultures, where the “ other” was defined as
feminine or degenerate, and about race, such as the “ lazy indio,” and the
“ diabolic negro.” All told, the disdain directed toward these subordinate
groups is evident in these beliefs.
Alonso Carrio de la Vandera, author of El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes
(1776) and of the above epigraph, is a perfect example of colonialism’s
maneuverings. Further proof of Carrio’s beliefs and loathing for Peru’s
inhabitants is seen through his description of its negro population:
Los negros civilizados en sus reynos son infinitam ente mas

groseros que los indios [...] sus danzas se reducen a menear la
barriga y las caderas con mucha deshonestidad, a que acompahan
con gestos ridiculos y que trahen a la imaginacion la fiesta que
hacen el diablo, las brujas en sus sabados [...] todas principian y
finalizan sus borracheras. (340)
17
18
Critics Chris Tifflin and Alan Lawson also reveal much about the complex
structure of colonialism when they affirm: “ Colonialism like racism is an
operation of discourse, and as an operation of discourse it interpellates
colonial subjects by incorporating them in a system of representation” (3). The
term “ interpellates” used by Louis Althusser, means “ calling;” the idea is that
ideology calls us, we then turn and recognize who we are. The example of the
indio being called “ lazy,” and the negro being called “ diabolic” by others are
vivid examples of interpellation. In this manner, ideology assigns them a role
and an identity, which they are then made to recognize as their own. Thus,
ideology is an important element in the formation of the identity of the
colonized, which is forced to internalize the self as an “ other.”
My objective in this chapter on El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes, is to
demonstrate how cultural identity in Peru was imagined, constructed and/or
depicted by its Spanish author during the late colonial period. I propose to use
postcolonial theory in order to reread this colonial text contrapuntally.
Through this approach, I will be able to identify an awareness both of the
colonizing history that was narrated and of those other histories against which
(and together with which) Carrio’ s dominant discourse acted. To read
contrapuntally, implies the act of reading a text with an understanding of the
power relations involved when an author describes or interpellates, for
instance, indios as “ lazy” and negros as “ diabolic.” These descriptions then
are seen as fundamental in the process of maintaining and justifying possession
over the colonized and their lands.
In my view, El Lazarillo de ciegos caminantes (1776) embodies Carrio’s
desire (seen through his project and text) to re-articulate and better
administrate Spain’s colonial geography and economy. This reformist project
manifested in the text also provides a valuable insight into Peru’s diverse late-
colonial society by depicting each of its constitutive elements, as it furthered
the colonial aim of dominating them through their study, understanding and
classification. What were these constitutive elements? They were the specific
ethnic groups recognized and described by Carrio: peninsulores, criollos,
mestizos (castas), indios and negros. The organizational endeavors of Carrio
(political, social and economic reforms) also exemplify Spain’s attempts to
immerse itself in the enlightened eighteenth century, a century characterized
by some as the age of science, reason and knowledge.
El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes first appeared clandestinely in Lima in
1776 according to critic Rodolfo A. Borello (151). The text was published with a
false publishing location and date, Gijon, 1773. Carrio de la Vandera also
invented a fictitious author, Concolorcorvo. Despite the many scholarly
disagreements over the years about the authorship of this text, the sole author
of El lazarillo has been firmly identified as don Alonso Carrio de la Vandera. In
addition to the colorful authorial pseudonym, “ Concolorcorvo,” critic Richard
A. Mazzara states that Carrio further identified the false “ crow-colored” author
as don Calixto Bustamante Carlos Inca. Don Calixto in fact existed and was
descended from the Incas, although there is no proof of his involvement in the
writing of the text. Don Calixto had come from Chile and presented himself to
20
Carrio in Buenos Aires with a forged letter of recommendation; nevertheless,
Carrio accepted the company of the latter on his tour (Mazzara 323). Over the
years, many critics erroneously believed that this text was written either by
the mestizo Concolorcorvo, or through collaboration with the Visitador.
According to critic Raul Castagnino, a decisive contribution to the true
authorship comes from historian Jose J. Real Diaz. The first steps taken by
Real Diaz’s investigation revolved around establishing the fact that Carrio was
actually commissioned to re-organize the postal route from Buenos Aires to
Lima and secondly, to point out that the amanuense Concolorcorvo only
accompanied him for the first segment of the journey. To stress this point,
Real Diaz states that Carrio arrived in Buenos Aires on the 11th of May of 1771
and concluded his journey on the 6th of June of 1773, while Concolorcorvo’s
journey ended sometime in the middle of May of 1772 according to a proof of
payment receipt preserved by Carrio (Castagnino 127-128). The main reasons
behind the ficticious publishing information revolve around the Visitador ’s
harsh criticism of colonial administrators for not allowing the proper reforms to
be implemented. Leaving aside for the moment the question of Carrio’s
criticism against the New World bureaucracy, I would first like to explain the
explicit orders given to Carrio as Visitador by his superiors and the nature of his
original task before moving on to his condemnation of colonial administrators.
Don Alonso Carrio de la Vandera was born in Gijon in 1715. He first
arrived in the New World (Mexico, to be precise) at the age of twenty where he
spent a decade in New Spain before his move to Peru in 1746. Carrio married a
21
rich Peruvian criolla in 1750, and worked from 1750 to 1757 as the Corregidor
of the Provinces of Chilques and Masques near Cuzco. It could be said that
Carrio spent his formative years in the New World, endowing him with a unique
perspective and clarity from which to depict Peru and its inhabitants. As Carrio
attested in the text through the words of his amanuense Concolorcorvo, he was
not a conventional traveler, due to the length of time he had spent in the New
World and the experience he possessed. Concolorcorvo avowed:
El visitador me asegurd varias veces que jamas le habia faltado

providencia alguna en mas de treinta y seis anos que casi sin
intermission habia caminado por ambas Americas. (El lazarillo 10)
Throughout his dealings in the New World, Carrio always involved himself in
one way or another with the bureaucracy of the empire. Between 1762 and
1763, for example, Carrio enrolled in a caballeria (cavalry) regiment under the
22
command of the Peruvian Viceroy Manuel de Amat.7 In 1767 when the Spanish
monarch Charles III decreed the expulsion of the Jesuits from all Spanish
possessions, Carrio contributed his services in the repatriation of one of the
Jesuit orders. In 1768, after the repatriation of the Jesuit contingency under
his command, Carrio moved to Madrid to seek a better position.
On his arrival there, the court rebuked Carrio’s first attempts at a
distinguished appointment, but finally at the beginning of 1771 he received the
title of Visitador of the postal route from Buenos Aires to Lima. As such,
Carrio’s commission was part of the vast renovation and reorganization of the
maritime and land routes between Spain and its colonial possessions (Borello
151-152). Carrio’s postal renovation was part of a grander operative that
sought to centralize the power of the Bourbon monarchy over its holdings,
through an increased efficiency and the collection of new rents.
7 During the government of Manuel de Amat (1761-1776) the city of Lima was
changed dramatically as an attempt to reflect the enlightened ideology of the
period. The city was Spain in America according to historian Fred Bronner,
since it carried over the Mediterranean tradition of public order (22). An
example of the new changes in accordance with Peruvian historian Gabriel
Ramon was the new Reslamento de Policia (1769), which called for the
alcaldes to keep and maintain the order of their barrios. This had to be done
through the use of a barrio register, where every citizen and their movement
had to be recorded monthly. Another directive was to increase the
maintenance of the city’s infrastructure (El Peru en el siglo XVIII 316-322).
Accordingly, the authorities concentrated their efforts on stone pavements,
sewers, illumination and the distribution of waste. The era also saw the
sprawling of new public space buildings for the masses, such as the Coliseo de
Gallos (1762) and the Plaza de Toros (1768) as noted by historian Carlos Milla
Batres (Milla Batres 56). The buildings in this new colonial setting (Bourbon
reforms) were supposed to respond to specific functions in determined spaces.
This specialization was associated with a new conception of the city. This
followed the idea that every building and place should serve as an instrument
and evidence of a new way of thinking and doing things.
23
The Visitador started his journey from Buenos Aires to Lima on the 5th of
November 1771. His tour as Visitador of the postal route gave him the
opportunity to pursue his enlightened Bourbon goals by closely observing a New
World geography and describing the possibilities for its development through
the improvement of the postal service, which in turn would facilitate
commerce. Scholar Antonio Lorente reinforces this view of Carrio’s ideology
when he maintains that the author of El lazarillo was above all a Spaniard who
sought to improve the economic production of these territories, with the
primary intent of maintaining control over them (Lorente 15). In this manner,
don Alonso Carrio de la Vandera’s expedition from Buenos Aires to Lima in
1771-1772, as well as the resulting text, El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes
(1776), are vivid illustrations of Bourbon Spain’s efforts at restructuring its New
World holdings.8
The primary objectives of the Bourbon reorganization, according to
historian John Fisher, were centralization, efficacy and the need for new
income. These Bourbon modifications entailed a complex net of
administrative, fiscal and judicial reforms. Militarily, they were designed to
8 The death of Charles II in November of 1700 marked the end of an era in

Spanish history and the beginning of another. As commented by historian
Cristina Mazzeo, the beginning of the eighteenth century in Spain coincided
with the crowning of Spain's first Bourbon king. Under the Habsburgs, Spain had
been ruined by wars abroad and conflicts at home. The new Bourbon
administration that assumed power in 1707 was determined to effect structural
changes in Spain's government and the economy to centralize power in the
monarch (Mazzeo in O’Phelan, El Peru en el siglo XVIII 127). Historian Carlos
Wiesse goes on to emphasize also that the colonies also received increased
attention, mainly in terms of their defense and the reorganization of their
economies. The work began under Philip V, but reached its highest expression
under Charles III who ruled from 1759-1788 (Wiesse 104-105).
24
augment the imperial defenses in the New World, especially after the end of
the “ Seven Years’ War” in 1763.9 To do so, the Crown implemented a more
efficient tax collection system while promoting economic growth; this was
attempted through the liberalization of commerce, the modernization of the
mining industry and the promotion of agricultural production (Fisher 105).10
9 For historian Glyndwr Williams, the “ Seven Years’ War” was a worldwide
series of conflicts fought from 1756 to 1763. It involved most of the major
powers of Europe. Austria's resolve to repossess the rich province of Silesia,
which had been lost to Prussia in 1748, was the major conflict leading to the
hostilities. Maria Theresa, archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and
Bohemia, acquired the support of Russia, Sweden, Saxony, Spain, and France,
with the specific aim of waging war against Prussia and its ally, Great Britain.
The war officially ended in 1763. On February 10th of that year the Treaty of
Paris was signed to settle differences between France, Spain, and Great
Britain. Among the terms was the acquisition of almost the entire French
Empire in North America by Great Britain. The British also acquired Florida
from Spain (Williams 88-89).
10 It is important to point out that the Bourbon reforms are seen as the most
significant features of the Spanish eighteenth century and the New World
according to many critics. These historians include Peter Gay, John Fischer,
John Lynch, Gonzalo Anes and Charles Gibson among many. According to Peter
Gay, the dates of the Enlightenment encompass approximately the years of
1670 to 1790 (10-11). Furthermore, these reforms took on a decisive nature in
1754 as indicated by critic Roger A. Zapata with the nomination of Julian de
Arriaga as the Secretary of the Navy in the Indies (45). With him, we see an
increase in the Bourbon attempts at reorganization in the administrative,
commercial, military, religious and social spheres. The administrative reforms
entailed among them the creation of new Viceroyalties (New Granada 1739 and
Rio de la Plata 1776), as well as an increased presence of peninsulares in power
positions. Commercial alterations occurred through the lowering of some fees
and taxes and the increase of others (sales tax and alcohol). In the military
front, alterations involved the stationing of regular army units in Mexico and
Peru and the re-fortification of port cities. Religious adjustments integrated
the expulsion of the Jesuit order in 1767. Social makeovers included a new
wave of migration to the New World from the Basque and Catalan regions of
the peninsula as well as the re-structuring of the caste society through new
codifications and reforms (Gootenberg 7).
25
In his economic study of colonial Peru, historian John Lynch also
describes the Bourbon reorganization as emblematic of Spain’s continuous
transformation from a compromising entity before 1750 when dealing with its
colonies, into an absolutist empire. The new Bourbon government believed
that in order to succeed it had to advance the role of the official state, end its
compromising ways when dealing with criollo authorities, and diminish criollo
participation in local politics and in the religious sphere. This growing
authoritarism occurred at a time when the criollo and mestizo populations
were increasing in number, and when the bureaucracy itself was being
expanded. In short, when the demand or pressure for jobs and recognition
were at their highest, the Bourbon dynasty returned the power to the hands of
peninsular administrators (Lynch 78, 80). These absolutist decisions, combined
with the growth of local elites, the strength of group interests, the sense of
local identity, and the attachment to regional "patrias," would come together
to lay the seeds for future insurgent movements in Peru.11
As a representative text of the Enlightened Age, El lazarillo comprised
the measures that the Visitador took and related through all his stops on his
11 According to historian Steve J. Stern the Peruvian region was mired in more
than one hundred revolts from 1720 to 1790 (52). Andean subjects were the
primary leaders of these insurgencies against colonial authorities, although
some were accompanied or led by caste or criollo dissidents. The main ones
according to Stern were the messianic insurrections led by the noble indio Juan
Santos Atahualpa in 1742 over the northern Amazon and Andean region of Peru;
and the Guerra Civil of 1780-1782, led by Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui (Tupac
Amaru II), Tomas Katari and Julian Apasa (Tupac Katari). These insurgencies
called for the re-institution of nobility and land rights usurped by colonial
administrators from the Peruvian Andean elite (51-52). As a matter of fact, the
suppression of these rights was part of the reforms implemented by the new
Bourbon administration.
route. As such, Carrio’s reformist proposals sought to increase New World
productivity to export to the metropolis, to eliminate waste and to reduce
whenever possible internal consumption in order to maximize earnings. Besides
being entrusted with the task of re-organizing the postal system from Buenos
Aires to Lima, Carrio was also instructed to keep a written record, in the form
of a diary, of everything that would seem pertinent to his task. To emphasize
this point Borello insists that Carrio was a man of his time, a strange mixture of
merchant, government official and enlightened individual, interested in the
factual and the concrete (153).
Stylistically and structurally, El lazarillo contains many of the formal
traits of the travel narrative prevalent in the eighteenth century. For Percy G.
Adams, an expert of the genre, the eighteenth century was a time that both
sought to produce and explain the “ truth.” At the same time, voyagers of the
day often attempted to follow the directions of the metropolis and return with
facts and drawings that would enlighten both the scientist and historian as well
as the general reader (Adams viii). In effect, the metropolitan powers of the
period sent out thousands of travelers on whom it depended heavily for
information as well as for entertainment. Indeed, in the history of ideas no
27
other period seems to have fe lt so much the influence of these official and
unofficial reporters (Adams 6).12
Carrio’s written record (El lazarillo) composed in the form of a travel
narrative reflects the spirit of the age of Enlightenment. As has been
established above, Carrio’s initial and primary commission consisted of the re
organization of the postal system. As a result, his text was filled with an
abundance of economic data that would aid in the re-structuring of the postal
system such as costs, profits, routes, and possibilities for future investments,
risks and other expenditures. However, another important goal of his narrative
was to satiate the European, in this case Spanish, thirst for knowledge about
the New World, especially as a site of geographic, cultural and human
“ otherness.” Throughout his travels, besides recording valuable economic
data, Carrio also meticulously asked questions and subsequently wrote down
anything that he considered relevant to his task. His rich data comprised:
population numbers and characteristics for every major town that he visited
(Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Potosi, Santiago, Cuzco, Lima, etc.); distances and
travel times for every region on his route; descriptions of the unique climates
(14) and dietary customs (8) of these regions; portraits of social and economic
groups, such as the gauchos (29-35); muleteers (138-145) and silk producers
12 For critic Sondr Rosenberg the hero of the travel book is an outsider in the
world in which he finds himself. This hero always has to come to terms with
the society he is in, where “ coming to terms” is an understanding of a
definition of this new world. The traveler in this case comes from somewhere,
he is part of a clearly identifiable culture and does not intend to give up his
claims to the society from which he springs. The main conflict of travel
narratives is between both cultures, the culture of the traveler and that of the
place he is visiting (Rosenberg 40).
28
(101-116); discussions about the language singularities of each region; reports
on popular songs (155) and picaresque and racially condemning stories about
some of the towns and peoples he observed.13
As stated above, in the age of Enlightenment, readers were dependent
on travel narratives, not only for facts about a world that was growing both
larger and more interesting, but also for representations of the adventurous,
the exotic, the marvelous (Adams 223). Critic Ivette N. Malverde describes the
discourse of El lazarillo as an instrument of approximation. Besides informing
on the status of communication and its improvement in South America, it
allowed its peninsular and American readers to get to know and explore the
“ unknown” in America (128). Carrio accomplished this task, familiarizing
readers with the New World, through the numerous stories that he wove into
his narrative as well as through the creation of a fictitious dialogue between his
amanuense Concolorcorvo and himself. As he stated at the beginning of El
lazarillo:
Asi como los escritores graves, por ejemplo el Plomo, y aun los
leves, v.g. el Corcho, dirigen sus dilatados prologos a los
13 According to Borello, Carrio possessed a special poetic capacity to describe

the real and the concrete (153). There are similar discussions of the narrative
value of El lazarillo. As stated by Rafael Ocasio, El lazarillo is a text that
obviously has a social content; its value resides in its ability to reflect the
social prejudices that explain the actual confrontations among the classes
(182). The text, according to Raul Castagnino, works as an ethnographic source
that reveals different types of classes, customs, commerce, and social and
political conflicts and organizations (118). For Salvador Bueno, El lazarillo
possesses as its primary merit the ability to offer a picturesque vision of the
New World (420). I believe that when these statements are taken in
conjunction, they bear out the historical and literary importance of Carrio’s
text.
29
hombres sabios, prudentes y piadosos, acaso por libertarse de sus

criticas, yo d irijo el mio [...] a la gente que por vulgaridad llaman
de la hampa [...] Hablo, finalmente, con los cansados, sedientos, y
empolvados caminantes, deteniendolos un corto espacio [...] No
porque mi principal fin se d irija a los senores caminantes, dejara
de hablar una u otra vez con los poltrones de ejercicio
sedentario, y en particular con los de allende mar [...]. (El
lazarillo 1)
In this passage, we can observe Carrio’s attempt to inform the scientist and/or
historian (poltrones del ejercicio sedentario ) and the general reader (gente del
hampa or gente comun).u
From the beginning of the text there are also numerous anecdotes
warning against the thievery and cunning of peons and guides. As Carrio
mentioned, if one wants to travel well, one must treat one’s lazarillo well
(Mazzara 324). This text, then, was addressed to travelers who could be served
by, but must be wary of, their lazarillos. In essence, Carrio also wrote this
text to serve as its own lazarillo, a source of reference to historians, colonial
administrators and the Crown, while at the same time functioning as a lazarillo
or guide to the inexperienced traveler.15
14 As commented by critic Emilio Carilla, El lazarillo was first read in Europe

before returning to America. Upon its return to the American continent, the
text and its readers had lost any trace or inkling about its American origin (El
libro de los misterios 83).
15 According to Rafael Ocasio, El lazarillo is a travel diary, and as such it does

not attempt to present data fictitiously. On the contrary, its purpose is purely
didactical and informative. In other words all the data in the text is presented
in an objective manner, closer in nature perhaps to history than to literature as
a text (Ocasio 171).
30
Colonial territories, peoples and knowledge production
Ya, sehor Concolorcorvo, me dijo el visitador, esta usted

en sus tierras; quiero decir en aquellas que mas
frecuentaron sus antepasados. Desde los Chichas a los
Huarochiries [ . . . ] estan todos los cerros prenados de plata
y oro [ . . . ] de cuyos beneficios usaron poco sus antepasados
[ . . . ] Mas plata y oro sacaron los espanoles de las entranas
de estas tierras en diez ahos que los paisanos de usted en
mas de dos m il [...]. (El lazarillo 179-180)
Colonialism is not a simple act of accumulation and acquisition.
According to Edward Said, colonialism is supported and driven by impressive
ideological structures that bring with them notions that certain territories and
peoples “ require” domination (Said, Orientalism 9). Along these lines,
colonialism and the culture related with it affirm both the primacy of
geography and an ideology about control of territory.
On the basis of his studies on culture and colonialism, Said also supports
the idea that colonialism entails a desire to think about distant places, to
describe them, and to populate or depopulate them. All of this occurs on,
about, or because of land, since the actual possession of land is what empire is
all about in the final analysis (78). Travel narratives, as well as ethnographic
literatures, have in general contained as their primary goal a colonial desire to
acquire knowledge about geography in order to better control it. The following
conversation between Carrio and his amanuense Concolorcorvo supports this
argument:
No pase usted adelante, senor inca, me dijo el visitador , porque

esta es una materia que ya no tiene remedio. Me parece que
usted con sus principios pretende probar que la conquista de los
espanoles fue justa y legitima, y acaso la mas bien fundada de
31
cuantas se han hecho en el mundo. Asi lo siento, te dije

[Concolorcorvo], por sus resultas en ambos imperios, porque si los
espanoles, siguiendo el sistema de las demas naciones del mundo
hubieran ocupado los principales puertos y puestos de estos dos
grandes imperios con buenas guarniciones, y tuvieran unos
grandes almacenes surtidos de bagatelas [ . . . ] y al mismo tiempo
hubieran repartido algunos buenos operarios para que se les
ensehasen su uso, y dejasen a los incas, caciques y sehores
pueblos en su libertad y ejerciendo abominables pecados,
lograria la monarquia de Espaha sacar de las Indias mas
considerables intereses. Mis antepasados estarian mas gustosos y
los envidiosos extranjeros no tendrian tantos motivos para
vituperar a los conquistadores y pobladores antiguos y modernos.
Suspenda usted la pluma, dijo el visitador, porque a estos me
toca a mi defenderlos de las tiranias, como mas practico en
ambas Americas, y que le consta a usted mi indiferencia en este y
otros asuntos. (245-246)
The controversial words put in the mouth of Concolorcorvo served in two ways:
first, to promote Spanish geographic dominance and economic exploitation of
these territories as a fa it accompli, “ esta es una materia que ya no tiene
remedio.” Second, and definitely more intriguing, it suggested that Spaniards
could have followed the colonization model of other European nations and left
the indios on their own in order to achieve greater economic gains. -
Nevertheless, this passage must be viewed as playful, since the prospect of
leaving the indios to their own devices would have resulted in their continuing
moral “ depravity;” therefore giving the opportunity to Spain’s foreign
detractors to denounce the Spaniards for allowing it. Carrio thus implied quite
sarcastically that Spain could never be able to satisfy its detractors at home
(ecclesiastical) and abroad. Moreover, Spain saw its imperial mission as moral
and civilizing unlike other European powers. Refusing this calling would have
resulted in Spain’s moral degeneracy as Carrio dutifully noted.
32
In this manner, El lazarillo reflects its author’s desire to represent a New
World reality for the benefit of the empire. Accordingly, his “ representation”
of what lay beyond Spain’s boundaries came, from the start, to confirm the
need of a Spanish presence in the New World.
In a similar vein, critic Edward Said has also shown how the opinion that
Western imperial powers formed about their colonies continually helped to
justify their subjugation. He claims that empires spent an enormous amount of
time producing knowledge about the locations they dominated. An example of
this, what critic Jose Rabasa calls the “ Encyclopedia of Knowledge,” is the
attempt to lend credibility to prior familiar and authoritative texts depicting
the New World as they pass from source to source (126). Carrio’s following
passage about the Conquest of Peru made through his amanuense
Concolorcorvo also supports this argument:
Dice, pues, este [Concolorcorvo refers to Carrio], que luego que

los espanoles saltaron en las tierras del Viru, supieron que se
hallaba en Cajamarca un ascendiente mio bastardo [Atahualpa] y
que pretendia destronar a su hermano [Huascar], legitimo
emperador [...] No le peso a Pizarro esta discordia y asi, con toda
diligencia despacho al cajamarquino [...] sus embajadores [...] que
considero como enviados del cielo para hacer justicia a su
hermano y legitimo sehor, por lo que desamparo la ciudad [...]
Este cobarde procedimiento infundio valor a Pizarro y a todos los
espanoles [...] Despues de varias contestaciones convino el inca en
parlar con Pizarro, escoltado de doce m il hombres sin armas [...]
pero habiendo tenido noticia que los indios traian armas ocultas,
y [...] un designio de mala fe, eligid el medio de ser antes agresor
que herido. Aposto [Pizarro] toda su gente en las entradas y
salidas de la plaza mayor, y luego que entro en ella el inca con
sus principales guardias, mando a cometer los y destrozarlos,
reservando la real persona, que hizo prisionera. (El lazarillo 241 -
242)
33
It is necessary to connect Carrio’s defense of the Conquest of Peru to
the ideas, concepts, experiences from which it drew support. As such, the
Visitador aimed to defend Spain from its detractors at home and abroad by
relating the “ true” events of Pizarro’s task, which revealed the need to
subjugate the “ treacherous” (hiding weapons during the first meeting between
the Inca and Pizarro) and “ cowardly” indios (abandoned city upon hearing of
Pizarro’s arrival). Moreover, the passage presented Pizarro’s arrival in these
lands as providencial since it meant the restoration of legitimacy and order to
the Incario, since the Spanish version of the war between Atahualpa and
Huascar presented the first as an illegitimate usurper of the Inca throne. As
such, Carrio’s text presented the conquest of these lands as a necessary
undertaking, all the while supporting Spain’s rightful and moral obligation.16
From the very beginning of the narrative Carrio also defended the first
Spanish settlers from attacks levied on their mistreatment of their indigenous
subjects:
A los piadosos eclesiasticos [ . . . ] les parecio que este trato era

inhumano y por lo mismo escribieron a la corte con plumas
ensangrentadas, de cuyo contenido, se aprovecharon los
extranjeros para llenar sus historias de dicterios contra los
espanoles. Cierto moderno franees dijo que aquellos encerraban a
los indios siete u ocho meses dentro de las minas, sin ver la luz
del dia, para que sacasen los metales de plata y oro, para saciar
su codicia. (237)
In other words, Carrio’s attacks against the detrimental lies of the clergy and
foreigners was an attempt to produce knowledge and describe large portions of
16 Carrio also extensively wrote and defended the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
34
the non-European world and the “ other” using political, military, ideological,
“ scientific,” and imaginative styles of writing and imagery largely to legitimate
Spain’s imperial endeavor.
Said also points out that rarely did Western travelers in these regions
ever try to learn much about or from, the native peoples they encountered.
Instead, they recorded their observations based upon commonly held
assumptions about the Orient, in this case America, as a mythic place of
exoticism, moral laxity, and sexual degeneration.17 To substantiate this idea,
Carrio presented Western civilization (Spain) as coming to the rescue of the
New World. For instance, Carrio in his treatise on Peru gave the example of
widespread incidences of sodomy practiced among Indios before the arrival of
the Spaniards:
17 It is important to note that although most travel narratives were based upon
prior negative imagery about the New World, this was not the only way to
describe “ otherness.” In this manner, Said’s viewpoint would appear to be
reductive when applied to other travel narratives. For example an instance of
praise for the exotic is found in the Spanish chronicler Pedro Cieza de Leon one
of the first travelers to this region. He described and acknowledged some two
hundred years prior to Carrio his sense of wonderment, and the need to control
and understand this geography and its peoples:
[...] ofrezco este libro a vuestra alteza, que trata de aquel gran
reino del Peru [...] No deje de conocer, serenisimo y muy
esclarecido Sehor, que para decir las admirables cosas que en
este reino del Peru ha habido y hay conviniera que las escribiera
un Tito Livio o Valerio [...] iquien podra decir las cosas grandes y
diferentes que en el son, las sierras altisimas y valles profundos
por donde se fue descubriendo y conquistando, los rios tantos y
tan grandes, de tan crecida hondura; tanta variedad de provincias
como en el hay, con tan diferentes calidades; las diferencias de
pueblos y gentes con diferentes costumbres, ritos y cerimonias
extrahas; tantas aves y animales, arboles y peces tan diferentes y
ignotos? Por esta causa... he hecho y copilado esta historia de lo
que vi y trate y por informaciones ciertas de personas de fe pude
alcanzar. (3-4)
35
No dudo que fue conveniente a los indios [la conquista], porque

muchos espanoles los sacaron de muchos errores y abominaciones
que repugnan a la naturaleza. En tiempos de sus incas se
sacrificaban a sus inhumanos dioses a los prisioneros de guerra, y
que el pueblo comia estas carnes con mas gusto que las de las
bestias. Los incas, caciques y demas seiiores y oficiales de
guerra, reservaban para si una gran m u ltitu d de mujeres [ . ..]
resultaba que el comun no tenia el suficiente para propagarse, y
menos para el carnal deleite, por lo que era muy comun el
pecado nefando y bestial que hallaron muy propagado los
espanoles, y que casi extinguieron con el buen orden y
establecimiento de los casamientos a tiempo oportuno [...]. 8
(246)
It is clear, then, that during the eighteenth century the gathering and
compilation of knowledge was presented as “ truth” and in turn this “ truth”
sought to justify the very suitability of colonial domination. In fact, colonial
power was reinforced by the endless production of knowledge about colonized
cultures as offered in Carrio’s text. Such fabrications repeatedly portrayed
America and its inhabitants as degenerate for readers in Europe and in the New
World, always pointing out examples of barbarism, disorder and missed
economic opportunities.19 Ironically, Carrio’s descriptions of Peru’s inhabitants
were far from being “ truths” as much as he wanted them to be. As such,
Carrio’s “ truths” were no more than subjective assumptions that became the
18 In this manner, Carrio started a polemical dialogue against the Inca Garcilaso
de la Vega’s version of Inca history. Mariselle Melendez studies this point in:
“ The reevaluation of the image of the mestizo in El lazarillo de ciegos
caminantes.” To make her case Melendez points out:
One might say that Carrio [...] reinterpretation of Garcilaso’s work
successfully disavows and refutes Garcilaso’s authority as a
historian and as a mestizo. (181)
19 There are, of course, other views that vary from period to period. Moreover,
Carrio viewed his task and mission as an enlightened enterprise, one that
sought to find the “ truth” based on the factual observation of nature.
norm in the attempt to define “ otherness.” The practice of describing the
socio-racial component of the New World in El lazarillo. also became one of the
most important means of knowledge production for Carrio. Particularly
important in this regard was the way in which he classified Peru’s late colonial
society into peninsulares in the New World, as unjustly criticized men and as
the only ones qualified to re-write the “ true” story of these territories, and
subsequently by the derogative and damning descriptions of criollos, mestizos
or castas, negros and indios.
37
Peninsulares
Muchos criticos superficiales notan de groseros y rusticos a

los primeros espanoles [ . . . ] Estos grandes hombres fueron
injustamente, y lo son, perseguidos de propios y extrahos.
A los primeros no quiero llamarlos envidiosos, sino
imprudentes, en haber declamado tanto contra unas
tiranias que, en la realidad, eran imaginarias, dando lugar
a los envidiosos extranjeros, para que todo el mundo se
horrorice de su crueldad.20 (El lazarillo 235-236)
The attacks directed toward all Spaniards “ los que fueron y los que
son,” can be elucidated in a number of ways. Carrio made a clear distinction
between condemnations by “ propios,” meaning Spanish priests, and by
“ extrahos,” referring to foreign powers, scientists, writers and travelers. On
the one hand, Spanish priests (most notably Bartolome de Las Casas) accused
Spanish settlers in the New World of treating indios unjustly and of committing
20 The designation “ espahol” encompassed, in the late eighteenth century,

some thirteen percent (140,890) of the colonial population, from criollo
aristocrats bearing Spanish titles of nobility to the “ poor white” lower orders
scattered throughout the cities and the villages of the countryside. According
to David Cahill there were a number of terms, employed variously in popular
parlance and official documentation to denote peninsular Spaniards resident in
colonial Peru. The terms chapeton, cotenses, europeo and the mordant
Quechua pucacunca (pescuezo Colorado or rednecks) were the rule. In official
and legal documentation, which also spilled over into common usage, the
phrase “ de los reinos de Espaha” was employed, or the more direct “ de
Galicia,” and “ de Andalucia” etc., tended to be the norm (342). This study
will also utilize the term peninsulares to designate the Spanish-born sector of
Peruvian society.
38
atrocities against them.21 Several other situations of criticism against the
Spanish are present in the text such as:
[ . . . ] pero si con todo eso dijesen nuestros buenos vecinos que los
espanoles que dirigian a los indios y que se ocupaban en el
trabajo mas rudo [ . . . ] salian de la mina a dorm ir a sus casas y
gozar del ambiente, afirm o que fueron engahados, o que mienten
solo con el fin de tra ta r a los espanoles de tiranos e inhumanos;
pero quisiera preguntar y o a este critico naturalista por que
in flu jo se convirtieron estos hombres feroces en tan humanos,
pues a pocas lineas dice que los espanoles actuales de la isla usan
de tanta moderacion con sus esclavos [habia de los negros], que
para enviarlos a cualquier diligencia de solo la distancia de un
cuarto de legua, los hacen montar a caballo. (El lazarillo 237-238)
Consequently, this condemnation propelled Spain’s enemies, most notably
France and England, to utilize these arguments to damage Spain’ s reputation
21 This dissertation does not involve itself in the specific description of these
attacks rather it w ill mention in this chapter briefly, some of the main local
and foreign perpetrators of these condemnations were Las Casas, Jeronimo de
Mendieta, Motolima, Montaigne, Linnaeus, Voltaire and Marmontel. The
attacks levied against the Indian population of Peru w ill be analyzed in more
detail in Chapter 2 of this dissertation. The history of the Indies during the
colonial period was written in its majority by clerics. Fray Bartolome de las
Casas (1474-1566) used his knowledge of ecclesiastical texts and his personal
experience in his long and ardent defense of the Indians. Las Casas explained
that what he had seen in the New World was the driving force behind his
writings. For a detailed account of Las Casas defense of the Indians see,
Historia de las Indias (1821) and Brevfsima relacion de la destruccion de las
Indias (1552). For example, in the Brevisima relacion every chapter starts in
the same manner: year of conquest, geography, types of Indians and the
atrocities committed against them. At first, Las Casas mentions the moral
qualities of the Indians and their service to the empire. Las Casas also
describes the Indians as sheep in the care of wolves (Spaniards). This situation
goes against God’s wishes, since He has chosen the Spanish empire to
christianize these lost souls. The style and objective of Las Casas’s writings
intended to produce a sympathetic movement and a sense of ire and horror
both in Spain and abroad. To a certain degree, Las Casas was successful in his
objective since most European powers used his writings to condemn Spain for
its dealings in the New World.
39
abroad and to further their own colonial ambitions.22 According to Carrio, the
source of these condemnations were primarily based on the very little
knowledge or factual evidence that foreigners, in this case he was referring to
Auguste Comte de Buffon, “ critico naturalista” had about Spain’s dealings in
the New World. For Carrio a lack of understanding and envy by foreigners led
in many cases to contradictions such as, accusations of mistreatment of the
indios and negros and accounts of the humane treatment of slaves by Spaniards
as the passage above states.23
On the other hand, these attacks by “ propios ” and “ extranos” also
criticized Spain’s economic and political administration of its colonies. Carrio
maintained, in other passages that the ridicule levied against Spain by foreign
22 According to historian Bengst Jonsell, the first remarks of the famed Swedish
botanist Charles Linnaeus about Spanish colonial flora are first found in his
Biblioteca botanica (1736). He states that the flora of these colonies, though
most certainly rich in rarities is virtually unknown, and adds quite sharply, “ it
is regrettable that in an educated European country such barbaric situations
prevail in botany.” It is also important to note that Linnaeus according to
Jonsell acquired the vast majority of his data from the writings, descriptions,
commentaries, speculations, musings, opinions, and beliefs of travelers,
explorers, traders, missionaries, and plantation-owners (Jonsell 145, 152). For
critic Michelle Buchanan the creation of the myth of the “ bon savant” and an
early sample of French criticism against Spanish colonialism first appears with
Montaigne. In the essay “ Des Coches” from the1580’s, Buchanan cites the critic
Gilbert Chinard to exemplify Montaigne’s engagement against the colonization
of the New World: “ devant certains crimes et devant certains spectacles il a
senti batter son coeur et a couragement crie son indignation” in L’ Exoticism
americain (Chinard qtd. in Buchanan 103). Two other French texts of the
eighteenth century w ill revive the theme of the destruction of the kingdom of
Peru by fanatic Spanish invaders: Voltaire’s play Alzire, and Marmontel’s Les
Incas (106). For the image portrayed of the New World by English travelers see
Bradley.
23 For a valuable discussion on the attacks levied against Spaniards by

foreigners and the patriotic response to them during the colonial period, see
Canizares-Esguerra’s, How to Write the History of the New World.
40
powers also resulted from the colonies’ lack of wealth. Foreigners condemned
Spain because of a deficient management of its holdings and lack of
information obtained from them, as the French traveler Louis Feuille argued in
1714 when describing Spanish America, “ [...] a vast land about which we ought
to know more but which remains almost unknown” (qtd. in Canizares-Esguerra
158). This was a charge that Carrio passionately refuted, even though he (as
we w ill see) made these accusations himself.
A superficial reading of El lazarillo would dismiss the “ propios” and
“ extranos” passage as a passing instant of patriotism by Carrio; nevertheless,
this passage holds the most important referent and the main subject of the
second half of El lazarillo. The attack against Spain’s colonialism by “ propios ”
and “ extrahos,” pushed the author to re-write history, in order to answer the
charges against his nation. Accordingly, Carrio affirmed at the beginning of his
narrative that although it was a popular albeit mistaken idea that travelers and
liars were the same, one could not discard the contributions of the first to the
undertaking of writing history:
Si fuera cierta la opinion comun, o llamese vulgar, que viajero y

