In Spite of Her Sex David Garret

"In Spite of Her Sex": The Cacica and the Politics of the Pueblo in Late Colonial Cusco
Author(s): David T. Garrett

Source: The Americas, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Apr., 2008), pp. 547-581
Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History
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TheAmericas
64:4 April 2008, 547-581
Copyrightby the Academy of American
FranciscanHistory
"INSPITEOF HERSEX":
THECACICAAND THEPOLITICSOFTHEPUEBLO
IN LATECOLONIALCUSCO*
October,1797,theindiosprincipalesof theAndeanpuebloof Mufiani
appealedto theroyalcourtin Cuscoto deposetheirgovernor,or cacica,
DormMariaTeresaChoquehuanca.1
Not challenginghereditary
Choquehuancarule,they insteadfocusedon MariaTeresa'sincompetenceandher
sex, complainingof "themiseriesthatwe havesufferedwith [her]inappro-
In
* My sincere thanksto the threereadersfrom TheAmericas and to Michael Breen for theirexcellent
and helpful comments;and to Helen Nader and Bianca Premofor theirgenerousresponsesto out-of-theblue inquiries.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Sexto Congreso Internacionalde
Etnohistoriain Buenos Aires, as part of the Simposio de Polftica,Autoridad,y Poder, and I am greatly
indebtedto the coordinators,commentators,panelists and audience for their questions and suggestions.
And, once again, my deepest thanksto Donato Amado and MargarethNajarroin Cusco, who made this
archival project possible. Research for this paper was generously supported by the Social Science
ResearchCouncil, Reed College, and the Michael E. and Carol S. Levine Foundation.
1 I use
"cacique"(and "cacica")ratherthan"curaca"or "kuraka,"as this was the usage in eighteenthcentury documents. In colonial Andean communities, caciques were responsible for tributecollection
and maintainingorder,and played a dominantrole in the communaleconomy. Widely used by the eighteenthcentury,the term appliedto individualsrangingfrom the college-educatedhereditarygovernorof
a pueblo more than 1000-strong,and the illiteratetributecollector of an ayllu with 40 inhabitants,and
thus imposes an artificialuniformityon a wide arrayof offices, individuals, and communities.As this
article argues, cacicas tended to appear in communities with well-established hereditaryhierarchies,
althoughthese includedboth small, noble ayllus among Cusco's Incas and the largepueblos and moieties
of the Titicaca basin. For the cacique and colonial indigenous society, KarenSpalding, Huarochiri:An
Andean Society UnderInca and Spanish Rule (Stanford:StanfordUniversity Press, 1984); MariaRostworowski de Diez Canseco, Curacas y sucesiones, Costa Norte (Lima: Minerva, 1961); Steve J. Stern,
Peru's Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest:Huamanga to 1640 (Madison:University of Wisconsin Press, 1982); Carlos J. Diaz Rementeria,El cacique en el virreinatodel Perri:estudio
histOrico-juridico(Sevilla: Universidadde Sevilla, 1977); Silvia Rivera, "El Mallku y la sociedad colonial en el siglo XVII: el caso de Jestis de Machaca"Avances [La Paz] 1 (1978): 7-27; ThierrySaignes,
Caciques, Tributeand Migration in the SouthernAndes: Indian Society and the Seventeenth Century
Colonial Order(London:University of London, 1985); Luis Miguel Glave, Trajinantes:Caminos indigenas en la sociedad colonial, siglos XVI y XVII (Lima: Instituto de Apoyo Agrario, 1989); Nathan
Wachtel,Le Retour des Ancetres: Les Indiens Urus de Bolivie XXeme-XVIemesiecle: Essai d'Histoire
Regressive (Paris:Gallimard,1990); FranklinPease, Curacas, reciprocidady riqueza (Lima: Pontificia
UniversidadCatOlicadel Pern, 1992); RobertoChoque Canqui,Sociedad y economia colonial en el sur
andino (La Paz: Hisbol, 1993); ScarlettO'PhelanGodoy, Kurakassin sucesiones: Del cacique al alcalde
de indios, Perd y Bolivia 1750-1835 (Cusco: Centro Bartolome de Las Casas, 1997); Karen Powers,
547

548
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
priateentryintothe cacicazgo,"addingthat"onaccountof herdistinctsex

she shouldby justicebe deposed,becauseshe is not worthyof so estimable
anoffice."2Thatofficewascentralto theindigenouspoliticsof colonialPeru,
thelegalandadministrative
orderingof whichplacedmostof theIndianpopulationin relativelyautonomous,land-owning"pueblosde indios"over
whichthe cacique,responsiblefor collectingthe crown'stributeandmaintainingorder,presidedas somethingbetweena chief anda lord.As the vilformen,
thatreservedits authority
lageleadersin a parallel,populartradition
asserted
that
this
bastion
of
elite
indigenousauthority
principales
oughtnot be heldby a woman.But theymadeclearthatit sometimeswas:
MariaTeresahadgovernedMufianifor five years.Norwas she alone.Cacicas governedpueblosand ayllus throughoutthe Andes, and it was quite
commonforthehusbandsof cacicalheiressesto rulein theirnames.3
TheseindigenousAndeanwomenlordshavelongdrawnthenoticeof historians,althoughmostdiscussionhasbeenanecdotal,focusingon individuals ratherthanon the relationsof colonialgovernance,genderideologies,
Those
andindigenouspoliticsin whichsuchfemaleauthoritywas situated.4
AndeanJourneys:Migration,Ethnogenesisand the State in Colonial Quito (Albuquerque:University of
New Mexico Press, 1995); Susan Ramirez, The WorldUpside Down: Cross-CulturalContactand Conflict in Sixteenth-CenturyPeru (Stanford:StanfordUniversity Press, 1996); WardStavig, The Worldof
TripacAmaru: Conflict, Communityand Identity in Colonial Peru (Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1999); Kenneth J. Andrien, Andean Worlds:Indigenous History, Culture, and Consciousness
underSpanishRule, 1532-1825 (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press, 2001); SinclairThomson, WeAlone WillRule: Native Andean Politics in the Age of Insurgency(Madison:University of Wisconsin Press, 2002); Sergio Serulnikov,SubvertingColonialAuthority:Challengesto SpanishRule in the
Eighteenth-CenturySouth Andes (Durham:Duke University Press, 2003); S. Elizabeth Penry, "Transformationsin IndigenousAuthorityand Identityin ResettlementTowns of Colonial Charcas(Alto Peril)"
(PhD Diss., University of Miami, 1996); David T. Garrett,Shadows of Empire: The Indian Nobility of
Cusco, 1750-1825 (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 2005), particularlypp. 34-38 for the variety within cacical office.
2 ". . las miserias
que hemos sufridocon el postizo ingreso . . . al cacicazgo . . . ella por su distinto
sexso se deve porjusticia deponerlaque no es digno de este empleo tan recomendable.. . ." ARE, PRA
343. The ChoquehuancasruledAzangaroAnansayafrom before the conquestto independence.Leonardo
Altuve Carrillo,Choquehuancay su arenga a Bolivar (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1991), pp. 41-6.
3
Variouslya village, neighborhood,clan, or extended family, the ayllu is the basic unit of Andean
society, a grouping of people, bound by kinship, for productiveand reproductivepurposes.Before the
Spanish reducciones of the 1570s, successful ayllus were distributedacross space in numeroussettlements; the colonial ayllu, as legally defined, was a land-holding,corporateentity and a constituentpart
of a largerparishor pueblo.Thepueblo is a village or town establishedby the Spanish,composed of congregated ayllus. For the ayllu, TristanPlatt, "Mirrorsand Maize: the Concept of Yanantinamong the
Macha of Bolivia" pp. 228-259 in AnthropologicalHistory of Andean Polities, eds. John V. Murra,
NathanWachtel,and JacquesRevel (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1986).
4 For discussion of individualcacicas, see, for
examples, KarenVieira Powers, "A Battle of Wills:
InventingChiefly Legitimacyin the Colonial NorthAndes,"pp. 183-214 in Susan Kellogg and Matthew
Restall, eds., Dead Giveaways: Indigenous Testamentsof Colonial Mesoamerica and the Andes (Salt