embustero son sinonimos, se debia p re fe rir la lectura de la
fabula a la de la historia. No se puede dudar, con razon, que la
general extracto su principal fondo de los viajeros [ . . . ] Las cifras
de los peruleros en quipus, o nudos de varios colores, los
jeroglificos o pinturas de los mexicanos, la tradicion de unos y
otros, vertida en cuentos y cantares y otros monumentos,
corresponden (acaso con mas pureza) a nuestros roidos
pergaminos, carcomidos papeles [ . . . ] porque asi como no
estorban las barbas para llorar, no impiden las canas para
mentir. Con estos aparatos y otros casi infinitos se escribieron
todas las historias antiguas y modernas [...]. (El lazarillo 23-24)
Carrio was aware that his text was not history; nevertheless, his
contribution was as important since history had always benefited greatly from
the accounts of travelers. As such, Carrio legitimated his quest to set the
record straight. Similarly, Carrio established a dialogue with all prior histories
of these lands when the reader is invited, of course, to discard all prior
histories of these territories, be they based on the lamenting of a fictitious
past, based on quipus (Inca) or be they based on an erroneous one, pergaminos
(Spanish). This intertextual relationship between narrative accounts of the
pre-conquest, discovery and conquest of the New World, according to critic
Mariselle Melendez, assumes that history can be manipulated through a
mastery of language (171). Hence, Carrio called on the reader to accept his
story because of the “ incertidumbre de la historia” of “ others” and because
his “ story” was based on his experience and knowledge of these territories
(thirty-six years). Carrio imagined himself to be a traveler, but he did not
considered himself a common traveler - he believed that his intellectual and
literary abilities, and above all his residency of the American lands authorized
his rhetoric of authority. This passage alludes, then, to Carrio’s need to set the
record straight as well as the justification to carry out such a task. In short,
Carrio did not openly claim to hold the “ truth,” even though his wish to re
write history implied such a claim. What is being raised here concurs with
Said’s statement about the nature of colonialism. He stated that colonialism
gets its force and strength from the appropriation of history, the historization
of the past and the narrativization of society (Said 59). The following passage
42
also articulates the importance that Carrio placed on his text as well as on the
authority of the traveler and his vocation:
Los viajeros (aqui entre yo), respecto de los historiadores, son los
mismos que los lazarillos, en comparacion de los ciegos. Estos
solicitan siempre unos habiles zagales para que dirijan sus pasos y
les den aquellas noticias precisas para componer sus canciones,
conque deleitan al publico y aseguran su subsistencia. Aquellos,
como de superior orden, recogen las memorias de los viajeros
mas distinguidos en la veracidad y talento. No pretendo yo
colocarme en la clase de estos, porque mis observaciones solo se
ban reducido a dar una idea a los caminantes bisonos del camino
real, desde Buenos Aires a esta capital de Lima, con algunas
advertencias que pueden ser utiles a los caminantes y de algun
socorro y alivio a las personas provistas en empleos para este
dilatado virreinato, y por esta razon se dara a este tratadito el
titu lo de Lazarillo de bisonos caminantes. Basta de exordio y
demos principio a nuestro asunto. (El lazarillo 26)
Once again, Carrio compared his “ modest” task, setting the record straight, to
travelers who must guide their readers as well as historians toward the “ truth,”
as a lazarillo would guide those devoid of sight to their destination. According
to historian Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Carrio’s attempt to set the record
straight, to tell the “ truth” was part of a larger thrust by Spanish writers to
defend their homeland against attacks by foreigners during the eighteenth
century. This vindication or “ Patriotic epistemology,” as Canizares-Esguerra
calls it, argued that Europeans had long been provided with untruthful
descriptions about the New World, and that foreigners were not capable to
ever comprehend America (211).
Indeed, careful scrutiny of El lazarillo demonstrates that the need to
“ tell the truth” was crucial to Carrio’s undertaking. Such a point was
reflected in Carrio’s claim that priests and foreigners had been misinformed by
43
the false histories/stories written about the treatment of indios. Moreover,
Carrio expressed the civilizing and moral nature of Spanish colonialism when he
voiced the need to educate these barbaric indios by relating a story of how
they paid their tribute prior to the arrival of the Spaniards:
A esta gente [ . . . ] se debia sujetar por medio de una contribucion

opuesta a la que por extravagancia impusieron los emperadores
de Mexico y el Peru. Estos senores despoticos tenian a sus
vasallos en un continuo movimiento y sujetos a un tributo anual,
pero usaron de una extravagante y bar bar a maxima de cobrar a
ciertas naciones groseras y asquerosas la talla o tributo en piojos
[ . . . ] Si Moctezuma y el ultim o Inca mandaran a sus asquerosos
vasallos que pagasen por cada piojo que se les encontrase en su
cuerpo un guajolote, o cuy, procurarian aumentar esta especie
tan u til y sabrosa, y casi aniquilar la asquerosa, impertinente y
molesta. Yo no se si aquellos barbaros tenian por regalo comer
los piojos, porque me consta que actualmente los comen algunas
indias, mestizos y tambien senoras [criollas] serranas, aunque
estas ocultan este asqueroso vicio [...]. (161-162)
What Carrio described then, was a horde of lice-eating natives, a people
subject to the barbaric and extravagant caprices of their despotic rulers.
Curiously, Carrio stated that this practice had not been completely eradicated,
but even more surprising is the statement that this custom (lice-eating) had
been adopted by mestizos and senoras criollas in the Andean region. In the
end, the reader is left to ponder the degree to which the Spanish brought
civilization to these lands. Essentially, Carrio’s text was an attempt to “ set the
record straight” against those that portrayed a glorious Inca past such as the
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega in his Comentarios reales (1609), and against the
deceptive stories told by some propios and extranos.
44
In fact, in order to reinforce his hold over setting the record straight,
Carrio ordered his amanuense Concolorcorvo to leave this task to a Spaniard
(himself), since the Indian did not posses the proper “ energia” and “ aire”
(desire or intelligence) to do it appropriately:
Iba a insertar [Concolorcorvo] en compendio, todo lo sustancial

sobre las conquistas de los espanoles en las Americas, pero el
visitador que tenia ya conocido mi genio difuso me atajo mas de
setecientos pliegos que habia escrito en defensa de los espanoles
[ . . . ] A estos, que desde sus principios ennoblecieron la ciudad con
suntuosos edificios de iglesias y conventos [ . . . ] y en sus palacios y
obras publicas su magnanimidad, se les acusa alguna soberbia.
Esta la atajaron los piadosos Monarcas de Espana suprimiendo las
encomiendas, acaso mal informados, pero esta es materia que no
se debe disputar y que es preciso conformarnos con el dictamen
de los superiores y obedecer las leyes ciegamente [ . . . ] . 24(238-239)
What is being raised here is a question of power, and who has the power of
description. For critic John Beverley: “ Subaltern Studies is about power, who
has it and who doesn’t, who is gaining and who is losing. Power is related to
representation: which representations have cognitive authority or can secure
hegemony, which do not have authority or are not hegemonic” (Beverley 1). As
such, Carrio attempted to silence Concolorcorvo and others as well when it
came to describing the “ true” story of the New World, since only a Spaniard
and in this case only Carrio possesed the legitimacy and power to do so.
Notable, too, is the fact that El lazarillo praised the first settlers, while
curtailing its criticism of the monarchy. The text also portrayed the first
24 According to Bueno this pseudo-dialogue between the Visitador and his

amanuense Concolorcorvo results in a picaresque or playful criticism of colonial
society (423). The dialogue between these two characters holds more than this
in my opinion, and is rather the opportunity for Carrio to carry out a violent
and vicious colonialist description of society and its elements.
45
settlers as noble and magnanimous men who accomplished a great deal in the
name of the empire; nevertheless, the misinformed Crown, which removed
their encomiendas, unjustly repaid them.25 In this particular case, the text’s
criticism brings up the ambivalent nature of colonialism by showing the cracks
in its armature. More important though was Carrio’s affirmation that the
empire was not unjust, but suffered from misinformation due to the fabrication
of false histories about the conquest and colonization of the New World. Let’s
not forget Lorente’s assertion that, “ Carrio es, ante todo, y sobre todo un
espanol [...] “ (Lorente qtd. in Bueno 157).
Writing about foreigners, Carrio sought to unmask their hypocrisy,
asserting that they were the first to benefit from indio labor and the Spanish
occupation of these lands:
Eso no nace de fa lta de critica de los franceses, si no de sobra de

malicia, y lo mismo digo de los italianos e ingleses, que son los
que mas disfrutan las conquistas de los espanoles en el consumo
de los efectos que se trabajan en sus provincias, y que las
mantienen florecientes. (238)
In addition to criticizing the duplicitous nature of foreigners, Carrio mentioned
the negative image of Spaniards abroad. Indeed, according to Carrio, Spaniards
were considered to be the least curious of all Europeans and some of the
poorest:
Los espanoles son reputados por los hombres menos curiosos de

toda la Europa, sin re fle ja r que son los que tienen emnos
proporcion por hallarse en el extremo de ella. El genio de los
25 The encomienda was a grant from the Spanish Crown to command the labor
of a specified number of indigenous villages. Encomiendas were first given to
the Spanish conquistadors in reward for their services in the conquest.
46
espanoles no se puede sujetar a las economias de franceses,

italianos, flamencos y alemanes, porque el espanol, con
doscientos doblones en el bolsillo, quiere competir con el de otro
de estas naciones que lleva dos m il [...]. (4)
In this passage, Carrio ironically refuted the insults levied against Spain by its
European rivals by repeating a common belief of the period, the harmful
influence that warmer climates had on the intellect of its population, and their
unfounded arrogance, “ con doscientos doblones quieren competit con el de dos
m il." All the same, what’s more curious about this passage is the way in which
Carrio’s defense of Spaniards was similar to the attacks launched on his behalf
against criollos for their lack of curiosity and intellect based on their contact
with the inferior geography and climate of the New World.26 However, we
should not forget what the purpose of this passage entailed at the end, a
defense of Spain and Spaniards.
Historian Arthur A. Whitaker underlines Spain’s alleged intellectual
inferiority, when he notes that Spain was accused of being intellectually and
culturally mired in cumbersome baroque currents as late as the eighteenth
century. These archaic undercurrents had supposedly slowed the appearance of
26 The alleged negative effects of the climate on the intellects of the

inhabitants of the New World are explored in Chapter 3.
47
Neoclassic ideas in Spain.27 Similarly, for many years foreigners judged Spain’s
role in the Enlightenment as passive or non-existent (Whitaker 6-9). The
principal foreign condemnation of Spain alleged that the Spanish empire stood
alone as a testament to religious intolerance and ignorance. Spain personified
the “ anti-reason” against which enlightened Europe fought. In recent years,
however, historians such as Whitaker, Peter Gay, and Canizares-Esguerra have
strived to disprove this assertion.28
To sum up, in spite of the differences that Carrio might have had with
colonial administrators, it was unthinkable for him not to defend the interests
27 According to the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory

(New York: Penguin Books, 1999), the Neoclassical period is taken to be the
years 1660 to 1780. In literary theory and practice most writers of this period
were traditionalists, and they had a great respect for the Classical authors, and
especially the Romans (Horace). Literature was regarded as an art in which
excellence could be attained only by prolonged study. Thus the writers of the
period were painstaking craftsmen who had a deep respect for the rules of
their art. These rules could best be learnt from close study of the Classical
authors and by careful imitation of their works. Neoclassical writers thought
that reason and judgment were the most admirable faculties, and that
decorum was essential. Man, man in society, man in his social environment-
these were to be the preoccupations of the writer. There thus evolved a
general view of nature and mankind, a general vision of man’s position and
function in the universe, his relationship to the natural order and his
relationship with and to God mid way in the great chain of being. Though they
were inclined to settle for the traditional and the typical, they were ready to
accept the novel and the particular, and they were much concerned with the
importance of invention, and fancy and imagination (541-542).
28 For a valuable overview of Spain’s contribution to the Enlightenment in

Europe see Gay, Whitaker, Subirats and Canizares-Esguerra. Obviously, their
arguments are pro-Spanish, the reasoning is that despite Spain’s relevant
contributions during the Enlightenment these have been minimized and unfairly
judged.
of Spain in the New World or defend Spanish colonialism from its foreign
detractors. Likewise, as a Spaniard and as a member of the colonial
administration it was Carrio’s duty to defend his nation because it reasserted
his colonizing mission. Also, as Borello noted, Carrio was a man of his time
who considered himself an enlightened author bound by responsibility to report
what he saw with a critical eye for the purpose of setting the record straight.
To reiterate, then, the across-the-board attacks on Spain by propios and
extranos during the eighteenth century, embarked many Spanish intellectuals,
in this Carrio, to ardently defend their nation. These intentions are best
exemplified in El lazarillo by Carrio’s descriptions about peninsulares in the
New World, as the only men able of writing the “ true” story of the lands, and
as men that had been unjustly criticized by misinformed and incomprehensive
detractors.
Carrio’s criticism of colonial administrators
I have argued so far that the main thrust of the second half of El lazarillo
was Carrio’s ardent defense of Spanish colonialism against propios and
extranos. As historian Pablo Macera points out, “ Carrio’s starting point for any
of his political ideology is the justification of Spanish colonization” (Macera
qtd. in Melendez 70). Other critics, like Gaspar Gomez de la Serna, have also
described the political significance of the travel narrative, in this case El
lazarillo, in the eighteenth century as a means by which the author described
his mission:
[ . . . ] llega a responder a traves de la politizacion de su empresa

literaria. Llega a sentirse solidario con el Estado y su ideologia y
49
se designa como hombre de vision razonada y objetiva siempre y

cuando no se aleje de los lim ites del patriotismo. (Gomez de la
Serna 83)
It is interesting, then, to find in the text instances of criticism against Spain’s
management of these lands by Carrio himself. For example he noted: “ Todo se
compone a costa de faltriquera [...] “ (7). Carrio implied that “ everything” in
the New World was corrupted in one-way or another.29 These are strong words
coming from a Visitador real de correos. They are words, nonetheless, that
expressed Carrio’ s dissatisfaction with Spain’s colonial mismanagement. To
illustrate this claim, Carrio, a self described illustrated author and staunch
defender of Spain, condemned colonial officials by describing the widespread
corruption present in this geography:
Administra los correos don Pedro de la Revilla, mozo instruido y

fecundo en proyectos. Se divulgo [ . . . ] que habia sido titirite ro en
Espana, porque le vieron hacer algunos juegos de manos [ . . . ] Lo
cierto es, senor Concolorcorvo, que de cien hombres apenas
hallara uno que no sea titirite ro [...]. (182)
Carrio apparently departed from his defense of Spanish colonialism by painting
this rather venomous portrait of don Pedro, while suggesting that ninety-nine
29 In this manner Carrio was following in the path of other eighteenth century
Spanish travelers to the New World who also described widespread corruption.
Specifically, Noticias secretas by Antonio de Ulloa and Jorge Juan noted several
instances of administrative dishonesty:
Este fraude de las guarniciones es una dolencia tan envejecida en
aquellos reynos, que se practica en ellos con tanta libertad y
desahogo [ . . . ] y esta tan cundido el vicio entre los que mandan y
los que debian impedirlo, que con d ificulta d se podria reformar
[ . . . ] . (Noticias secretas 142)
50
out of one hundred administrators were also “ titirite ro s ” - hand puppeteers
adept at larceny.30
Carrio’s condemnation of Spain’s official representatives in the New
World did not end with his attack against don Pedro. Initially, Carrio filled his
original diary with the typical travel annotations of the period, but his conflicts
with the general postal administrator of Peru, don Jose Pando, altered the
30 See Melendez’s: “ Entre historia y ficcion.” According to Roger A. Zapata,

Carrio was far from being an agitator; his veiled criticism of the administration
sought reforms in the educational system and the improvement of the travel
routes. After all, Carrio, an agent of the Crown, disapproved of any tendencies
that would disrupt the Spanish monopoly (Zapata 62). Critic Maria Luisa Bastos
also supports this argument when she affirms:
Ese muestrario de escenarios y personajes [ . . . ] Se diria, por el
contrario, que la unica energia entusiasta es la de la inquina
contra los funcionarios rivales [ . . . ] tihendola de oficialismo y
burocracia. Esa presencia casi permanente de los pleitos del
visitador en el texto es signo de que el ojo que registra es ante
todo el de un inspector aferrado al status quo [ . . . ] en fu n d on del
mantenimiento del orden establecido. (Bastos 55)
nature of his diary.31 Upon his arrival in Buenos Aires at the beginning of his
tenure as Visitador Real de Correos, Carrio quickly contacted the postal
administrator of the region, don Domingo de Basabilvaso, and together they
implemented a number of reforms in order to improve the postal system of the
Rio de la Plata region (Borello 152). The cooperation between the two men
would turn out to be the exception rather than the norm, since Carrio did not
31 True to his task, we can observe Carrio’s need to explain the nature of his
diary to his superiors in a letter written on the 24th of April 1776, and
addressed to the Jueces Administradores:
Generates de la Renta de Correos en Madrid:
Muy Ssres. mios: Por este Navio d irijo a V.S.S. Dos
paquetes con 12 exemplares de mis Itinerarios [ . . . ] Las continuas
ocupaciones en que me halte hasta fin en el aho de 1774, no me
dieron lugar a pensar en la Impresidn de mi viaje, hasta que los
muchos amigos [ . . . ] me importunaron tanto [ . . . ]
Disfrace mi nombre por no-verme en la precision de
regalar todos los exemplares. No ignoran V.SS. lo arido de un
diario, particularm ente en Payses despoblados, por lo que me fue
preciso ve rtirle el gusto del Pays para que los caminantes se
diviertan en las Mansiones, y se les haga el camino menos ruido
[ . . . ] Lo prim ero lo execute a pedimiento de los Tratantes en
mulas [ . . . ] En to segundo procedi segun mi ingenio, en que no
fa lte un punto a la realidad, porque me parece, que lo demas es
un engaho trascendente a la posteridad. Los Itinerarios, asi por
la via recta, como transversales, estan formados sobre mi
practica, y especulacion [ . . . ]
No culpo a Don Joseph de Pando en no haver hecho igual
descripcion en los terminos de su visita:
Lo prim ero por no haver entrado ciegamente al Reyno de
Santa Fe, y lo segundo por sus enfermedades [ . . . ] Lo sustancial de
mi viaje, por lo que toca a la Historia de Correos, le podre
reducir a la cuarta parte con bastante claridad, y distincion [ . . . ]
Nuestro Sehor guarde a V.S.S. muchos ahos. Lima, 24 de
abril de 1776.
Beso la mano a V.S.S. su mas atento servidor. Alonso Carrio [ . . . ]
(Castagnino 131).
52
find the same amount of collaboration from other postal administrators along
his route.
From the time of Carrio’s arrival in Buenos Aires (and even before) there
were serious differences that would separate the Visitador from the Postal
Administrator in Peru, don Jose Antonio de Pando. For different reasons, most
notably jurisdictional conflicts, professional jealousy, as well as differences in
age (Carrio was in his seventies, while Pando in his thirties), Pando did not
follow Carrio’s recommendations. Nevertheless, the conflict with colonial
officials did not deter Carrio from writing and publishing his accounts.
Moreover, these disagreements led to a long and devastating judicial process
involving the two men. The catalyst was a scorching review that Carrio wrote
in 1777 accusing Pando and his associates of fraud and inefficiency. As a
result, Pando sued Carrio and eventually had all the copies of Carrio’s review
seized and burned. In addition, Carrio was imprisoned, but would eventually
be released by the Spanish Minister Conde Floridablanca, Carrio’s original
supporter, in lieu of the Visitador’ s advanced age and deteriorating health
(Castagnino 128).
Similar to his attacks against colonial administrators, Carrio
incredulously reflected about the lack of postal rules and regulations in these
lands and the reluctance to follow the ones in existence:
El oficio de correos [Chuquisaca] de esta ciudad [...] y

reflexionando el visitador que la real hacienda estaba
perjudicada gravemente, y que al mismo tiempo era preciso
averiguar los legitimos valores para form ar un reglamento solido,
nombro de administrador de dicho oficio a[ . . . ] persona
inteligente y de mucha form alidad [ . . . ] Todos nos asombramos de
53
ver la repugnancia de estos jueces inferiores a las reales

ordenanzas, y llegando a percibir el visitador nuestra critica nos
dijo que eramos unos bisonos o poco instruidos en las maximas y
soberanias de la mayor parte de estos corregidorcitos poco
instruidos, y anadio que el de la Paz habia puesto en la carcel
pocos dias antes al arrendatario de correos, porque no le entrego
sus cartas francos, que recogio sin paga alguna y entrego el resto
al pillaje. (198,207)
To be sure, this is an example of Carrio’s concerns about the state of the postal
system in the New World. It was an ineffective network lacking in rules,
regulations and proper personnel to enforce them. To further emphasize this
claim, Carrio showed that even when rules and regulations were present,
colonial administrators failed to follow them.32
The condition of the Spanish empire in the New World made Carrio
wistfully lament by stating that the examples he had given were sufficient to
show the damage done by these officials:
No quiero poner otros ejemplares, si no que ustedes reflexionen la

gravedad de estos excesos [ . . . ] y, en conclusion, lo que puedo
asegurar a ustedes es que a excepcion de un corto numero de
racionales corregidores [ . . . ] todos los demas me han parecido
unos locos, por lo que creo cualquier extravagancia que se refiera
deellos. (207)
32 Reports of administrator fraud are also present in Ulloa and Juan’s text:
Vista pues la conducta tan extraviada y escandalosa de los
Gobernadores [...] ique buen zelo se podra esperar de ellos en el
servicio del rey? iQue confianza se puede tener en un xefe cuya
atencion esta totalmente embebida en el comercio, y en los
medios mas prontos, por injustos y opresivos que sean, para
hacer cual y retirarse ricos? Agreguese a esto la tirania con que
tratan a toda aquella gente dependiente de su mando, y se
conocera [ . . . ] toda la enormidad de la conducta de estos
Gobernadores. (Noticias secretas 153)
54
To sum up, in spite of Carrio’s intention to defend Spain from its
detractors, in spite of Carrio’s desire to carry out his enlightened mission, the
author of El lazarillo had to deal with the malfunction of Spanish colonialism in
these lands. As Carrio and other travelers to the region attested, everything
was corrupted in one way or another. The failure of Spanish colonialism
according to Carrio, then, was its corrupt overseers and not necessarily the
Crown. In this case, the widespread presence of titirite ro ’ s operating in the
name of the Crown was the ultimate illustration of Spain’s administrative
failure and colonial endeavor in these lands.
Criolios
According to historian John Lynch, the late colonial period was an era of
increased criollo awareness about their particular political and social position
within the empire. It is significant to note that in the case of criollos what
occurred was a cultural differentiation that took place gradually leading to an
eventual awareness of national identity. This awareness manifested itself
through an increase in criollo participation in the business of managing their
respective territories. Historian Leon G. Campbell provides an example of this
when he expounds the idea that the exclusion of criollo participation in the
religious, military and administrative fields at least in the early and mid
eighteenth century only occurred at the viceregal level. Moreover, in a
majority of viceroyalties and captaincies most notably Peru, criollos controlled
the pillars of colonial society, such as the Audiencia de Lima. For example,
criollos dominated city government in Lima during the reign of Ferdinand VI
55
(1746-1759), but this would quickly change with the implementation of new
Bourbon exclusionary policies (Campbell 1, 3).33
It is against this background, then, that various Bourbon reforms were
enacted to control and diminish criollo power and participation in colonial
matters. The principal architect of the attempt to control the criollos
movement was Jose de Galvez, the Minister of the Indies. As indicated by
Campbell, Galvez was designated Visitador General to New Spain (Mexico) in
1765, where he diagnosed what he perceived to be the reason for the
widespread administrative inefficiency, corruption and chaos reigning in the
New World. For Galvez, the source of much of the disorder and ineffectiveness
was the inclusion of criollos in the colonial administrative apparatus. In Peru,
Galvez’s reformist policies were furthered with the nomination in 1777 of one
of his disciples and confidants, the Visitador Jose de Areche. Areche quickly
adopted his superior’s disdain for criollos. In one of his reports, Areche
described limenos (criollos) as “ superficial and unreliable in judgment, even
though remarkably presumptuous” (Campbell 7). Further proof of the scorn
levied against criollos by peninsulares was given by the viceroy Manuel de Amat
y Junient (1761-1776) who was forced into an uneasy alliance of necessity with
the criollos during the “ Seven Years’ War.” By 1762 Amat notified the crown
that the criollo audiencia was “ the source and origin of all the political ills of
the country,” due to its “ ignorant and venal” magistracy (Campbell 6).
33 For another valuable overview of criollo participation in the Audiencia de

Lima in the eighteenth century, see Burkholder’s: “ From Creole to Peninsular:
The Transformation of the Audiencia of Lima.”
56
Similarly, critic Enrique Pupo-Walker argues that the description and
occurrence of the criollo in El lazarillo refers to the repressive policies
instituted by the empire against them (Pupo-Walker 662). What's more, we
also need to consider the reason for these disputes.
For many historians, the criollo resented the arrival of new peninsulares
ignorant of the American reality. In the eyes of criollos the newly arrived
peninsulares tended to receive more support from the authorities than the
locally born. Along these lines, critic Rafael Ocasio sees Spanish colonial
history as a confrontation between the brute forces of the newly arrived
against the trickery of the already assimilated. For Ocasio, these groups
clearly confronted each other, while harboring mutual resentments (Ocasio
174). These attitudes are best exemplified by accounts of pervasive antipathy
and ridicule that existed between criollos and peninsulares. This can best be
illustrated by the travel accounts of Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa and Carrio
de la Vandera. One of the best ways to explore this is through a reading of a
passage from Noticias secretas describing criollo military ineptitude and
disobedience:
Este defecto no es corregible en aquella tropa con diligencia

alguna [ . . . ] El defecto de aquella tropa no podra corregirse, ni
el la entrar en buena disciplina, si no se envia de Espana tropa que
sirva a lii por algun tiempo [ . . . ] porque sin esta disposicion se
echara a perder lo que vaya de Espana despues de haberse
detenido algunos anos en aquellos payses. La demora les hace
perder el temor al castigo, pierden enteramente la verguenza, y
se vicia tanto como la criolla [ . . . ] toman todas las costumbres
contrarias a la bien arreglada milicia, quedando enteramente
abandonada al descuido y al desorden a que lo esta regularmente
la criolla , a quienes las costumbres y modales ya envejecidas del
57
pays, y el no retirarse casi nunca de la sociedad de sus parientes

y conocidos, los que protegen y libertan, hace que no puedan
llegar a perfeccionarse en las ordenanzas m ilitares . 34 (100)
In this passage, Juan and Ulloa communicated a sense of criticism,
discrimination, and fear when analyzing criollo behavior. For them, criollos
were incorrigible, shameful, disorderly, unkempt and capable of infecting the
new peninsular arrivals with their vices.
In El lazarillo, the criollo was presented between the extremes of Carrio
(peninsular) and Concolorcorvo (indio ) in their proper “ secondary” place, as
intellectually and racially inferior to peninsulares. Carrio’s critical assessment
of criollos in the following passage was an indictment against their supposed
ignorance, laziness and incapacity for cultural achievements:
En este dilatado reino no hay, verdaderamente, hombres

curiosos, porque jamas hemos visto que un cuzqueho tome postas
para pasar a Lima con solo el fin de ver las cuatro prodigiosas
PPPP, ni a comunicar ni oir las gracias del insigne Juan de la
Coba, como asimismo ningun limeho pasar al Cuzco solo por ver el
Rodadero y fortaleza del Inca, y comunicar al Coxo Nava, hombre
en la realidad raro, porque, segun mis paisanos, mantiene una
mula con una aceituna. (El lazarillo 5)
For Carrio, the typology of criollos was quite clear; they were ignorant and
lazy. This representation then served the purpose of separating the
peninsulares, Carrio included, from “ other” inferior groups.
34 For many critics and historians including Pupo-Walker, the Spanish Crown
privately encouraged such a policy of hostility, a type of “ divide and conquer” ,
which assured the loyalty of both groups. Not all contact was confrontational
and is also a bit simplistic to attribute the rivalry to exclusionist policies alone.
Although this chapter w ill not deal with these issues, one can find instances of
criollo and peninsular congeniality in Lopes Beltran, Chocano Mena, and Rizo-
Patron Boylan.
58
The author of El lazarillo did not hide his feelings against criollos, even
going as far as attacking their most renowned cultural and literary
representative, Pedro Peralta y Barnuevo:
Si el tiempo y erudicion que gasto el gran Peralta en su Lima

fundada y Espana vindicada, lo hubiera aplicado a escribir la
historia civil y natural de este reino, no dudo que hubiera
adquirido mas fama, dando lustre y esplendor a toda la
monarquia; pero la mayor parte de los hombres se inclinan a
saber con antelacion los sucesos de los paises mas distantes,
descuidandose enteramente de los que pasan en los suyos. (17)
Here, the acclaimed Peralta y Barnuevo appears as a displaced writer, wasting
his time writing about far away places, instead of worrying about what goes on
his surroundings.35 Once again, what is being raised here is the question of
power, and who has the power of description. In this particular case, Carrio
minimized and ridiculed the writings of a celebrated criollo, Peralta y
Barnuevo, in favor of Spanish civilization, as an undertaking that should only be
carried out by a Spaniard, himself.
The eighteenth century is recognized as a period where criollo
intellectuals increasingly had to prove their capacities. Accordingly, Spaniards
35 To be sure, this preoccupation with the foreign instead of the local has not
abandoned Latin American writers throughout the last two centuries.
According to some critics, most notably Luis Alberto Sanchez, Peralta y
Barnuevo is the best literary figure of the Peruvian eighteenth century. In this
sense, it is not surprising then to read Sanchez’s analysis of Carrio’s text as a
validation of Peralta y Barnuevo’s literary genius. The problem with this
reading is quite obvious, Sanchez, of course makes no effort to disguise his
nationalism. In my opinion this passage is a clear-cut example of Carrio’ s
disdain for criollos. For more information about Peralta y Barnuevo’s work see:
Sanchez’s: El Doctor Qceano, Falla Barreda’s: Lo Peruano en la literatura
VirreinaL Mazzotti’s, “ La invencion nacional criolla a partir del Inca Garcilaso:
Las estrategias de Peralta y Barnuevo,” and Williams’s, “ Creole Identity in
Eighteenth-century Peru: Race and Ethnicity.”
59
as well as other Europeans perceived criollos as lesser men, affected by the
American climate and thus different from Spaniards at least intellectually if not
in appearance. Carrio also made allusions to the counterfeit, mixed and
thereby debilitated bloodlines of some of the most illustrious criollo families in
Peru stating that some, “se tienen por espanoles antiguos, aunque con mas
mezclas que el chocolate” (15). Accordingly, the criollo found himself
constantly defending his intellectual ability and purity of blood against the
peninsular. Evidence of Carrio’s contempt and derision of the criollos can be
summarized in this passage:
Llegando cierta tarde a la casa rural de un caballero [ . . . ] Sobre la

mesa tenia cuatro libros muy usados y casi desencuadernados [...]
El visitador [ . . . ] le alabo la libreria y le pregunto si habia leido
otros libros, a lo que el buen caballero le respondio que aquellos
los sabia de memoria y porque no se le olvidasen los sucesos, los
repasaba todos los dias, porque no se debia leer mas que en
pocos libros y buenos. Observando el visitador [ . . . ] le pregunto si
sabia el nombre del actual rey de Espana y de las Indias, a que
respondio que se llamaba Carlos III [ . . . ] iY su padre de ese
caballero? Replied el visitador, icomo se llamo? A que respondio
sin perplejidad [ . . . ] y sin titubear dijo que habia sido el S. Carlos
II. De su pais no dio mas noticia que de siete a ocho leguas en
torno, y todas tan imperfectas y trastornadas, que parecian
delirios o suehos de hombres despiertos. (18)
By the mid eighteenth century, the criollo elite of Peru widely participated in
colonial matters in important segments of the economy and administration.
Moreover, Europeans recognized the cultural accomplishments of criollos, as in
the case of Peralta y Barnuevo. However, the achievements of the criollo elite
in Peru were soon challenged during the second half of the century with the
expansion of the Bourbon reforms. The implementation of these changes
60
eventually excluded most of the criollo elite from participating in colonial
affairs. Similarly, there were numerous attempts to accompany their
diminishing political status with criticisms directed toward their identity as
well. In this manner, Carrio’s text served in extending these attacks when he
defined criollos as ignorant, lazy, and of dubious racial origin (miscegenation).
Moreover, Carrio went so far as mocking their cultural achievements, as in the
case of Peralta y Barnuevo.
Mestizos and the “Sociedad de castas”
Initially the regulation of society in Spanish America was achieved
through the creation of a bifurcal system of two Republicas, the “ Republica de
espanoles” and the “ Republica de indios.” In the early days of the colony this
dualism was natural, but it was soon destabilized by miscegenation. To
contravene this increasing racially mixed reality, the architects of colonial
administration implemented a policy of separation through the “ Sociedad de
castas” and an array of legislation prohibiting the interaction (including
marriage) of the castas.36 Reform of the mestizos or castas position became a
central part of Spanish colonialism during the eighteenth century. In places
like Peru, where social order had been under the pressures fashioned by
miscegenation, Spanish authorities and colonial society in general payed
increased attention to racial mixture as indicative of a degenerate and
dangerous culture.
36 For a more detailed account of the legislation enacted against the castas
see, Cosamalon Aguilar.
61
As race mixture became a reality, it was evident that its contribution to
the creation of an increasingly complex society had not been fully anticipated
by early colonial legislators. An example of the ever-increasing attempts by the
Bourbon administration to classify and thereby control their subjects was the
creation of the “ Sociedad de castas” in the eighteenth century and the
launching of the first ever official census of Peru in 1791 (Morner 54).37 As
noted by historian Paul Gootenberg, this census, taken under Viceroy Gil de
Toboada, was an ecclesiastical survey that was updated and republished in
successive official gazettes of the 1790’s. Initial parish estimates in 1791
yielded a total of 1,076,997 Peruvians, including some 609,000 indios, 244,000
mestizos, 136,000 peninsulares and criollos, 41,000 pardos, and 40,000
esclavos negros.
As an example of how the castas were growing rapidly, historian Jesus A.
Cosamalon Aguilar makes a comparison of the following population numbers for
the city of Lima in 1700 and 1791:
37 In his Memoria of 1797, Viceroy Gil criticized the census, venturing a

population closer to 1,300,000, but until historians produce the new archival
aggregate required, this census must serve as the indispensable “ colonial”
baseline for study of late colonial Peru. By modern standards, Peru did not
achieve a genuine national census until 1876, a half-century after
independence. For a detailed account of the census of 1791 see Gootenberg.
62
Comparison of castas, 1700-1791
Ethnic group 1700 % (A) 1791 %(B) Difference (B-

A) for 1791
Espanoles 19,632 57.00 18,862 38.00 - 17.00
Negros 7,659 22.00 8,960 18.00 - 4.00
Indios 4,063 12.00 3,912 8.00 - 4.00
Quinterones 0 0 219 0 0.00
Cuarterones 0 0 2,383 5.00 + 5.00
Mestizos 0 0 4,631 9.00 + 9.00
Zambos 0 0 3,384 7.00 + 7.00
Chinos 0 0 1,120 2.00 + 2.00
Mulatos 3,370 10.00 5.972 12.00 + 2.00
Total 34,724 100.00 49,443 100.00

Source: (El Peru en el siglo XVIII 348).
The first step in studying these numbers is to refer to the dramatic drop in
percentages for the first three “ base” racial groups (espanoles “peninsulares
and criollos , ” indios and negros); secondly, is the need to illustrate the growth
and appearance of new casta denominations (mestizos, cuarterones,
quinterones, zambos and chinos).38 It is important to note that the city of Lima
had the highest concentration and differentiation of castas (all) in Peru due to
its central location as the heart of the Peruvian Viceroyalty. The numbers
38 The reasons for the inclusion of criollos and peninsulares under the
classification of “ espanoles” in the census of 1791 are not given. A number of
inferences can however be made. First, Spanish colonial administrators wanted
to include both groups so as to make their size larger when compared to the
outgrowth of the castas. Second, including both groups under one title would
allow Spanish colonial administrators to express their civilizing endeavors.
Third, the inclusion of criollos under “ espanoles” would allow criollos to be
distinguished from the colored masses. In any case, I believe that the inclusion
of criollos and peninsulares under the same census category did not do away
with the discrimination and Bourbon reforms levied against the first group,
criollos.
63
presented by Cosamalon Aguilar for the city of Lima greatly vary when
compared with other important Andean cities, such as Cuzco and Arequipa,
cities that had smaller number of negros and mulatos.
For social historian Magnus Morner during the late colonial period,
Spanish American society became more and more closed and rigidly stratified.
In his pioneering study of race miscegenation in Latin America, Morner notes
“ the almost pathological interest in genealogy that is characteristic of the age”
(Cahill 338). Morner described the “ Sociedad de castas,” as a system involving
a series of (almost) mathematical variations and combinations that sought to
catalog all possible racial couplings in order to better control them.
Furthermore, these classifications took into account the offspring of each union
(castas), as well as classifying the quality and character of these unions
according to their color and origins (338-339).
In this regard, the distinctions created by the “ Sociedad de castas” were
often accompanied by classifications that used convoluted, and sometimes
offensive, nomenclature. For instance, the mestizo was the child of espanol
and indio. Other examples are: the mulato (the offensive name was derived
from mule) was the child of negro and espanol; the zambo was the offspring of
indio and negro; the cuarteron of mulato and espanol; the terceron of
cuarteron and white. Terceron and mulato gave you tentenelaire - literally,
"up in the air" -- and the coupling of cuarteron and negro produced a
saltapatras, a “back-jumper", that is, a genetic throwback. These were but a
few of the forty-four combinations used in late colonial Peru alone; the reader
64
must also take into account that every other region in the New World also
produced their own classifications as well as possible combinations.39
Theoretically, under the construction of the “ Sociedad de castas” each group
that could be racially defined would constitute a social stratum of its own. The
distinctions outlined by the “ Sociedad de castas” of the late colonial period
were also accepted and confirmed by El lazarillo’s depiction of Peruvian
society.
Surprisingly, El lazarillo only presented the mestizo segment (largest in
numbers among the castas) of Peruvian society in a few instances. The reasons
for Carrio’s virtual omission of this group are unclear, since he did not give the
reader an explanation, but I believe that at least one is possible. Perhaps, the
mestizo (offspring of indio and espanol) was not easily discernible from the
indio and espanol segments of society for travelers (Carrio’s principal
audience). As Concolorcorvo attested:
Yo soy indio neto, salvo las trampas de mi madre, de que no salgo

por fiador. Dos primas mias coyas conservan la virginidad, a su
pesar en un convento de Cuzco, en donde las mantiene el rey
nuestro sehor. Yo me hallo en animo de pretender la plaza de
perrero de la catedral del Cuzco para gozar inmunidad
eclesiastica y para lo que me servira de mucho m erito el haber
escrito este itinerario [...]. (16)
Here in this passage, Concolorcorvo spoke about the uncertainty of his origins
and the possibility of being a mestizo, “ Yo soy indio neto, salvo las trampas de
mi madre,” in the process discrediting his authority while expressing the
deceiving and lascivious nature of the indias (his mother and cousins). In
39 See Morner.
65
addition, he mentioned his desire to work as a perrero (dogcatcher), a position
that legally excluded indios in Cuzco. As such, the idea of being able to change
one’s appearance and thus one’ s racial or caste designation was one of the
major problems affecting the desire to implement a “ Sociedad de castas” by
colonial administrators. This ability to slip between one denomination or
another was in itself an act of transgression against Spain’s colonial desires of
classification. Just when it became absolutely crucial and desired for the
Spanish to be able to recognize castas, the complexity of the social and racial
mix in Peru was reaching disconcerting proportions; Lima alone according to
the 1791 census had a casta population of thirty-five percent.
Moreover, mestizos in El lazarillo are primarily presented as a
“ degenerate” population (picaros, ruines and similar to gitanos) always
disrupting social order and the efficient management of the colony:
Los serranos, hablo de los mestizos, son mas habiles en picardias

y ruindades [ . . . ] Uno de aquellos, que llego de refresco, paso [ . ..]
a un convento de monjas [ . . . ] y Uamando a la madre superiora
[ . . . ] le d ijo en el locutorio, que habia ofrecido a un convento
observante hacer una limosna de m il carneros de la gran partida
que traia de Pasco y Jauja. La buena presidenta [ . . . ] agradecio la
preferencia [ . . . ] les saco una mesa de manfares [ . . . ] La buena
madre los convido al dia siguiente a comer en el locutorio y los
serranos sacaron el cuerpo de mal aho y se hicieron invisibles,
dejando a la buena prelada a la irrision de todas las monjas [ . . .]
Cuidado con mestizos de leche, que son peores que los gitanos,
aunque por distinto rumbo. (16)
The aim of Carrio in this passage was to alert his readers about the deceiving,
cynical and picaresque nature of mestizos. In order to approximate his readers
to this group, he compared them to gypsies in their cunning and use of
66
trickery. The mestizos then became a threatening group for Carrio and the
stability of colonial orderliness since they were capable of cheating and
misleading anyone including the Church.
In short, the paradox of the “ Sociedad de castas” system was that early
legislators (sixteenth century) had not anticipated the increasingly numerous
racially mixed and illegitimate population in the New World. Thus, they found
themselves constantly increasing or adding new racial nomenclatures. These
new measures of classification were nearly impossible since the Crown simply
lacked the tools with which to impose the policy of miscegenation (Morner 54,
69-70). It simply became impossible to apply any universally valid and strict
criterion for classifying an increasingly mixed population. In other words, the
very process (miscegenation) that had helped create the “ Sociedad de castas,”
undermined it at the end. The resigned attitude of colonial authorities in New
Spain toward the end of the colonial era was expressed in this report from New
Spain toward the end of the eighteenth century:
Nobody dares to classify the “ castas.” This would imply the

gathering of odious information and if rigorously done, very dark
stains already erased by time would be uncovered in well-
accepted families [...]. (qtd. in Morner 45)
Consequently, Spain’s desire to create the “ Sociedad de castas” is an example
of how the fixing of the colonized’s subject position usually failed to secure the
colonized subject into place. As a result, the reiteration of the colonial
stereotype was an attempt to fasten the subaltern to a fixed space, yet it also
acknowledges that this can never be so. Similarly, the very few instances
67
where mestizos and castas were mentioned in Carrio’s text recreate the
discourse of colonialism characterized in this case by ambivalence. Behind the
omission of mestizos in El lazarillo ultimately stood the inability of colonial
administrator’s to secure castas firmly into place or classify them accurately.
Negros
Los negros civilizados en sus reinos son infinitamente mas

groseros que los indios. Repare el buen inca la diferencia
que hay en los bailes, canto y musica de una y otra nacion.
(El lazarillo 284)
Spanish perception of the racial status of negros when compared to
indios can help us understand their position under the “ Sociedad de castas” in
late eighteenth century Peru. For Spaniards including Carrio, the negro
segment of colonial population represented the lowest rung in the ladder of
pigmentocracy. Surprisingly, once again this group was only mentioned a few
times by Carrio in his text. This omission is inexplicable when analyzing the
numbers presented by the census of 1791 in which negros and castas of African
descent (zambos and mulatos) comprised thirty-seven percent of the total
population of Lima.40
In El lazarillo, Carrio took advantage of the comparison between indios
and negros to perpetuate the image that Spaniards had of negros at that time,
considering them barbarians, diabolical, and of no redeeming social and
economic value:
40 For solid background on this topic see, Aguirre’s: Agentes de su propia

libertad and Lo africano en la cultura criolla and; Jose Antonio del Busto
Duthurburu’s: Breve historia de los negros del Peru.
68
Las diversiones de los negros bozales son las mas barbaras y

groseras que se puedan imaginar. Su canto es un aullo. De ver
solo los instrumentos se inferira lo desagradable de su sonido. La
quijada de un asno, bien descarnada, con su dentadura flo ja , son
las cuerdas de su principal instrumento, que rascan con un hueso
de carnero, asta u otro palo duro, conque hacen unos altos y
tiples tan fastidiosos y desagradables que provocan a tapar los
oidos o a correr a los burros que son los animales mas estolidos y
menos espantadizos.41 (285)
The perceived character flaws became the guiding force of Carrio’s arguments,
when he criticized their culture in general based on their musical behavior:
En lugar del agradable tamborcillo de los indios, usan los negros

un tronco hueco. Este tambor le carga un negro, tendido sobre
su cabeza, y otro va por detras, con dos palitos en la mano [ . .. ]
golpeando el cuero con sus puntas, sin orden y solo con el fin de
hacer ruido. Los demas instrumentos son igualmente pulidos, y
sus danzas se reducen a menear la barriga y las caderas con
mucha deshonestidad, a que acompahan con gestos ridiculos, y
que traen a la imaginacion la fiesta que hacen al diablo los brujos
en sus sabados, y finalm ente solo se parecen las diversiones de
los negros a las de los indios, en que todas principian y finalizan
en borracheras. (285)
Carrio’s defamations also included the ridicule of their significant economic
and social impact in late colonial Peru:
En esta ciudad [ . . . ] hay un fondo perdido de m illon y medio de

pesos, porque no hay esclavo, uno con otro, que ahorre al amo el
gasto que hace con el. Las enfermedades, verdaderas o fingidas,
no solamente son costosas a los amos, por los medicamentos,
medico y cirujano, si no por su asistencia y fa lta de servicio. Cada
negrito que nace en una casa de estas tiene de costo al amo mas
de setecientos pesos hasta llegar a ponerse en estado de ser
provecho [ . . . ] pero pudieran remediarse en parte reduciendo los
sirvientes a menor numero [ . . . ] (345-346)
41 This negative representation of negros was reproduced by the criollo authors

of El Mercurio as we w ill see in Chapter 3.
69
In short, the formulation of socio-racial classifications used to describe
the complexity of colonial society, in this case of negros in Peru was, even in
the eighteenth century, at once baroque and simplistic, not to mention racist.
The type of rough illustrations compiled by the literary elites of Enlightenment,
including Carrio, was first and foremost ethnographically ignorant. However,
the nature and use of such socio-racial categories throughout the colonial
period was a reality that cannot be ignored.
Indios
Los indios, como cobardes y de debiles fuerzas, reciben

gustosos una, o a lo mas dos mulas, y conduciendolas a sus
casas las amarran fuertemente [ . . . ] A lii dejan la mula [ . . . ]
sin darle de comer, ni beber, y al cabo reconocen si la
bestia esta o no domada [ . . . ] La bestia debilitada antes
con el hambre y la sed [ . . . ] sigue a paso lento al que la
tira, y solo hace resistencia para detenerse a beber en un
arroyo y comer algun pasto que se presenta al camino.
Para todo tienen paciencia los indios, y asi van domando
sus mulas, segun su genio pacifico y modo de pensar; pero
siempre crian unos animates sin corpulencia y de debiles
fuerzas [ . . . ] De este principio inconsiderado, resulta la
mortalidad de infinidad de mulas en la sierra,
principalmente entre los indios [ . . . ] porque el indio jamas
hace ju icio de promesas, porque el nunca las cumple. (IBS-
137)
Descriptions of the indio segment in late colonial Peru by Carrio were
divided into twodistinct categories. On the one hand, the above passage
classified indios as cowardly, weak, ignorant, patient, passive, similar to mules
in nature, and incapable of fulfilling their promises. These negative
representations of the indio persist throughout El lazarillo, such as when Carrio
accused them of vileness and viciousness (96), lascivity (16), and idiocy (73)
just to name a few. Carrio’s denigrating assessment of indios in this case was
70
based on his professed authority and power as an observer. Colonial knowledge
production such as in El lazarillo is also reinforced by what Said calls, a cultural
discourse that downgrades and restricts the non-European to an inferior racial,
cultural, and ontological status (Said, Culture 59). According to Said, there is
an impressive circularity used in describing “ otherness” :
We are dominant because we have the power (economic, moral,

etc.) and they don’t, because of which they are not dominant;
they are inferior, we are superior [...] and so on and on (106).
On the other hand, as historian Morner puts it, “ social reality, especially in its
more subtle nuances, always appears to be wriggling its way out of our hands
(Cahill 346). In this manner, the desire to describe an inflexible social reality
becomes unfeasible. Examples of the hopelessness of describing and fixing
Peru’s indio population as just “ cowardly and weak” were also present in El
lazarillo. One example was the following description of indios as “ deceiving”
and “ cunning” :
[ . . . ] los espanoles siempre en estos casos son agraviados, porque

los indios, sino les pagan a satisfaccion los leguajes y sus
comestibles, no dan estos ni aprontan mulas, deteniendolos dos o
tres dias con titu lo de haberse desparramado por los cerros y
quebradas. Si es espanol o mestizo, encarga eficazmente a los
mitayos en presencia del pasajero, para que traigan las mulas
antes de amanecer, e inmediatamente, como que hablan de otros
asuntos [los mitayos], les dicen en su idioma [a los indios
encargados de las mulas] que vayan a otros negocios y que no
traigan los avios hasta despues de dos dias o los que a el se le
antoja, en cuya trampa son los indios muy habiles y disimulados.
(221 )
This passage defeats Carrio’s assumptions about the “ senselessness” and
“ passivity” of the indio. The portrayal of indios as “ deceiving” and “ cunning”
71
also reveals much about the complex nature of colonialism and its attempts to
fix “ otherness,” since it depicted indios as active participants in their lives. To
complicate matters further, indios and their actions were also described as a
necessary evil in the functioning of the colonial system, a structure that could
not operate properly without their utility as lazarillos that must guide visitors
in this territory.
In the end, Carrio’s two descriptions of the indio as “ cowardly” and
“ cunning” threaten to reveal the ambivalence of colonialism’s discourse. In
this manner, the indefinable and shifting position of the indio was a source of
anti-colonial resistance in that it presented a challenge to the structure of the
discourse of colonialism by pointing out the impossibility of describing the
“ other” accurately. Furthermore, the inability of Spanish’s officials to control
or discourage the illegal activities of the indio and to finally accept these
actions as a necessary evil in the functioning of the colonies also serve to
demonstrate the malfunction of Spanish colonialism.
Conclusion: Carrio’s contradictory words
As commented earlier in this chapter, Carrio accused Las Casas and
other priests of imprudence, since their criticism fed foreign condemnations of
Spain. According to propios and extranos, Spaniards were groseros, rusticos,
crueles, tiranos, and menos curiosos. Not only were Spaniards likely to
mistreat their colonized subjects; they were also likely to oppose progress, for
that was their nature according to their detractors. Naturalist Cornelius de
Pauw summed up this criticism when he stated, “ Does anybody know of any
72
other nation, more brutish, more ignorant, more savage, and more barbarous
than Spain?” (qtd. in Canizares-Esguerra 159). To be sure, the tone of Carrio’ s
response against these attacks was patriotic and urgent. It is thus tempting, at
least for critics like Macera, Lorente and Bastos, to merely read El lazarillo as
an example of Spanish nationalism. Upon closer inspection, it becomes evident
that the text was more than just a devoted vindication of Spain. There are, of
course, other motives for Carrio’s text.
I suggest that Carrio possessed the ability to go beyond the nature of his
task and, in doing so describe a New World reality. Inadvertently, and
sometimes advertently, he condemned the colonial posture of the Spanish
empire and its administrative failures, while depicting the conflictive socio-
racial reality of an emerging Peru. To explore this possibility we must examine
Carrio’s personal attacks, veiled or direct, against the Spanish empire and its
colonial administrators, since the problem with Carrio’s text stems from its
contradictory aspirations. On the one hand, the reader can easily recognize
Carrio’s desire to serve the Spanish empire dutifully through his attempts at re
writing history and his reformist postal project. On the other hand, it is
possible to discern a critique of colonial administrators in the text. This
negative account, in my opinion, discredits Spain’s presence in the New World
and provides ammunition for its critics.
First and foremost, the discrepancies in Carrio’ s text lead us to ask the
following questions: How did Carrio’s criticism differ from those made by
propios and extranos? Did Carrio address the inconsistencies of his text? The
73
first step in answering these two questions is to recognize that Carrio did not
answer them directly (propios and extranos) at all.42 One of the best ways to
demonstrate this is through a comparison of Juan and Ulloa’ s Noticias secretas
and Carrio’s El lazarillo. Ulloa and Juan criticized colonial administrators and
the empire’s policies in the New World, but they did so by creating an “ other”
text written only for a private audience, the king and his court. Carrio’s text on
the other hand became public clandestinely. That is, his criticism of colonial
administrators and the empire’s policies was published for all to see. In order
to do so, Carrio created an “ other” author, publishing date and location.
Nevertheless, I believe that the Visitador did implicitly answer an equally
important and related question, that is, the reason for Spain’s dreadful
economic and political condition. In taking this view, I would like to suggest
that for Carrio, Spain’s predicament lied in its effort to treat indios and negros
fairly (a moral objective), while at the same time extracting as much from
them and their lands as possible (an economic objective). In other words,
Spain had to deal with the conflictive and competing nature of the moral and
economic colonial realities of these territories. In order to substantiate this
claim let us look at the following passage:
Es constante que los indios jamas supieron ni saben el modo de

beneficiar las minas, y que solamente dirigidos de los espanoles
saben sacar el metal de las minas, y que los barreteros mestizos a
inteligentes les juntan para llenar sus tenates, capachos o
zurrones, de un peso liviano. Estos no podian hacer sus faenas sin
la asistencia de los espanoles y mestizos; pero si con todo eso
42 One possible definition of postcolonialism entails the notion or process of

asking questions about what can be said and where things can be said in
colonial situations.
74
dijesen nuestros buenos vecinos que los espanoles que dirigian a

los indios y que se ocupaban en el trabajo mas rudo [ . . . ] salian de
la mina a dorm ir a sus casas y gozar del ambiente, afirmo que
fueron engahados, o que mienten solo con el fin de tra tar a los
espanoles de tiranos e inhumanos; pero quisiera preguntar y o a
este critico naturalista por que influjo se convirtieron estos
hombres feroces en tan humanos, pues a pocas lineas dice que los
espanoles actuales de la isla usan de tanta moderacion con sus
esclavos, que para enviarlos a cualquier diligencia de solo la
distancia de un cuarto de legua, los hacen montar a caballo. Eso
no nace de fa lta de critica de los franceses, si no de sobra de
malicia, y lo mismo digo de los italianos e ingleses, que son los
que mas disfrutan las conquistas de los espanoles en el consumo
de los efectos que se trabajan en sus provincias, y que las
mantienen florecientes. (El lazarillo 237-238)
To reiterate, then, Carrio provides the reader with Spain’s primary
predicament in the New World, the need to accomplish and meet their
economic and moral objectives despite the condemnation of propios and
extranos . All told, Carrio carried out his justification of Spanish colonialism by
presenting his “ true” story of these lands. A territory populated by non-
Spaniards that Carrio characterized as cowardly, deceiving, ignorant, lazy,
degenerate, beastly, menacing and barbarous. In this manner, the Crown and
Spaniards had their hands full when attempting to meet their economic and
moral objectives amidst the condemnation of its critics.
For the purpose of the present argument, let us return to Said’s view on
colonial dynamics. Colonialism and its exercise of power, according to Said,
rests on the existence of a set of ideas that validate the possession and
continuing occupation of other people and their lands. In contrast to this
contention, critic Homi Bhabha declares that colonialism’s aims are never fully
met (Bhabha, Location of Culture 14). This is because the discourse of
colonialism does not operate according to plan, since it is always pulling at
least in two opposite directions. On the one hand, the discourse of colonialism
maintains that the colonized subject is a radically strange creature whose
bizarre and eccentric nature (lice-eating, sodomite indios) is a cause for both
curiosity and concern. The colonized to-be were considered “ other” by the
Westerner, and thus were seen as irremediably outside western culture and
civilization. At the same time, the discourse of colonialism attempted to
domesticate colonized subjects and abolish their radical “ otherness” by
bringing them inside Western understanding through a project of constructing
knowledge about them, as Said and Rabasa have repeatedly pointed out. Such
is the case with Carrio’s enlightened project. His text described and attempted
to define the “ other” in order to justify his colonization. Meanwhile, he sought
to incorporate the colonized, criollos, into an efficient Spanish empire by
defining “ them” as capable of attaining a degree of civility similar albeit
inferior (intellectually, morally and racially) to peninsulares. Similarly, he
defined mestizos, indios, and negros as social elements, odd and sometimes
bizarre creatures that should be expunged from the colony, or at least
silenced. Obviously, this desire was a natural impossibility due to their large
numbers and usefulness as laborers and slaves, and because these subaltern-
unassimilated groups were products of the colonial endeavor itself, and
evidence of Spain’s colonial debacle. To be sure, Spanish colonialism offered
76
different degrees of assimilation, silencing and erasure with criollos sitting
atop the colonial pile, and mestizos, indios and negros in descending order.43
It could also be argued that colonialism’s discourse might assume that
the “ other” w ill never be identical to the “ self” , but only an imperfect
imitation. Bhabha claims that in colonialist representations the colonized
subjects are always in motion, sliding ambivalently between the duality of
similarity and difference, resisting a fixed location. Because of this slippery
motion, stereotypes are deployed -- Carrio’s definition of criollos’ intellectual,
moral and racial inferiority is an example of the need to fix the colonized
subject -- as a means to impede the ambivalence of the colonized by describing
them in static terms. In his essay on mimicry, Bhabha builds on these ideas and
explores the ambivalence of the colonized subject and how “ it” becomes a
direct threat to the authority of the colonizers through the effects of mimicry.
Bhabha’s work also reflects on the possibility of reading colonialist
discourses as endlessly ambivalent, split and unstable, never able to install
securely the colonial values they seemed to support. This ambivalence is
particularly evident in the production of colonial texts since they rarely
embody just one view. Texts then are variable and contradictory affairs, which
43 Carrio’s exclusionary stance regarding race would change at the aftermath of

the “ Great Rebellion” of 1780-1781, when he called for a coalition of
peninsulares, criollos and in this case mestizos against the troubling and
menacing indiada and populacho (indio uncivilized masses): “ [...] para que asi
unidos y en buena armonia podamos rechazar y aun subordinar al numeroso
populacho de que estamos por necesidad rodeados” (Reforma del Peru 26).
Moreover, Carrio’s project in 1781 called for an eventual disappearance of the
indio and its culture through a civilizing process of cultural and racial
miscegenation.
77
present several opinions rather than just one. Carrio’s text also suffered from
the inherent instability of colonialism. In this manner, Carrio’s manuscript
became a contradictory matter by confronting two competing arguments at
several levels. First, the text was initially wrought by its enlightened
objective, the renovation of the postal route between Buenos Aires and Lima, a
venture that was confronted in the end by the administrative reality of the
New World, one populated by cunning and deceiving indios and administered by
incompetent titirite ro s . Second, the text commenced as a travel diary of the
eighteenth century, one that offered objective descriptions of the New World,
only to become a subjective account of the unstable socio-racial reality of the
Americas, and the need to categorize its constitutive members through
stereotypes in order to better control them. Third, the unforeseen trail taken
by Carrio lead him to defend Spanish colonialism and its presence in these
lands through his attempt to set the record straight, a course that ultimately
pointed him to condemn the present administration of these territories, an
undertaking that undoubtedly also censured Spanish colonialism. Lastly,
Carrio’s condemnation of Spain’s present administrators in the New World led
him to a predicament, the need and desire to tell the “ truth” , and the inability
to do so openly, a quandary that was partially solved through the fabrication of
false publishing information for El lazarillo, and most importantly the invention
of a ficticious author and critic, Concolorcorvo. As such, Carrio’s criticism of
colonial administrators destabilized the scenario written by colonialism by
78
having his dissenting voice heard through the cracks of his colonial text and by
distorting El lazarillo’s meaning and message.
Carrio’s best and most important description, in my opinion, of the
Spanish presence in Peru, further emphasizes colonialism’s ambivalence. In
this story about a Spaniard that was traveling through the countryside, Carrio
wrote:
Antes de salir de esta jurisdiction, voy a proponer a los sabios de

Lima. Atravesando cierto espanol estos monies en tiempo de
guerra con los indios [ . . . ] se vio precisado una noche a dar
descanso a su caballo, que amarro a un tronco con un lazo
dilatado para que pudiese pastar comodamente, y por no perder
tiempo, se echo a dorm ir un rato bajo un arbol frondoso,
poniendo cerca de su cabeza una carabina proveida de dos balas.
A pocos instantes sintio que le despertaban levantandole de un
brazo y se hallo con un indio barbaro, armado de una lanza y con
su carabina en la mano, quien le dijo con serenidad: “Espanol,
haz tun ’” esto es, que disparase para o ir de cerca el ruido de la
carabina. El espanol, echando un pie atras, levanto el gatillo y le
encajo ente pecho y espalada las dos balas al indio, de que quedo
tendido. Se pregunta a los alumnos de Marte, si la action del
espanol procedio de valor o de cobardia, y a los de Minerva si fue
o no licita la resolution del espanol.44 (73-74)
The obvious implications were that the Spaniard always had to be on a
defensive posture, never knowing what to expect when dealing with the indio,
while showing a total a lack of understanding and trust of the indio and his
44 In this passage, Carrio did not offer a specific year or time frame. It is also
significant to note that indios and Spaniards were at war. However, I believe
that it is more important to stress Carrio’s reluctance to give a time frame to
this episode. By doing so, the reader is left to assume and view this incident as
a recurrent theme. Furthermore, one can explore the possibility that
encounters such as these between colonizer and colonized in most instances
ended in violence. As such, Carrio offers the reader the idea that this was the
only available recourse for the Spaniard, since any other option could have
resulted in his death.
motives despite being in possession of these lands for over two hundred and
fifty years. The fact that in spite of the two hundred and fifty years of colonial
presence in the New World, the indio was still seen as an unassimilated
barbarian, demonstrated also the failure of Spain’s colonial endeavor and the
invincibility of the indio. Finally, as the reader of the story can attest, Carrio
invites us to reflect upon the Spanish predicament in these lands. His purpose
is open to debate. Was he being w itty, describing the stupidity and ignorance
of the indio, the astuteness of the Spaniard, or simply inviting us to understand
the complicated and conflictive goals of the Spanish empire in these lands?
Chapter 2
A World in Conflict: The Great Rebellion and the Formation of the Andean
Elite in Late Colonial Peru
No, no hay pais mas diverso, mas m ultiple en variedad

terrena y humana; todos los grados de calor y color, de
amor y de odio, de urdimbres y sutileza, de simbolos
utilizados e inspiradores. (Arguedas 258)
The Andean world prior to the Spanish Conquest was a world
distinctively marked by racial, social and political plurality. From this it should
be apparent that the world arrived at by the Spaniards was at once more
complex and divided than the accounts of the period inform. These earlier
representations were in essence colonial attempts to paint a homogenous
image of the New World, one easily accepted and understood as a cohesive unit
to its European readers.45 Along the lines of a unified and successful Incario
were the words of the Spanish soldier and chronicler, Pedro Cieza de Leon who
in the early years of the conquest (1534-1536) had traveled throughout the
Andean region studying native customs and institutions. On the one hand, his
chronicles provide a helpful insight into the impression that the Incas had
shaped and maintained such a varied, yet relatively unified state. Cieza de
Leon affirmed that the Inca state made an efficient effort to unify the
institutions and even the language of their far-reaching empire.
45 For a valuable summary of the images created about the Incario, see Hidefuji
Someda’s: El imperio de los Incas. In this book, Someda describes the formation
of the Inca Empire prior to the Conquest as written by noted chroniclers of the
sixteenth century, such as Francisco Lopez de Xerez, Agustin de Zarate, Pedro
Cieza de Leon, and Juan Diez de Betanzos. In addition to Someda’s work, is
Franklin Pease’s important effort, “ Las primeras versiones espanolas sobre el
Peru.”
80
81
Similarly, historian and linguist Bruce Mannheim emphasizes that
languages and dialects have also been important indicators of ethnicity in the
Andes. For him, the Incario achieved their unifying objectives largely with the
help of a sophisticated bureaucracy that brought every dweller of the realm
under the direct management of an official selected -- an ethnic lord in most
cases -- by the Inca (46).46 Another important factor in the success of the
Incario’s goal of integration according to the Spanish chronicler was its strategy
of resettling the newly conquered.47 On the other hand, there is another
46 For solid background on the role of language within Peruvian history see,
Mannheim’s, The Language of the Inca since the European Invasion, and Isaias
Lerner’ s, “ La colonizacion espanola y las lenguas indigenas de America.”
47 As commented in Cieza’s, The Incas, the Incario imposed itself over a vast
territory, and in order to govern over so many nations that differed so
significantly in language, law, and religion, the Incas had to do it prudently, in
order to maintain their subjects in tranquility and keep peace and friendship
with and among them:
Therefore, although the city of Cuzco was the head of their
empire [...] they stationed deputies and governors at various
points; these men were the wisest, ablest, and most courageous
that could be found, and none was so young but that he was in
the last third of his age. And since the natives were so loyal to
such a governor and none dared to rebel, and he had the
mitimaes on his side, no one, no matter how powerful, dared to
rise against him; and if such a rebellion did take place, the village
in which the uprising occurred was punished and the instigators
were sent to Cuzco (where they were hanged) [...] And this was
not all; if any of the king’ s captains or servants went out to visit
part of the kingdom, the people came out to receive him on the
road with many presents, never failing, even if he were alone, to
comply with is every order. (19)
As maintained by historian David Cahill, the Incario was both fragmented and
enriched by the addition of the mass migrations and the presence of ethnic
islands (Cahill 332). Mitimaes were settlers or newcomers who were brought
into a recently conquered province to propagate Inca culture. In exchange, an
equal number of newly conquered people were sent to take place of the
settlers (History of the Inca Empire 266).
82
version of the Inca state-one that depicts it as a tenuous entity that subjugated
desires for self-rule at the local level-as historian David Cahill and others have
argued (328).48
According to Cahill, the arrival of Francisco Pizarro and his men as well
as his Indian associates to Cuzco in 1532 was the instrument for the destruction
of the Inca state.49 Indeed, many accounts, and studies of the period described
the Andean world as turned upside down upon this meeting. However, the
arrival of Pizarro has often served to deflect attention from the innate
instability and conflicts within the Incario prior to the conquest.50 The Inca
48 Historians such as Roger Neil Rasnake and Luis Miguel Glave support a similar
argument.
49 For a discussion of the devastating effects of the Conquest upon the native
population see, Luis Miguel Glave’s, Vida, simbolos v batallas; Nathan
Wachtel’s, The Vision of the Vanquished; Franklin Pease’s, Peru: Hombre e
historia entre el siglo XVI v el XVIII; Steve J. Stern’s, “ Paradigms of Conquest;”
and Waldemar Espinoza’s, La destruccion del Imperio de los Incas.
50 As an example of Andean divisiveness, Cahill notes that when the Spaniards

wound their way from Tumbez to Cuzco in 1532, they easily won over ethnic
lords (kurakas, senores, or caciques), and these pledged arms, provisions and
manpower in what they perceived as their own struggle for autonomy from Inca
rule. Moreover, Cahill raises the idea that although close ties of kinship with
the ruling class in Cuzco perhaps made the relative servitude of the other
inhabitants (non-lnca, non-Andean, or non-Cuzqueno) of the region tolerable or
comparatively benign, this agreement was never accepted by them (Cahill
328). Moreover, the list of provinces compiled by historian Paul Gootenberg
from the census of 1791 gives a clear idea of the multiple ethnicities present
during the late colonial period in Peru. He states that in this census, colonial
administrators recognized more than twelve provinces just in the departments
of Cuzco and Apurimac: Cuzco (Cercado), Quispicanchi, Urubamba,
Paucartambo, Paruro, Abancay, Calca y Lares, Ayamaraes, Cotabambas,
Chumbivilcas, Tinta (Canas), Anta, and others (Gootenberg 113-114). All of
these provinces considered themselves different from their neighbors with
regards to language, ethnicity, and history.
83
state, or Incario, according to Cahill, had always relied on conquest and force
prior to the arrival of the Spaniards to forge its empire. Furthermore, in order
to maintain a frail peace, the realm was often strengthened and reinforced by
marriage alliances between the Inca state and other ethnic groups, as well as
the promotion of assimilation of their lands.51
It is worth emphasizing how Peru prior to 1532, and under the Inca
Empire, was a vibrant and intricate racial and ethnic landscape, and that this
arrangement did not disappear after the upheaval that followed the
conquest.52 According to Cahill, the ethnic distinctions of the Incario survived
throughout the colonial period through ayllu nomenclature and ascription
(334). An ayllu was an extended family or lineage believed to have a common
ancestor. Moreover, the ayllu system persevered by the w ill of Spanish Crown
that in 1545, via a Real cedula, stipulated that the Andean elite had the
privilege to choose an Alferez real from the royal descendants of the Incas.
51 The writings of the chronicler Juan de Betanzos also emphasized the colonial
machinations of the Incario in his Narrative of the Incas. specifically in the
chapter entitled, Yupanque’s Conquests:
Wherein Pachacuti Inca Yupanque assembled his subjects; in this
assembly he ordered that they all prepare themselves with their
weapons for a certain day because he wanted to go in search of
lands and peoples to conquer and subjugate under the dominions
and servitude of the city of Cuzco, and how he went out with all
his soldiers and friends, won and conquered many towns and
provinces, and of what befell him and his captains. (Betanzos 81)
52 For a detailed explanation of the political and geographical structure of the

Incario see, Maria Rostworowski’s, Estructuras andinas del poder, and Franklin
Pease’s, Peru: Hombre e historia. To this kaleidoscope, the Spaniards brought
their own obsessions with limpieza de sangre, caste, and status, as well as
introducing their own northern ethnic allies (Canaris and the Chachapoyas) to
the already complex social fabric of Incaic Cuzco (Cahill 332).
84
The Andean elite saw this charge as a recompense for their participation in the
conquest and pacification of Peru.53
Along these lines, the conquest and colonization of the New World was
carried out by men that cleverly utilized to their advantage the divisions and
conflicts of the Andean world already present before colonization. It is against
this background that this chapter points out the variable, divisive, and in some
cases antagonistic nature of Andean world relations after the Conquest.54
This chapter focuses on the story of a particular group of Andeans that
contributed to the conquest and colonization of their lands and peoples in
order to maintain and acquire benefits and the good graces of the Spanish
Crown.55 I w ill use Rafael Jose Sahuaraura Tito Atauchi’ s text Estado del Peru
(1780) in order to recognize and detect the different strategies of conformity
or resistance utilized by a specific group of subalterns, Andean elite, during the
53 The Spanish judge in charge of the naturals, Agustin Xara de la Cerda, called
the twelve Inca houses (ayllus ) of Anan Cuzco and Urin Cuzco, and ordered
them to choose twelve deputies of confirmed royal lineage per house. These
twenty-four electors de Cuzco had to work as regents of a cabildo, and they
were allowed to maintain their seats for prosperity. According to Gonzales,
Don Alonso Tito Atauchi, ancestor of Jose Rafael Sahuaraura was part of the
twenty-four electores as far back as 1572 representing the Ayllo Guascar. This
study also positions the first Atauchi as the son of the Inca Huayna Capac. He
was also the brother of the last Inca before the arrival of Pizarro, Huascar
(Guascar) who was murdered by his half-brother Atahualpa (Gonzales qtd. in
Decoster 223-224, 238, 259).
54 By relations, I refer to those arising from racial, social and political

distinctions in the Andes that long survived the contact between civilizations.
Moreover, it is extremely important to highlight that the Conquest and
continuing subjugation of these lands and its people were built upon these
divisions.
55 The term “ Andean” w ill be used as a general term for the indigenous
inhabitants of Peru in this chapter.
85
late colonial period. The text was produced at a very specific and crucial
period of Peruvian colonial history, soon after the bloody aftermath of the
Tupac Amaru II rebellion of 1780-1781. Consequently, its themes and
aspirations were based around this watershed moment.56
Estado del Peru was first published in 1944 by Francisco A. Loayza within
a collection of other texts dealing with the “ Great Rebellion” of 1780-1781.57
Loayza’s pro-insurgency views about the “ Great Rebellion” and the role of its
participants are quite obvious from the titles of the works he edited and this
passage from the introduction to the text: Juan Santos, el invincible; Martires y
heroinas, and; Fray Calixto Tupak Inca, valiente defensor de su raza, and:
Si hemos glorificado, con justicia, a los grandes hombres que,

aunque no nacidos en el Peru, lucharon por nuestra Independencia
definitiva; ^por que no recordamos a nuestros heroes autoctonos,
que feuron y son los legitimos gestores de nuestra Independencia?
(Sahuaraura i)
Similarly, Loayza discredited and ridiculed Sahuaraura’s Estado del Peru, as the
work of a traitor who fought to maintain his personal fortune and that of the
56 Many dates have been given in order to indicate the end of the Tupac Amaru
II Rebellion in colonial Peru. For the purpose of this discussion, the dates of
1780-1781 will be utilized as the markers (beginning and end) of such uprising.
Moreover, this effort w ill not take into consideration the additional uprisings
carried out by other Andean leaders of the period.
57 Some of the other titles edited by Loayza in the 1940s include: Fray Calixto
Tupak Inka : documentos originates v, en su mayoria, totalmente desconocidos,
autenticos, de este apostol indio, valiente defensor de su raza, desde el afio de
1746 a 1760 (1948); Juan Santos, el invencible, manuscriptos del aho de 1742 al
aho de 1755 (1942); Martires y heroinas, documentos ineditos del aho de 1780 a
1782 (1945) and; Preliminares del incendio : documentos del aho de 1776 a
1780, en su mayoria ineditos. anteriores y sobre la Revolucion libertadora que
engendro y dio vida Jose Gabriel Tupak Amaru en 1780 (1947).
class he represented over the interests of an emerging nation. Nevertheless,
Loayza considered Sahuaraura’s text worthy of publishing since it contained
some important information about the rebellion. Here Loayza was continuing a
line of thought that started in the 1920s with the rise of indigenismo in Peru. A
movement that believed in the need to rescue and create a glorious indio past
in order to confront some of the problems of the contemporary Andean. As
such, the image of Tupac Amaru II, long feared and in many cases erased from
Peruvian history up to that period, emerged as a heroic personage, a precursor
in the struggle for Peruvian independence. Politically, the revival of a glorious
Andean past did not occur until the “ Revolution of 1968” (1968-1979), when
General Juan Velasco Alvarado, head of the military government, decreed that
Tupac Amaru II was a national hero and should be inserted into historical and
educational texts as such. The task of reviving the mythic figure of Tupac
Amaru II did not lim it itself to texts, but was also extended to using his portrait
in Peruvian currency, schools and government offices and the creation of
numerous monuments in his honor, as well as adopted as an inspiration by
every political leader there after, including the current president of Peru.
Notable too is the fact, that any text or historical research that suggested or
attempted to question Tupac Amaru ll’s mythical stature, such as the case of
Estado del Peru, was dismissed and swept under the tapestry of an emerging
nation, one that believed that it had finally come to terms with its indio past
by finally incorporating their contributions within the national narrative. As
such, I believe that Sahuaraura’s text has been discarded because of its
87
political incorrectedness, since it puts into question the very image of a
national hero, by pointing out the conflictive nature of the Andean colonial
period, as well as, and re-opening the question and position of the indio within
Peruvian society.
In my opinion, Estado del Peru was an effort by its author to radically
distance himself and the class he represented from the upheaval of the period
as well as from its perpetrators: Tupac Amaru II, lower ranking members of the
Andean elite, and the masses. More specifically, in this chapter I will address
the role of the Sahuararua family as well as the role of the Andean elite, noble,
or kuraka class, that they represented prior, during, and after the “ Great
Rebellion” of 1780-1781 in order to emphasize the notion of Andean
divisiveness during the late colonial period.58 In order to better understand the
importance of divisiveness within the context of late colonial Peru and of my
project in general, we need to understand that socio-economic stratification is
not a problem from the past, but a serious fissure that has always been
present. It is against this background, then, that the socio-cultural
constructions of the late colonial period show that even though the “ identities”
produced were decidedly heterogeneous, culturally and racially diverse, they
were fashioned by an ideology that was unquestionably homogenous:
conservative, fearful and exclusive, and hegemonic that furthered the already
present socio-economic stratification.
58 A kuraka or curaca was a native lord or leader of an Andean community