DAVIDT. GARRETT
549
who have examinedthe cacicamorebroadlyas a phenomenonof colonial

societyhavefocusedlargelyon theancestryof suchfemaleoffice-whether
or Spanishcolonialidealsof authority.
In what
its originslie in pre-conquest
remainsthe most influentialwork on genderin the colonialAndes, Silverblattposits a narrativein whichthe genderedideologyof Spanishrule
of polities,and
"tendedto recognizemen as the legitimaterepresentatives
modes
as
the
means
of
cussuccession,
principal
patrilineal
undermining
of
Andean
chains
dual
that
had
authority"
tomary
gender
emphasizedthe
of maleandfemaleauthority.5
The colonialcacica-concomplementarity
ceivedlargelyas a figureheadwithmenwieldingtheactualpoliticalauthorfemaleauthority,as
ity-thus becomesa colonizedvestigeof pre-hispanic
"theimpositionof Spanishtraditionson indigenouspatternsof succession
deniednativewomenthechanceto fill thepositionsof autonomous
authorin
their
communities."6
As
Graubart
has
such
claims
about
noted,
ity
prehispanicorganizationsof power are necessarilybased on minimaldocumentaryevidence,and privilegeimperialInca sources.?Focusingon the
societiesof Peru'snortherncoast,Graubart
arguesinsteadthatfemalelordshipdid not necessarilyhave strongpre-conquest
precedent.Rather,Spanish successionpractices,with theiremphasison familypossessionacross
generations,actuallycreateda spacefor femalelordship,albeitone where
authoritywasgenerallyexercisedby a man-husband,uncle,father-in the
nameof the formalheiress.Graubartviews the cacicazgogenerallyas a
"colonialartifact,reflectingcontemporary
power struggles,ratherthan a
the analysisof whichallowsus "to see how indigeremnant,"
prehispanic
nous womenand men manipulated
the narrativesof theirown historyto
claim legitimacywithin the new boundariesof colonial institutions."8
Graubart's
intervention
reclaimsthecacicazgoas a spaceof indigenouspolitics withincolonialsociety,while in her analysisemphasizinghow both
men andwomenof the colonialindigenouselite used gendereddiscourses
of legitimacyto solidify controlover their communities.Ratherthan a
markerof patriarchal
for Graubart
the colonialcacicapersoniusurpation,
fies the negotiationsof colonialauthority.
Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1998); Spalding, Huarochiri,p. 237; Stavig, The Worldof Ttipac
Amaru,pp. 93-4; GaryUrton, TheHistory of a Myth:Pacariqtamboand the Origin of the Inkas (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1990), pp. 48-63; Karen Graubart,WithOur Labor and Sweat: Indigenous
Womenand the Formationof Colonial Society in Peru, 1550-1700 (Stanford:StanfordUniversity Press,
2007), pp. 158-161 and 176-185.
5 Irene Silverblatt,Moon, Sun, and Witches:Gender
Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru
(Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1987), p. xxx.
6 Silverblatt,Moon, Sun, and Witches, 152.
p.
7 Graubart,WithOur Labor and Sweat,
pp. 161-167.
8 Graubart,WithOur Labor and Sweat, 160.
p.

550
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
Focusingon the cacicain the bishopricof CuscoandnorthernLa Paz in