(Andrien, Andean Worlds 247).
88
To be sure, Andean on Andean tension reached its peak during the
“ Great Rebellion” of 1780-1781, an incident that confronted diverse sectors of
the Andean elite of Cuzco as well as challenged the lines of heredity, benefits
acquired by this group after the Conquest, and even their own survival as a
colonial institution. The impact of this confrontation between the upper
echelon of the Andean elite of Cuzco and the leader of the rebellion, Tupac
Amaru II, a lower ranking and questioned member of this elite, has had a
profound and devastating effect on the history of Peru, as historian Alberto
Flores Galindo affirms:
En 1780 la revolucion tupamarista fue el intento mas ambicioso

de convertir a la utopia andina en programa politico. De haber
triunfado, el Cusco seria la capital del Peru, la sierra
predominaria sobre la costa, los gobernantes descenderian de la
aristocracia indigena colonial, el indio y su cultura no habrian
sido menospreciados. iPor que no triunfo? (Flores Galindo, Qbras
109)
It is possible to argue that one of the primary reasons for the failure of the
“ Great Rebellion” was its inability to attract the support of the upper echelons
of the Andean elite, as this chapter w ill attempt to show.
After the Conquest
Upon the arrival of Pizarro in 1532, the Inca state was embroiled in a
civil war between the sons of the Inca Huayna Capac. The feuding factions
faced the legitimate heir to the throne, Huascar who was based in Cuzco and
his half-brother Atahualpa based in Quito. Huascar was murdered by his half-
brother shortly before the arrival of Pizarro in Tumbes (northern Peru). This
event enabled Pizarro to follow a strategy of divide and conquer by allying with
89
the Huascar faction, claiming that Atahualpa was the illegitimate heir to the
throne and executing him for this and other dealings.59 Upon the execution of
Atahualpa, Pizarro elevated Tupac Huallpa, Huascar’s younger brother, as the
new emperor in an elaborate staged ceremony. The Spaniards then undertook
the march to Cuzco, gaining allies along the way among the Huascar faction for
their showdown with what was left of Atahualpa’s northern army of Quitans
who still controlled the capital. After the capture of Cuzco, the Spaniards
were quickly able to assume control of the core of the empire, roughly
corresponding to the boundaries of modern Peru. Once Cuzco had fallen, other
subjugated ethnic groups, in customary Andean fashion, welcomed the chance
to ally with the new European contenders for power.
In one sense, Pizarro ably exploited this power struggle. Some of the
non-ruling Andean peoples initially viewed the intruders as unexpected visitors
who might perhaps prove useful in their local desire for more autonomy or even
emancipation from the Inca state.60 However, as historian Martin Lienhard
attests, by the time the Andeans had realized the actual intent of the
Spaniards there was little room for resistance. Furthermore, the Spaniards
59 For a detailed study of the feud between Huascar and Atahualpa, as well as
Pizarro’s dealings, see Jose del Busto Duthurburu’s, Pizarro.
60 For historian Martin Lienhard, the Europeans ably used the inherent feuds
between indigenous ethnic groups for their own advantage: Cortes and his men
marched against Mexico-Tenochtitlan in support of the troops from Tlaxcala,
rival city of the Aztec capital; Alvarado, in the midst of Mexican troops and
Myaya-Cakchiqueles, conquered Utatlan, the capital of the Maya-Quiches, and;
Pizarro conquered Cuzco as Manco Inca’s guest and military ally against the
“ Quitenos” (82).
90
created a group of devoted Andean allies through the use of offerings, bribes,
intimidation, or matrimonial bonds. In this manner, after the arrival of the
Spaniards in the Andean world, there was simply no chance of shutting the
entry to these visitors (82).61
In connection with this turn, the Spaniards, comprising a small group of
people in the territorial and demographic immensity of the American
continent, quickly understood the practicality of allying themselves with the
local ruling elites with a view to usurping their power. To gain the support of
the former aristocracy, they allowed the traditional lordships to continue.
They also sought to cement their relations with gifts to their allies.62 As such,
the Europeans would respect the traditional system of succession, if the
Andeans would recognize the supreme authority of the Spanish king and the
Church.
Andean compliance
After the conquest, the Spanish crown proceeded to disarticulate the
opposing indigenous aristocracy, and to restructure it in the service of colonial
domination. According to David Cahill, when the Spaniards maneuvered their
61 This is the crux of the matter in the success of Spanish colonialism at the
beginning of the Conquest; Spain exploited Andean differences in order to
better control them through a strategy of divide and conquer. Moreover, it is
also important to note that Spain utilized this strategy during the “ Great
Rebellion” of 1780-1781 since the majority of Andeans did not support or
approved the rebellious intentions of Tupac Amaru II.
62 For example, the encomendero Diego Maldonado in Huamanga literally

showered gifts -- a black slave, mules, horses, livestock, and fine Inca and
Spanish clothes -- on his curaca because, according to one, “ [Maldonado] owed
it to them for the services they would render him” (Stern qtd. in Klaren 45).
91
way from Tumbez to Cuzco In 1532, they effortlessly swayed ethnic lords to
their cause, and these promised arms, supplies and manpower in what
appeared as their own battle for sovereignty from Cuzco’s hegemony (Cahill
328).632 In the following centuries of the colonial period, the Spaniards in turn
made use of all the means at their disposal to attain the unqualified
collaboration of the Andean aristocracy. This was achieved, on the one hand,
through the process of assimilation carried out by the Spaniards and the
granting upon the restructured Andean elite of titles of nobility, privileges such
as immunity from paying tribute and mita work, legitimate titles of land
ownership, the right to wear European clothing, and the right to carry weapons
and ride a horse.64 On the other hand, Europeans dispensed fear and
castigation to disloyal and treacherous ethnic lords (Lienhard 85).
From the viewpoint of the Europeans, ethnic lords functioned in the
configuration of colonial organization from the very beginning as mediators
between the authorities, or beneficiaries of the colony, and the Andean
masses. At the same time, the members of the Andean aristocracy, or ethnic
lords, were accountable for the in-house management of the “ Republica de
63 The terms kurakas, caciques, or sehores w ill be employed as the same term
when referring to Andean ethnic lords for the argument of the present
discussion.
64 According to historian Martin Lienhard, the relatives of the kurakas or

caciques (a hereditary position) and the other members of the traditional
aristocracy were called principales. As members of this category, they were
exempt in most cases from tribute. Also, many individuals entered this group
by distinguishing themselves through their prosperity or by the excellent
relations they had with the local encomenderos or the clergy (84).
92
indios.” 65 In addition, ethnic lords executed two very important roles for
colonial authority. First, they assured the recruitment of the Andean
workforce for the haciendas, mines, and textile mills. Second, and more
importantly, they organized and acculturated politically the Andean masses to
assure the continuation of colonial domination (Lienhard 84-85).
The image of Andean leaders has therefore been regarded as the
cultural bridge between the world of Spain and indigenous America. Often,
however, these individuals struggled to reconcile the demands of both
societies. Looking at the relationship between ethnic lords and the Spanish
administration suggests that the primary role of the former involved convincing
the Andeans under their rule to conform to the orders of the latter. Ethnic
lords in many cases were required to accomplish this without having any power
to govern on their own initiative or even to give their subjects a measure of
protection against the excessive demands of their colonizers. Thus, ethnic
chiefs, in most cases, became the extended expression of Spanish colonialism.
Spanish authority gradually took hold over the Andean world through the
imposition of their legal right over these lands, one prominent example being
65 See Chapter 1. The concept of the “Two Republic System” was at first
conceived in order to avert the corruption of the Andean masses by European
vices. Further, non-Andeans were banned entree to the areas inhabited by
Andeans. According to Klaren, Viceroy Toledo ordered the resettlement and
concentration of Andeans into reducciones. This decree underlied the Spanish
policy of creating a two-republic system. Others such as historian Richard
Morse saw the two republic system as a, “ [...] euphemism for a regime of de-
tribalization, regimentation, Christianization, tribute and forced labor” (Morse
qtd. in Klaren 61).
93
the implementation of the encomienda system.66 The Crown theoretically
created this organism to safeguard the welfare of its newly conquered Andean
subjects and to collect royal tribute. These men were in charge of the Andean
population, including ethnic lords, under the rubric of the reducciones, or
Andean towns, when these were not under the control of missionaries
(Lienhard 84). Shortly after the conquest; however, the encomienda system of
economic and political control began to break down in the Andes. Writing
about encomenderos, many missionaries accused them of exploiting the labor
obligations of its Andean subjects, as well as excessively collecting tribute from
them. In addition, documents of the period accused the first encomenderos as
more adept at conflict and corruption than at maintaining a just supervision
over the Andeans and with one other.67 Consequently, the Crown relieved the
66 Since 1512, the. Crown had tried to transplant the encomienda to the
Caribbean with the intention of moderating somewhat the brutality of the
system of compulsory labor formerly imposed upon the Indians. Starting with
Cortes in New Spain, encomiendas were granted to the conquerors in order to
make them “ lords of vassals,” the vassals being the aboriginal inhabitants of a
conquered territory. The encomienda was a system by which each prominent
conqueror obtained from his governor a large number of Indians, with authority
to rule them and exact a tribute in goods and services. The tribute had to be
large enough to provide for the needs and duties of the encomendero. This
ideal was never reached because the encomenderos went against the grain of
political trends and realities in Castile. In 1542, the encomienda and all forms
of Indian slavery were abolished. A general uproar-including open rebellion in
Peru forced the suspension and later softening of such a radical solution. Thus
the encomienda survived, but only as an economic institution deprived of all
the political meaning intended by the conquerors since 1519 (Cespedes 19-20).
67 See Fray Bartolome de las Casas’s, Brevisima relacion.
94
encomenderos of their intended duties, protection and Christianization of the
Andean masses, and gave these tasks to newly state appointed functionaries.68
The new Crown officials, called corregidores de indios, were sent out to
the Andean provinces and charged with the administration of justice, control of
commercial relations between Andeans and Spaniards, and the collection of the
tribute tax. Chief among their responsibilities was the protection of the
natives from abuse. In other words, the Crown attempted to respond to the
abuses committed by encomenderos and other colonists, particularly the
appropriation of native land by private landholders. However, over time the
corregidores, just like their predecessors, used their privileged position to
hoard assets and authority in order to govern the Andeans and their lands for
their own benefit. It is significant to note that corregidores purchased their
offices, thus their primary interest in many occasions was to get a return on
their investment at the expense of their Andean subjects. Furthermore,
corregidores were widely hated and criticized because of the means by which
they had come to power, an as such were deemed as illegitimate overlords by
the Andeans. Corregidores extended their fortunes and ill will by creating
partnerships with local and regional kurakas, other Crown functionaries,
68 The institution of the encomiendas was abolished by a Real cedula on

November 3rd 1717. For solid background on the “ Leyes de Indias” and their
implementation and effect on the New World see: Cesareo de Armellada’s, La
causa indigena Americana en las Cortes de Cadiz, and Jose G. del Valle More’s,
Cisneros v las leves de Indias. For a valuable overview on the Leves de Indias
see, Recopilacion de leves de los reynos de las Indias. and Seleccion de las
leves de Indias referents a descubrimientos, colonizacion, pacificaciones,
incremento de la riqueza, de la beneficiencia v de la cultura, en los pafses de
Ultramar.
95
priests, landowners, merchants, and miners.69 These intentions are best
exemplified by pointing out the collusion that often existed at the local level
between corregidores, ethnic lords, and priests. The image of complicity
between these groups was further reinforced by their attempts to illegally gain
control over native lands and labor through the systematic circumventing of
colonial law.
It is well known, for instance, that Crown officials utilized these locally
elected and hereditary Andean officers during the eighteenth century to collect
additional tribute or to enforce the sale of unwanted goods through the
practice of reparticiones.70 The image of some ethnic lords serving as willing
accomplices of colonialism is fostered by evidence of many Andean as well as
Spanish complaints against their administration, and of their brutality when
dealing with their subjects. Historian John Howland Rowe explains that
Spanish administrators often used the argument that the majority of atrocities
69 Not all ethnic lords, or functionaries contributed to this corruption, see

Veronica Salles-Reese’s, “ Las divergencias semioticas y el proceso de mestizaje
en el Peru colonial.”
70 Historians Peter Guardino and Charles Walker explain that there are two
interpretations about the repartim iento. The first and most traditional one
portrays this institution as a mechanism that forced the Andeans into the local
labor market in order to boost the sales of Spanish products. Local Spanish
officials who forced the Andean peasants to buy unwanted Spanish goods
accomplished this. However, other historians such as Brian Hamnett have
argued differently by stating that under the repartimiento, colonial merchants
advanced credit to small producers. In such a system colonial officials
provided Andean communities with cash, unfinished products, and such capital
goods such as plows and mules in exchange for the right to purchase the
finished products (textiles, cotton, corn, etc.) (Guardino and Walker 16).
96
and abuses committed against the indigenous masses were carried out by their
own kin, ethnic lords, as their defense (265).
In light of these remarks, it may be concluded that many of these ethnic
lords were able to maintain (or actually acquire in some cases) privileged
positions within the colonial framework. Part of the problem stemmed from
the hereditary nature of kurakas’ standing, and their proximity to the centers
of colonial power in the Andes: the Church and Spanish or criollo
administrators and businessmen.71 Throughout the colonial period, the Andean
elite such as the kurakas maintained their privileged position by their
management of communal plots, and in many cases exemptions to royal
tribute.72 The role of the Andean elite within the new colonial system is also
analyzed by Karen Spalding, who in her writings stressed the ability of this
group to take advantage of their traditional position in the community to
accumulate wealth and power in the new economic order. Spalding
documented how the higher-level kurakas of a zone outside the area subject to
the Potosi mines were, as a class, “ gradually incorporated into the group of
provincial merchants, administrators, and landowners (Spalding 80-82).
Similarly, historian Nathan Wachtel has stressed the role of the “ collaborating
caciques,” which labored to accumulate capital, passing on tribute debts to
others, while perverting the old Andean rules of reciprocity (qtd. In Rasnake
71 See Karen Spalding’s, De indio a campesino: Cambios en la estructura social

del Peru colonial.
72 See the work of historian John Howland Rowe’s, Colonial Portraits of Inca
Nobles.
97
107-108). Conversely, castas or non-Andean groups in the Andes often had no
access to land, and survived as best as they could.73 Notable too is the thought
that the Andean elite, due to their middle standing were honored, but not
trusted by those below as well as by those above them (Spanish government
officials and colonists).
To sum up, in order to better understand the role and standing of ethnic
lords in colonial Peru, it is imperative to remember the landscape shaped by
the Conquest. First, the meeting between Andeans and Spaniards left a land
mired in demographic devastation and the resettlement of displaced
communities into artificial territories, or reducciones. Moreover, the Conquest
affected the Andean world by reshaping it and giving increasing importance to
the concept of class (in this case, economic) as a social indicator in the Andean
colonial world.
The Spanish knew well that gifts to the Andean elite were not sufficient,
so they decided to allow certain noble Andeans privileges and new economic
opportunities. Kurakas, with their unique access to Andean land and labor, led
the way. Andean miners, artisans, merchants, and farmers, who began to
adapt to and engage the new European commercial economy in a myriad of
creative and profitable ways, followed them. For example, the following will
dated from 1643 from an ancestor to the Sahuaraura family, Fray Nicolas de
73 There are emphatic statements by district governors in both colonial and

republican Peru to the effect that the poorest inhabitants were often mestizos,
precisely because they lacked even the smallest plot of subsistence land (Cahill
337).
98
Castilla, alias Leandro de Castillo Tito Atauchi gives us an idea about the
economic prosperity experienced by some of the Andean elite:
En el Nombre de Dios Todo poderoso [...] vieren como yo Fray

Nicolas de Castilla Religioso Novicio [...] y en el siglo don Leandro
de Castilla Tito Atauchi hijo natural [...] digo que yo tengo
proposito y voluntad firm e perceverar en esta sagrada religion y
hacer profesion en ella por estar como estoy al ultim o de mis dias
[...] y no tengo nescesidad de vienes ningunos conforme al voto de
pobreza que en la profesion de hacer quiero disponer de mis
vienes muebles y raices y futuras sucesiones [...] ; Primeramente
ocho solares en esta ciudad [...] Mas arriba otros quatro solares
con una guerta grande [...] En Anta dos ffanegadas de tierras [...]
Mas Junto al pueblo de Jaxaguana las tierras que paresera por
mis titulos con diez calles de solaresf...] En el pueblo de
Guarocondo una hacienda concierto y cincuenta ffanegadas de
tierra [...] tengo en la Parroquia de San Sebastian una chacara [...]
tengo ju n to a San Sebastian en las Salinas quinientas posas de sal
[...] en pueblo de Guasac tengo y poseo ciento ochenta ffanegadas
[...] (Decoster 258, 266)
According to historian Jean-Jacques Decoster, the first Tito Atauchi was
believed to have alerted colonial administrators about the rebellion of
Francisco Hernandez Giron in 1553. Moreover, other accounts mention that he
was in charge of a 4,000 indigenous army that helped the royalist forces put
down the rebellion in 1554. The actions of the Tito Atauchi family serve as an
excellent example of Andean royalist cooperation, and further give credence to
Sahuaraura’s assertions that the Andean elite had always supported the Crown.
A Real cedula dated from October 20, 1555, stated that Tito Atauchi was to be
recognized and privileged for his contributions to the Crown:
El Rey Carlos V [...] por el gran conocimiento y grandes servicios

[...] el dicho don Alonso Tito Atauchi nuestro leal basallo y buen
Christiano le avemos elexido y senalado por nuestro alcalde
Mayor de los quatro suyus para que haga y administre justicia y
alzando vara alta pueda a los nuestros sujetos y vasallos y para
99
que asimesmo entienda en hacer y ordenar justicia y castigar a

los inobedientes [...] como persona que tiene nuestro poder como
descendiente del ynga [...]. (Decoster 260, 283-284)
Decoster has also found a real cedula de privilegios from 1544 that legitimated
all descendants of the Tito Atauchi line. This position greatly differs from the
study of historian Ella Dunbar Temple who considers the Sahuaraura line to be
the descendants of an illegitimate son of don Bartolome Tito Atauchi, ancestor
of the Sahuarauras’ , thus discrediting their position as true nobles, and their
opposition and criticism of Tupac Amaru IPs claim to royal lineage:
[...] Por cuanto nos emos ynformados de que vos don Alonso Tito
Atauchi Inca hijo de Guascar Inga, nieto principal de Guaina
Capac [...] nos aveis servido en todas las cosas que se an ofrecido
y nos acatando lo susodicho y a que sois fie l basayo nuestro y
buen Christian nos a sido fha relacion qu siendo vos soltero aveis
procreado mucho hijos e hijas naturales en indias solteras no
obligadas a matrimonio ni religion nos suplicasteis por merced
mandarsenos legitim ar y a b ilita r a los dhos vtro hijos e hijas para
que fuesen mas honrados y pudiesen asentar en los consejos y
cabildos y pedir cualesquiera habitos y cualesquiera honrras y
gracias y privilegios [...] dho don Alonso Tito Atauche Ynga y sus
hijos descendientes hacemos lexitimos para todas las cosas y
quitamos de ellos toda ynfamia y macula y defecto que por razon
de su nacimiento les pueda ser opuesta en cualesquier manera asi
en ju icio como fuera de el (280, 285-288)
Was Sahuaraura an ethnic lord, kuraka or a deceitful pretender to such
designation? Was he representative of the Andean elite in Cuzco around the
end of the eighteenth century? On the one hand, according to the work
conducted by historian Ella Dunbar Temple in the 1940s, Sahuaraura came from
a long line of kurakas, albeit through a distanced and tainted bastard vein.
Although Dunbar Temple’s work is highly informative, it might be possible to
argue that her position and need to discredit the Sahuaraura’s was influenced
100
by the needs of Peruvian social historians, intellectuals and/or politicians
during the mid-twentieth century that sought to revive a glorious indigenous
past. This period was marked by a cultural revival of a glorious Andean age,
that wanted to rewrite Peruvian history in order to create a nationalist
ideology that included not only criollos in the struggle for Independence, but
also other castas, in this specific case, indios and mestizos such as Tupac
Amaru II. On the other hand, and more in tune with my argument, historians
Scarlett 0 ’ Phelan, David Cahill and David T. Garrett claim that Sahuaraura and
his lineage were clearly defined and recognized as a noble family by colonial
authorities.74 The proof according to O’Phelan resides in the many tax
exemptions, and titles of nobility bestowed upon the Sahuaraura family by the
Crown throughout the colonial era. A further example of the rightful claim to
nobility by the Sahuaraura family was given by Justo Apu Sahuaraura’s text,
Recuerdos de la Monarquia Peruana (1853), where the author proceeded to
include his lineage within the direct descendants of the first Inca, Manco
74 In the middle of the eighteenth century there were many changes within the
colonial order (Bourbon reforms for example) that brought modifications to
some noble Andean families. Historian David T. Garrett finds at least twenty
families that benefited from these changes in Cuzco: Ramos Tito Atauchi,
Sahuaraura, Poma Ynga, Choquehuanca, Soria Condorpusa and Quispe Cavana.
These families constituted an Andean nobility that was recognized by the
Crown and comprised by the descendants of, “ los Yngas sehores naturales de
los dichos nuestros reinos del Peru” (Cahill, “ Historica” 22). The reign of the
Andean elite during the eighteenth century according to Cahill encompassed
around a couple of thousand square kilometers within the “ Republica de
indios” (Cahill, “ Historica” 11, 13). Garrett has studied the size of the Andean
elite population, and states that there were close to 1,500 nobles around the
middle of the eighteenth century. In 1768 only in the parish of San Sebastian
(belonged to the ayllu Sahuaraura) there were 412 nobles (Garrett 20). The
census of 1786 counted a total of 486 nobles in Cuzco with 250 of them exempt
from paying tribute and 212 non-exempt nobles (Garrett, “ Revista Andina” 21).
101
Capac. Further proof of the nobility of the Sahuaraura’s is given by the work of
Garrett that finds a don Bartolome Quispe Tito Atauchi, great-great
grandfather to Jose Rafael, who fathered a number of sons, not all legitimate,
albeit all entitled to titles of nobility as well as to his inheritance. For
Decoster, the above mentioned Real cedula of 1544 serves as concrete proof of
the legitimacy of the Sahuaraura’s as nobility; hence, this Real cedula clearly
established the Sahuaraura Ramos Tito Atauchi family as direct descendants of
don Bartolome (Decoster 270). These ideas, then, are illustrative of the
importance of legitimacy for the Andean nobility. In keeping with this pattern,
critic Veronica Salles-Reese posits that the success or failure of the Andean
ruling class depended not only on their astuteness, but also on the legitimacy
of their rule, legitimacy that could be recognized by the Crown or by the
Andeans of their community, and on a perfect world by both (Salles-Reese 7).
The importance of legitimacy is best exemplified by O’Phelan, who
states that in order to gain access to the Church, noble Andeans had to present
a petition claiming to be royal descendants, as a witness stated in 1753 in favor
of Bias de Bermejo, an Andean aspirant to the Church:
[...] y que estos son indios legitimos y ha oido decir publicamente

son nobles por descender de caciques y que no ha oido decir
tengan ninguna mala rasa de judios ni otra secta reprobada, ni
que ninguno de sus parientes haya sido penitenciado por el
Tribunal de la Inquisicion. (O’ Phelan qtd. in Decoster 313)
The emphasis made by the witness in the above case provides us with one of
the primary preoccupations of the Andean elite toward the end of the colony,
the need to provide evidence of their nobility to Spanish authorities and their
102
communities. As such, the eighteenth century brought new opportunities to
the Andean elite; however, it also brought difficulties such as the desire of the
Crown to restrict tribute privileges. This new Bourbon imperative forced the
Andean elite to the feverish and time-consuming undertaking of proving their
“ pureza de sangre” (Garrett 49). In this manner, the importance of lineage
became fundamental to the survival of the Andean elite.
Viceroy Toledo’s government
By the 1560s Spain faced a mounting crisis in its Andean colony. As
historian Kenneth Andrien summarized it, “ the pillaging conquest economy
established after 1532 had reached its lim it and only a drastic political and
economic overhaul of the colonial system could revitalize Spanish rule in the
Andes” (Andrien qtd. in Klaren 57). The alliance between the Spaniards and
the Andean aristocracy was showing signs of unraveling. By that time the
Andean population as a whole was having second thoughts about the arrival of
the newcomers. Many natives altered their assessment of the Spaniards due to
the later violent and rapacious behavior.75
75 It was in this general climate that the millenarian religious revival, Taki
Onqoy, which preached the total rejection of Spanish religion, and customs,
was discovered in Huamanga in 1564. Taki Onqoy (dancing sickness) was a
movement led by some ranking members of the Andean elite and reflected the
general demoralization and disillusionment that pervaded the Indians of the
Huamanga region three decades after the conquest (Klaren 57). Out of this
cataclysm a new regenerated and purified Andean world would emerge, a
paradise free of the European oppressors and the diseases and destitution that
they had brought (57-58). The movement’s leaders were seized, beaten, fined,
or expelled from their communities in a systematic campaign of repression
(58). Many historians including Stern, Flores Galindo, Millones and Pierre
Duviols have sought to link this rebellion or movement with the insurgencies
that occurred during the eighteenth century and beyond.
103
To meet the crisis of the 1560s, Madrid dispatched in 1569 a new
Viceroy, Francisco de Toledo whose primary objective was to expand the power
and scope of the Spanish state in Peru by consolidating viceregal rule and
revive the flow of Andean silver to the metropolitan treasury. He sought to
achieve his objective by dissolving the encomienda system, reorganizing the
economy, and ending Andean unrest (58-59). Among his many reforms was the
concentration of the Andean population into major settlements called
reducciones, the revival of the mita system of forced Andean labor, and the
dispatching of an expeditionary force against the remote Inca fortress of
Vilcabamba. After a difficult campaign, the Spaniards succeeded in capturing
it, together with the reigning Inca, Tupac Amaru I. As such, Toledo was able to
formally end the conquest by executing the last Inca in a public ceremony in
the main plaza of Cuzco in 1572 (59).76
Toledo’s reforms did not end there; he also mounted a concerted
campaign to discredit the Inca Empire as usurpers of the land and enslavers of
the people, discrediting its history and its descendants in the eyes of the
masses and thereby further legitimate and solidify Spanish rule. In short,
Toledo’s restructurings were part of a combined purpose to morally justify the
Spanish invasion by depicting Spaniards as the liberators of the Andean masses
from Inca oppression and from the devil itself (59-60). Along these lines, this
76 According to historian Jan Szemisnki, there are no documents stating that

Tupac Amaru II claimed to be the reincarnation of the first Tupac Amaru.
Szemisnki’s study also states that Tupac Amaru II was a descendant, but only to
the fifth degree of the first, this argument is also supported by O’Phelan, Cahill
and Walker (Szemisnki qtd. in Stern 179-180).
104
enterprise also provided evidence of the complexity and divisiveness present in
the Incario prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, further cementing his belief in
the need for a Spanish presence in these lands. Chief among the chronicles
that denounced the pre-Hispanic past was Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa’s,
Historia indica.77
The reformist measures of Toledo directly affected the Tito Atauchi
family (ancestors of the Sahuaraura’s). In 1572, don Alonso Tito Atauchi wrote
a letter before an escribano stating his situation:
77 Sarmiento de Gamboa’s chronicle had as its primary objective, the necessity

to prove the tyrannical nature of the Incas. As he attested:
Mas como entre los cristianos no conviene tener cosa sin buen
titu lo [...] [Toledo] propuso hacer en esto a Vuestra majestad el
mas sehalado servicio [...] que fue dar seguro y quieto puerto a
vuestra real conciencia contra las tempestades, aun de vuestros
naturales vasallos y otros letrados, que mal informados de este
hecho de aca daban sus pareceres graves desde alia. Y asi en la
visita general que por su persona viene haciendo por toda la
tierra, ha sacado de raiz y averiguado con mucha suma de
testigos, examinados con grandisima diligencia y curiosidad,
entre los ancianos mas principales [...] la te rrib le , envejecida y
horrenda tirania de los incas, tiranos que fueron de este reino del
Peru [...] para desengahar a todos los del mundo que piensan que
estos dichos incas fueron reyes legitimos y los curacas sehores
naturales de esta tierra. (223-224)
For an excellent study of the way the Inca’s were portrayed during the XVI
century, see Luis Millones Fiugeroa’s, Cieza de Leon y su Cronica de Indias.
Other chroniclers of the sixteenth century, also called “ cronistas toledistas” or
“ cronistas de idolatries,” denounced the idolatrous nature of the Incas. These
include Cristobal de Molina, Hernando de Avendano, and Pablo Jose de Arriaga.
For example Arriaga wrote about the rebellious and idolatrous nature of the
kurakas:
A esta continuacion y asistencia de los hechiceros se ju n ta otra
causa para conservarse la idolatria entre los indios, que es la
libertad de los curacas y caciques en hacer lo que les parece y el
cuidado y slicitu d en honrar y conservar los hechiceros, esconder
sus huacas [...] . (Carrillo 197)
105
[...] una carta de dote [...] fue estando preso que este que apreso
el Virrey [...] con todos los yngas del Cuzco por cierto testimonio
que les levantaron y temiendose nose confiscase para la Camara
de su magestad todos sus bienes y yo y mis hijos quedasemos
pobres y sin remedio [...]. (Decoster 261 -262)
Many of the nobles incarcerated by Virrey Toledo were sentenced to death in
1573. Most of them appealed before the “ Audiencia de Lima” and were
subsequently condemned to expatriation to New Spain. Finally, after another
appeal they were released without being transferred to New Spain (262-263).
During the late sixteenth and early to mid seventeenth centuries the
Andean world suffered a moment of internal displacement product of a
demographic devastation, the resettlement of dispersed communities, the
system of reparticiones implemented in the 1590’s, the distribution of
encomiendas, and the fragmentation of the large political institutions such as
kurakazgos into smaller administrative units. All of these events contributed to
a process that Cahill has called “ destructuration” (Cahill 445).
However, during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the
Andean world and its institutions began a process of reconstruction. This
restoration implied a demographic recuperation, the formation of a number of
non-traditional institutions such as cofradias and ritual meeting called tinkus
that aided in the reconstitution of the Andean elite as a major actor in the
colonial world due to their economic and political importance (Glave “ Vida,
simbolos y batallas” 13). The upturn of Andean society would soon come to an
end around the 1760’s a period that marks the beginning of the full Bourbon
fiscal onslaught. In short, Spanish colonialism in the Andes during this period
106
assumed its most ruthlessly oppressive form. Under these circumstances,
strategies of Andean resistance changed from covert and passive to open and
violent confrontation, bringing in the age of Andean insurrection.
Colonial History in the late eighteenth century
The history of colonial Peru was clearly marked by the year 1765. From
that date, the Crown’s fiscal requirement insistently drew more Andeans into
the tribute network, while at the same time removing tax exemptions from
certain Andean groups (kurakas, tax collectors, and church servants). Prior to
this date, these sectors of the Andean elite were usually exonerated in the
payment of tribute.78 The history of tax exoneration to Andean subjects, its
granting or removal, varied greatly during the colony. At first, from 1530-
1550s the Crown granted exonerations to the Andean elite who supported its
78 According to Cahill many noble Andeans of lesser or dubious lineage required

to pay tribute, as well as other inhabitants of the colony, usually resorted to
tax fraud, which more often than not involved collusion with local officials
(Cahill 336). Moreover, the public knowledge of this privilege (exoneration)
also served to affirm the nobility of an aspirant to a Church or administrative
position. For an overview of the litigation presented by the Sahuaraura family
in order to uphold and maintain their tribute exemptions, as well as a highly
detailed genealogical study of the family and descendants of don Cristobal
Paullu Inca (ancestor of the Sahuaraura bloodline) from the middle of the
sixteenth century to the latter part of the nineteenth century, see Ella Dunbar
Temple’s, “ Un linaje incaico durante la dominacion espanola: los Sahuaraura.”
Dunbar Temple also carried forward the genealogical studies of the tangled
Inca lines into post-Conquest times by a long foreword and printing of wills in,
“Los testamentos ineditos de Paullu Inca, don Carlos y don Melchor Carlos Inca.
Nuevos datos sobre esta estirpe incaica y apuntes para la biografia del sobrino
del Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.” Historian Scarlett O’ Phelan provides an
excellent overview of the Andean elite and their tribute exemptions in Kurakas
sin sucesiones. For a detailed study of the Andean elite and tribute
exonerations at the onset of the Conquest, see Pease’s, Los ultimos Incas del
Cusco.
107
colonizing mission in Peru. This policy of exoneration was almost abolished
around the 1560-1570s with viceroy Toledo’s reforms. After the 1580s the
Andean elite who lost their exonerations legally fought to get them back.
The policy of exoneration accentuated from its very onset the divisions
already inherent between the elite and the masses in the Andean world. Real
insight into patterns of power and social hierarchy existing between kurakas
and their subjects is available in the litigation records compiled during the
colony. For example, a suit from 1668 detailed the charges of abuses
committed by three kurakas against ayllu members as well as the kurakas’
justifications for those actions. The accusations were grouped into three
categories: charges of physical abuse that the kurakas committed against a
number of ayllu members; misuse by the kurakas of the labor of the
comunarios, both in concert with Spaniards and for their own benefit; and
misuse of community land and income derived form them (Rasnake 126-127).79
From the point of view of the kurakas, the whole continuity of the system
relied on the people’s compliance with the extreme tax burden. Any attempts
to subvert it had to be met with strong sanctions. As an example, one of the
main kurakas accused in this suit, Juan Roque Choquevilca, claimed that when
other ayllu members did not pay their mita and tasa obligations this caused
significant shortages in revenue, to the point that officials had been sent in
79 According to O’Phelan, the Andean communities of Huanamasca and Chincha

denounced in court the cruelty of their kuraka, “ [...] que la crueldad y fiereza
de los caciques [kurakas] exceed a la de los mayors tiranos” (O’ Phelan, Kurakas
19). As such, the figure of the kuraka, for many Andean communities, was a
synonym of a tyrant during the later half of the eighteenth century.
108
order to make him pay for the deficiency (Rasnake 127-128). It is clear, that
the kurakas often placed the interests of Spaniards above that of their subjects
for obvious reasons. It is difficult to determine how far the effort to curry the
favor of the Spaniards went; but one person charged that Choquevilca had gone
to the extreme of giving two girls to Spaniards as gifts (Rasnake 128-129). In
addition, the Crown’s attempts to extract more of the region’s economic
surplus also involved bringing in outsiders, rather than the locally born
descendants of Spaniards, in order to introduce alterations to the fiscal system
such as the formation of provincial customs houses, an increase in the sales tax
from four to six percent, and an increase of the range of items taxed.80
These actions at first benefited the interests of the Crown by increasing
revenue. Nevertheless, the middle and long-term effects of such policies were
harmful for the Viceroyalty and the Andean population in particular.81 An
example of such miscalculation was the disruption caused between the
traditional trading arrangements of Upper Peru (present day Bolivia) and Lower
Peru (present day Peru). Along these lines, many kurakas and merchants lost
their monopolies on the profitable trading routes between both areas,
80 Alonso Carrio de la Vandera’s postal project was also part of the Bourbon
reformist initiatives.
81 Moreover, with a population in 1795 of only 1,115,207, Peru lacked sufficient

cheap labor to run its agricultural activities. The abolition of the
repartimiento system in 1780, the immense disruption caused by the uprisings,
and the fact that the Andeans lived in the highlands while the haciendas were
in the valleys and the manufactories in the cities, made it difficult for Peru to
exploit its Andean population to the extent desired by most property owners.
Furthermore, Peru’s geographical isolation made the acquisition of African
slaves difficult and expensive. In 1795 there were 40,385 slaves in all of Peru,
and of that number 29,781 were in the province of Lima alone (Anna 134).
109
furthering the economic demise of the region. In addition, the communities
governed by the kurakas still had to fu lfill the increasing revenue demands of
the Crown; the result was a furthering of economic hardships for the Andean
population. More important, however, was that the Bourbon assault on tax
evasion and the application of greater fiscal force led to a number of revolts,
culminating with perhaps its most violent and far-reaching: the Tupac Amaru II
rebellion of 1780-81, as well as opening an irrevocable rift between colonial
society and the Crown.82
The peak of Andean discontent came in 1780 when a wealthy kuraka
(albeit of questionable lineage according to the majority of the Andean elite),
Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui, apprehended and executed the corregidor of Tinta
(near Cuzco), Antonio de Arriaga on November 10, 1780. Arriaga was accused
of exceeding the legal limitations of the reparto. While these were not the
first rebellions by native Andean peoples, none became as generally
widespread as this, one estimate suggests that as many as 100,000 people died
82 The Andean population did not take the Spanish Conquest lying down. On the
contrary, many resisted Spanish penetration right from the beginning. In the
eighteenth century alone, there were fourteen large uprisings, the most
outstanding of which were the uprising led by Juan Santos Atahualpa in 1742,
and in 1780 by Tupac Amaru II. For a detailed study of the Juan Santos
insurrection of 1742-1752 see Stern’s, Resistencia, rebelion y conciencia
campesina en Los Andes siglos XVIII al XX.
110
during the rebellion out of a total population of only two million (Rasnake
138).83
It is important to envisage what drove Tupac Amaru II to take this
extreme measure. It might be possible to find the root of his discontent a
couple of years prior to 1780. In 1777, Jose Gabriel’ s position as kuraka was
challenged from several quarters, and he became involved in extensive
litigation to defend his rights to the office.84 In fact, he found it necessary to
travel to Lima to defend himself in a lawsuit with a rival kuraka, Garcia
Betancur, who also claimed to be a legitimate descendent of Tupac Amaru I.
For instance, Jose Gabriel made several petitions to the authorities to be
granted a Spanish title of nobility. Another was made in behalf of the Andeans
83 Historians such as Steve J. Stern and Scarlett O’Phelan argue that Andean
insurrections were the norm during the eighteenth century in colonial Peru.
For example, there was a second major uprising in Upper Peru (modern Bolivia)
soon after Tupac Amaru ll’s death, where an Aymara speaker named Julian
Apasa (but who adopted the name Tupac Catari) mobilized an army, which laid
siege to the city of La Paz from March to June of 1781 (Valcarcel 282-283). In
1770, the inhabitants of Caylloma rebelled against their corregidor. In 1777,
the natives of Chumbivilcas, murdered their corregidor fro arresting their
kuraka for not paying his debts (O’Phelan, Kurakas 26).
84 According to O’ Phelan, it was corregidor Arriaga himself who questioned

Jose Gabriel’ s standing as ta legitimate kuraka. The attempt by Arriaga to
usurp Jose Gabriel’ s position was part of a common practice during the late
colonial period, the substitution of hereditary kurakas with “ intrusos.” These
substitutes were mostly appointed by corregidores or the court to non-
hereditary kurakaships; furthermore, these individuals included criollos or
mestizos. The practice of appointing kurakas dates back as far as 1744, to the
point that by 1776, there were no more than eight hereditary kurakas in all of
Cuzco (O’Phelan, Kurakas 23). For O’Phelan, the increasing presence of the
“ intrusos” contributed to the deterioration of the long-standing bond between
kurakas and their subjects, as well as to the eventual abolition of the
kurakaship as an institution. Moreover, there was also an economic reason
behind the growth of appointed kurakas, since the salary of an intruso was half
of a kuraka de sangre (20).
Ill
in his district to be exonerated from the Potosi mita. In both the court
litigation and petitions, Jose Gabriel became increasingly frustrated and
embittered with colonial administrators, for the court case remained
undecided and his petitions on the m ita were apparently rejected by Visitador
Areche (Klaren 115).
As mentioned earlier, Jose Gabriel assumed the name of Tupac Amaru II
prior to the rebellion. Extensive research conducted by Szeminski shows that
at least at the onset of the rebellion Jose Gabriel did not claim to be the
reincarnation of the last Inca, just one of his descendants. Nevertheless, there
is no disputing that the name, Tupac Amaru II, was employed later on by Jose
Gabriel as a means of tapping into the popular currents of Andean millenarism
so prevalent during the second half of the eighteenth century. Historian Carlos
Burga also sees the using of the name Tupac Amaru II by Jose Gabriel, as a way
of plunging into the neo-lnca revivalism and nationalism that called for the
return of an Andean utopia, so prevalent during the eighteenth century. Inca
revivalism dates back at least to the 1750s, when descendants of the Inca elite
attempted to recover and validate Andean cultural traditions, embodied in a
nostalgic reaffirmation of past Inca glories and triumphs (Burga qtd. in Klaren
116). Indeed, a veritable cult of Inca antiquity flourished in the old Inca capital
around the midcentury. In public ceremonies in Cuzco, kurakas proudly
dressed in elaborate Inca garb and exhibited other symbols of Inca primacy
including flags, and the ancient symbol of the sun god and the Incas. The neo-
lnca nationalism flourishing among the Indian gentry of Cuzco was accompanied
112
by the re-emergence of widespread millenarian sentiments among the
indigenous masses of the region. It centered on the myth of Inkarri, the
ancient Inca creator god Viracocha, who would return to restore an alternative
Andean utopia of justice and harmony (Klaren 116- 117). According to Rowe,
Inca nationalism during the eighteenth century arose out of the complaints of
the Andean elite against the corregidores who encroached into their power by
appointing intrusos into kurakaships. This conflict drove many of the Andean
elite to seek from the Crown titles of legitimacy as well as coats of arms during
the period (Rowe qtd. in O’ Phelan, Kurakas 19).
The courts of Lima were not the only persons disclaiming Tupac Amaru
IPs claims of nobility. The autor of Estado del Peru, also fervently disputed
these claims in his text:
Este fue un pobre arriero de Surimana, su pueblo; como tambien

Diego, su primo hermano [ . . . ] y todos ellos siempre han sido de
fortuna baja. (Sahuaraura 25-26f)
Moreover, Jose Rafael Sahuaraura staked his textual claim to hold the truth by
utilizing the memory of the Inca Garcilaso himself:
[ . . . ] enviando emisarios a todas partes, con aludidas firmadas a

su predecesor [Jose Gabriel], quien decia ser descendiente del
ultim o Principe, Don Felipe Tupac Amaru, lo que pudo ser por
alguna extravagancia; mas la Historia de Garcilazo dice que este
no dejo hijos, y los parientes que tuvo se pasaron a los Reinos de
Espaha; estos son los sehores marqueses de Alcaniles; quienes,
como descendientes de este Monarca, disfrutaron el Marquesado
de Oropesa. (84)
What is being raised in these passages on the one hand was Sahuaraura’s claim
that Tupac Amaru II was not a rightful descendant of the Incas, and as such he
was devoid of any rights, claims, or privileges from the Crown. On the other
hand, by discrediting Tupac Amaru II, Sahuaraura positioned himself and those
he represented as the true heirs of the Incas, those who had been loyal to the
Spanish cause in the New World, and those who would never betray such trust
by starting or supporting rebellions. This assertion allowed Sahuaraura to
position the class he represented as the rightful heirs of a ruling class
recognized and afforded certain rights and privileges by the Crown, rights and
privileges that should and could not be taken away since they had always
supported the Crown’s cause. Historian Leon G. Campbell affirms that in Cuzco
the majority of the Andean elite drastically opposed Tupac Amaru II, whom
they considered to be a farse as well as a competitor to their own claims
(Campbell in Stern 124-126).
One of the more intriguing issues concerning the “ Great Rebellion” has
been the role and participation of the kurakas. Recent studies such as
Rasnake’s show that despite Tupac Amaru M’s claim as a hereditary and “ true”
kuraka, he was the mastermind of the rebellion in this manner distancing his
position from that of the Andean elite of the period. The answer to this issue
revolves around Tupac Amaru ll’s position within the kuraka hierarchy of
Cuzco. The upper echelon of the Andean elite such as the Sahuaraura’s,
discarded Tupac Amaru M’s claims of nobility or kurakaship, as the demands of
a cacique of dubious and/or insipid lineage that could not aspire to the higher
rank of kuraka. Indeed, many of the prosperous indios that joined him in the
revolts were considered to be mere caciques (leaders of their communities, but
114
of ambiguous royal lineage) by the upper ranks of the Andean kuraka elite.
Indeed, the leaders of the rebellion in most cases had had their claims to
kurakaship questioned at one time or another by the Crown or the Andean
elite, as in the case of Tupac Amaru II. Moreover, as the work of O’ Phelan
states, most kurakas remained loyal to the Crown and to the colonial order
while rejecting participation in the rebellion (El Peru en el siglo XVIII 192).
It is this idea -- the failure of the rebellion to gain support of the upper
Andean nobility -- that most concerns the present discussion. Campbell’s
contribution in this matter is important. He states that the Spanish were able
to draw in the Andean nobility and suppress the rebellion by emphasizing the
unsettling and vicious aspects of the rebellion (led by an impostor to the royal
lineage and followed by murderous masses) (680). Moreover, the “ Great
rebellion” deeply fissured the institution of the kuraka itself, between the
kurakas loyal to the Crown and the rebellious kurakas/caciques, between the
Andean elite and its lower ranking members. The rivalries that arose between
kurakas during the rebellion were three in nature: ethnic, social and personal.
According to O’ Phelan, the prevalence of ethnic divisions this late in the
colony is a testament to the inability of the Spaniards and the Andean elite to
dissipate long-standing disputes. A prominent example of these tensions was
the bitter and long dispute between the inhabitants of Collao and the Lupaca
tribe of Chucuito. The later fought against Tupac Amaru II because the natives
of Collao supported him: “ [...] por la oposicion y aversion que aun desde mui
antiguo profesan a los C o llao ” In addition, personal divisions also marred the
115
rebellion, such as the bitter dispute between Tupac Amaru II and Garcia
Betancur for the same kurakaship (O’ Phelan, Kurakas 30-32).
Following the execution of the corregidor of Tinta, Tupac Amaru II led a
rebel force into the province of Quispicanchis where they devasted a hastily
assembled Spanish militia at the “ Battle of Sangara.” One report estimated
the dead at 576, including a number of criollo women and children. News of
this alleged “ atrocity” by the rebels led the Bishop Moscoso of Cuzco to
denounce Tupac Amaru II and call the authorities to present the movement in
subsequent official lines as a caste war of Andeans against “ all others”
(including criollos, peninsulares, and mestizos). Such a depiction proved costly
to the rebels, since they had hoped to attract criollos and mestizos to the
movement (Klaren 118). As such, the changing nature of the rebellion, initially
a class conflict, but later also a race confrontation, prevented the adhesion of
some liberal whites or mestizos to the mass rebellions of the 1780s (680).85 The
great fear generated by the increasingly violent turn of events, discouraged the
adhesion of a minor group of criollos that had initially envisioned the rebellion
as an opportunity to alleviate the increasingly suffocating tax demands of the
Crown.
85 Some studies such as Golte’s argue that at the beginning of the insurrection
Tupac Amaru II was able to incorporate some criollo and mestizo sympathy
toward his cause in areas that suffered the most from the corregidores (Stern
59). Alonso Carrio de la Vandera also wrote about the widespread fear felt by
Peru’s colonial population in Reforma del Peru (1781). Carrio believed that it
was in the Crown’s best interests to distance the mestizo and negro population
from this revolt by making them also fear for their safety.
116
Sahuaraura best exemplified the divisiveness present in the Andean
world when he distanced the “ true” noble Andeans, those who let their loyalty
for the Spanish Crown and good deeds speak for themselves, from the so-called
savagery and treachery of Tupac Amaru II and his followers:
Pero mat se compadece de que este vil traidor (Jose Gabriel)

hubiese traido origen tan alto, noble y real, como publican sus
dictados al principio de sus traidoras convocatorias, cuando sus
hechos por execrables, han tributado un feo lunar a la Nacion
para hacerla odiosa; m ejor hubiera sido no darse sierpe tan
contagiosa in rerum natura, que quiza su privacion hubiera sido
el mas oculto sepulcro de tantos males acaecidos y preserva de
honores y personas infectadas. iDe que le sirve a este indigno
que hubiese sido hijo de Jupiter, cuando sus obras son viles [ . . . ]
cuando la corona de este Imperio, desde el Sehor Carlos V, hasta
este nuestro actual y amabilisimo Monarca, ha tenido y tiene su
mejor lugar en el Real Trono de Espaha? (84-85)
The editor of Estado del Peru, Francisco Loayza, best exemplified the
repudiation of the Sahuarauras’ and their class toward the rebellion that
claimed:
Los mayores enemigos que tuvo Tupac Amaru, en su gesta

libertadora, fueron los de la fam ilia Sahuaraura: Pedro Jose
Sahuaraura, Juan Sahuaraura y Jose Rafael Sahuaraura, autor de
este codice. No solo denunciaron a los patriotas revolucionarios,
sino que tambien combatieron con las armas a los hombres de su
raza. Fueron, segun el vocablo moderno, perfectos quislings,
vocablo este que encierra el instinto sanguinario de Cain y la
cobarde traicion de Judas.86 (32)
86 One must take into consideration that Estado del Peru was edited in 1944,
during a turbulent political period in Peru, one mired in a fervent nationalism
that sought to reinvindicate the figure of Tupac Amaru II as well as other
precursors of the wars of independence, a need which could have driven
Loayza to discredit the Sahuaraura lineage. The work of Ella Dunbar Temple
about the “ Great Rebellion” and the Sahuaraura lineage was also written
around this period. Her position does not deviate greatly from that of Loayza,
her studies claim that the ancestor of the author of Estado del Peru was the
illegitimate son of a prominent Andean noble during the sixteenth century.
117
Authorial intentions of Estado del Peru
Jose Sahuaraura Titu Atauchi claimed that one of the principal
objectives in writing Estado del Peru was to accurately portray the events
surrounding the Tupac Amaru II Rebellion of 1780-1781, as well as to clear the
name of the Bishop of Cuzco, Juan Manuel de Moscoso y Peralta. Intrinsically
linked to these two objectives was the role that some of the Andean elite
played in the uprisings, including Sahuaraura. The rewriting of the events in
question as well as the recreation of his role in them were mediated not only
by his ethnic Andean perspective (one in opposition to Tupac Amaru IPs in
ideology, class, status and affiliation), but also by the assimilation of a
European colonial ideology that allowed him to express his views in a way that
was intelligible and acceptable to the Spaniards, a group more closely akin to
his interests and to those people he represented.
In order to best evaluate Sahuaraura’s key assertions about the need to
set the record straight, as well as his evaluation of the patriotic role-played by
Bishop Moscoso’s in the events surrounding the rebellion, one must analyze his
claims about the purpose of his text:
He tenido por conveniente, ILustrisimo Sehor [Obispo], explanar

por extenso los laudables hechos de Vuestra Senoria llustrisima
[Bishop Moscoso] asi, porque todo es de publica voz y fama, como
por paternizarle a la maledicencia y convencerla; pues con el
motivo de haber bajado Vuestra Senoria Uustrisima a la Ciudad
de los Reyes [Lima], ha abierto tanto cauce para decir tanto, que
no hay oidos para oir, corazon para sentir, ni ojos para llorar; por
lo que, como su mas humilde y rendido subdito [Sahuaraura], me
he visto no solo precisado, sino obligado en concurrir, siquiera en
un apice, en la defensa del honor tan recomendable de mi
llustrisimo Prelado y Sehor, exponiendo con mi tosca pluma y mi
118
rudeza lo que siente doloroso mi ardiente corazon [...].

(Sahuaraura 120)
In the aforementioned passage, its author utilized a modest, devoted, and
obedient tone to address the Crown, “Mgs humilde y rendido subdito ” .
Likewise, Sahuaraura was self-conscious and falsely self-effacing - “ mi tosca
pluma y mi rudeza” — when he aimed to uphold in writing the “ true” events of
the period, not those ruled by widespread hearsay or “ maledicencia” . The
extreme humbleness of Sahauraura’s address and text followed a common
model for the period. Sahuaraura’s chronicle has been described as a “ Letter
to the Crown,” but its potential readers were many. Thus, although he directly
addressed the Bishop in his letter, he also made it quite clear that he
conceived of his text as a manual for a better comprehension of the events
surrounding the uprising, as well as of Andean culture.
As such, the author fe lt a higher call to duty, “ no solo precisado, sino
obligado” to convince the Crown of Bishop Moscoso’s patriotism, by revealing
the “ real” and praiseworthy “ laudables hechos” dealings of the Bishop in the
insurrections of 1780-1781. This argument was further supported by
Sahuaraura’s numerous claims throughout his text that:
[ . . . ] en el corto recinto de este mi informe conferencial,

exponiendo al publico la verdad no vista ni creida, por los que no
ban querido tener ojos para ver y oidos para o ir y creer [...],
[and] Propuesto tengo el sistema de mi intento, que es vindicar el
imponderable peso del recomendable honor de Vuestra Senoria
llustrisima, y para probar esta asercion, no pido autoridad de
respetos de graves sehores, ni quiero apadrinarme de dichos o
noticias, donde tienen lugar los engahos; dire, si, lo que mis ojos
han visto desde su principio, mis manos han palpado, lo que mis
oidos han oido, por ser todo de publica voz y fama, y la
119
experiencio, como maestro de las ciencias ha demostrado.&7 (20,

24)
Here, Sahuaraura’s fashioned discourse was guided by “ la verdad,” and his
first-hand account of the events, “ mis ojos,” “ mis manos,” and “ mis oidos.”
Hence, Sahuaraura claimed to hold “ la verdad” or the rhetoric of legitimization
when alleging to have seen everything with his “ ojos.” In this manner,
Sahuaraura’s claims to objectivity were seriously compromised since Bishop
Moscoso conferred him his current position:
Siempre he tenido el superior orden de Vuestra Senoria

llustrisima el mejor puesto dentro de mi corazon, para ser
debidamente obedecido por ser soberano; por lo que de ninguna
manera puedo dejar en silencio aquel encargo o precepto que me
impuso, entre otros, utilizando al tiempo de partirm e a la
Doctrina de Juliaca, partido de Lampa, con el destino de
emplearme de Cura Coadjutor y Vicario de ella, conque Vuestra
Senoria llustrisima [...] me honro; y que puesto en el lugar,
despues de cerciorarme en lo mas u til y preciso, en lo politico y
civil (con la mayor seriedad y entereza, omitiendo paradojas y
prolijidades u otras afectaciones impertinentes que desdicen), le
informase del fe liz estado del Collao [ . . . ] a causa de ver que las
cosas carecian de una versacion deseable y mejores conductos que
se requieren para hacer recuerdo de el [ . . . ] expongo pues a
Lustra [...] lo acaecido hasta estos tiempos, con aquella pureza
que el caso exige, para evitar de este modo el minimo apice de
descomedimiento, que mi inadvertencia pudiera ocasionar [...].
(5)
87 As we have seen in the prior chapter, the role of the historian is to reveal
the past, to discover, or at least, to approximate the truth, and as Sahuaraura
skillfully attests there is no better authority than that of an eyewitness. This
claim is very prominent in other histories of the Indies, such as Carrio de la
Vandera’s:
[ . . . ] serna mis ojos los mejores panegiricos, explicando de puro
gozo con su llanto las alegrias; porque a veces, dicen mas bien los
ojos que las voces. (Sahuaraura 85)
120
It is significant to note that the passage obviously compromises Sahuaraura’s
claims at objectivity by gracefully thanking Bishop Moscoso for the post and
commission given to him: “ Siempre he tenido [...] el mejor puesto de mi
corazon, para ser debidamente obedecido por ser soberano while
professing to uphold his neutrality, “ seriedad y entereza.”
Along these lines, the author of Estado del Peru attempted to vindicate
Bishop Moscoso through a moralizing discourse. This undertaking goes hand in
hand with what historian Hayden White states about the ever-present desire of
narration to moralize. White suggests that the moral connotation attached to
narration in the representation of “ real” events arises out of a desire to have
these events display the coherence, integrity, fullness and closure of a vision of
life that is, and can only be, fabricated. For example, if every fully-realized
story is a kind of metaphor, pointing to a moral, then it seems possible to
conclude that every historical narrative has as its latent or manifest purpose,
the desire to moralize the events it treats (White 23-24). And finally, these
words present the problem of whether it is possible to narrate without
moralizing? As Sahuaraura declared:
Este es, llustrisimo Sehor, por lo general el presente estado y

situacion de todas las provincias sublevadas, paz, sosiego y una
fraternal correspondencia, que se experimenta en estos tan
dilatados territorios [ . . . ] gracias al Brazo Omnipotente quien sin
atender, justiciero, a nuestros delitos, solo, si, movido de su
infinita piedad y grandeza, nos ha vuelto a consolar y halagar en
toda esta tormenta, recuperandonos de nuevo, y consolandonos
bajo su poderosa proteccion y amparo. (Sahuaraura 19)
121
The status of events, as well as the peace reached between the Crown and the
insurgents, were due in great part to God’s, “ Brazo Om nipotente” moralistic
actions and were moved by his “ in fin ita piedad y grandeza” according to the
text. Sahuaraura also exemplified the fundamental and heroic role that Bishop
Moscoso played in the appeasement of these fiery lands and its beastly
inhabitants:
Asiento, pues, por fin a l conclusion de que Vuestra Senoria

llustrisima [Obispo] es el quien se ha llevado la ventaja, en grado
mas heroico, entre tantos gloriosos y triunfantes atletas, que ha
fecundado benigna la amorosa America [ . . . ] llustrisimo Sehor:
Pero si atento seria y despaciosamente, con el mayor desinteres,
se inquiere por origen y causales de esta fe liz como aventajado
beneficio, que hoy tan alegre y gustosa disfruta toda esta tierra
arriba, me parece que a ninguno, con el mayor acierto y
agradecimiento, se debera a tribu ir sino a Vuestra Senoria
llustrisima [ . . . ] Vuestra Senoria llustrisima volvio otra vez a la
contienda, se avalanzo gemebundo, le suplico, le rogo lloroso se
apiadase de su pueblo; pues le habia costado tanta sangre que no
era de su honor el entregar tanta hermosa margarita a los que,
hechos bestias, las habian de estropear [ .. . ]. (Sahuaraura 118, 20,
28)
To be sure, Sahuaraura elevated the patriotic and moral actions of Bishop
Moscoso above all, while stating that thanks to his dealings these lands were
able to live happily and gracefully.88 Part of the problem with this assessment
by Sahuaraura involves the numerous insurgencies that would arise during the
88 Campbell sets out to question the true intentions of Bishop Moscoso in the
uprisings of the period in, “ Rebel or Royalist? Bishop Juan Manuel de Moscoso y
Peralta and the Tupac Amaru Revolt in Peru, 1780-1784.” Despite Campbell’s
attempts to cast doubt on Mosoco’s patriotism, numerous studies such as
O’Phelan’s, La Gran rebelion en los Andes, Walker’s, Entre la retorica y la
insurgencia, and Robbin’s, El mesianismo y la rebelion indigena discredit any
attempt to portray Moscoso as an insurgent. In fact, Moscoso seems to have
been a devoted foe to the rebellion, even going as far as arming the priests
under his command and excomunicating Tupac Amaru II (Robbins 93).
122
coming years, as well as the suffering accrued by the inhabitants of these lands
due to the Spanish brutal response to these revolts. However, what makes this
passage important was the assertion by Sahuaruara of a clear distinction
between “ us” and “ them,” or between the civilized and the “ bestias,” those
willing to disturb and destroy everything accomplished by the Spaniards with
the help of the Andean elite.
The point is further emphasized by noting how Sahuaraura repeatedly
continued with his moralizing discourse by painting a righteous Christian
portrait of Bishop Moscoso’s concern with saving the souls of the unfortunate
residents of these territories:
A las exquisitas, como piadosas, diligencias de Vuestra [ . ..]

fatigas, desvelos y cuidados se debe asertivamente no solo la
pacificacion imponderable de este Imperio, sino aun la
conservacion temporal y espiritual de tantos infelices indios y
espafioles. (21)
What then was the purposeof Estado del Peru? Perhaps we can agree thatthe
answer can be located in the contention that the primary role ofevery
narrative is to establish a moral authority:
Mucha es la piedad y amor de Su Majestad para con los indios de

este Imperio que, aunque estos infelices cometieron los mayores
excesos, los perdonara. [...] Mil diligencias hizo su Senoria
llustrisima para sosegar a los indios, valiendose de varios
espaholes e indios, quienes hacian pasar las cartas pastorales.
Vio su Senoria llustrisima la grande perdida de los indios, y
movido de caridad se resolvio a pasar personalmente al Collao;
supieron los indios y lo esperaban por horas, para que todo se
acabara. Mucho es lo que los indios veneran a su Senoria
123
llustrisima, segun tengo visto y reparado en varias visitas del

Obispado89 (40f, 68f)
Thus, it is quite clear that the leading light of this narrative was Bishop
Moscoso, portrayed by Sahuaraura as a righteous and merciful agent of the
Church and Crown, the two pillars of Spanish colonialism. What's more, this
reinforces the suggestion that every narrative has to do with the topics of
legitimacy or authority. As such, Sahuaruara asserted the natural and innate
authority of God’s servants over the masses when he described the revered
image of Bishop Moscoso amongst the Andeans, as seen by Sahuaraura himself,
“ segun tengo visto y reparado en varias visitas .” The moralizing principle
inherent in every narrative as White affirms is also present in Sahuaraura’s very
own account of his participation against the rebellion:
Muchas veces acontece, por motivos que se ofrecen, traerles a la

vista el alzamiento cometido, o los excesos que ejecutaron, se
averguenzan, ofuscan y confunden, de tal modo, que no saben
dar salida a sus hechos [ . . . ] El dia 12 de Marzo de 1781 interne a I
Cuzco, llevando su carta, y le di cuenta de lo minimo al Sehor
Visitador [Areche]. Y Su Senoria, con mi informe, dispuso las
tropas con la mayor anticipacion, y le hallo desprevenido, le
afirme, bajo juramento de fidelidad, la verdad, que imaginar lo
contrario es ser complice; tengo certificados de todos estos
servicios. (18, 44)
As we can see, Sahuaraura positioned himself as a loyal moralizing and
civilizing representative of Church and Crown in these tumultuous times. In
this manner, he aimed to portray the rebellious masses as childlike in nature,
89 Estado del Peru includes a number of footnotes by its author. Every quote
included in this work that contains an (f) after a page number, such as (68 f)
indicates that the passage is present in Estado del Peru as a footnote.
and easily bewildered and misguided to commit vicious crimes.90 As such,
Sahuaraura also placed himself and the clergy as essential institutions within
the colonial order, since it was essential for someone to guide the injudicious
masses toward recovery. However, one problem with this account revolves
around the initial imperative given to the Church in these lands, the
Christianization and eventual civilizing of these masses, two unsuccessful and
perhaps even futile objectives according to the above mentioned passage. In
addition, the process of colonialism operates through a system of inclusive and
exclusive practices. As these examples indicate, the Andean elite of Cuzco
constructed their identity at the end of the colonial period, in complicity with
their Spanish colonizers, by working together to forge the idea of Spain’s
civilizing and religious superiority in contrast to the barbarous Andean masses.
Their collusion provides in this case contradictions to their position within
colonial order. It is possible to argue, then, that the Andean elite in this case
did not have the best interest of their people. Along these lines, Sahuaraura
and the class he represented justified a behavior that allegedly went against
the grain.
To be sure, the majority of the Andean elite decided to maintain their
privileged position in the colonial order by supporting the royalist cause, an
90 Most members of the clergy around Cuzco also espoused similar kinds of
attacks against the civility of the Andean masses at the time. Historian Emilio
Garzon Heredia affirms that the clergy often despised and feared the masses,
going as far as denouncing that they were surrounded by, “ [...] barbaros,
bestias y salvajes [...] apenas cristianizados” (Walker 246). This depiction of
the Andeans as a group that was barely been Christianized reveals much about
the complex and ambivalent nature of colonialism. Indeed, the clergy
denounced the failure of Christianization, thus pronouncing their own failings.
125
uneasy decision that alienated and diminished their position as caretakers in
the eyes of the masses. Moreover, their allegiance to the Crown did not have
the desired effects since their fidelity and intentions would always be
questioned.
Andean divisiveness
No hay mas prueba que el alzamiento, este ha dicho que

cosa es el corazon del indio bajo, y que el del noble.
(Sahuaraura 82f)
It is impossible to understand the mechanisms involved in identity
construction, without noting that every definition of identity is always
circumscribed in relation to something else, such as the opposition between
“ us” and “ them.” Another characteristic of identity construction is the placing
of boundaries between dissimilar groups. However, identity construction far
from reflecting a simplistic dichotomy between dominant/dominated,
colonizer/colonized, elite/masses or Spanish/Andean opens the door to
countless possibilities. In order to reinforce this idea, there is a need to
understand that there were whole sets of variations in the colonial world based
on class, race, ethnicity, and economics.
For the purpose of the present argument, it is important to see how
critic Franz Fanon describes the consequences of identity formation for the
colonized subject who is forced into the internalization of the self as an
“ other.” In taking this view, Fanon is suggesting that the colonized in most
cases perceives the colonizers as civilized, rational, and intelligent: while they
remained the opposite “ other.” He argues that the internalization of colonial
126
sets of ideals (colonialism) was also to a degree a source of suffering for
colonized peoples who were taught to look negatively upon their people, their
culture and themselves (Fanon, Wretched of the Earth 169).91 Along these
lines, it is possible to see the ideology of the Andean elite as very similar to
that of its Spanish counterparts.92 They saw themselves as true representatives
and descendants of a noble kingdom, a situation altered but not wholly
destroyed by the changes brought on by the Conquest. Embracing the
“ civilized” ideals of the colonizing nation accomplished their survival and
bestowed them a privileged position within the colonial order as intermediaries
between the Crown and the Andean masses.
Certainly such cases as these confirm that many kurakas were violent,
overbearing, and exploitative leaders who constantly worked to extract as
91 Although Fanon’s text refers specifically to the plight of the African or

Caribbean, the ideas are applicable to the predicament of all colonized
persons.
92 The Dominican Luis de Morales around 1540-1541 wrote in his relation about
the usefulness of the Andean elite for the Spaniard in the pacification of Peru:
Por cuanto Paulo Topa Inga, servidor y vasal lo de Vuestra
Majestad, ha sido verdadero amigo de los cristianos y de Vuestra
Majestad, como se ha manifestado en las obras y en muchas
batallas y guerras [ . . . ] que ha tenido con su hermano Manco Inga
[ . . . ] En recompensa de lo mucho que ha servido a Vuestra
Majestad, cosa conveniente seria [ . . . ] que Vuestra Majestad le
hiciese capitan de los dichos naturales asi en la guerra como en la
tierra para que los corrigiese y castigase faltas y excesos y para
que conquistase a los indios que no sirven a los espaholes [ . . . ]
dandole algun titu lo porque seria el muy importante en la
conversion de todos los naturales de la tierra y para la
pacification y quietud [...]. (Carrillo 29-30)
The observations of Luis de Morales were generally born out by his desire to
calm these lands; subsequently, he saw no other alternative to achieve this
goal than to utilize those Andean elite mentors who were willing to carry out
the demands and needs of the Crown.
127
much wealth from their subjects as possible. Yet there is also evidence for
another assessment about the kurakas, one that portrays them as generous and
protective. Both Stern and Spalding, for example, moderate their
representations of the kuraka class. Stern found certain kurakas serving as
“ guardians and representatives of the community,” while Spalding described
the relationships between the Andean elites and the ruling Spaniards as
extremely multifaceted. She points to instances where “ kurakas also used
their personal estates to buffer their communities from the excesses of the
system” (qtd. in Rasnake 108).93
Wording the distinction as we have, between good kurakas and bad
kurakas, illustrates the inherent limitations of binary constructions. There is,
of course, evidence to support both sides of the discussion. I would like to
suggest that the first step in studying this debate would be to recognize the
vital reasons that controlled the actions of the kuraka class at different times,
or as Rasnake proposes, by attempting to take into account the particular
economic, social, and political factors, facing various regional ethnic leaders
through time (Rasnake 108-109). In my opinion, it is clear that in their efforts
to abide by the necessities of the Crown, some kurakas exploited their
privileged position; but theirs was a balancing undertaking between compelling
incompatible demands. To reiterate then, if they were agents of the Crown, it
93 This point is supported by the cronica of the Bishop of Charcas, Hernando de

Santillan, who in 1553-1554 wrote:
Otros hay mas bien intencionados que disponen bien de lo que
tienen y hacen depositos de comidas para proveer a los pobres, y
pagan por ellos el tributo cuando no tienen de que. (Carrillo 42)
128
is clear that they were also more than that. At the same time, the kuraka elite
were a focus of wealth and of social relations that set them apart from the
masses. When viewed within this context, it is easy to see why Sahuaraura
made such a clear distinction between the Andean elite he represented, and
the masses.
Congruencia me sera muy politico y racional, a trib u ir a este

grado de simpatia natural, el amor y lealtad que los indios,
realmente descendientes de los reyes Incas, tuvieron con Dios,
con el Rey y con los espaholes, en todo este tiempo de la
sublevacion experimentada; pues fueron iguales victimas ante la
Real Presencia, que partidarios del Traidor. (49-50)
In this passage, Sahuaraura declared the empathy, affection, and fidelity of the
“ true” Andean elite “ realmente descendientes” toward God, King, and
Spaniards. This was a group clearly distinguished from the rebellious traitors.
This brief discussion by Sahuaraura was supported by his argument that
concretizes the inherent natural social and political allegiance and
understanding between the Andean elite and the Spaniards, especially, since
both had a common foe and fear, and were likewise the victims of the
unruliness and savagery of the masses.
Moreover, Sahuaraura called attention to a widespread Spanish
misconception during the late eighteenth century, the idea that all Andeans
were equal, akin or partidary to the rebellion. The following lines are taken
from the Spanish official in charge of Cuzco in 1785, Jose Mata Linares. He
stated that the Andean elite was a debilitated class, that had weakened and
downgraded their condition as such by the use of deceptive legal means, and
129
worst of all, they were a subjugated faction that had never gotten past its
defeat:
[...] nada prueban, sino solo van pasando de unos a otros ya

empenados, ya substraidos, ya por otros viciosos motibos [...]
todas las naciones [han fomentado y conservado una nobleza pero
ninguna una] descendencia de sangre real tan envilecida [...]
mucho mas si esta nada tiene que ver con la [nacion] dominante
[los electores no hacian mas que] embriagarse calentando mas su
espiritu para recorder con maior vibeza sus antiguedades en odio
de la nacion dominate. (Cahill, “ Historica” 25)
As such, it was Sahuaraura’s moral imperative to set the record straight and
firmly delineate the differences between “ us” and “ them.” To explore this, it
is important to return to Fanon’s views about the key role that the native
intellectual plays in the process of internalization of colonialism. Crucially,
this term native intellectual refers to writers and thinkers of the colonized
nation who were often educated under the auspices of the colonizing power, as
Sahuaraura was, as well as many of those he represented.94 Consequently, the
educated native intellectual was in many cases in danger of identifying more
with the colonizing nation rather than with the Andean masses he was supposed
to represent and look after.
To support this argument, Fanon suggested that the native intellectual
was inspired by and attempted to copy the dominant trends of the colonizing
power (Fanon, Wretched of the Earth 175). In so doing, the cultural traditions
of the colonized nation were ignored. Hence, in the case of Sahuaraura, the
94 See Manheim and Lerner. Moreover, the call to send some members of the
Andean elite to Spain in order to be educated was proposed by many
missionaries, including Luis de Morales during the sixteenth century.
130
native intellectual was estranged from the Andean masses that they
represented and allegedly protected, identifying more with the colonizer than
with those suffering its effects. The adoption by the kurakas of Spanish models
of dress, ornamentation, etiquette, and lifestyle represented a further
distancing from the masses. Guaman Poma in his Nueva coronica v buen
gobierno bluntly condemned during the seventeenth century those, kurakas or
“ true lords” as a treacherous and compliant class and emphasized in his
drawings the degree to which many of the more powerful kurakas had adopted
Spanish vices (Rasnake 122).95
The question of identification with the colonizers is also present in
Sahuaraura’s writings when he distanced himself and his class from what he
considered the uncivilized, ordinary, vile, and ungrateful masses:
Pero no se que tiene esta inculta y baja Nacion, para no saber

siquiera vivir con muestra de correspondida, no hallo mas razon
que su ruin origen y peor principio. (Sahuaraura 49)
The above criticism is an excellent example of how the concept of colonialism
was disseminated by first justifying to the Spaniards and secondly to the
95 During the eighteenth century foremost among the critics of the Andean elite
and their desire to become more Spanish was the Bishop of Charcas, Hernando
de Santillan, who wrote:
Los curacas, como tambien se aprovechan del trabajo de los
indios, tienen mas posibilidad y se precian de tener sus casas bien
aderezadas y vasos de oro y plata, y ganado y otras labores y
granjerias, y muchos estan ricos, salvo que son pocos los que usan
bien dello; todo se les va en profanidades y vestirse de sedas y
tener caballos y beber mucho vino de Castilla y tener amigos
espaholes que se lo ayudan a beber y les muestran a ser mas
viciosos. (Carrillo 42)
This brief discussion by the Bishop about the abuses and misuses of power by
the Andean elite ensnares a more serious charge: that these improprieties were
encouraged and taught by the Spaniards themselves.
131
Andean elite the idea that it was right and proper to rule over other peoples.
As such, the instruments of colonialism operated by persuading people, in this
case the Andean elite of the late eighteenth century, to internalize its
rationale and speak its language; to carry on the values and beliefs of the
colonizers as regards the manner by which they comprehended and represented
the world.96 This pervasive condition of thought inherent in colonialism is also
present in Estado del Peru since it affected the way in which its author
depicted his world as one clearly marked by a world populated by ordinary and
upper-class Andeans, as well as the idea that it was proper to rule over those
Sahuaraura perceived as inferior and uncivilized (masses).
Fundamental to Sahuaraura’s views were the binary divisions he
constructed between “ us” and “ them.” In the case of Estado del Peru, each
was assumed to exist entirely opposed to the other, where the masses were
conceived as being everything that the nobility was not. The masses were
described in a chain of detrimental expressions that served to buttress a sense
of the nobility’ s superiority and power:
Graso la conjuracion con la mayor crueldad y sano olvidaronse los

indios lo humano, como si sus progenitores hubiesen sido
basiliscos, dr agones, tigres, leopardos o las fieras mas
sanguinarias, que abrigan los bosques mas incultos; mataron a los
espanoles sin reserva de sexo ni edades, que su tirania y hechos
no tienen cotejo con las historias. (46)
96 Rowe and Estenssoro’s essays on colonial dress and portraits also show the
desire of the Andean elite to be painted wearing Spanish garb along with
certain Andean determinants of nobility.
132
The masses in this case were positioned as beastly, vicious, and sanguinary, a
class that had forgotten the civilizing ideals of their Inca predecessors and
Spanish mentors. I would like to suggest that the masses were fundamental in
defining Sahuaraura’s class, as its contrasting image, idea, personality, and
experience. As such, Sahuarauara and the sector of the Andean elite he
represented came to realize themselves by proclaiming via binary oppositions
everything it believed they were not.
This point is furthered advanced in Estado del Peru when its author
described the contributions of the “ true” Andean elite to the events
surrounding the Tupac Amaru II rebellion:
La sangrienta y no imaginada contienda que ha experimentado el