the last generationsof the colonialera,this essayuses the lens of genderto
examinesuchnegotiations,butwithattentionnot so muchto the agencyof
individualactorsas to the structural
role thatfemalesuccessionto cacical
office playedin the allocationof authorityin colonial,indigenoussociety.
Most obviously,thatcacicasappearrepeatedlyin 18th-century
documents
modelsof indigenouspolitics.9Refinebut
requiresthatwe refinepatriarchal
not reject:male caciquesgreatlyoutnumbered
female,and contemporary
discussionof cacicasbetrayedambivalence
to womenpossessingsuchpolitof cacicalheiresses,whose
ical authority.So too does the preponderance
husbandsruledin theirnames,overgoverningcacicas(althoughan interroof male
gationof the archivalsourcessuggeststhatthewrittenperformance
rule disguisesthe locationof paramount
authoritywith the cacicalcouple
ratherthanone of its members).Thisambivalencestandsin markedcontrast
to the widespreadacceptanceof indigenouswomen'sactive role in the
it brought.1Inthat,concerns
Andeanmarket,andof theeconomicauthority
aboutfemaleexerciseof cacicalpowersuggestthe genderingof authority
itself in waysthatdo not entirelycoincidewitha public/private
dichotomy.
Whileformal,politicalauthority thatassociatedwithoffices-was understoodas male,the economicauthorityassociatedwith marketactivityand
privatepropertywasclearlyopento women.Thatthecacicazgowastheone
colonialpoliticaloffice routinelyheldby womenexposesa centraltension
in theconstitutionof cacicalauthorityundercolonialrule:betweenthetacit
of aylluandpueblolordshipsas hereditary,
(andat timesexplicit)treatment
familialpossessions,andassertionsby Spanishofficialsthatthe cacicazgo
was a bureacuratic
office withinthe crown'sgift. Formorethantwo centhe
Rebellionof 1780-2,thattensionstoodat theheartof
until
Great
turies,
therelationsbetweentheindigenouseliteandthecrown'sofficers;wherever
9 Silverblatt,Moon, Sun and Witches;Graubart,With Our Labor and Sweat; Steve J. Stern, The
SecretHistoryof Gender:Women,Men, and Power in ColonialMexico (ChapelHill: Universityof North
WeAloneWillRule.
Carolina
Thomson,
Press);
10 Jane E.
Mangan, TradingRoles: Gender,Ethnicityand the Urban Economy in Colonial Potosi
TheCase
"Indian
Women
andWhiteSociety:
DukeUniversity
Press,2005);ElinorBurkett,
(Durham:
Women:
Historical
of Sixteenth-Century
Lavrin,
ed.,LatinAmerican
Peru,"
pp.101-128inAsunciOn
Lamujer
enPeruprehispanico
Greenwood
Press,1978);Maria
Rostworowski,
(Westport:
Perspectives
Women
of EarlyColonial
"Indian
deEstudios
Instituto
Salomon,
Peruanos,
Quito
2001);Frank
(Lima:
Women's
theirWills,"
Americas
44:3(January
asSeenthrough
Gauderman,
1988),pp.325-41;
Kimberly
Lives in Colonial Quito: Gender,Law, and Economy in SpanishAmerica (Albuquerque:University of
Indian
andEthnicity:
Urban
Gender
NewMexicoPress,2003);AnnZulawski,
"Social
Differentiation,
Research
Review25:2(1990),pp.93-113;
LatinAmerican
in Colonial
Women
Bolivia,1640-1725,"
Graubart,WithOurLaborand Sweat;Silverblatt,Moon, Sun, and Witches,pp. 109-124; Leo J. Garofalo,
LimaandCuzco"
andStimulants:
TheMaking
ofRaceinColonial
ofFood,Drink,
"TheEthno-Economy
ofWisconsin,
2001).
(PhDDiss.,University

DAVIDT. GARRETT
551
theyheld office, cacicasembodieda local resolutionin favorof hereditary

possessionby the Indiannobility.
Peeringintothe pueblofromthe vantagepointof the cacicaalso allows
a new perspectiveon two contradictions
centralto the constitutionof the
Indianrepublic'sinternalpolitics. First is in the allocationof the elite
authorityof the cacique.Scholarlyinterestin caciquesover the past few
decadeshassparkedconsiderable
discussionof howcolonialcacicalauthority was legitimated,and challengedthroughillegitimation,withinindigenouscommunities.11
Withits emphasison culturalconstructions
of "just"or
the
focus
of
such
has
on
been
norms
and
theirviorule,
"legitimate"
enquiry
lations,not on the mechanicsof cacicalsuccessionandelection,so central
to the pueblofromthe late sixteenthto the lateeighteenthcentury.Moving
beyondconcernsof legitimacy,studyof the cacicaandfemalesuccession
noblemalecompetitionas a crucialdomainof indigenouspolforegrounds
itics. The largerand morecomplexcommunitiesand multi-puebloethnic
societies of the colonialAndes had pronouncedsocial hierarchies,and
caciquesandcacicalfamiliesalmostinvariablycamefromtheelite strataof
their communities.12
Familieslike the Choquehuanca,
who managedto
establishandmaintaincontrolovera cacicazgofor manygenerations,were
the exception.In areaslike Cusco,withlargeIndiannobilities,competition
noblesfor controlof cacicazgoswas fierce.In others,the
amonghereditary
of
the
colonial
orderweresuchthatdominanthouseholdsandlinpressures
eagesroseandfell withinone or two generations,andprominentmenwere
and
eagerto win cacicaloffice whenit fell open.Eventhe Choquehuancas
theirpeersaroundTiticacasoughtto strengthen
theircontroloversocietyby
alliancesbetweencacicaldynasties.Thus,the negotiationandcompetition
thepossessionof cacicaloffice constituteda principalarenaof
surrounding
colonial,indigenouspolitics,and in this cacicasplayeda crucialrole. As
heiressesthey reproduced
but as wives they
hierarchies;
inter-generational
allowedcacicalauthorityto move betweendifferentnoble patrilines,and
thusto addresscompetitionamongIndiannoblemenfor the cacicazgo.
11 Rostworowski de Diez
Canseco, Curacas y Sucesiones; Pease, Curacas, reciprocidady riqueza;

Susan Ramirez,"The 'Duel- of Indios': Thoughtson the Consequencesof the Shifting Bases of Power
of the `CuracasViejos Antiguos' underthe Spanishin SixteenthCenturyPeru,"Hispanic AmericanHistorical Review 64:4 (November, 1987): pp. 575-610; Powers, Andean Journeys; Stern, Peru's Indian
Peoples; O'Phelan Godoy, Kurakassin sucesiones; Spalding, "Social Climbers";Garrett,Shadows of
Empire,pp.148-180. And, for seventeenth-centuryconcernsaboutcacical legitimacy,see Felipe Guaman
Poma de Ayala, Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno, ed. by Juan V. Murraand Rolena Adorno. Mexico
(City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1980), p. 768.
12 Garrett,Shadows
of Empire;David Cahill and Blanca Tovias, eds., Elites indigenas en los Andes:
Nobles, caciques y cabildantes bajo el yugo colonial (Quito:Ediciones Abya Yala, 2003).

552
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
Elitecompetitionfor cacicalpowerwas but one arenaof politicsin the

colonialpueblo.The legal distinctionat the heartof the colonialorder,
betweenIndianandSpanishrepublics,placedthemajorityof theindigenous
of politpopulationin self-governingcommunitieswitha dualorganization
ical authority.
Sixteenth-century
attemptsto reformindigenousAndeansociety alongthe lines of ruralCastilesoughtto placethe electiveandreasonablydemocratic(if exclusivelymasculine)officesof alcaldeandthecabildo
at the heartof local politics.However,the need to maintainhierarchical
structuresto facilitateextractionfromthe indigenouseconomyled to the
preservationof the cacicazgo.And while effortsto affect the balanceof
power,betweenthemorepopularofficesof alcaldeandcabildoandtheelite
controlinstitutedin the cacicazgo,wereconstant,thatbalancefavoredthe
latteruntilwell intothe eighteenthcentury.
Then,bothhelpingto provokeandaidedby the GreatRebellion,popular challengesto cacicalauthoritybroughtabouta consolidationof democraticrule in the puebloin the last decadesof Spanishrule. Elaborating
changingidealsandrelationsof authority,a wealthof scholarshipoverthe
pastfifteenyearshashighlightedboththe depthof thisprofoundchangein
the socialorderof indigenouscommunities,andtheturbulenceof the tansition.13This democraticchallengeto elite rule coincidedwith effortsby
ruralcreolesto usurpthe local authorityof the Indiannobility,and both
challengesto thecaciqueswereabettedby a crownthatbecameopenlyhostile to the Indianelite followingthe rebellion.Oftencacicasstood at the
andthe
centerof these new politics,as bothMariaTeresaChoquehuanca
principalesof Murianicould testify.But while village eldersrejectedthe
cacica as both the embodimentof noble authorityand a threatto male
creolemensoughtcacicasas wives in aneffortto legitimatetheir
authority,
new,elite authorityin ruralsociety.14
Information
aboutcacicalauthorityandsuccessionis anecdotal:colonial
no systematicrecordsof cacicalrule,andbeyondthe
maintained
authorities
comesfrom
broadest(oftenignored)stricturesof coloniallaw,information
wills, successiondisputes,and otherlegal proceedings.These makeclear
13 David Cahill, From Rebellion to
Independence in the Andes: Soundingsfrom Southern Peru,
1750-1830 (Amsterdam:Aksant Academic Publishers,2002), 152-168; Nuria Sala i Vila, Y se arm6 el
tole tole: tributoindigenay movimientossociales en el virreinatodel Perti, 1784-1814 (Huamanga:Instituto de estudios regionales Jose Marfa Arguedas, 1996); O'Phelan Godoy, Kurakas sin sucesiones;
"
Thomson, WeAlone WillRule; Serulnikov,SubvertingColonial Authority;Penry, Transformations."
14 Cahill, From Rebellion to
Independence,157-159.

DAVIDT. GARRETT
553
Woman
caticpt
is.caticpt
It Woman
asheirms.;.bastvmd
tscacique
.f Woman
eaoth of tht abtxt
Unde
Altitudein Meteis,
5000
4000
3000
:20X,
ICCI)
5)3
0
5)3
Map 1. Women Caciques
thatcacicaswerecommonin latecolonialCusco,a bishopricthatstretched

hundredsof miles fromthe semi-tropical
valleysnorthof the city to Lake
Titicaca[Map1].15In 1790,three-quarters
of its 300,000peoplewereclassifiedas Indian,livingin diversesocietiesalongthebishopric'smanyrivers,
and on the high slopes above.16Thosein the temperatenorth(2000-3500
Across the bishmeters)tendedto be Quechua-speaking
agriculturalists.
societies
the
the
Titicaca
andAmazon
opric'smiddle,
along ridgedividing
15 "Indian"is used to referto those so classified
legally, on the basis of bilateralIndianancestry:they
constituted the "reptiblicade indios." "Spaniard"refers to everyone else: those in the "reptiblicade
esparioles.""Creoles"were people of Spanish ancestryborn in Peru. Many "creoles"were in fact mestizo, but this term had derogatorysocial and economic implicationsin the colonial period.
16
HipOlitoUnanue, Guiapolitica, eclesicisticay militardel virreynatodel Peru para el alio de 1793.
Ed. with prologue by Jose Durand(Lima:COFIDE, 1985), pp. 89-90.

"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
554
page
line?
line?
next
father
father
father
father
parents
husband
father
fathermother
sister
husband
husband?
father
parents
husband
father
parents?
on
Succession
From
FromFemale
Female
From
From
FromFrom
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From
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From
FromFrom
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From
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1783
1781
1770
continued
1767
1745-1768
1790s
1760s-1780s
1769--ca.
1787-90
1781-97
1800-1810s
1770s
1760s-1780s
1780s-1790s
1760s
1770s-1784
1770s--ca.
1755--ca.
1774--???
1769--???
1755-67
1767-1782
???-1738
???-1755
Dates*
Until1750s-1790s
Ca.1768-1781
PROVINCES
Ynga)
Uscamayta) Sunatupa)
Sayritupa)
Cusicondor)
Sayritupa)
Sayritupa)
Cusi
Rosas)
Riquelme)
Alvarez)
Tupa
Copa
Choquecahua) Tisoc
Quispe
Prado
Guamantica)
Chiguantupa)
NEIGHBORING Tisoc
Mayon
(Santos
Nicolas
Ramon
son
son
son
son
grandchildren children?
AND
(Cayetano
(Simon
(Joachim
(Gabriel
(Francisco
(Don(Don
(Lorenzo
(Antolin
(Marcos
(Josef(Manuel
of
of
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of
of
Rule(Vicente
widow
name
name
name
of
1
own Guamanrimcahi)
name name
name
name
name
own nameown
Husband
Husband
Type
In
Husband
In
Husband
Husband
In
Husband
Cacica,
Husband
Husband
In
In
In
Husband
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In Husband
In Husband
CERCADO
TABLE
Ayllu
CUSCO
:
Sucso
Chimu
: Sucso
:
:
Maras
Chachapoyas
:
: Choco
Cachona
: Choco
:
: Cachona
: Poroy
:
Collana
Lamay
Lamay
:
:
:
Ana
COLONIALSebastian
Sebastian
Sebastian
Guayllabamba
Maras
Yucay
:
:
:
Pueblo/Parish
Guarocondo
Poroy
Anta
:
:
: Anta
:
: Zurite
: Zurite
:
San
San San
Santiago
Bel&
LaresLares
: Santiago
: Santa
: Santiago
:
: Santiago
:
LATE : : .
y
y
IN
Cusco
Cusco
Province
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Abancay
Abancay
Abancay
Abancay
Abancay
Abancay
Urubamba
Urubamba
CalcaCalca
Urubamba
CACICAS
Atauchi
SucsoRocca Sayritupa Quispe
Tito
Uscapaucar
Guamantica
Tecsetupa Yarisi
Mandortupa
Paucarpuria
Ynga
Paucarpuria
Pilcotupa Pomayalli
Quispe
Sinchi Tisoc Sahuaraura
Auccatinco
Pallasca
Sancho Diaz
Uclucana Ramos Dominga
Poma
Santusa
Sebastiana
Gregoria
Leonarda
Rafaela
Manuela
Catalina
Maria
Eulalia
Petrona
Maria Fernanda
Juliana
Michaela
Isidora
Michaela
Bernarda
Juana
Asencia
Rosas Orcoguaranca
Guaman
1
Cacica
Doria
Doria
DoriaDoria
Doria
Dona
DoriaDoria
Doria
Doria[ Doria
DoriaDoria
DoriaDoria
Doria
DoriaDoria
Doria