Imperio, a manos de sus propios naturales y descendientes, ha
sacado al publico, y ah dicho el giro, inclinacion y brio que cada
nacional encierra en su pecho [ . . . ] con este se han visto los
grados de heroicidad, valor, arrojo, bizarria y demas dones
naturales que, como esmaltes esclarecidos, realzan y hermosean
las personas; pues como son preseas de la fortuna, pasamanos son
de inciensos leales y nobles que las adornan. (107)
For Sahuaraura, the masses were not just different; they were extraordinarily
dissimilar. If the elite were rational, sensible and familiar, the masses were
uncultured, of ruinous origin, irrational, and abhorrently murderous. In this
case, the concept of class and purity of blood (origins) so prevalent during the
sixteenth and seventtenth centuries were the main indicators of difference as
the following passage by Sahuaraura attempted to convey:
Pero no se que tiene esta inculta y baja Nacion, para no saber

siquiera vivir con muestra de correspondida, no hallo mas razon
que su ruin origen y peor principio [...] los efectos de esos ruines
y bajos fueron destruir, robar y matar como tienen origen de
133
baja esfera, precisamente sus obras habian de seguir sus huellas

[ - 1 (49, 51)
This passage, then, is clearly illustrative of how class for the Andean elite
became an increasingly important indicator of social status and stratification as
the colonial period wore on. The depictions of the Andean masses made by
Sahuaraura in this case break away from that made by others during the
eighteenth century, specifically those made by Carrio de la Vandera and the
Sociedad de amantes del pais, depictions that described and pronounced the
inferiority of the Andeans based on the Enlightenment notions of race. To be
sure, any negative depictions and classifications of race such as those proposed
in Europe during the eighteenth century, that grouped all Andeans as
inadequate and lowly, would have also condemned and included Sahuaraura’s
class.
The consideration of the masses alleged inferiority when compared to
the elite helped to strengthen Sahuaraura’s sense of himself as inherently
superior and civil. Furthermore, the masses in Estado del Peru were
stereotypically presented and positioned as weak, cowardly, lazy,
134
untrustworthy, beastly, and violent.97 As such, these peoples according to
Sahuaraura desperately needed to be civilized; this meant that after centuries
of Spanish colonization, this had not happened yet. So, once again in creating
these labels, Sahuaraura and the Andean elite opposed to the insurgence, as
well as the Crown justified the propriety of colonialism and its brutal
suppression of the rebellion by claiming that the masses needed saving from
themselves.
To reiterate, then, Sahuaraura’s discourse at this stage attempted to
legitimate itself by creating a comprehensive system of representations bound
to a structure of domination. As such, his depictions functioned to justify the
appropriateness of Spanish colonial rule over Andean lands and its peoples.
These intentions are best exemplified by pointing out the colonizing role
assumed by Sahuaraura himself:
97 Like Edward Said, critic Homi Bhabha argues that colonialism is informed by
a series of assumptions, which aim to legitimate its view of other lands and
peoples. In the Location of Culture, Bhabha claims that, “ The objective of
colonial discourse is to construe the colonized as a population of degenerate
types on the basis of racial origin, in order to justify conquest and to establish
systems of administration and instruction” (70). But, in a departure from Said,
Bhabha contends that this important aim is never fully met. This is because
the discourse of colonialism does not function according to plan because it is
always pulling in two contrary directions at once. On the one hand, the
discourse of colonialism stipulates that the colonized is a radically strange
creature whose nature sets them outside of western culture and civilization.
On the other hand, the discourse of colonialism attempts to civilize the
colonized, while abolishing their radical otherness, while attempting to bring
them in within the context of civilization. Similarly, Sahuaraura portrays the
masses that followed Tupac Amaru II, as irrational, bizarre and violent. A
group diametrically opposed to the Andean elite and their civility.
Nevertheless, Sahuaraura opens the possibility of salvation for the duped
masses through the redeeming nature of the Church, to which he belongs and
works for.
135
Siempre que he logrado hallarme en los pueblos, en la lengua

indica les interpreto las cartas pastorales y el Indulto General; y
les doy a entender lo que puede la Real Corona de Espaha. El
exhorto verbal que le hiciese al insurgente Jose Gabriel le expuse
esto mismo, y es notorio mi hecho en todo Ayaviri; y entonces
logre lib e rtar sacerdotes espaholes y muchos bienes muebles.
(40)
The Voice of the Subaltern Masses
The objectives of Tupac Amaru ll’s rebellion have been studied, and they
were diverse.98 However, there are two reasons that are generally agreed
upon: a defense of the work and contributions of Andeans to colonial society,
and recognition of the legitimate rights and privileges -- primarily tribute
exemptions -- of the Andean nobility. Leaving aside for the moment the
question of the Andean’s contribution to colonial society, le t’s concentrate on
the privileges that Tupac Amaru II and Sahuaraura claimed as members of the
Andean nobility. Upon closer inspection it becomes evident that the
objectives/claims of the two were contradictory. In order to reinforce this
difference let’s examine Sahuaraura’s description of Tupac Amaru II and his
followers:
98 Despite all the excellent research produced in the last couple of years, we
have just started to explore the causes, reach, and consequences of the failed
insurrection of Tupac Amaru II. For a detailed study about the continental
repercussions, see Daniel Valcarcel. For a significant debate about the
insurrection as a “ separatist” movement is made by Jorge Cornejo, Cesar
Garcia, Leon G. Campbell, Heraclio Bonilla and Karen Spalding. For a pioneer
study about the beginning of a “ National Inca movement” created by the
Andean dissident elite of the eighteenth century, see Rowe and Flores Galindo.
According to Stern, despite this great work there is still much to be learned
and explored about the chronology, geography, complexities, ideological
contradictions, and the inability of the “ Great Rebellion” to incorporate and
affiliate the support of the majority of the Andean elite (Stern 54).
136
Era cruel y sangrienta bateria no debemos a tribu ir a otra cosa

sino al verdadero castigo del Dios de los ejercitos, Dios de las
venganzas, quien para demostrar el poder de su omnipotente
brazo, para que ninguno se le atrevas jamas , cogio por
instrumento el mas debil, el mas flaco individuo, como un Jose
Gabriel Norguera Condor-canqui, vulgarmente nombrado Inca
Tupac Amaru , y por sus valerosos combatientes, unos sujetos
despreciables e innobles, que no son gente para destruir a los que
son por sus cunas y nacimientos [ . . . ] . (Sahuaraura 25-26)
This passage emphasized the hand of God in the rebellion. As such, he chose a
weak and cowardly individual, Tupac Amaru II, to carry out his vengeance. In
other words, the outcome of the rebellion was already divinely predetermined
in favor of the Spaniards and their allies, since its performers were only
utilized to teach them a moral lesson. In this case, Tupac Amaru II and his
false contention of nobility, as well as his despicable and ordinary followers,
served as mere pawns or sacrificial lambs in God’s great plan. It was primarily
through Tupac Amaru ll’s “ false” contentions that Sahuaraura demonstrated
the real threat to his class, the fear of losing their privileged positions to
common folk, or even worse to be clustered together. Such a threat was
pronounced by the Visitador Areche when he stated that “ all” Andeans: “ [...]
deliran [todos] sobre descendencia Real, sobre armas y privilegios [ . . . ] (Fisher
144).” Both of these descriptions presented a very real problem for the
Andean elite, the erosion of their privileged position by the fraudulent
demands of the masses. The demands of the violent and unruly masses
seriously jeopardized the rights of all Andeans, but primarily of the Andean
elite amidst the restructuring of colonial society carried out by the new
137
Bourbon reforms of the period." In this manner, the rebellion attacked the
heart of a colonial institution, Andean nobility and their exclusive claim of Inca
lineage. As such, the Andean elite responded as a whole and without any
deserters to Tupac Amaru M’s contention that, “ la mia es la unica que ha
quedado de la sangre de los Incas Reyes de este Reyno” (Garrett, “ Revista
Andina” 33).
Moreover, the very real threat of a class, ethnic and/or cultural war
incited Sahuaraura to further separate those he represented from the
rebellion:
Gloriabase este soberbio Basilisco [Tupac Amaru] enemigo de la

ciudad y de sus jefes, por las muchas victorias que habia
conseguido [ . . . ] matando, robando y seduciendo a los ignorantes
indios ya varios de sus descendientes, de que era el verdadero
heredero de la Real Corona del Peru [...]. (Sahuaraura 33)
The prevalence and pervasiveness of Sahuaraura’s class and/or ethnic
consciousness were furthered in his description of the “ murderous heathens”
that followed Tupac Amaru II:
Buscaban estos a unos, y encontraban con otros; decian que

buscaban a los corregidores y pucacuncas y mataban a tantos
criollos, indianos, espaholes, sin reserva de sexo [ . . . ] de suerte
que si no se acude a tiempo, y estos logran ganar la ciudad del
99 Andean privileged groups were able to prosper during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries due in part to the many commercial conflicts of outsiders
that allowed their Andean intermediaries to reconstitute a powerful economic
order. This pattern was put into conflict in the middle of the eighteenth
century with the implementation of the Bourbon reforms as well as the
demands of Lima’s criollo elite for more economic and political participation in
the dealings of the colony (Stern 92-93). These events weakened the position
of the kurakas as intermediaries between the masses and colonial
administrators (Larson qtd. in Stern 94).
138
Cuzco, no queda bianco con vida, siendo los blancos el bianco de

la vida, por su nacional gobierno. (Sahuaraura 17-18)
This generalization held true for the Andean women as well:
Aun a las indias que eran sus propias mujeres o parientas, o que
eran comadres, o habian casado con espanoles o tenian camisa las
mataban a palo. A los indios blancos o mujeres blancas, o que
decian alguna cosa a favor de los espanoles, los mataban. No
hallo voces como poder decir la crueldad de estos. Las indias,
siendo por naturaleza compasivas, se volvieron fieras, andaban
con los hombres, llevando las piedras. (Sahuaraura 47)
Here as elsewhere, Sahuaraura clearly distanced himself from the beastly and
vicious rebels. What is interesting to note was the image that the rebellious
masses had of the Spaniards. According to historian Jan Szeminski, a Spaniard
was considered by Tupac Amaru ll’s followers to be a human being, but of a
bestial and diabolic nature. He was a nak’aq, an anti-social heretic, easily
recognized by his racial and cultural characteristics, and he was also evil and
destined to be executed by this very nature (Stern 171). Moreover, for the
rebelling masses any person of European features or light skin, and wearing
Spanish garb was a Spaniard.100 In this manner, the masses viewed the
Spaniards and their allies as beastly and diabolic, with the same characteristics
that Sahuaraura used to portray them. These ideas, then, are illustrative of
the way “ all” Andeans, including the elite and the masses, saw their world, as
one binarily divided into good and evil, just and unjust, etc. When viewed
100 Szemisnki suggests that the term “ espanoles” in Peru during the eighteenth
century meant a number of things: member of the Republica de espanoles,
elite, Gente qullana (notable persons of the Andean community), and persons
that followed a Spanish culture (Szeminski in Stern 164).
139
within this context their positions were inharmoniously similar, it was just a
matter of who claimed to “ hold” the truth. In order to reinforce this view, it is
important to analyze Tupac Amaru ll’s objectives stated soon after his
excomulgation by the Church:
Acabar con todo Europeo como principales autores de todas las

malas instituciones [...] Que era llegado ya el tiempo en que
debian sacudir el pesado yugo que por tantos anos sufrian de los
Espanoles, y se les gravaba diariamente con nuevas pensiones y
hostilidades: que sus arbitrios iban hasta ejecutar iguales
castigos en todos los Corregidores del Reyno; exterminar a todos
los Europeos. (Szeminski in Stern 165)
For Szeminski, Tupac Amaru II and his followers at the onset of the rebellion
believed that the Spanish monarch was on their side, he was just misinformed
by his administrators in the New World. As such, it was Tupac Amaru M’s duty
to set the house in order for the benefit of the king (God) and church (Stern
171).101 To support this argument, Szeminski mentions that most rebels
confessed to being true Catholics and Christians and that they followed orders
that differentiated at the beginning of the rebellion between good and bad
Spaniards (173). For the rebels there were two types of Spaniards, the evil
ones living in the New World, and the good ones living in Spain (177).
Nevertheless, the mass dessertions of the criollo and mestizo supporters of
Tupac Amaru II, his excomulgation by the Chruch as well as the brutal Spanish
101 At first, Tupac Amaru II raised the banner of rebellion in the name of the
Spanish King, “ v/va el Rey y muera el mal gobierno.” As such, his professed
quarrel was with the King’s immoral subordinates in the colonies who subverted
the monarch’s just laws and mercilessly exploited the Indian masses (Klaren
117). Also see the work of Szeminski for a much more detailed account of the
initial links of the rebellion with a call to restitute the “ true” w ill of the
Spanish monarch, and the Andean way of seeing the world.
140
response to the insurgency led many of the leaders of the rebellion as well as
the masses to group “ all Spaniards” into one grouping, evil. This action was
coupled with the understanding that they were entrusted with a special
mission, the execution of all Spaniards, since all of them were wicked (174).
Again, this argument brought in God’s hand into these dealings, perhaps then it
is possible to find in Sahuaraura’s text a veiled criticism of Spanish
administrators in the New World, when he stated that, “ Era cruel y sangrienta
bateria no debemos a trib u ir a otra cosa sino al verdadero castigo del Dios de
los ejercitos, Dios de las venganzas [...]” (Sahuaraura 25).
Finally, the turning of events and Tupac Amaru ll’s increasingly violent
position in the rebellion was corroborated by Sahuaraura himself when he
stated that:
Muchos indios que fueron al combate del Cuzco, de vuelta me

contaron que su Inca lloro mucho en Yanacocha de no ser recibido
por Rey en el Cuzco. Otros me dijeron que aqui dio orden para
que matasen espanoles. Desde aqui empezaron las muertes,
robos y atrocidades; y con el empeno cogio el combatir otra vez
el Cuzco.™2 (42f)
Campbell affirms that Tupac Amaru II had cultivated some ties of sympathy
from the criollo aristocracy in Lima prior to the rebellion, as well as from the
102 Tupac Amaru II claimed to have received a royal edict giving him the
authority to execute all “ puka kunkas” or Spaniards (Campbell 128). Tupac
Amaru II also progressively excluded any mention of the Spanish monarch from
his edicts (131). Another example is given by Campbell when he states that in
certain areas Tupac Amaru’s II commanders were given the power to murder or
“ devorar [...] a estos estrangeros leogardos [...] apostates y rebeldes que eran
inhumanos y malos cristianos [...]” (132). The leaders of the rebellion took this
authority to heart, and decided to deem someone a Spaniard vicariously (132).
powerful Bishop of Cuzco Moscoso (128). Nevertheless, after the execution of
the corregidor Arriaga and most importantly after the “ Battle of Tungusaca,”
were many criollo women and infants died, most of this support dwindled due
to criollo fears of being caught up in a bloody and violent rebellion (128).
Moreover, in response to the murder of Arriaga, Bishop Moscoso
excommunicated Tupac Amaru II and his followers as mentioned earlier (131).
Tupac Amaru II also contributed to the deterioration of the links with the
criollo aristocracy and the Church by failing to differentiate after the failed
siege of Cuzco between puka kunkas, simply ordering his followers to murder
any Spanish in site, as well as anyone that wore Spanish clothing, which in this
case included the Andean elite (129).
Numerous Spanish accounts of the period also mentioned the mass
desertion that Tupac Amaru ll’s army endured soon after the failed siege of
Cuzco on December 28, 1780. These accounts state that many criollos,
mestizos and Andeans abandoned the cause, leaving just the masses to follow
Tupac Amaru II (132). These ideas, then, Tupac Amaru ll’s changing and
increasingly more violent nature, are illustrative of the complexity of the
events surrounding the rebellion and his figure. In the first place, it questions
the idea that the rebellion was clearly a binary conflict between: the masses
and the elite, Andeans and Spaniards, royalists and rebels. The point is
furthered emphasized by Tupac Amaru ll’s change in ideology, from a royal
Christian subject in need of acknowledgment from the Crown and Church to a
treacherous and blasphemous dissenter, and; from the sympathy that some
142
criollos and mestizos had during the initial stages of the rebellion to their
complete repudiation of it after the killings at Sangarara. Moreover, questions
about to whether Tupac Amaru II was a true subaltern representative of the
masses that sought a radical shift in the Andes, as the later events of the
rebellion demonstrate? Or did Tupac Amaru II simply seek a title of nobility
from the Crown and recognition from the Andean elite in order to work within
the pre-established colonial order, as his initial actions illustrate? There are no
definitive answers to these questions, except to point out the complexity of
colonial relations, and the need to conduct further inquiries into the nature of
present day Peruvian history and postcolonial studies and the way we approach
mythical national constructs and the colonizer/colonized binaries?
What was the turning point? What happened at Cuzco? When Tupac
Amaru II finally laid siege to Cuzco on December 28, 1780 with about 6,000
troops, he encountered stiff resistance, not only from the royalist army sent
there to defend it, but from loyalist Andeans who were mobilized by the ayllu
leaders, including one led by Pedro Sahuaraura (uncle of the author of Estado
del Peru, Jose Rafael), who passed away in battle.103 This resistance by loyalist
Andeans reveals the complex ethnic antagonisms and divisions among native
103 Another example of the conflict between the Andean elite is given by the
painting that the kuraka Pumacahua, who contributed to the capture of Tupac
Amaru II, ordered done. This piece depicted a puma defeating a serpent under
the watchful eyes of the virgin of Monserrat, patron saint of the Pumacahuas.
The painting also shows the Pumacahua clan dressed in Spanish garb with an
underneath descrition that states, “ Vini, Vidi, Vinci". Tupac Amaru II and his
wife on the other hand, ordered a painting after the Battle of Sangara devoid
of any Spanish garb (Estenssoro, “ Revista Andina” 421-424).
143
Andean communities that would prove to be one of the primary reasons for the
downfall of the revolt. Unable to take Cuzco by siege, Tupac Amaru II fell back
to his original base in Tinta on January 10 after which his forces experienced a
series of military defeats at the hands of royalist troops and Andean loyalists
under General Mateo Pumacahua, a member of the Andean elite. These
setbacks culminated in the capture and imprisonment of Tupac Amaru II and his
wife Micaela on April 6. The rebel leaders were, then, taken to Cuzco and
summarily tried, convicted of treason and brutally executed (118).104 The
events surrounding the final stages of the insurgence, Tupac Amaru’s II siege of
Cuzco and the beginning of the end of the rebellion, were also portrayed by
Sahuaraura:
Venia imaginando matar con su vista venenosa a la Ciudad la

Sierpe o Basilisco, que eso indica el vocablo Tupac Amaru; pero le
miro primero la Ciudad, con aquel destrozo de trescientos y mas
indios de los suyos [ . . . ] echo por sus airados ojos todo el resto de
sus iras, pero retrocedio contra el sus especies venenosas, las que
arrojo contra el Cuzco, espejo lucido de tantos leales peruanos; y
su inicua accion de mirar, fue el principio de sus ruinas, fue
acabar desgraciado al rigor de sus propios incendios,
pretendiendo cantar victoria, cuando esta es reservada para el
famoso Nilo espahol-americano [...] Desde que huyo de Picchio
hasta su ultim a derrota, nunca tuvo sosiego ni buen suceso;
finalm ente su mismo coronel le prendio en Bangui. (Sahuaraura
39, 43f)
Finally, Sahuaraura also presented himself as a victim and active participant
against the rebellion when he stated:
104 The rebellion continued, however, and even expanded into the Altiplano
around Lake Titicaca under the leadership of his brother, Diego Cristobal Tupac
Amaru. It was finally suppressed in 1782, and in the following years the
authorities undertook to carry out some of the reforms that the two native
leaders had advocated.
144
Cuando estuvimos los nueve sacerdotes cautivos en Tinta,

mataron a Bermudez y a Parvina, sus elegantes coroneles.
Muchas veces lo veiamos venir derrotado de varias partes, y todo
desecho de pertrechos. Muchas noches le observe que de puro
pasear no dormia; y su m ujer tambien las pasaba llorando en
vela; yo estuve preso ju n to a la sala de armas [...] El dia 12 de
Marzo de 1781 interne al Cuzco, llevando su carta, y le di cuenta
de lo minimo al Sehor Visitador (Areche). Y Su Sehoria, con mi
informe, dispuso las tropas con la mayor anticipacion, y le hallo
desprevenido, le afirme, bajo juram ento de fidelidad, la verdad,
que imaginar lo contrario es ser complice; tengo certificados de
todos estos servicios. (43-44)
In the wake of the massive revolt led by Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui, or Tupac
Amaru II, Spanish authorities in Peru debated about the future course of
Andean affairs.105 The viceroy, Agustin de Jauregui was among the moderates
who supported the idea of convening provincial parliaments of the Andean
kurakas, or nobles, and their followers to discuss grievances. Antonio de
Areche, the Visitor General to Peru, was strongly opposed to this, feeling that
the Andeans respected only strength, and that convening such assemblies
would weaken the authority of the Spanish Crown by opening up to discussion
the system of education in Peru and the teaching of the Spanish language to
the Andeans. These parliaments created to discuss what to do with the Andean
“ problem” were never convened, as both Areche and Jauregui were
subsequently removed from office for failing to adequately contain the revolts,
105 While overcoming these insurrections, and in an attempt to crush their

underlying ideals, the Spaniards ordered the destruction of all traditions and
manifestations of Inca identity. As well as other cultural expressions, they
prohibited the use of Andean languages, clothes and musical instruments. It is
therefore remarkable that, despite such cruel repression and the decimation of
their population, so many Andean traditions and aesthetic assets have survived
to modern times.
145
and in general, the new Crown officials in Peru adopted a policy of strength
and hostility regarding the Andeans in Peru.
Among the many edicts created to contain and diminish the power of the
kurakas was the gradual suppression of all kurakaships and their substitution
with the post of alcalde de indios, given primarily to criollos or Spaniards. The
Crown also prohibited the use of inca attire, destroyed all the portraits of the
Incas so prevalent during the eighteenth century, as well as the portraits of the
Andean elite in Inca garb. The Andean elite were also forbidden to use the
title of Inca to denote a royal lineage. Moreover, it prohibited Andeans from
wearing black clothing, since it could denote a state of mourning for the fallen
rebellious leaders. Finally, the Crown called for the destruction of all Quechua
texts, as well as the imposition of Spanish as the only official language.106 The
Andean elite responded to these condemnations by claiming that for over two
hundred years they had been instrumental to the Spaniards in the civilizing and
administration of these lands, and that they were being castigated for a
rebellion that had been carried out by a fictitious noble. In the end, most of
the limitations placed upon the Andean elite were reversed despite the
unyielding stance of men such as Areche and Mata Linares. This is not to say
that things returned to a pre-rebellion stance. Despite their legal victory to
retain some of their rights, the institution of the Andean elite started a slow
decline toward an eventual disappearance; they lost land, tribute exemptions
106 These edicts were ratified with a Real Cedula on April 28th, 1783 (Roel
Pineda 34-35).
146
and only kept their titles of nobility as a whole (Garrett, “ Revista Andina” 35).
Conclusion
Indian critic Ranajit Guha’s postcolonial writings call attention to the
ways that cultural representations place the subaltern classes as subject to the
whims of the elite. The history of the Andean world during the colony was thus
written up as a sort of moral biography of the Andean elite in Estado del Peru.
In this manner, Sahuaraura’s representations privileged Andean elite
consciousness over subaltern ones. The rebellious subaltern, in this case Tupac
Amaru II too often was excluded as the conscious subject of his own history. As
Sahuaraura attested, now the masses have had the blindfolds taken from their
eyes and have seen the “ true” nature of the rebellion and its false “ Inca” :
Ahora saben de p re fijo como el Insurgente, o Inca, que dijo ser,

solo fue un atrevido insultador, o traza de maquinas, por ver
como le pintaba la fortuna; pues les ha dejado en patrimonio un
llanto incesante, un despeno, una total ruina en sus padres,
mujeres, hijos, parientes y otros consimiles [...]. (Sahuaraura 95-
96)
As such, any attempt at rebellion on the sides of the masses was an affront
against Church, Crown, and patria. Moreover, their rebellious and murderous
attempt had been crushed, and now it was time for them to lower their heads
in penitence, as they should always do:
La experiencia con sus acasos les ha dado a conocer y reconocer

como la sublevacion pasada ha sido solo una incorcetada
maquina, un embuste encubierto, una falacia traidora y una
fantastica contraposicion a Dios, al Rey y a la Patria [ . . . ]
Parecioles que por ser homicidas crueles de unos espaholes
desprevenidos, habian estos de consumirse; pero luego que han
visto tan crecidas columnas en su defensa, han bajado la cervix
hasta lo infim o [...]. (95)
In the end, the “ Great Rebellion” of Tupac Amaru II cost upward of
100,000 lives, and left a traumatic legacy of Andean race relations in the
Peruvian popular consciousness. Indeed, it opened an enormous breach
between Andean and Spanish Peru that has still not been closed more than two
hundred years later. At the same time, the “ Great Rebellion” unified the ranks
of criollos, Spaniards, and and the Andean elite in a common cause against the
threat posed by the Andean masses or to the “ Gran miedo” as Walker has
declared (89). For the Andean elite, the “ Great Rebellion” delineated a
divisory line between the true descendants of the Incas and the pretenders to
this heritage, a separation that was obvious for them, but clearly not to
Spaniards or criollos. As such, the fading and weakened Andean elite
continued to support the Crown during the remainder of the colonial period in
hopes that it could reclaim its privileges, an undertaking that was never
attained.
Nevertheless, the outbreak of a possible social revolution illustrated to
the criollos the dangers of mobilizing or joining the subaltern classes in behalf
of their own developing grievances and frustrations against the dominant
peninsular class and the royalist regime. As for Independence, it would remain
for a much more narrowly defined and exclusionist, Lima based criollo
liberalism, with the crucial assistance of outside forces. Correspondingly,
Independence also dealt the final blow to the Andean elite. The system of
“ Two Republics” was supplanted by Republican Peru, an institution that
professed the superiority of criollos and the inferiority of the Andeans. A
republic with no room for an Andean elite, where criollos appropriated the
memory of a glorious Inca past, and discarded the contemporary Andeans of
Peru, or what historian Cecilia Mendez has so aptly entitled, a policy of “ Incas
si, indios no.” Eventually, the Andean nobility dissipated into the Andean
masses, to form the oppressed subalterned masses of Republican Peru. In light
of these remarks, Estado del Peru failed in its crucial objective, to consolidate
the links between the Andean elite and the Crown and to maintain their
privilege position within colonial order before the onset of the Bourbon
reforms.
Chapter 3
El Mercurio Peruano 1790-1796 : Criollo Identity and its Conflicting

Aspirations
Beginning in the seventeenth century and continuing into the eighteenth
century Peru had, in many ways, separated itself from Spain. Its criollo elites
had become politically and economically more dominant and autonomous. At
the same time, trade between Spain and its colony slowed down, while
remittances to Madrid plummeted. The new Bourbon monarchy (1700)
recognized, after taking stock of the Hapsburg reign during the seventeenth
century, that its colonies were financing Spain to a far lesser extent what
Britain and France's colonies were funding those countries despite the fact that
during the eighteenth century, together, the Spanish American colonies were
producing more minerals, and growing more agricultural products as both its
population and its cities expanded.
Why, then, was Spain not getting more? Why were Spanish American
remittances declining? Who was responsible for this decline? The answer to
these questions according to Madrid, primarily pointed toward one direction,
the inefficiency and corruption of criollo administrators in the New World.
Local criollo elites in charge of colonial administration during the seventeenth
century were believed to have, by way of bribery, intrigue, and the sale of
offices created alliances of convenience with crown officials in a way that
149
150
seriously compromised imperial interests.107 Historian Peter Klaren sums up
peninsular concerns when he observes that the new monarchy desired to
reassert its control over colonial matters in order to reverse the adverse
external and internal threats to metropolitan interests and revive imperial
fortunes (103). Therefore, it is against this background that Spain attempted
to “ re-colonize” its Spanish American colonies.
107 The first documentation of the use of the word criollo to describe the
offspring of Spanish settlers in the New World dates to 1563. The use of this
expression in the New World first surfaced in Carmelo Saenz Santamaria’s, El
licenciado Marroquin, primer Obispo de Guatemala (1499-1563). The use of
criollo first appeared in Peru in 1567, it is important to note that the group
first denominated by this word belonged to the high colonial administration. In
a letter dated on April 4, 1567 the licenciado Lope Garcia de Castro in charge
of Peru’s administration in lieu of a governor wrote to the Consejo de Indias:
Vuestra Excelencia entienda que la gente de esta tierra es otra
que la de antes porque los espanoles que tienen que comer en
ella, los mas de ellos son biejos y muchos se an muerto y an
sucedido sus hijos en los repartimientos y an dexado muchos
hijos, por manera que esta tierra esta llena de criollos que son
estos que aca an nacido y, como nunca an conocido al rrey ni
esperan concello, huelgan de oyr y de creer a algunos mal
yntencionados, los cuales les dizen: iComo sufris que aviendo
vuestros padres ganado esta tierra, ayan de quedar vuestros hijos
perdidos pues en bosotros se acaban las dos vidas? Y a los que no
tienen yndios les dizen que icomo se sufre que anden ellos
muertos de hambre, aviendo sus padres Ganado esta tierra? Y
con esto los traen desasosegados [...]. (qtd. In Lavalle 15, 17)
Moreover, the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega also mentioned the term criollo in his
Comentarios reales (1619):
A los hijos de espahol y de espahola nacidos alia, dicen criollo o
criolla. Es nombre que lo inventaron los negros y asi lo muestra
la obra. Quiere decir entre ellos negro nacido en Indias;
inventarolo para diferenciar los que van de aca nacidos de Guinea
de los que nacen alia porque se tienen por mas honrados y de mas
calidad por haber nacido en la patria que no sus hijos porque
nacieron en la ajena, y los padres se ofenden se les llaman
criollos. Los espanoles, por semejanza, han introducido este
nombre en su lenguaje para nombrar a los nacidos alia. (qtd. in
Lavalle 19-20)
In Peru, the Bourbons drafted new economic and political reforms in
order to reverse the negative trends of the seventeenth century, all with an
eye toward revitalizing colonial production and revenues, as well as
recapturing administrative control. On the one hand, reforms applied to the
economic and commercial sectors accelerated the output of silver, while the
introduction of freer trade within the empire created a revival of trade
between the colonies and the metropolis. Reforms also sought to stop
smuggling and the contraband trade that had flourished for decades, while
reinforcing the exclusive marketable ties between Spain and its colonies.
Furthermore, radical administrative reforms contributed to reducing the size of
the Peruvian viceroyalty through the removal of considerable regions on its
northern and southern fringes (New Granada in 1717 and Rio de la Plata in
1776), thereby re-orienting commercial flows away from Lima, its business and
administrative capital.
Not unexpectedly, although somewhat successful in its immediate aims,
Spain’s re-structuring projects also aggravated the discontent of the powerful
criollo sector of Peru’s population. Along these lines, writer Carlos Fuentes
suggests that the lethargy of the Hapsburg administration in dealing with its
colonies and the tremendous distances between the center and the periphery
fostered a sense of self-reliance and autonomous survival among criollos
(Fuentes 216). Therefore, the Bourbon reforms in Peru menaced the multiple
local interests that had developed during two centuries of colonialism,
152
threatening the criollos’ sense of autonomy and even their sense of identity by
attempting to force Peru into a tighter organic unity with Spain.
The Bourbon reforms implemented in Peru also reflected the peninsular
impression that held criollos accountable for the widespread corruption
afflicting the colony. In order to support this argument, Spanish officials
pointed to the decline in remittances sent back to the metropolis as well as
numerous tales of criollo corruption as told by peninsular travelers.108
Additionally, Spain accused Peruvian criollos of committing abuses against the
indio segment of the population, acts that in turn altered the economic and
social fabric of the viceroyalty.109 Spain’s answer to these alleged misdeeds of
Peruvian criollos involved reducing their participation and autonomy in the
business of the empire.
Moreover, it is significant to note that criollo interests were also
threatened by assaults directed toward their sense of racial and cultural
identity. These attacks were prevalent during the eighteenth century, and they
were substantiated by the new enlightened and encyclopedic spirit of the
times, in which European scientists created a number of theories and
classifications in order to rationalize the concept of race. These studies always
secured the non-European world, and its inhabitants into subordinate and
108 See Juan and Ulloa’ s Noticias secretas, and Carrio de la Vanderas’s El
lazariUo de ciegos caminantes travel accounts of the eighteenth century.
109 This chapter utilizes the term irtdios to denote the indigenous population of
Peru, including Andeans.
153
inferior taxonomies.110 Following these tendencies, peninsular scholars and
authorities attempted to classify all of their royal subjects, including criollos,
into subordinate arrangements.111 The new classification and schemata of the
eighteenth century applied directly to Peruvian criollos. In this manner, Spain
followed a project of setting apart and differentiating criollos from
peninsulares, by pointing out explicitly and mostly implicitly the belief in the
racial and cultural inferiority of criollos as well as their economic, political and
even ideological subordination.
In the following pages, I have set out to analyze the issue of Peruvian
criollo cultural identity, the structure in which it evolved (in the late
eighteenth century under the influx of the Bourbon reforms), and the ways in
which it became specifically problematic. By problematic, I mean the
seemingly ambivalent and contradictory criollo desire of wanting to belong to
the Spanish empire and the affirmation of their Peruvian
uniqueness/difference. This chapter outlines the development of a distinctive
110 See the eighteenth century writings of Charles Linneaus, Comte de Buffon,
Cornelius de Pauw, and Johann Blumenbach.
111 This belief was not the sole possession of Spaniards, but widely held by most
Europeans. These ideas also applied to the rest of Spanish America.
154
type of Peruvian criollo identity, analyzed and theorized through the prism of
cultural identity within the context of colonialism.112
The chapter continues with an account of the changes involving or
affecting Peru during the late colonial period, starting with the expulsion of
the Jesuit Order in 1765, and culminating with the aftermath of the events
surrounding the “ Great Rebellion” of 1780-1781. Following this, it
distinguishes the cultural complexities that developed within the criollo
colonial situation (conflictive or ambivalent social and political position, and
the loss of power), and the different strategies used by criollos in this colonial
position (cultural response, in this case through the creation of criollo
newspapers). Finally, in undertaking this analysis, I seek to point out the
nascent and emerging identity of Peruvian criollos, while delineating its
particular development.
A World Turned Upside Down
Amidst the changes brought by the new Bourbon reformist imperative
there were also many socio-cultural transformations occurring in the societies
of the New World. For example, Peruvian criollo society, increasingly
conscious of its specific identity, and decreasingly willing to be a mere
112 The term “ criollos ” in this chapter defines the elite segment of the criollo
population during the late eighteenth century, represented in this case by the
authors of El Mercurio Peruano. It is important to note that there were
differences in classes within the criollo sector of Peru’s colonial population;
nevertheless, I the authors of El Mercurio Peruano were representative of the
criollo class in general. As this study w ill show, criollos in general were
conservative in nature, fearful of their neighbors, and longing for a glorious
past. For a detailed study of criollo class diversity during the eighteenth
century see, Mazzeo’s Los comerciantes limehos a fines del siglo XVIII, Flores
Galindo’s Aristocracia y plebe, and Rizo-Patron’s Linaje, dote y poder.
155
appendage of the Spanish corporate body, saw its hopes advanced by a number
of national and international events during the second half of the century.
One of the most prominent of these events was the expulsion of the
Jesuit Order. Reaffirming its reformative impetus, the Bourbon monarchy
demonstrated its modernizing efforts by singling out a powerful agent in the in
the dealings of the New World: the Jesuits. The Crown’s dramatic expulsion of
all Jesuits from Spanish America in 1767 was a sensational and momentous
decision for the Bourbon nation-state. The Bourbon monarchy judged its own
authority to be incompatible with the excessive powers of other corporations,
including the Church. The Jesuit order held at the time vast amounts of land,
and considerable wealth and power accrued primarily from their function as a
banking institution in the colonies. This was a situation that led the Crown to
believe that in many instances the Jesuits acted as an
independent/autonomous “ corporation” within the colonial empire. Moreover,
according to Klaren, the expulsion of the Jesuits resulted in a considerable loss
of management and entrepreneurial efficiency in the colonies, in this case
Peru, as well as in providing essential support to the educational establishment
(Klaren 103). Further, in connection with this expulsion, Charles III and his
ministers concluded that the Society of Jesus was largely responsible for
prompting criollos on a journey of self-discovery and knowledge in contrast to
156
the best interests of the empire.113 In Spanish America, the Jesuits, prior to
their expulsion, were accused of not only plotting against the king of Spain, but
more importantly of identifying themselves with their Spanish American
subjects.
Whatever the reasons the monarchy had for expelling the Jesuits, the
action definitely backfired in Spanish America. There are numerous versions
dealing with the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish America. Most notably,
on the one hand, historian Felipe Barreda Laos asserts that the Jesuits had
grown rich and powerful in the two centuries since they had arrived in the New
World. Consequently, they were widely resented by various criollos and
peninsulares alike. On the other hand, some historians and writers such as
Klaren and Fuentes see the expulsion as having the effect of a bombshell in the
colonies, forecasting a collision between them and the monarchy. Whole
communities throughout Spanish America rose in mutiny, and the viceroy of
Peru, the Marquis de Croix, who was charged with the operation of expelling
the Jesuits, confessed in a letter to his brother that, “ they owned the hearts
and minds of all the inhabitants of this vast empire.”
The criollos in many cases viewed the expulsion of the Jesuits as a direct
affront to their growing needs in economic matters, education and social
support. Up to their removal, the Jesuit order had played a significant and
crucial role in the lives of criollos. Throughout the years, the Jesuits had
113 An order of Catholic priests; Jesuits were leaders in founding schools in

Spanish America, educating indios, criollos and the Spanish elite. They first
arrived in Peru in 1568. The Jesuits were expelled from all of Spain’s colonies
worldwide.
established themselves as providers of indispensable services to the emergent
criollos, especially in the areas not covered by the Crown. Not surprisingly for
many including Fuentes, the Crown's policy failed because the king's advisers
did not realize that their modernizing efforts had been notably anticipated by
the Jesuits. Even more importantly, the modernization or awakening of Spanish
America meant the need for the inevitable identification of Spanish America as
a unique and quite different place from the peninsula. In other words, the
Bourbon initiative to reform their New World colonies backfired since it gave
criollos the mechanisms to explore their differences vis a vis peninsulares.
This was a concept that the Jesuits understood, but that the Crown did not
(Fuentes 236-237).
After their expulsion, some Jesuit priests took reprisal against the Crown
by writing national histories of the colonies that affirmed the sense of
difference felt by some of the criollo elite in the New World. For example, the
Chilean Jesuit Juan Ignacio Molina wrote from Rome his Saggio sulla storia
naturale del Chile in 1782. Similarly, the Mexican Jesuit Francisco Xavier
Clavijero wrote again from Rome his Storia antica del Messico in 1781. Both of
these men formed part of the “ illustrious” exiled Jesuit contingent that in Italy
defended Spanish American cultural values against European rational criticism.
Their texts were a response to the fallacious and derogatory scientific texts
such as de Pauw and Buffon’s texts circulating in Europe at the time. Books
such as Storia antica del Messico gave an enormous sense of identity to the
nascent Spanish American nations, especially to the criollo elite, who had
158
access to education and who increasingly felt able to identify themselves with
their birthplace. In this manner, criollos increasingly would associate
themselves with their particular Spanish American interests, culture, and
geography.114
As mentioned, the reform movement implemented by the Bourbons also
affected the field of colonial education. For the monarchy, this field was
mired by excessive concentration of power at the hands of the religious orders,
specifically the Jesuits. Reforms and the removal of the Jesuits were
complementary in the Crown’s aims, since they contributed to strengthening
Royal authority and to increasing the Crown’s control over social groups.
Additionally, they were responsible for the diffusion of new ways of thinking
(empirical philosophy) and their application to political economy, government,
and the sciences, all topics beneficial to strengthening the links between the
colonies and the metropolis. Similar to their assessment of the economic and
political situation of the colonies, then, the Bourbons were also aware that the
educational system was contradictory to the aims of the Crown and in dire
need of modification. In Lima, academic reorganization was undertaken by
attempting to eliminate any remnants of the old Jesuit educational system and
by reforming the most important academic institution in the country, the
Universidad de San Marcos. Also, academic reorganization involved
114 According to Canizares-Esguerra many of these histories were widely read in

Europe and were eventually also introduced in Spanish America as contraband.
For example, Clavijero’ s Storia antica del Messico was inmediatley translated
after its publication into English and German and reviewed widely in European
journals (235).
159
establishing the Convictorio de San Carlos as a center for higher education.115
Colonial officials created San Carlos as a response to the needs of criollo elites,
since the education in San Marcos was considered to be inefficient, biased and
outdated.116
Even far more reaching than the expulsion of the Jesuits and education
reform was the major reorganization and restructuring of colonial
administration. The creation of two new viceroyalties out of the former
Viceroyalty of Peru, mainly for commercial and defensive purposes, radically
altered the geopolitical and economic balance in South America. The most
significant loss for Peru, of all the newly established viceroyalties, was the
separation and loss of the Audiencia of Upper Peru in 1776, present day
Bolivia.117 This territory was detached from the Viceroyalty of Peru so that
silver from Potosi as well as other goods from the area no longer flowed
through Lima on the Pacific but rather through Buenos Aires on the Atlantic.
115 To reiterate, Spain, now under the sway of enlightened Bourbon kings,
contributed to the intellectual renovation of the colonies. The expulsion of the
Jesuits cleared the way for modest educational reforms. Spanish or foreign
scientific expeditions to Spanish America, authorized and sometimes financed
by the Crown, stimulated the growth of scientific interests.
116 According to historian Felipe Barreda Laos, the creation of San Carlos was
seen as successful for the interests of the Crown and the criollo elite, since
from its inception it counted with the support of colonial authorities and the
Carolingian Order in charge of implementing a new plan of studies in 1771. The
rectors, all secular priests, had a distinguished involvement in this venture, in
spite of the opposition raised by certain criollo conservative groups (Barreda
Laos 303).
117 See Lynch’s, Bourbon Spain for a detailed study of the Treaty of Madrid of
1750, in which the Crown sought to define the frontiers of the Spanish New
World. Upper Peru was reannexed to Peru in 1810 until the Wars of
Independence, when it became Bolivia (Anna 5).
160
With the rupture of the old Lima-Potosi circuit, Lima suffered an inevitable
decline in prosperity, much to the dismay and protest of its mercantile
establishment, as did the southern highlands of Cuzco, Arequipa, and Puno
(Klaren 103).
Among the many remedies for the declining remittances from the
colonies to the metropolis, the Crown transfered to the New World between
1782 and 1790 the system of intendencias.m This was an attempt to improve
the efficiency of the Royal administrative bureaucracy by making tax collection
in provincial governments more efficient. To do this, the monarchy sent a new
corps of bureaucrats to the New World, mostly with a military background. The
new intendentes moved to the provinces of the viceroyalties in order to relieve
the viceroys and local officials of tax collecting duties. Additionally, an aim of
the new intendencias was to further the economic development of their
districts by modernizing agriculture, mining and improving the primary,
political infrastructure. However, these tasks were not easily accomplished and
were met with widespread disapproval from the colonial ruling elite, since the
new intendentes threatened their economic well-being. Moreover, most
intendentes were new to the colonies and had to rely on local subdelesados,
officials better known for their oppressive practices toward the indios.
Furthermore, the most common complaint lodged against the subdelesados
claimed that these men forced the indios to trade with them, even though the
mandatory distribution of goods, or repartimientos, was no longer legal. The
118 Spain introduced the Intendencia system in steps: first in Cuba (1764), and
last in Mexico (1786).
161
practice of forcing indios to trade with subdelegados was not new; however,
the nature in which these forced trades occurred during the second half of the
eighteenth century was increasingly violent and incessant. These forced
repartimientos were also coupled with a higher tax burden and the reduction
of some tax exemptions for the indio communities as we have seen in Chapter
Two.
Historian Timothy Anna sums up Peru’s economic decline during the
second half of the eighteenth century and the failure of most of the economic
reforms when he points out that Peru by this period was importing too many
manufactured goods and even food, which retarded the development of a
domestic industry, while it exported too much of its gold and silver. Moreover,
there was a shortage of labor (the indio communities had seen their population
numbers drastically diminish during the seventeenth century due to epidemics,
and they had not yet fully recovered), an absence of good roads and
communication, and it had limited investment capital (6-8). The general point
was made, then, that Peru’s better days were in the past, unless something
was done, a task that belonged to the authors of El Mercurio Peruano. A
diagnostic of Peru’s economic and manufacturing weakness was given in the
following passage:
Las fabricas del pais se reducen a pocos obrajes [...] Hay algunas
de colchas, de vidrios, de sombreros, etc., pero no ocupan mucho
lugar en el plan de las riquezas del Peru. El azucar, la lana de
vicuna, el algodon, la cascarilla, el cobre y el cacao [ . . . ] son los
unicos generos de nuestra exportacion. La mineria es el principal
y tal vez el unico manantial de las riquezas del Peru. A pesar de
la debilidad con que se laborean las minas y de los pocos auxilios
que el comercio proporciona a los miner os [ . . . ] La agricultura en
162
lo genera/ podria proporcionar lo bastante para que nuestra

subsistencia no fuese tan precaria ni dependiente de auxilios
externos [...] Los malos y dilatados caminos, los costos de
arrie[er]aje y sus demoras, asi como impiden la circulacion
interior de este reino, son obstaculos para que prospere la
agricultura. (El Mercurio Peruano, “ Idea General” 24-25)
In one sense, the passage communicates a sense of utter economic ruin. The
impression the reader gets from this passage is that Peru’s only source of
wealth is based on its mining sector, although its agricultural sector also had
potential.119
As already noted in Chapter One, economic misfortune was not the only
plague afflicting Peru’s criollos at the end of the eighteenth century, a severe
blow to criollo autonomy also occurred when the Minister of the Indies Jose
Galvez (1776-1787) began to replace criollo officials with peninsular Spaniards.
To illustrate this claim, by 1803 only one Limeho, Jose Baquijano y Carrillo,
and one other criollo, were members of the Audiencia de Lima, whereas
between the 1740s and 1770s, Lima’s criollos had constituted the majority.120
This anti-native policy led criollos, beginning in the 1790s, to constantly
demand that the Crown appoint at least one-third to one-half of all
governmental positions to criollos, a demand that was not addressed by the
Crown (Klaren 123).
119 Such generalizations of economic decay and missed opportunities still ring
true today, two hundred years after these words were written. Peru’s
economic debacle still goes unanswered, contemporary economic discussions
still center on the importance of the mining sector and the potential of
agriculture.
120 For a detailed account of criollo participation in the Audiencia of Lima see
Mark A. Burkhalter’s, “ From Creole to Peninsular” and Leon G. Campbell’s, “ A
Colonial Establishment.”
163
In contrast to the negative effects of the above-mentioned reforms,
another Bourbon modification implemented during the 1760s and thereafter did
moderately succeed. This improvement involved the gradual elimination of the
mercantilist system in order to allow for freer trade. Nevertheless, the
implementation of this liberal economic reform came into direct conflict with
the more repressive administrative policies put into practice in the region.121 In
1778, a freer-trade decree was promulgated, with the exception of Mexico and
Venezuela, in order to promote commerce between the colonies and with the
metropolis. In 1789, the decree was extended to all or Spanish America.
Further, the success of this policy reflected the increase in Spain’s commerce
with Spanish America, which improved between 1778 and 1788. All the same,
the increase was not sufficient to cover the economic gains made by the other
colonial powers. Examples of the moderate success of this new trade policy
were seen in the increase of agricultural, pastoral and mining production in
Spanish America. The benefits of Spain’s new trade policy were also evident in
the increased production of sugar, indigo, cacao, tobacco, hides and other
staples that rose sharply due to increased European demand for these products.
121 Free-trade in the eighteenth century did not stop from being “ controlled”
by the Spanish government; nevertheless, it cannot be typified as a closed
“ monopoly” as it had operated for centuries. According to historian John
Fisher, the Spanish state was characterized by its contradictions and its ability
to negotiate. Spanish American colonies would fluctuate between a monopoly
and free-trade, standing somewhere in between, a position that would permit
it to do business with foreigners via contraband. In other words, two systems
coexisted in the colonies, one that produced for an internal market and trade
with the metropolis, and one for illegally exporting to other nations, most
notably England and France (110).
164
The authors of El Mercurio Peruano discussed the beneficial impact of these
reforms:
El comercio del Peru ho tornado un incremento considerable

desde que, con la venida de los navios mercantes de Espaha por el
cabo de Hornos y con el permiso del comercio libre, se ha
emancipado de la opresion bajo la cual gemia en el tiempo de los
galeones y de las ferias de Portobelo y Panama. Antes de esta
epoca, el giro de la plata efectiva sobre escrituras de retorno era
el arbitrio mas seguro en el comercio con Espaha. La habilitacion
de corregidores formaba el recurso principal de las negociaciones
de esta capital con el pais interno [...] En pocas manos circulaban
y se confundian los capitales mas crecidos. Los demas individuos
de esta profesion, ocupados en las ventas de tiendas, daban la ley
a los generos, asi como ellos la recibian de los almaceneros.
Ahora comercio, con haberse subdividido en tantos ramos
menores, mantiene mayor numero de negociantes, aunque son
mas raras las fortunas que proporciona. Es menester que el
comerciante combine bien sus proyectos y extienda sus
especulaciones, para que pueda conservar un giro mediano. (El
Mercurio Peruano, “ Idea General” 22)
Moreover, the success of freer trade did not benefit Peru directly, since it led
to the creation of new trading centers in Spanish America, most notably in
Buenos Aires. Despite the initial enthusiasm of the authors of El Mercurio
Peruano toward freer trade, they were soon disappointed and aware of their
loss of power within the colonial order, since the opening and strengthening of
trade centers such as Buenos Aires, Santiago and Quito to lesser extents
decreased the importance of Lima as the primary commercial center in the
region. As indicated by historian Mazzeo, initially, freer trade allowed Peru’s
criollo elite to accumulate considerable amounts of capital, which were in
many cases invested on land (Mazzeo 145). However, most of Peru’s criollo
elite were unwilling to reform their economic system radically, hoping instead
165
to recreate and revive Lima’s long lost albeit antiquated economic and
commercial glory.
Furthermore, the Bourbon economic and commercial reforms that were
initially beneficial ultimately failed in re-conquering colonial markets for Spain
for a number of reasons. Firstly, Spain was not an industrialized country and
therefore the colonies actively sought trade, albeit illegally, with emergent
industrialized nations such as England, France, Holland, and the United States.
Secondly, Spanish American trade was plagued by the fact that Spain was
unable to keep the vital sea-lanes opened during wartimes. Therefore, because
of the aforementioned reasons, Spain was unable to supply the colonies with
the essential goods they required, opening the door to contraband.122
At the same time that the Bourbon reforms affected Peru’s political and
economic landscape, they brought vast social changes. After the conquest, the
Crown had assumed from the Incas patrimony over all native land. In turn, the
Crown granted rights to native community families to use and dwell on the land
in exchange for tribute payments and m ita labor services. This system became
the basis for a long-lasting alliance and agreement between the colonial state
and the native communities. This arrangement was bolstered over the years by
the elaboration of a large body of protective legislation in favor of maintaining
indio rights over their lands; legislation was strongest during the Hapsburg
reign and ultimately weakened with the implementation of the Bourbon
reforms during the eighteenth century. The Crown throughout the years (both
122 See Flores Galindo’s Aristocracia y plebe, 1760-1830. and Mazzeo’s Los
comerciantes Limenos a fines del siglo XVIII.
Hapsburg and Bourbon) had charged officials, such as the corregidores de
indios, with the responsibility of protecting natives from abuse at the hands of
the colonists -- which they totally failed to accomplish -- particularly in the
appropriation and illegal selling of their land to, and by, private landholders.123
The practice of communal land appropriation by the Crown and private
landholders (peninsulares, criollos and in some cases Andean elite) greatly
increased during the seconf half of the eighteenth century due in great part to
the augmented tax liabilities placed on the indio population. In many cases,
the colonists and their native allies, the kurakas or Andean elite, often in
collusion with the corregidores and local priests, found ways of evading laws
and gaining control of indio lands and labor. To counter such exploitation and
to conserve their historical rights to the land, many indio leaders resorted to
the legal system, and at times even violent revolts as observed in Chapter Two.
As noted earlier, the eighteenth century in Peru was punctuated with
popular revolts; of which most tended to be short-lived, that is, until the
“ Great Rebellion” of Tupac Amaru II (1780-1781) sent a tremble down the
collective spine of non-indios. Whatever the preference at the onset of the
rebellion, the criollo class in Peru soon became aware that the non-criollo
123 As was discussed in the previous chapter, Spanish officials called

corregidores were in charge of the administration of districts called
corregimientos, somewhat like a county in the United States. Kurakas were
native leaders considered to be a cultural bridge between Spain and the
Andean world. Often, however, these individuals struggled to reconcile the
demands of both societies. They had to provide labor and oversee the local
economy, and they also served as religious figures. These titles were largely
hereditary and survived the Spanish conquest. Mitas were created by Spaniards
in order to supply cities with rotating drafts of forced temporary indio workers
to the mines and lands.
167
majorities also menaced their own unity and survival. As Leon G. Campbell
affirms, Tupac Amaru II after failing to receive any type of support from
criollos, which he initially believed would follow him, stated to have received a
royal and godly decree granting him the power to put to death all “ puka
kunkas” (rednecks) or Spaniards (including criollos), an edict that was taken to
heart by many of the insurgent leaders (Campbell in Stern 128, 132). As such,
the "anti-white" manifestations of the Tupac Amaru II revolt demonstrated to
the criollos that the masses could not easily be mobilized without posing a
threat to criollos themselves. For one thing, in the aftermath of the rebellion
Peru became an even more conservative, royalist stronghold where the
potentially restless criollo elites maintained a relatively privileged and needy
position within the colonial system. According to historian Pablo Macera, every
political text written for twenty-five years after the “ Great Rebellion” was
ensnared in fear of another social and racial upheaval (qtd. in Reforma del
Peru 16).124
Another significant event affecting Spanish America started with a tax
revolt in Boston, and culminated with the United States of America rebelling
successfully against Great Britain (1775-1783). The United States had given
itself a constitution based on individual freedom and good government. Its
middle class promoted the values of industry, education, and savings. In its
124 Similarly, Alonso Carrio de la Vandera wrote in 1782 that there were very
good reasons to fear the surrounding masses, especially if they ever joined
together against colonial rule, “ [...] para que asi urtidos y en buena armonia
podamos rechazar y aun subordinar al numeroso populacho de que estamos por
necesidad rodeados” (59-60).
168
aftermath, its ships were trading along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of the
Spanish New World. Admiration for the American Revolution was tremendous
during the early years of the republic for criollos, which were also the final
years of the Spanish Empire on the American continent.
To sum up, the eighteenth century witnessed the nuanced awakening of
the criollo elite in Peru: conservative in its ideology, fearful of its neighbors,
and hopeful for a return to old glories. This development was accompanied by
growing legal and illegal trade between the colonies and the non-Spanish lands,
coupled with the transformation of its administrative and political bodies. The
most significant cultural activity took place outside academic halls: in the
economic societies, organized for the promotion of useful knowledge; in
private gatherings and coffee houses, where criollos ardently discussed the
advantages of free-trade and the rights of men; and in the colonial press, in
which the new secular and critical spirit found articulate expression (Keem
155). Unknowingly, the Crown itself had awakened the distinctive spirit of the
criollo elite through its reforms, a development that would eventually partially
lead to the decomposition of the empire itself.
169
An Enlightened Response to Peninsular Criticism
During the second half of the eighteenth century, criollos became
acutely aware that although they enjoyed an advantaged position atop the
colonial pile, they were second to peninsular Spaniards in terms of privileges,
access to wealth, public posts, and political decision-making.125 Criollos in Peru
responded to the charges levied against them, by assembling an impressive
body of writing. These were designed to refute the popular Spanish belief at
the time, that criollos and every other Spanish American was inherently
inferior when compared to peninsulares. The fact that they were viewed as
inferior, or secondary, prompted criollos to gradually build a particular sense
of identity as a response to peninsular attacks. Intellectually, criollos set out
to investigate their Spanish American reality, which further gave
125 It is important to maintain that there was a clear socio-political and racial
pyramid in Spanish America; nevertheless, criollos were not treated in the
same manner as castas, negros, or indios. Thus, it could be argued that even
though criollos were considered “ others,” they were not as subalternized as
the other groups.
170
encouragement to a sense of "belonging" and "love" for their land, or p a trio t 26
Esta es la obra a la que se disponen unos hombres estudiosos y

verdaderos amantes de la Patria; en su nombre y en el mio, la
anuncio a este respetable publico, y desde luego procedo a
explicar los objetos que abraza y los tramites de su publicacion.
(El Mercurio Peruano, “ Prospecto” 18)
First to answering back to the Crown reforms and attacks was the criollo
intelectual. This process of retorting to the Spanish Crown and to the
European enlightened intellectuals was central to the means of enunciating a
criollo cultural identity that both fashioned a sense of group loyalty vis a vis
peninsulares, and other ethnic and social groups in late colonial Peru, and a
differentiation to them. To substantiate this argument, it is important to take
into consideration critic Uri Ram's claim that identities do not merge from
"nowhere" and do not "operate in a vacuum." Rather, they are produced,
126 Accordingly, criollos developed specific notions of "patria" stemming from

the split between peninsulares and criollos. According to historian Molinari
Morales, the authors of El Mercurio Peruano identified the word patria with the
place of birth (4). For Alvarez Brun, the concept of patria developed by the
authors of El Mercurio Peruano involved the creation of an integral unit that
included Peru’s historical, geographic, and culture uniqueness (204). Eva
Kahiluoto Rudat provides an excellent definition about the concept of patria in
Peru during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as a nation consisting of
people with a common origin, and born on the same soil (85). Historian Jorge
Basadre in “ Historia de la idea de “ patria” en la emancipacion del Peru,”
studies the concept of patria, as well as the inception and growth of the desire
for emancipation in Peru. Historian Jean-Pierre Clement in his comprehensive
study of El Mercurio Peruano. sees the portrayal of the patria, as an entity that
needs to be illustrated, honored, protected, and to act for its benefit and
happiness. According to the authors of El Mercurio Peruano. their patria was
currently in a distressing and fragile state, it needed to be restored and cared
for (235).
171
reproduced and spread by actors in concrete institutionalized contexts (De
Cillia 155).
Perhaps the most important criollo cultural and intellectual method of
responding to peninsular denigration and creating a particular sense of identity
during the eighteenth century was through the creation of numerous local
“ Societies of Friends” and newspapers. In the case of Peru, criollos most
notably achieved this through the creation of the “ Sociedad de amantes del
pais” and the newspaper, El Mercurio Peruano.127
Los cafes no han servido en Lima mas que para almorzar y ocupar
la siesta; las discusiones literarias empiezan ya a tener lugar en
ellos. El Diario Erudito y El Mercurio subministran bastante
pabulo al criterio del publico. Dichosos nuestros papeles, si por
medio de la critica misma que sufran, conservan los cafes libres
de las cabalas [ intrigas] y murmuraciones, que en otras partes
abrigan y por ventura no se han deslizado en los nuestros. (El
Mercurio Peruano, “ Ideas de diversiones” 37)
The role of periodicals in the late colonial period, then, affords us with one of
the clearest insights into the nature of identity construction in Spanish
America. In this fashion, colonial newspapers and reviews played a significant
127 “ Societies of Friends” also had been springing up all over Europe, Spain and
the rest of the Spanish colonies. These societies took and adopted many
names: “ Societies of Friends, Economic Societies of Friends, Sociedad de
amantes del pais, and Sociedad de amigos de la p a tria .” For example,
according to historian Donald R. Street sixty liberal centers of Enlightenment or
“ Economic Societies of Friends” flourished in Spain between 1775 and 1800.
These were modeled on similar societies elsewhere in Europe. These societies
made a lasting impact, through education and legislation, on educational
institutions, technological development, and fiscal policies in Spain (Street
570). Criollo societies in the New World were in contact with their
contemporaries in Europe, most notably Spain and France, and in most cases
followed their trends and inclinations, in this case the advancement of
enlightenment ideas for the improvement of their societies.
172
role in the development of the critical and reformist spirit and the blossoming
criollo identity among the educated elite of Spanish America, as well as
providing a discursive vehicle for the promotion of this identity.
In addition, these periodicals served as the junction between language
and power in Spanish America. Language in this case does not just passively
reflect reality, since it also goes a long way toward creating a person’s
understanding of their world, while housing everyday values. In connection
with this, novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o defines the importance of language in
colonial discourse:
Language carries culture, and culture carries through orature and

literature, the entire body of values by which we come to
perceive ourselves and our place in the world. Language is thus
inseparable from ourselves as a community of human beings with
a specific form and character, a specific history, (qtd. in Me Leod
18)
The following passage is a perfect illustration of the socializing role of language
envisioned by the authors of El Mercurio Peruano, and it described the
necessity of criollos to study the language of the Andeans, quechua, in order to
better control them and the territories inhabited by them:
La religion y la politico son los principales ejes en que estriba la

maquina de un Estado [...] no hay medio mas eficaz para dar a
conocer estas ventajas a los pueblos que el uso de sus lenguas
respectivas. De aqui nace la necesidad de entender la quichua,
para el manejo religioso y politico de los naturales del Peru [.. ]
Es preciso ajustarse a sus ideas, atemperarse a su modo de
pensar, hacerse como ellos para ganarlos, valiendose para
convencerlos de ejemplos tornados de su idioma; saliendo de a lii
no se hara progreso [...] No hay, pues, otro medio de extraerlos
de su barbarie que instruirlos en su propia lengua. (El Mercurio
Peruano, “ Discurso sobre el quichua” 261 -262, 266)
173
In the first half of the eighteenth century a few Spanish American
centers had enjoyed regular newssheets whose editors had sought to acquaint
readers with events of the New and Old World. These publications largely
amounted to lists of boat arrivals and departures, religious festivities and the
births, marriages, and deaths of prominent citizens.128
However, according to historian John D. Browning after 1760 a new type
of periodical appeared that had pages filled with elements of rational criticism,
and a dynamic expression of loyalty to a particular part of Spanish America, as
well as an earnest desire to work for the public good (Browning 7). These
periodicals appeared in increasing numbers in the period after 1780, where it
became more important to carry articles based on scientific, economic, and
social questions than on routine news items. According to Clement, the last
two decades of the eighteenth century saw a proliferation of a different type
of press, one whose main project was to promote the Enlightenment and its
main ideas. Examples of this new press in Spanish America include: Gaceta de
Literatura de Mexico (1789-1792), Papel Periodico de La Habana (1790-1810),
and Primicias de la Cultura de Quito (1792) among many others. These
periodicals were principally authored by the members of the different Societies
of Friends throughout the continent (Clement 14). The best Peruvian example
128 An example of this is El Comercio, Lima’s most read newspaper, which

included no more than three pages during the above mentioned decades. This
publication included mainly boat arrivals and departures (one page),
advertisements (one page), and one page dedicated to news from Peru and the
rest of the world. It is curious to note that news from Peru were usually
printed after the narration of European events.
174
of this type of press was El Mercurio Peruano (1790-1795). In this manner,
Peruvian criollo intellectuals promoted and constructed an enlightened and
rational identity through the pages of El Mercurio Peruano.
Criollo intentions and attempts at self-definition were best exemplified
at the beginning of the prospectus to El Mercurio Peruano. Specifically, the
author of the publication announced that the objeto prim itivo of this paper
was to make Peru better known, to make sure that it emerged from the dark
corner where neglectful or prejudiced historians had left her:
La escasez de noticias que tenemos del Pais mismo, que

habitamos, y del interno; y los ningunos vehiculos, que se
proporcionan para hacer cundir en el Orbe Literario nuestras
nociones, son las causas de donde nace, que un Reyno como el
Peruano, tan favorecido de la naturaleza en la benignidad del
Clima y en la opulencia del Suelo, apenas ocupe un lugar muy
reducido en el quadro del Universo, que nos trazan los
Historiadores. El reparo de esta fa lta es el objeto prim itivo del
Mercurio, a cuya publicacion me dispongo. (El Mercurio Peruano.
“ Prospecto” 1)
The preoccupation with portraying an accurate picture of their patria was not
limited to El Mercurio Peruano’s “ Prospecto,” but was also evident throughout
a number of articles in its history, including “ Idea General del Peru” by one of
the main contributors to the newspaper, Hesperiofilo (Jose Rossi y Rubf) from
1791:
El principal objeto de este papel periddico, segun el anuncio que

se anticipo en su Prospecto, es hacer mas conocido el pais que
habitamos, este pais contra el cual los autores extranjeros han
publicado tantos paralogismos [ . . . ] la ignorancia a veces y el
capricho han influido tanto en la mayor parte de estas obras, que
el Peru que ellas nos trazan parece un pais enteramente distinto
175
del que nos demuestra el conocimiento practico.n9 (El Mercurio

Peruano, “ Idea General” 19)
As one can observe, It becomes evident that the passages involved more than a
simple need to provide news about a specific region. I suggest that the
passages offer a number of clues regarding the authorial intentions of creating
a particular sense of Peruvian identity. Firstly, its authors explain the current
state of news about Peru, one distinguished by its escasez (lack of
information), the other by its ningunos vehiculos (non-existent channels of
transmission), and the last by its lugar reducido (reduced place in importance).
Furthermore, the passage reveals that, in particular, Peru was divided between
“ el pais que habitamos” and “ del interno” , which translates into a land and a
population divided in two, one which they inhabited and “ possessed” and an
129 The uses of Greek pseudonyms by the authors of El Mercurio Peruano were
utilized in order to avoid censorship from colonial administrators. The use of
these pseudonyms lost their relevance after the second year amidst the
approval of the task performed by El Mercurio Peruano by colonial
administrators. An example of the authors of El Mercurio Peruano’s intial
preoccupation with censorship was evident in:
No es im portante saber con anticipacion el nombre y
circunstancias de los que conmigo piensan en trabajar el
Mercurio. Por sus obras, se caracterizan los hombres, y estos son
siempre apreciables cuando aquellas no son delincuentes [ . . .]
estan prontos a dividir conmigo aquella justa censura que se
merezcan; pero mientras las cosas sigan el curso metodico que
corresponde a su combinacion, permitaseme el que yo solo sea
conocido con preferencia. (“ Prospecto” 2)
interior “ other” , not owned and inhabited by “ others.” 130 The image of an
“ other” land offers a significant insight to the concept of patria that the
authors of El Mercurio Peruano held: any land not inhabited by “ them” was in
fact empty and in need of ownership. In addition, is the idea that such a
unique reyno had been, continually, unobserved and neglected by European
historians. Another feature of these passages deals with Europeans’ erroneous
and distorted depictions of these lands, representations often ruled by a lack
of knowledge and unreliability. Along these lines, the crux of El Mercurio
Peruano’s true intentions was to have their patria/reyno recognized outside of
its sphere, but also to bring acclaim and praise to the intellect of its authors.131
It is against this background, then, that criollos felt the need to be recognized
by foreigners, and thus to recognize their own uniqueness. This was the most
important aspect in the construction of criollo cultural identity during the late
colonial period and perhaps the primary source of its ambivalence and
instability.
As discussed earlier, liberalism had emerged in Peru during the 1780s
and some of the more conservative ideas of the Enlightenment filtered into
130 For the most part, criollo nationalism was exclusionary: they saw castas,
indios and negros as inferior. The criollo plan for the creation of independent
republics included these groups, and Constitutions usually granted them rights.
In reality, though, they developed a sense of "nation" or “ patria ” as primarily
(or even exclusively) criollo - one in which the other groups had no role, or
had a subordinated one.
131 The teachings of the Enlightenment were influential on criollo thought in

the colonies and despite prohibitions on the circulation of forbidden books, the
ideas and works of Locke, Montesquieu, Hobbes and others made their impact
in an incipient feeling of criollo nationalism.
177
intellectual circles and beyond from abroad. For example, it was in the halls
of San Carlos, which housed the center of Enlightenment thought, in which the
ideas of Locke, Descartes, and Voltaire circulated amongst teachers and
students. It was in the pages of the influential journal El Mercurio Peruano that
the first criticism of the Spanish colonial system emerged, along with a
moderate reformist discourse calling for change. Espousing the intellectual
freedom and rationalism of its authors, as well as natural rights and the
equality of men, El Mercurio Peruano also published numerous scientific
articles that deepened knowledge about Peru’s natural resources and distinct
1 X)
environment.
Perhaps above all else, it was necessary for the authors of El Mercurio
Peruano to paint a scientifically accurate picture of their patria and intellect;
the periodical press was the ideal medium for the purpose. Here we have one
of the principal motivations of criollo intellectuals, who had been accused of
possessing an uncivilized culture lacking in value. The author of the essay,
“ Idea General” provided a description about the importance and profusion of
the Enlightenment in Peru:
La ilustracion es general en todo el Peru, tanto por la natural

agudeza y penetracion de sus habitadores nativos, cuanto por su
132 Periodicals throughout Spanish America w ill change their course and theme
dramatically after 1810. According to Clement, the continent goes into an era
of intense political activity, while compromising itself with the diverse
independence movements sprouting throughout the continent. In Peru, this
new press also takes flight between 1810 and 1820, but not without a
conservative response. On the one hand, liberal periodicals espoused a
defense and an upholding of the 1812 Constitution of Cadiz, a free press and
other liberal ideas. On the other hand, conservative periodicals defended a
pro-Spanish argument (Clement 16).
178
adhesion al estudio [...] La Real Universidad de San Marcos y con