DAVIDT. GARRETT
555
72,the
GreIn
Asen- Joseph
forIII:534Ord. NovemGamarra
forManuela,
Dominga,
121
14
mother
cousin
mother
mother
father
father father
brother
mother
husband
BET,
For
Prov.,ff.,
37:928; Salvador:
Maria
N18,
Bautista
7 7 From
Succession
From
FromFrom
FromFromFrom 47:1043;
FromFrom
From
526
ARC,
ForCiv.
COR,
San Juan
ARC,
Ord.
Santiago:
Paez,
Anta:
CAB, ARC, 133
1770
1784
(1798).
COR,Marfa,
N18,
50:1149.
1780s
for ARC, 31
1700s
Melendez
Guayllabamba:
ARC,
Ord. ARC,
(1754-73).Bernarda,
1755--ca.
1789--???
1780-97
1770s
1770s-1810s
1775-1780s
1765--ca.
1750s-1770
1770-1780
1800-1810sOrd.
1782-84
early
Dates*
Mid
for 184
(1787);
84
RA,
Fernanda,
(1798). N19
COR,
139
Leonarda,
Crim.
For27 (1790);
ARC, Oropesa:
6
ForARC,
ARC,
Gob.
Leg.
Prov.,
Apotupa)
Ord.
INT, Zurite:
Cusipaucar)
Ana:
y
Ord. Taray:C-4222.
Unzueta) agents)
Sahuaraura)
61r. RA,
COR,
and
Alvarez)Sebastian:
Unzueta)
ARC, RA,
Santa
Guaypartupa
(1790).
Colquepata:
Sierra
Orcoguaranca)
Jos6
ARC,
6
San andARC, Real
Bustinza
(1797),
(through
C-4218
1797.
son
grandchildren
204ARC, Ord.
(Miguel
(Hermengildo
(Sebastian
(Tomas
(Tomas
(Jose
(Pedro
(Francisco
(1781)
of
of
70.
(1786).
Poroy:
July
Rule
BNP,
name
name
name
RA,(1760-73).
RH Michaela,
8
of
178
ff.,
For 114249;
own
name own
own
name
Maras:
Pomayalli)
INT,
ARC, (1798),
61:1395
RH
In Husband
Husband
In In In Husband
Husband
Husband
In Husband
Husband 411 (1808-9).
TypeHusband
Ped.
31
CRA
INT, Ord.
167ARC,
(1785).
Lamay:
Coya:
Ord.
ARE
CAB,
12362.
COR,
:
ARC,
Ynga,
1782
Ayllu
Ledezma,
Cuzco
Cuzco
Cuzco
Adm.
:
:
:
:
ARC, AUD,
de
Gob.
RA,Poma
rolls; ARC,
(1798), Caycay:
Salvador
ARC,
31 August
INT,
1775.
21 Catca:
ARC,
Oropesa
Oropesa
Oropesa
San
Lamay
Coya
Coya
Taray
tribute
Rosas
Caycay
:
:
:
: : : : Catca
Ord. 67.
Rodriguez
: Colquepata
: Colquepata
:
:
Taray,
Catalina,
forARC, 334, July
8 to
1762
Pueblo/Parish
248forEulalia, RA,
:
],
LaresLares
Lares
Lares
Lares
[
for
(1798),
1770;
y
y y y y
N18,
31 claim
1765;
ayllus
1796; ARC,
Gamarra,
5
July
T. Ord.
7 Guarocondo:
Province
CalcaCalca
Calca
Calca
Calca
Paucartambo
Quispicanchis
Quispicanchis
Quispicanchis
Paucartambo
Paucartambo
Paucartambo
May
ARC,
Taray, Gamarra,
(1753-66)
17 ff., to 180
October
RA,
93
ff., 11 376(1781).
Tamboguacso
N18
Bautista
Rafaela,
claim ARC,
Yauric
Adm. 228ff.,
the
for
in
Ariza
ARC, Juan
Sunatupa
662
61:1397
y
COR, Lira, Sarmiento, Taray,
133
Orcoguaranca
Paucar
de
to
Bustinza
(1770);121, Ord.,
Prado
Yauric
ARC,
Chiguantupa
TapiaTamboguacso
N18,
RosasGuambotupaSahauraura
Melchora,
Tupa
336Arias
claim post-1780,
YngaGuambo
the
COR,
(continued)
Tamboguacso
258
Armendariz
for
for
DI,35 Gamarra,
In
1
ARC,
Belem
Sebastiana
Melchora
Isidora
Maria
Rita
Martina
Phelipa
Juana
Martina
Melchora
Eulalia
Ana
N18, N18,
ARC, 1767;
AGN,
1812;
[1778];
Apocondori Ariza Approximate.
Yucay:
],
* Sources:
TABLE
Cacica
DoriaDoria
Dona
Doria
Doria
Doria
Dona
DonaDoria
DonaDoriaDona
cia,ARC,
Bernardo
ARC,
goria,
7. May
Tamboguacso
ber[

556
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
Women
Caciques
is cacique
2 Woman
iscacique
Woman
ashtirmn*.
husband
Ecthofthtabovt
Undew
in1A4i,..itts
Altitade
5000
4000
3000
2E03
1000
500
0
Map 2. WomenCaciques-Cusco Detail
basinsformedan agropastoralist
boundarybetweentheseandthe complex
societiesaroundLakeTiticaca(3800-4000meters);the
Aymara-speaking
border
of
QuechuaandAymaraclearly,if imprecisely,followed
linguistic
this social and ecologicaldivide.In its own fashion,the colonialarchive
reproducesthis geography.The Inca nobility-imperialrulersreducedto
dominatingthe villages aroundCusco city-are the best-documented
Thegreatcacicaldynastiesof the
indigenousgroupin the colonialAndes.17
on the sefioriosaroundTiticacaalso left a sizable
pueblossuperimposed
17
Carolyn Dean, Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ: Corpus Christi in Colonial Cuzco, Peru
(Durham:Duke University Press, 1999); David Cahill, "Una nobleza asediada:Los nobles incas del
Cuzco en el ocaso colonial," pp. 81-110 in Cahill and Tovias, Elites indigenas en los Andes; Donato
Amado, "El alferez real de los Incas:resistencia,cambios, y continuidadde la identidadinca,"pp. 55-80
in ibid.;David T. Garrett,"LosIncas borb6nicos:la elite indigenacusqueriaen visperasde TtipacAmaru"
RevistaAndina 36 (Spring, 2003), pp. 9-63.

DAVIDT. GARRETT
557
record;for the communitiesin between,andin the west of the bishopric,

on cacicalauthority.18
thereis scantinformation
In at leastseventeenof theroughlythirtyInca-ruled
villagesandparishes
withintwenty-fivemilesof Cuscocity,cacicasandtheirhusbandsgoverned
at some pointbetween1750 and 1800 [Table1 andMap 2]. Morethana
dozenof thesewomenruledin theirown right,exercisingcacicalauthority
andresponsiblefor theircommunities'
obligationsto the crown.If nottypiFurthersouth,in the Vilcanota
cal, they were by no meansextraordinary.
thinner
archivalrecordnonetheTiticaca
the
much
and
the
basin,
highlands
less providesevidenceof at leastone rulingcacicain almosteveryprovince
from1750to 1800 [Table2], andruleby cacicasandtheirhusbands,or the
latterin theirwives'names,was common.
Howeverlimitedandanecdotal,thisevidenceallowsthreebroadconclusions.First,withinthe areafromCuscoto La Paztherewas regionalvariation.Cacicasweremorecommonin theInca-dominated
villagesaroundthe
city of Cuscothanin theAymarasocietiesto the south.Thisdifferencemay
in thearchive.
justbe apparent,
reflectingonlytheIncas'over-representation
But in sectionthreeI suggestthatfemalesuccessionplayeda particularly
role in the politicsof Cusco'scolonialIncas,enablingthe moveimportant
mentof cacicalofficebetweencompetingnoblemalelineages.Second,and
the southernhighlandscacicalheiresses,
hereless ambiguously,
throughout
whoinheritedofficesandwhosehusbandsruledeitherwiththemor in their
cacicaswhoformallygovernedon theirown;andthese
names,outnumbered
latterusuallyexercisedformalauthorityonly aftertheircacique-husbands
died.Thisunderstates
the preponderance
of heiresses,as the writtenrecord
oftendoesnot tell how a caciquecameto possessoffice:themoreinformationone finds,the morelikelya marriageto his predecessor's
daughterwill
emerge.Finally,whenwomeninheritedor occupiedcacicazgostheydid so
claims.I havefoundonlyoneinstancein whicha woman
throughhereditary
withoutclear familialclaim to the office occupieda cacicazgo,whereas
interimmalecaciqueswereas commonas hereditary
caciquesin 18th-cenIn that,cacicaspersonifiedhereditary,
aristocratic
turyCusco.19
authorityin
Indiansociety,anda women'sinheritance
of cacicalofficeassertedthecon18
Choque Canqui, Sociedad y economics;Thomson, WeAlone Will Rule; Glave, Trajinantesand
Vida, simbolos y batallas: CreaciOny recreaciOnde la comunidad indigena. Cusco, siglos XVI-XX
(Lima:Fondo de CulturaEconOmica,1993); Stavig, The Worldof TapacAmaru;Wachtel,Le Retourdes
Ancetres.
19 Dofia CatalinaSalas Pachacutic,an Inca noblewomanfrom Zurite with no
y
hereditaryclaims to
the offices, held the cacicazgos of Yanaocaand Layo. ARC, N18, 292 Zamora:402-13, 21-10-1785.

"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
558
24-C- EC
1790s
1760s-81
1760s-70s?
1770s-80s
1720s-30s
1770s?
1780s
1790s
1790s
1780s
1770s-1781
1790s
1778-1780
1770s,
1780s-90s
1770s?
Years**
mid-1700s
ANB,
Yanaoca:
1793-11;
LA
Quispicanchis
Quispicanchis
Province
Sicasica
Sicasica
Tinta
Tinta
Lampa
Lampa
Chumbivilcas
Azangaro
Chucuito
Chucuito
Omasuyos
Omasuyos
Azangaro
Chucuito
and EC
Cotaguasi,
Layo ANB,
Tiaguanaco:
(1789);
4,
11:312-4;1796-97;
Ord.
Chucuito:
EC
BET
RA,
NORTHERN
AND
CUSCO
ANB,
ARC,
(1796-7);
ARC,
Hilayhua
Toro
A.
Acomayo
SOUTHERN
Taraco
IN
TABLE
Zepita:
302-12
Machaca,
110;
de
Villagarcia:
Acuria
280PRA,
14
Jesus
N18
N18 ARE,
ARC, 1790-28;
ARC, Acora:
EC
Toro:
PAZ*
BNP,
17-7-1779
267ff.,ANB,
147
Laxa:
involvement.
Urinsaya Machaca
Nicacio:
Gob,
103;
de
Pomacanchis:
INT,
(1794);
31-3-4,
14
Community
San
Acos,
Pomacanchis
Yanaoca,
Cupi
Cotaguasi,
Layo
Nicacio
Achaya
Acora
Yunguyo
Copacabana
Zepita
Laxa
Tiaguanaco
Jesus
320-1;
ARC,
acknowledged IX,
Ord.
11:309,
CACICAS
Achaya:
AUD, AGN-A,
husband's
BET
a
180;
ARC,
ARC, PSG
without
Cupi:
andCopacabana:
GOVERNING
Colque
own,
170113;
Sangarard:
her
Guarachi
PSG
PRA
Pachacutic
Pachacutic
Alacca on and21-10-1785;
y y
Uisa Cachicatari
Turpa
Xauregui
Condemayta
Chipana
ARE,
ARE,
SalasPachariCarlos
Tito Salas
402-13,
governing
Tico
Catacora
Fernandez
Acomayo,
Campos
Mango
Paxipati
Josefa
Angela
Pacaje
Vilcapi
as
Taraco:
Collque
Yunguyo:
Acos, San
Zamora:
1791;
292
Described
Approximate.
*
1705,
1797-46.
** Sources:
Cacica
Doila
Doha
Doha
Doha
Doila
Doila
Dona
Dam
Doha
Doha
Dada
Doila
Doha
Dolia
Dona
Doria
and01-1789;
Catalina
Catalina
Lucia
Bernarda
Isabel
Isidora
Tomasa
Juana
Juliana
Juliana
Maria
Maria
Felipa
Maria
Teresa
Ana