proporcion las demas del reino forman un centro de Literatura
que lleva abundante luz a toda la circunferencia. Bajo sus
auspicios las ciencias del humanista y del filosofo han hecho en
estos ultimos tiempos increibles progresos y los hacen
continuamente. Ufanas de verse acogida en el palacio de la
Suprema Autoridad, han penetrado todas las escuelas, y de a lii se
han esparcido en todos los ordenes del Estado. iOjala esta luz
filosdfica sea tan constante y tan eficaz, que baste para
alumbrarnos sobre el sistema de educacion comun y sobre los
medios de m ejorarlal La educacion, tomada en el sentido que
comprende a todo el reino, es la unica parte por donde el Peru
esta ofuscado con algunas sombras. En lo demas, el buen gusto,
la urbanidad y el dulce trato son prendas hereditarias de todo
buen peruano. (El Mercurio Peruano, “ Idea General” 26)
The author of the article believed, that the spirit of the Enlightenment was
common to most in Peru due to the intellectual capacity and curiosity of its
inhabitants, in this case criollos. All of this occurred despite the malfunction
of the educational system, a system that was in need of reform to educate and
civilize the non-white masses in order to better control them; however, despite
this predicament there were plenty of buenos peruanos or criollos that stood
out due to their inherited good taste, manners, and civility. Perhaps more
interesting for our purposes is the implicit distinction made by the author of
“ Idea General” between buenos peruanos and others, between enlightened
criollos and the shadowy masses, and between the civil criollos and their
barbarous counterparts.
According to critic Jeffrey Escoffier, in identity politics, just as in
nationalism, there is a strong emphasis on inventing a new language, a new
vocabulary, and defining new bodies of knowledge while mastering old ones
(Escoffier 32). These new languages and knowledges are primarily developed
179
in order to replace the institutionalized forms of knowledge that oppress
certain communities or social groups. However, the mastery of old and new
information is also an important means by which intellectuals can discredit
theories about their diminished and inferior intellect. Therefore, it is by these
means that identity politics in the eighteenth century provided criollos with
the social and symbolic resources (periodicals) to articulate the link between
knowledge and the formation of social and cultural identity. In this manner,
construction of a criollo cultural identity also implied a response to authority,
in the case that this group had the means to contend against the stereotypes
that belittled their intellectual curiosity.
Identity and Racism
In the 1780s, Spanish Americans discovered the popular European
depictions of Spanish America and its inhabitants, which the writings of natural
scientists such as Comte de Buffon, Cornelius De Pauw and Charles Linnaeus
had promulgated. Enraged to learn that many in Europe now thought Spanish
America to be a tainted geography, home of repugnant and feeble animals and
plants, inhabited by lazy, degenerate and cowardly indios, diabolic ne$ros,
monstrous castas and corrupt unintelligent criollos, Spanish American
intellectuals vigorously set about undoing the damage produced by these
scientists and their various supporters. An example of the attacks or lack of
prestige of Spanish Americans include the negative depiction of criollo
intellectuals such as Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo (1664-1743) and Carlos
Siguenza y Gongora (1645-1700) who were considered by some to be the equal
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of the western intellectual. Yet in the eyes of the European scholarly
community, they continued to be first and foremost criollos, interesting
cultural and political hybrids whose uncharacteristic intellect led Europeans to
approach them as anomalies rather than as normal citizens. Moreover, the loss
of criollo political prestige in Spanish America in the eighteenth century was
usually accompanied by instances where even the most common of the newly
arrived peninsulares were looked upon as aristocracy, and often carried
themselves as such, relying on their birthright, skin color, family names, and
purchased or inherited titles to accord them undeserved privileges. For
peninsulares, their arrival in Spanish America often bestowed upon them
unwarranted dominance and privileges. These events further distorted and
undermined criollos sense of privilege and Spanish identity.133
Along these lines, another important factor present in the construction
of identity is competition for power and resources, which have led to contests
over “ self” and “ other” constructions. Here, competition in identity
construction is visibly increased in socially stratifified systems. Colonial
Spanish America and the foundation of its “ Sociedad de castas” during the
eighteenth century emphasized the separate origin of racial groups,
intensifying the level of competition amongst them. Furthermore, according to
George De Vos, some sense of genetically inherited differences, real or
133 Newly arrived peninsulares had always been granted undeserved privileges
since the inception of the colony in the sixteenth century; however, the extent
and number of these were seriously increased during the eighteenth century.
Obviously, the giving of these privileges went hand in hand with the Crown’s
attempts to limit criollo authority in the colonies.
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imagined, are also included in identity constructions. In this manner, real or
alleged genetic differences, when socially recognized as a constituent of
stratification, are usually used by dominant groups to maintain a caste-like
hierarchy. As such, the view that a racial minority is genetically backward, and
hence less worthy of political or social participation, is most often linked to the
belief that such backwardness cannot be overcome (De Vos 10). Finally, just as
Spaniards had been motivated by the “ Que doit-on a I ’Espagne?” attitude to
explain to the rest of Europe that they were not so dissimilar, Spanish
Americans were also motivated to prove to the inhabitants of the Old World
that the New World was vastly different from what they had been told.
It is important to stress that during the eighteenth century,
representations of “ otherness” began to include accounts of differences that
were based primarily on matters of biological and natural diversity. Scientists
attempted to show not only variations between the races, but also a hierarchy
among them. In deciding the distinctions between higher and lower races, the
Europeans, of course, sat a top the hierarchy of races.
Historically, the idea of "race” was developed as a direct response to the
exploitation of other peoples, to provide both a pretext and a justification for
the most unjustified conduct: enslavement, murder, and degradation of
millions of human beings. These notions were furthered by the contributions of
Charles Linnaeus, Louis LeClerc Comte de Buffon, and Cornelius de Pauw. They
were all European scientists who outlined throughout their research and studies
the progression of race classification and how it molded “ race” into ideology in
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the eighteenth century. To support this argument, we must look at critic Shah
Aashna Hossain’s argument, “ The concept of racism did not always exist: in
fact, it only really began with the ideas of the Enlightenment, mainly those
that focused on evolution” (Hossain 5).
Chief among eighteenth century scientists in charge of creating the first
scientific approach to race was Linnaeus, the Father of Taxonomy. One of
Linnaeus major contributions to the Enlightenment was introducing his concept
of the “ Great Chain of Being,” a hierarchical construction that linked all living
organisms of the world. In this construction, God was first, followed by angels,
then man. The hierarchy went all the way down to the smallest insect. As a
result, the purpose of the existence of the lower beings of the chain was to
serve the higher beings. Furthermore, in his General System of Nature (1735),
Linnaeus stated that variations within the genus Homo sapiens existed because
of varying cultures and climates, and he furthered this concept by declaring
that the world consisted of only four human races based on and divided by,
geography.
Linnaeus then proceeded to characterize each of these groups by noting
color, humor, and posture, respectively. For example, his use of the four
humors reflected the ancient and medieval theory that a person’s temperament
arose from a balance of four fluids (humor is Latin for "moisture")--blood,
phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy (black bile). Indeed, Linnaeus
ended each group’s description with a more overtly racist label. Thus, the
American was described as regitur consuetudine (ruled by habit); the
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European, regitur ritibus (ruled by custom); the Asian, regitur opinionibus
(ruled by belief); and the African, regitur a rbitrio (ruled by caprice) (Campbell
in Pagliaro 325).
Another major contributor to the concept of race in the eighteenth
century was the French naturalist Buffon. He contended in his massive forty-
four volume, Histoire naturelle, generate et particuliere (1749), that the New
World was, in fact, geologically new, and it had recently emerged from the
waters. Buffon further believed that this had been caused by dangerous
miasmas that made all organic life on the continents degenerate (Canizares
10).
Buffon alleged the "white" race to be superior to other races, and that
all others were exotic variations of the same specifies. His theory of race
considered all men to be descended from one original pair, whose descendants
wandered the earth to have their skin, hair, and eye color altered by the power
of climate (Smellie 12). For example, Buffon thought that the natives of the
New World were individuals deeply degenerated by the destructive power of
climate and as such they were hairless, stupid and sluggish with little sexual
drive. Others, like the notorious Cornelius de Pauw, turned Buffon’ s theory
into a nearly endless excuse for calumnies against the American climate and its
inhabitants.
Dutch philosopher de Pauw wrote, Recherches Philosphiques sur les
Americains (1768). Historian Ronald L. Meek comments that de Pauw’s book is
filled with bizarre speculations about the habitants of the New World, who de
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Pauw believed included cannibals, albinos, giants and hermaphrodites. De
Pauw’s thinking is an example of objectification, an essential process in the
task of creating racial myths of superiority to allow Europeans to dominate and
exploit. In creating racial myths and an air of European superiority, de Pauw
claimed that the inhospitable climate of the New World explained the
ignobility of its indigenous peoples and of its new inhabitants.
De Pauw was also responsible for promoting the notion of capitis
diminutio. This idea implied that New World inhabitants mentally excelled in
the prime of their youth, displaying an extraordinary precocity and quick
intellect that, at middle age, became obtuse and resulted in premature
senility.134 For example, common European opinion held that:
[ . . . ] ios criollos o hijos de espanoles que nacen en America, asi

como les amanece mas temprano que a los de aca el discurso,
tambien pierden el uso de el mas temprano. (Benito Feijoo in
Gerbi 167)
Given the social and political condition under which Spanish American countries
developed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, criollos were
thought to be victims of a form of capitis diminutio, which was manifested in
all their endeavors and influenced their thinking. Nature was accused of
exerting an undue influence on criollos, ensuring their degeneracy through
exposure to factors that had negative impacts on their disposition.
134 Obviously, the notion of capitis dim inutio only applied to criollos, since in
popular European opinion the castas, indios, and negros were devoid of any
intelligence.
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Indeed, the name of de Pauw surfaced constantly in criollo periodicals.
Clearly, he was held to be the most villainous of all Europeans detractors of
Spanish America (Browning 9). For example, de Pauw had written that the
University of San Marcos in Lima, had failed to produce even a mediocre writer
(10). This statement was clearly present in the mind of the Dr. don Joseph de
Labiano, the author of a lengthy article on the history of that institution.
Indignantly the writer spoke of the, “ varones insignes por su religion y su
doctrina, esclarecidos por su prudencia y sabiduria, memorables por su celo y
amor al monarca, y al bien y mayor grandeza de este imperio” who had
emerged from Lima’s University. Then he turned all his anger toward de Pauw:
{De donde, pues, o Paw, has sacado o como has osado decir, en
tus averiguaciones filosoficas sobre los americanos, que nuestra
Universidad no ha dado a luz un solo autor que pueda hacer
siquiera un libro malo? iPuedes tu acaso, desde la larga distancia
en que nos separa la tierra, y el oceano, sin haber pisado nuestro
suelo peruano, corrido sus provincias, considerado nuestra
policia, aprendido nuestros idiomas, y penetrado nuestras
modules, acertar en algo en tus reflexiones americanas, y
pronunciar sobre el m erito de los autores limehos sentencias que
logren ejecutoriarse entre los verdaderos sabios? (El Mercurio
Peruano, Julio 10, 1791, p.182)
An important aspect of the Spanish American Enlightenment is evident in the
above passage. In this manner, the last two decades of the eighteenth century
were representative of a period in Spanish America stimulated to a large extent
by the need to refute de Pauw and other critics.
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Describing Otherness
In order to understand the efforts of the Peruvian criollo elite to
educate Europeans about their intellectual capacities as well as their value it is
also important to comprehend how these men perceived their co-habitants in
Peru.
One of the primary goals of El Mercurio Peruano as we have already seen
involved the need to satiate their own as well as the European appetite for
knowledge about the New World. Of primary importance to the authors of El
Mercurio Peruano was the need to present themselves (race and culture) to
their European readers as equivalent in nature. Similarly, this action, this pull
toward “ sameness” with Europeans, also entailed the necessity to portray the
other inhabitants of Peru, the non-white majority, as the representatives of
“ otherness.” The first step in studying the portrayal of the indios, negros and
other castas in El Mercurio Peruano is to identify the image of the world that
the contributors to this newspaper had. According to the one of the tenets of
the Enlightenment, social and political order was constituted by God and to
question it meant sacrilege. Moreover, it was generally acknowledged that
man was originally “ white,” and that the other races were composed from
derivations or degenerations from this original man. As such, these other races
were inferior, since the “ white” race had been able to maintain its purity since
Creation. Second, the relationships between the races, such as Spaniards
(peninsular or criollos) and the other castas were determined by historical
events. Indios were thought of as the descendants of a race defeated by the
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Conquest, mestizos also participated in the inferiority engendered by the
Conquest due to their indio legacy, while negros on the other hand were
primarily seen as merchandise (slaves).
Similarly, the authors of El Mercurio Peruano perpetuated negative
colonial stereotypes about the “ other” by portraying them as inferior beings
and associating, for example, indios with laziness, and blackness with evil. The
author of the following article embodied the way in which indios were
stereotypically defined during the late eighteenth century:
El cabello grueso, negro y lacio; la fre n te estrecha y calzada; los

ojos pequenos, turbios y mohinos; la nariz ancha y aventada; la
barba escasa y lampina [...] el color palido y cetrino, como
ahumado; los hombros y espaldas cargadas; las piernas y rodillas
gruesas; el sudor fetido, por cuyo olor son hallados de los
podencos, como por el suyo los moros en la costa de Granada:
todas estas y algunas mas distinciones naturales [...] se dejan ver
en todo indio de un modo o de otro. (El Mercurio Peruano 276-
277)
All the details of this passage are powerfully debasing: the “ ahumado”
complexion of the indio was marked by its infernal darkness, besides he reeked
of sulfur; their hunched “ cargada” posture denoted a defeated and also
degraded race, as well as their moral and physical underdevelopment; the
similitudes to the “ moros,” reduced the indio to the level of an animal and
savage. Finally, the inherent racism of this passage was accentuated by the
phrase, “ todo indio” , in this manner universalizing all of these deficiencies.
Even when the contemporary indio was ascribed some redeeming traits, these
were eventually associated to their servility. According to the authors of the
newspaper, indios were mostly obedient, docile, and affable (El Mercurio
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Peruano 48-49). Moreover, the indio was also portrayed as undemanding and
sensible, since he had learned to live with what little he had, “ Contento con su
maiz, sus papas y su chicha, mira la m ultiplicidad de manjares como una
voluntaria ruina de la salud y de la vida (El Mercurio Peruano 149).
In contrast with the offensive representation of the contemporary indio
inhabitants of the colony, the authors of El Mercurio Peruano portrayed and
longed for in most cases for the glory of the Inca state. The authors of the
newspaper often admired the wondruous architecture and scientific
advancements of the old inhabitants of the Incario. This fondness is evident in
two articles entitled, “ Idea general de los monumentos del antiguo Peru e
introduccion a su estudio,” and “ Carta sobre los monumentos antiguos de los
peruanos” written by Pedro Nolasco Crespo (El Mercurio Peruano 201 -208, 254-
266). The veneration for the Inca past was not limited to its architecture, but
it also extended to the humanity of its inhabitants:
Los indios ofrecen un ejemplar de humanidad asombrosa para los

que tienen la presuncion de llamarlos barbaros. Por orden del
Inca se labraban a costa del comun de las tierras de los huerfanos
y viudas inmediatamente despues de las del Sol. (El Mercurio
Peruano 297)
Moreover, the authors of the newspaper criticized the false histories written
about the Incas:
La consecuencia que deducimos de esta exposicion es lisonjearnos

que bien podemos entrar haciendo un dibujo general del Peru, sin
temer (a nota de temerarios ni de copiantes, y con la seguridad
de extender unas noticias mas exactas y tal vez mas nuevas de las
que hasta aqui se han dado. Este gran imperio, cuya fundacion
por los Incas queda envuelto en las tinieblas de un conjunto de
fabulas [...] y de una tradicion incierta, ha perdido mucho de su
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grandeza local desde el tiempo en que se le desmembraron por la

parte del N. las provincias que forman el reino de Quito [1718] y
sucesivamente las que al E. constituyen el virreinato de Buenos
Aires [...]. (El Mercurio Peruano, “ Idea General” 20)
On the one hand, the passage aimed to portray an exact and fresher account of
Peru’s Inca history, a history adopted by the authors of El Mercurio Peruano as
the antecedent of their p a tria .ns The author’s of the newspaper sought in the
glory of the Inca Empire aprecursor that would also immerse them in glory,
since they were its rightful inheritors. On the other hand, the passage has
another obvious but important image, the geographic dismemberment of
colonial Peru, and an event that for the authors of El Mercurio Peruano stunted
Peru’s rightful and destined potential for growth.
Pero, valga la verdad, exclama uno de los mas experimentados y

sinceros escritores del Peru (el padre Joseph de Acosta), la tan
decantada barbarie de los indios no tanto provenia de su
ineptitud, cuanto de la incuria de sus primeros maestros. ^Como
querian estos que los entendiesen, cuando les hablaban en un
idioma desconocido? Y aun hablandoles en su propia lengua
iComo les habian de percibir si la alteraban con las frases
castellanas, idiotismos e impropiedades de que usaban [...]? [...]
Asi, pues, para acertar la grande obra de su santificacion, es
indispensable apoderarse con propiedad de su idioma, hacerse
duenos de sus peculiares elegancias, usar de sus mismas frases.
(El Mercurio Peruano, “ Discurso sobre el quichua” 265)
The contrasting portrayal between Incas and contemporary indios can leave the
reader in a quandary. These contradictions are best explained by historian
Cecilia Mendez, in her essay “ Incas si, indios no.” According to Mendez, the
135 The critique of the Inca Empire dates as far back as the visit by the Viceroy
Toledo in the 1560s. Moreover, there were a number of chronicles produced
that portrayed the Incas as tyrants and diabolic, among these the most notable
is Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa’s, Historia indica.
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indio has been accepted in Peruvian society “ only” if he represents a glorious
past. He is humane, civilized, and wise if he is abstract and distant, such as
the old Inca emperors. He is stupid, lazy, vandalous, and barbarous if he is
real and contemporary (Mendez 19). It should come as no surprise, then, to
see why the authors of El Mercurio Peruano rescued the glories of the Inca
past. The redemption and appropriation of the Incario, allowed the criollo
elite of the eighteenth century to construct a glorious past, while distancing
them from the present state of the indios. I would like to suggest that this
negative generalization about the indio , has been held true by most Peruvians
throughout their Republican history.
The authors of El Mercurio Peruano did not spend much time describing
the other ethnic inhabitants of the colony, including castas. The few
descriptions of the castas present in the paper were filled with unfavorable
images, such as the excessive pride of mestizos, and the delinquency and bad
influence of the mulattos over their masters. Lastly, the negro population of
Peru was also depicted as inferior relative to the indios:
Sacan un ruido musical, golpeando una quijada de caballo o

borrico, descarnada, seca y con dentadura movible; lo mismo
hacen frotando un palo liso con otro entrecortado en la superficie
[...] Por lo demas debemos confesar que en la musica, en el baile
y en otras muchisimas relaciones dependientes del talento y del
gusto, muchisimo mas atrasados estan los negros en comparacion
de los indios, que los indios respectivamente a los espanoles. (El
Mercurio Perauno 123)
In the end, the authors of El Mercurio Peruano fought for the maintenance of a
social and political status quo. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary to
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use the strategy of divide and conquer. For example, there were a number of
already perceived dislikes between the inhabitants of Peru that the criollo as
well as the peninsular sectors of colonial society used for their political and
economic benefit:
El indio, como conquistado, odia por lo general cordialmente al

espanol” (276); “ [mestizos] aman mas a los espanoles que a los
indios, de quienes, segregandose, se declaran enemigos mortales
[and] los indios detestan a los negros, estos son mirados en menos
por los mulatos, a quienes ven como inferiores los mestizos; y a
todas estas razas trata como superior el espanol. (50, 280)
To sum up, this was an era that bore witness to the local discovery and defense
of the criollos’ patria, culture and institutions. During this period, the
periodical press played a significant role in the construction and elaboration of
this journey of criollo discovery and defense. Thus, criollos came to look with
greater knowledge, pride, and appreciation upon their native lands, and their
patriotism acquired an increased self-confidence.136 However, criollo
patriotism did not necessarily indicate a Peruvian proto-nationalism or desire
for independence. My contention is that the “ Great Rebellion” of 1780-1781
frightened and pressed the non-indian inhabitants of Peru, in this case criollos,
to embrace their Spanish cultural and racial background and to seek some
moderate economic and political reforms. Moreover, the rebellion increased
the already present social and ethnic divisions in Peru, subordinating even
136 These men lived in an age when ideas of progress, and the cultural
superiority of European ways, dominated political and social life. Implicit,
loosely formulated, or even unconscious notions of racial ranking fit well with
such a world-view -- indeed, almost any other organizational scheme would
have seemed anomalous.
more the non-white masses, while creating a bigger rupture between the coast
and the Andes. Finally, these incidents had wider significance since they
affected Peru’s struggles for independence, a process which historian Heraclio
Bonilla called devoid of criollo leadership, as well as conceived and granted by
outsiders (Bonilla in Glave 29).
Conclusion: Peru’s incongruent identities
Questions of identity are not limited to hues/shades of the self, but also
extend to other realms, such as culture, ethnicity and nationhood. In these
realms, too, the social recognition of identities and group memberships are by
no means guaranteed, but are instead in constant movement, transformation,
and contestation. Moreover, questions of identity are and have been among
the most pressing and urgent questions of human beings, worthy of our
sustained inquiry and focused attention. In this manner, it is important to ask
how identities are constructed, and how certain topics, strategies and devices
are employed to erect sameness on the one hand, and differences on the
other. A prominent example of the importance of identity construction, in this
case cultural, is found in late colonial Peru, specifically around the time of the
“ Great Rebellion.” To illustrate this, it is important to note the external and
internal influences affecting this period, and its participants, but also to
explore the themes, approaches, and procedures utilized by different
participants to construct their identities, as well as the legacy that these
constructions had on the formation of post-colonial Peru.
In my opinion, El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes personified Spain’s wish
to re-articulate and administrate its New World colonies more tightly. These
endeavors represented Spain’s efforts to immerse itself into the enlightened
eighteenth century and to exploit its holdings more efficiently. Carrio de la
Vandera’s enterprise fell well within the confines of the Bourbon attempts to
re-articulate its colonies. His main objective was to re-establish land
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communications between the colonies, with the aim of increasing the funds
sent from these to the metropolis. It is within this task that we can position
Carrio’s text and project. In the same way, the enlightened author fashioned
himself, his project and his text as paradigmatic of this new age of knowledge,
and reason that sought to illustrate and depict "otherness” with the objective
of dominating it. However, in the case of Carrio, his text and project went off
course from this aspiration, as seen by his unkind criticism of Spain’s
administrators in the New World, an enterprise that exposes colonialism’s
unfeasible calling to control and categorize “ otherness” entirely and exactly.
Consequently, the author of El lazarillo fashioned an alternative mode of
criticism by means of the creation of another “ author” and another “ te xt.”
However, this “ other” author and text still privileged a colonial ideology:
conservative, fearful and exclusive, and hegemonic.
In order to understand Estado del Peru, we must inquire about the rules
of production and/or restraints present in Sahuaraura’s discourse. The
external regulations imposed upon the author of Estado del Peru and the
kuraka class he represented were twofold: one set was as an agent of Spanish
colonialism, and the second was as a representative of a subordinate Andean
caste. For example, despite Tupac Amaru M’s initial success in recruiting a mass
base, the economic, ethnic, and social diversity of Peru ultimately defeated
the movement. Not all members of the Andean upper strata were convinced
that the rebellion served their interests, either in the short or long run. Many
had prospered under the colonial system, even though it inherently limited
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their upward social mobility. These same considerations inhibited many of
even the poorest members of colonial society from joining the rebellion. In
some areas, violence came to be directed against anyone associated with the
Spanish system, including some priests, property owners, and even the users of
European style-apparel. This inhibited even further the formation of broader
alliances with other disaffected mestizo or criollo sectors (21).
In keeping with this pattern, the Spanish acculturation of the kuraka
class restricted Sahuaraura’s discourse in different ways at different times and
different places, by regulating what could be said and when it could be said.
As such, Estado del Peru and its will to “tell the truth” is exposed as an
unattainable venture, by debunking its contention at impartiality, since
Sahuaraura’s text cannot unshackle itself from its Spanish partiality and its
willingness to show its unshakeable alliance to the Crown. This point is made
by returning to one of Sahuaraura’s major motives for writing his text, namely
the understanding that there was still no existing account that would chronicle
the “true story” of the rebellion. To accomplish this, Sahuaraura made clear
that he himself had seen and heard much of what he described. Accordingly,
Sahuaraura attempted to establish his authority, through his first hand account
of the events surrounding the rebellion.
It is possible to argue that Sahuaraura’s discourse was conditioned by
desire and power: a desire to maintain his privileged position atop the Andean
colonial pyramid and be rewarded for his heroic acts in the subjugation of the
rebellion, all the while telling “la verdad." Both of these were combined with
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the power of colonialism that subjugated and converted Sahuaraura and his
class. As such, many colonial discourses were successful because they made
the colonizers feel important, valuable and superior to others, as well as
gaining the complicity of the colonized (some of the Andean elite) by enabling
them to derive a new sense of self-worth through their participation in
furthering the “progress of civilization” (represented in Western terms) and to
attain and/or maintain their privileges. More exactly, theories of colonial
discourse are predicated upon the important supportive relationship between
the material practices of colonialism and the representations fashioned by its
cultural and ideological conquest. This dynamic manifests itself in Estado del
Peru. Throughout this text, Sahuaraura strove to justify the moral claim of
Spanish colonialism and the righteous complicity of the Andean elite that he
represented.
Looking at the second half of the eighteenth century in Spanish America,
we find that the new Bourbon monarchy believed that it could carry out its
reformist project without the collaboration of the criollo elite, a group held
responsible for most of the economic and social maladies afflicting the New
World. The effects of these new policies and the responses to them were
immediate. Firstly, criollos were at once faced with a social and economic
reality that subalternized and blamed them for the colonial ills of the period.
In effect, many criollos saw their new position and identity set adrift,
displaced, and at times even destroyed. To combat these attacks, criollos
resorted to a number of tactics, most notably using the print media in order to
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preserve their privileged position. In turn, this directed Peru’s criollos to arrive
at a sense of uniqueness, erected through the creation of a distinct criollo
identity, or patria, one quite different from that of other Spanish American
colonies.
Espero que nunca llegara este caso funesto; y asi repito mis
suplicas al publico, y con mas vivo empeho a las madamas, honor
de mi Patria y del reino, implorando su benefico patrocinio y
protestandoles que el amor nacional, la pureza, la fidelidad y la
constancia seran siempre las guias de mis pasos y caracteristicas
del Mercurio Peruano. (El Mercurio Peruano. “Prospecto” 3)
Critics like Stuart Hall pose that identity is constructed through a number of
approaches and procedures. Firstly, identity is discursively produced,
reproduced, transformed and destroyed by means of language and other
semiotic devices that aim to channel political emotions so that they can fuel
efforts to modify a balance of power.137 In the case of the Peruvian criollo
elite, their narratives aimed to defend and uphold their position and status.
Secondly, identity builds on the emphasis of a common history by transforming
the perceptions of the past, the present, and the future. Criollos at this stage
sought to create a glorious history and they did so by appropriating the Inca
past, but excluding contemporary indios, meanwhile creating a present where
criollos were able explore and expose their uniqueness/difference. Moreover,
identity narratives bring forth a new interpretation of the world in order to
modify it. For example, criollos aimed to rediscover and investigate Peru’s
137 This definition by Hall refers to the concept of national identity. However,
its constitutive elements can be applied and utilized in describing the concept
of cultural identity.
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geography and population in order to better subordinate and integrate it. In
this manner, criollos sought to achieve greater economic gains, expressed by
the contention, "We are Peruvian, this is ours and we therefore need a voice in
its present and future." Thirdly, identity can be regarded as a sharing of
commonalities: ideas, concepts or schemes. In this fashion, they can change
the organization of human groups while creating new ones. When criollos were
confronted with their subalternity amidst the new colonial order of the
Bourbon reforms, they re-organized their social structure and created a myth
about their "rightful” ownership of these lands. They also altered their culture
by emphasizing certain unique traits: their patria, geography or history vis a vis
other patrias, geographies or histories.
To sum up, my dissertation identified how dissimilar social actors
constructed or conceived their identities either by conforming, or by opposing
the Spanish Empire’s cultural ideals during the late colonial period.
Furthermore, I identified how these groups assembled and imagined their
unique cultural identities through their cultural representations and
manifestations by reading these against the grain, and by recognizing in them
strategies of subaltern compliance and/or resistance.
Lastly, I have decided to present an example of the reproduction of
some of these imagined colonial identities and their ideologies (conservative,
fearful, exclusive and hegemonic) in postcolonial Peru. I argue that the very
nature of an “imagined” republican Peru will lead to its postcolonial
predicament, namely, the desire to create a unified and cohesive nation by
fashioning certain bonds. Instead the architects of post-colonial Peru
restricted the inclusion of the popular classes, mostly indios by restraining and
overlooking them in the creation of a national plan. In Peru, the civil wars in
the first decades of the republican period demonstrated the often divergent
interests of those sectors that had fought against the colonial state. Mostly,
they did not share a common vision of what the shape of postcolonial society
and state should be, what they did agree upon was the need to emphasize
social control, a need often attributed to fears driven by the specter of the
“Great Rebellion,” as well as a response to the more recent threat from below
present in the alliances of popular movements and caudillos in the 1820s and
1830s. In this way, the struggles of the early independent period shaped the
character of relations between state and civil society created in the mid
nineteenth century. At the same time, the groups that had benefited from and
supported the colonial state did not disappear overnight.
In order to explore the failure of post-colonial Peru to form a cohesive
and inclusive state, I briefly present a representative production of the early
Republican period, specifically the poetry of historian and critic Felipe Pardo y
Aliaga. The poetry of Pardo y Aliaga represent postcolonial Peru’s transition
from a pluri-ethnic colony of castes toward a unitary nation of citizens. The
aim here is to manifest the long-lasting notion of colonialism even after the
wars of Independence in Republican Peru by re-reading Pardo y Aliaga’s poetry
and finding in it the building blocks of an exclusive state, a state that did not
200
take into account Peru’s heterogeneity, but that reproduced the hegemonic,
conservative, and fearful discourse of the late colonial period.
According to literary historian Cesar Toro Montalvo, the prominent
literary genre of the early Republican period in Peru was “ el costumbrismo
satirico.” The main characteristics of this genre are the cuadro de costumbres,
satire, humor, realism and a political purpose. In addition, its aim was to
educate, politicize and describe the habits of Peruvians (Costumbrismo 51).
The utility of this genre goes hand in hand with the national life of Peru during
an epoch of convulsion, indecision and disconcert, pronounced through
multiple revolutions and dictatorships. The classic figure of this period was
Pardo y Aliaga. He represented the aristocratic, republican and conservative
sectors in early republican Peru (1822-1840) - a crucial period in the
elaboration and construction of what it meant to be Peruvian or Peru and what
it was “not.”
Historian Jorge Basadre has described this early republican period as an
era where, “The most genuine representatives of the aristocratic colonial class
assumed since the early republican period an attitude of condemnation and of
protest.”138 The Peruvian aristocracy directed their pessimism not at its own
class, but to the rest of the country; to a pueblo that they considered to be
very well below their level, uncultured and irredeemable. The old criollo
disdain for the provincial and the conviction that everything that incarnated
Peru had to be either criollo or limeno and that “ Lima es el Peru,” could not
138 In Cecilia Mendez, Incas si, indios no: Apuntes para el estudio del
nacionalismo criollo en el Peru (7-8).
201
be better represented during this period of Peruvian history than by the poetry
of Felipe Pardo y Aliaga. This criollo aristocrat examined Peruvian reality
through his poetry and newspaper articles (most prominent among them being
his essay collection, El espeio en mi tierra) always proposing a return to a
better past. Pardo y Aliaga saw Peruvian society in the republican period as a
space swayed by undesirable transformations and he also believed in the
usefulness of literature as a corrector of the vices and abuses of that
convoluted society.139 Moreover, Pardo y Aliaga preferred a return to Spanish
domination and order over Peru’s chaotic period after Independence.
Some of Pardo y Aliaga’s most stinging satire was directed against
General Santa Cruz (leader of the Confederacion Peru-Boliviano of 1836-1839).
Santa Cruz’s project was to create a confederate state over the bases of an
internal market that would integrate the historically united territories of Peru
and Bolivia. The project implied the re-structuring of old mercantile circuits
that had articulated both parts of the colony, and it also promoted a policy of
free-trade with the United States and Great Britain. This plan, which had a
great reception in the southern most parts of Peru, was in reality counter
productive to the commercial criollo elites of Lima and the northern coast of
Peru, whose economic interests were closely linked to commerce with Chile,
through the Pacific. This conflict however involved a lot more than trade. It
was also an ideological battle manifested in newspapers of the period, and
139 In Cesar Toro Montalvo’s, Historia de la literatura peruana. Tomo IV.

Costumbrismo v literatura negra del Peru (51). It is important to note that
Felipe Pardo y Aliaga’s son, Manuel, would become president of Peru, as well
as the primary compilator of his father’s work.
202
their most conspicuous representative was the satirist and poet Pardo y Aliaga.
The most distinguished trait of the anti Santa Cruz discourse was the definition
of what was national and Peruvian, starting with the exclusion leveled against
the indio, symbolically represented by Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz was considered a foreigner, more because he was an indio
than a Bolivian. The idea of Peruvian nationality, seen in the satire of Pardo y
Aliaga, implied a primordial rejection of the indio element. Even more, this
rejection was a requisite of Peruvian nationality. Another incrimination
leveled against Santa Cruz was that of “conquistador” or “ invasor.” But, this
terminology only acquired is desired appalling nature when followed by
adjectives that would allude to the indigenous nature of the caudillo, such as
the allusions to “Alejandro Huanaco” and the “Jeta del Conquistador” both
created by Pardo y Aliaga:
Que la Europa un Napoleon

Pretendiese dominar
Fundando su pretension
En su Gloria m ilita r
Que tiene de singular?
Mas, que en el Peru lo intente

un indigena ordinario
Advenedizo, indecente,
Cobarde, vil, sanguinario,
eso si es extraordinario.
What most offended Pardo y Aliaga and the criollo sector was that an indio, a
colonized and dominated “other” would pretend to be a conqueror (Mendez 16,
18).
203
The victorious anti Santa Cruz discourse emerged from Lima and its
ruling criollo minority, this discourse represented the beginning of a period of
conservative ideology in Peru. This period also served as the starting point for
the modern Peruvian republic. A state mired in the predicament of promoting
a sense of Peruvianess for its citizens while at the same time silencing a vast
majority of its population. The modern Peruvian state imagined itself as a
racially white and ideologically Western society, thus, suppressing its immense
indio and racially mixed majority much in the same manner as the late colonial
period.
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VITA
Jose E. (Joe) Zavala was born in Lima, Peru, on November 20, 1967. His
parents are Jose F. (Pepe) Zavala and Ana Maria Rivero, and his siblings
are Denisse, Carlos, and Sebastian. He is married to Claudia and has a
young daughter named Chiara. He received his primary education in
Lima, Peru and Caracas, Venezuela and his secondary education at
Marshall Junior High, Millikan High, and Polytechnic High School in Long
Beach, California. In August 1988 he entered California State University,
Long Beach from which he graduated with a BA degree in Economics in
1994. During August 1996 to May 1998 he attended California State
University, Long Beach from which he earned an MA degree in Spanish.
In these years he traveled extensively and was employed as a teacher at
Long Beach Unified School District and as a Teaching Associate at
California State University, Long Beach. During May 2004 and June 2005
he lived in Lima, Peru while employed as a Strategic Planner by Leo
Burnett Worldwide, an advertising firm that allowed him the opportunity
to further his doctoral research.
In August 1998 he was admitted to the Graduate School of the University
of Miami where he was granted the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
May 2006.

Zavala (2006) Cultural Identity and Politics of Suppression, Conformity, and Ambiguity in Late Colonial Peru

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UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

POSITIONS OF CONVENIENCE: CULTURAL IDENTITY AND THE POLITICS OF

Submitted to the Faculty

Coral Gables, Florida

ProQuest Information and Learning Company

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of

POSITIONS OF CONVENIENCE: CULTURAL IDENTITY AND THE POLITICS OF

Dr. Viviana uiaz Dr. Steven G. Ullmann

Dr. Christina Civantos Dr. Steve Stein'

Dr. Ralph Heyndels

Abstract of a dissertation at the University of Miami.

Dissertation supervised by Professor Viviana Diaz-Balsera.

My project centered on the cultural and textual productions of a

number of diverse social actors (Peninsulars, Creoles and Andean) in late

colonial Peru. By focusing on how these heterogeneous social actors

constructed or conceived their identities -- either by complying with, or

by resisting the Spanish Empire’ s cultural ideals -- I have shed light on

how the cultural identities imagined in this period similarly produced a

conservative, fearful, exclusive and hegemonic colonial discourse that

periods of 1771-1773, the dates of Alonso Carrio de la Vandera’s

reformist expedition to the New World; 1780-1784, the dates of the

Tupac Amaru II Rebellion and its aftermath presented in Jose Rafael

Sahuaraura’s Estado del Peru, and; the years of the periodical El

Mercurio Peruano, 1790-1795. A recommendation for further study is

My first, and most earnest, acknowledgment must go to my advisor and

Some people are lucky enough to have one exceptional committee

My thanks also go to Christina Civantos and Ralph Heyndels, the other

Far too many people to mention individually have assisted in so many

This research was, at various times, supported by grants from the

On a more personal note, a thank-you goes to my wonderful parents,

My final, and most heartfelt, acknowledgment must go to my wife

El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes: Colonial Contradictions and the

Colonial territories, peoples and knowledge production 30

Carrio’s criticism of colonial administrators 48

Mestizos and the “ Sociedad de castas” 60

Conclusion: Carrio’s contradictory words 71

A World in Conflict: The Great Rebellion and the Formation of the

Viceroy Toledo’s government 102

Colonial History in the late eighteenth century 106

Authorial intentions of Estado del Peru 117

Andean divisiveness 125

The Voice of the Subaltern Masses 135

El Mercurio Peruano 1790-1796: Criollo Identity and its Conflicting

A World Turned Upside Down 154

An Enlightened Response to Peninsular Criticism 169

Identity and Racism 179

Describing Otherness 186

Peru’s incongruent identities 193

My project centers on the cultural productions and representations of a

number of diverse social actors in late colonial Peru. By focusing on how

dissimilar social actors constructed or conceived their identities -- either by

complying with, or by resisting the Spanish Empire’s cultural ideals -- I hope to

its classificatory system implemented by the Spanish empire during the

Mercurio Peruano. 1790-1795.

period of Peruvian history and perhaps provide an insight into Republican

Peru’s unsuccessful efforts to construct and invent a cohesive social, political

Andeans contributions to colonial society, and their concerted efforts to resist

“ criollo scholarship” by limiting itself to a singular entity, while ignoring the

other actors of colonial society.

the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (O’Phelan, El Peru en el siglo

topic is Alberto Flores Galindo’s, Aristocracia y plebe: Lima 1750-1830. Flores

Galindo’s study; however, tends to portray Peruvian colonial social order

through a dichotomous lens, one that divides Peruvian society into an