DAVIDT. GARRETT
559
whileruleby cacicas'hustinuingauthorityof herfamilyin thecommunity;

bandsaffirmedmaleauthority.
The cacicawas not a late colonialinnovation.Whileevidenceis scarcer

for the Habsburgera andrarefor the pre-conquest
Andes,it appearsthat
femalepoliticalauthoritywas well establishedat the time of the Spanish
conquestandcontinuedto be a featureof indigenouspoliticsin thesixteenth
Graubart
has challengedSilverblatt'sgeneralandseventeenthcenturies.20
ized colonialnarrativeof patriarchal
usurpationof femalepoliticalauthorin manyareas
ity, arguingthatsuch authorityhas not been demonstrated
underInca rule.21However,for the Incas of Cusco the sixteenth-century
sourcesdo suggestboth that women ruled over some communitiesand
playedan activerolein governancegenerally.UnderSpanishrulethesetraditionsof authorityconfronteda formalassertionthatindigenousauthority
be masculine,coincidentwithattemptsto imposeprimogeniture.
Following
decadesof discussionandvacillation,in 1614PhilipIIIdecreedthat"since
theprovincesof Peruwerediscoveredit hasbeen. . . thecustomamongthe
Indiancaciquesthatsons succeedfathersin cacicazgos,andmy will is that
the said custombe maintained."22
However,earlierroyaldecreessuggest
thatfather-sonsuccessionhad held no hegemonyin Andeancustom;one
from1602observedthatAndeancustomwas for "sons,brothers,andclose
As Graubart
relativesinherit"cacicazgos.23
argues,thismoveto a preference
forfather-sonsuccessionunintentionally
defineda colonialspaceforofficenoble
women.24
The
1614
decree
hadthe effectof refashioning
holdingby
the cacicazgoor curacazgointo a modifiedmayorazgowith its preference
for parent-child
succession,so thatin the absenceof sons (a commonphenomenonin theepidemic-wracked
colonialAndes)daughterswouldbe preferredto malecousinsandbrothers.As we shallsee, in practicesuccession
20 Rostworowski, Curacas Sucesiones; Silverblatt,Moon, Sun, Witches,
y
pp. 20-108; TerenceA.
D'Altroy, The Incas (Oxford:Blackwell, 2000), pp. 103-8; Urton,History of a Myth,pp. 41-70.
21Grabuart,"ConNuestro
Trabajo,"pp. 281-90; Silverblatt,Moon, Sun and Witches,pp. 150-3. See
also Alejandro Diez, Pueblos y cacicazgos de Piura, siglos XVI y XVII (Piura: Biblioteca Regional,
1988), pp. 45-6; KerstinNoawack, "Aquellassenorasdel linaje real de los Incas:Vivir y sobrevivircomo
una mujerinca noble en el Peril colonial temprano,"pp. 9-54 in Cahill and Tovias, Elites indigenas en
los Andes.
22".. . desdequese descubrieron

lasprovincial
delPerilhaestadoenposesiOn
entre
y costumbre
losindioscaciques
dequeloshijossuceden
a lospadres
enloscacicazgos,
es queladicha
y mivoluntad
costumbre
se conserve
DiazRementeria,
Elcacique
enel virreinato
delPeru,p. 218.
y guarde."
23"[Aloscacicazgos]
se heredan
depadres
a hijos,hermanos,
masprOxiporsucesiOn
y parientes
. ."(22February
Elcaciqueenel virreinato
delPerd,
mos,siendolegitimos.
1602).DiazRementeria,
p. 218.
24 Graubart,WithOur Labor and Sweat,
pp. 164-6.

560
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
of coloniallaw.
dependedas muchon localpoliticsas on thebroadstrictures
But whethercoloniallaw createda space for womenlords in the Indian
traditions
republic,or simplyprovideda mechanismby whichpre-conquest
of femaleoffice-holdingwere conveyedinto colonialsociety,seventeenth
andeighteenthcenturydocumentsfromthe Cuscoareaassertthatcacicas
wereseenas a traditional
partof the Indianrepublic'spolitics.25
Thatis notto say theywentunnoted:cacicasprovokedcommentin midCusco.Occasionalexplanations
in the archivalrecordabouta
18th-century
woman'spossessionof office suggestthat(male)Spanishofficials,creoles,
andIndiannobleslookedon thephenomenon
withconcernedinterest.While
for most cacicas thereis no qualifyingobservation,those that exist are
cousins,whose familyhad govenlightening.In Taraytwo Tamboguacso
ernedat leastsincethe 1600s,battledoverthepueblo'scacicazgoin 1782.26
Don Toribio'sfatherDon Josephhadbeencaciqueuntilhis deathin 1761;
Joseph'scousinDon Lucashadthenheldthe office.AfterLucas'sdeathin
the late 1770s, Toribio marriedLucas's widow and challenged his
Doila Rita and her creole husband,Don Sebastian
cousin/step-daughter
Unzueta,for the cacicazgo.In his investigation,the corregidoraskedRita's
witnesseslilt' it is truethatin the pueblosof this provinceit is customary
thatdaughterssucceedto cacicazgos."27
All seventeenmen she presented
dulysaidyes, buttheyarenotwitnesseswhosetestimonywe shouldreadily
dismiss.Taraywas a strongholdof the colonialIncanobility,andthosetestifyingincludedone of the electorsfromCusco'sIncacity council,the sacristanof Taray'schurch(andthatof neighboring
Pisac),the villagealcalde,
and overalla respectablecross-sectionof Taray'sInca elders,along with
men from well-establishedcreole families.Don FernandoPumayalli,the
Incaelector,gave examplesof five cacicasin nearbyparishes,governing
6'. . . without
any objection,[and]this is withoutknowinghow to readand
write"--areminderthatby the late 1700sIndiannoblemenoftenhadbasic
literacy,becomingan informal,genderedqualificationfor cacicaloffice.28
25 ARC, INT, RH, 218 (1807), f. 6r for
Caycay's cacique in the 1750s basing his claim on that of his

grandmother,Doha Ana Cusimaytay Espinoza, "cacicaprincipaly gobernadoraque fue en la provincia
de Paucartambo."ARC, RA, Ord., 27 (1798), f. 22r, for seventeenth-centurydocumentsrecognizingthe
claims of "Dona CathalinaSisa, casica que fue en propiedad"in Maras.Whetherthese claims are accurateis, of course, not certain,but thatthey were made to establishthe legitimacyof latercacical claimants
suggests their political value; see Powers, "A Battle of Wills."
26 ARC, RA, Ord., 31
(1798), ff. 62-75.
27 "Comoes verdad
que en los Pueblos y lugares de distritode la mencionadaProvinciaay costumbre de que sucedanlas hembrasen los casicasgos... ." ARC, RA, Ord., 31 (1798), ff. 60r.
28
Dominga Quispe Guaman,IsidoraDiaz, JuanaUclucana,MariaRamos Tito Atauchi,and Martina
Chiguantupa.ARC, RA, Ord., 31 (1798), ff. 62. ". . . sin que aiga embarazo,esto es sin saber leer, ni
escribir."

DAVIDT. GARRETT
561
Otherwitnesses were more interestedin the circumstancesin which a

womanmightinheritoffice. Botha creoleandTaray'sIndianalcaldetestified that". . . in the pueblosof this province,as in its neighbors,in the
absenceof menwomengovernthe cacicazgos,thatis [if they are]heirsby
Othersmadeclearthat
the directline, andeverybodyknowsthiscustom."29
that(in the wordsof
but
also
not only was femalesuccessionacceptable,
Pisac's sacristan),"by custom. . . women succeedto the cacicazgoand
governfor themselves."3Otherdocumentsshow a similar,conditionalacceptanceof femalesucRamosTito Atauchi
cession and rule.31In 1770 Don PedroSahuaraura
explainedthathe servedas caciqueof theAylluCuzcoin Oropesathrough
his wife, "DoriaSebastianaBustinzaYaurecArisa,legitimatedaughterof
thelateDonJospehBustinzaandDonaMelchoraYaurecArisawhois alive,
governessof the said ayllu to whom [the cacicazgo]fell by absenceof a
male[heir]sinceherancestors,andthecacicazgopassesto my saidwife .. .
[andso] I wasnamedinterimcaciqueandconfirmedby theRoyalandSupeThe implicauntilthereis a maleor femalesuccessor."32
riorGovernment,
tionis thateithera maleor femaleheirwouldbe acceptable,butin thelatter
caseherhusbandwill rule.AfterSebastiana's
death,Pedroretainedthecacicazgo in the nameof theirthreechildren;when he was killed by Ttipac
Amaru'sforcesin 1780, MelchoraYaurecArizareoccupiedthe cacicazgo
Suchpracticewas fairlycommon:widuntilherdeathin the mid-1780s.33
ruledin the nameof underageheirs.
owedmothersandgrandmothers
This, of course,raisesthe issue of whetherthese womenwho formally
possessedthe cacicazgoactuallyexercisedits authority,andattendedto its
duties:didMelchoraYaurecArizapersonallyinstructthevillageofficersin
theirduties,overseethe collectionof tributeanddistributionof land,and
29 ARC, RA, Ord., 31 (1798), ff. 73 ". . . en los Pueblos de esta Provinciacomo en las demas
que a
falta de Barones gobiernanlas mugeres los Casicasgos, esto es siendo acreedoraspor linea recta y que
nadie ignora desta costumbre."
3- ARC, RA, Ord.,31
(1798), f. 68 ". por costumbreassi en esta provinciacomo en otras subceder
a las hembrasen los casicasgos y gobernarpor ellas mismas."
31In 1732 the
corregidorconcluded that "ser costumbreel que hereden y subsedanhembrasen los
casicasgos de dicha villa" of Maras.ARC, RA, Ord., 27 (1798), f. 50r. Also Don Miguel Guaypartupa's
attemptto regain the cacicazgo of Lamay,in the name of his wife. ARC, AUD, Ord., 18 (1795).
32 ARC, N18, 133 JuanBautistaGamarra,n/f, n/d. "DoliaSebastianaBustinzaYaurecArisa
hija lexitima de Don Jospeh Bustinza ya difunto y de DoriaMelchoraYaurecArisa que al presentevive governadorade dichos ayllos en quien recay6 dho ayllo a falta de varon desde sus antepasados,y . . . recae
dho gov.no en la dha mi muger lex.ma . . . de consentim.toy beneplasito [de Doha Melchora]por hallarse ya de abansadahedad fui nombradopor tal casique interinoy confirmadopor el R1y Sup.rGov.no
de estos Reynos, hasta en el interimque tenga susesion de varon o de hembra.. . ."

562
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
so on? For most instancesthe recordis so brief that such questionsare

butit is noteworthythatthe matterwas openlyaddressedin
unanswerable,
colonialtestimony.Indeed,in 1782 severalwitnessesin the Tamboguacso
successiondisputenamedMelchoraYaurecArizaas one of severalcacicas
who governedfor themselvesin nearbycommunities.34
Anotherwas Pedro
in
Doria
Ramos
Tito
Sahuaraura's
Maria
Atauchi
Cusco'sSantiago
mother,
control)
parish,who governedAylluCachona(underhereditarySahuaraura
afterhis death.In 1787, she soughtpermissionto appointa segunda(Don
LorenzoQuispeTacuri,an Inca noble relatedto her by marriage)to performherresponsibilities,
becauseof her age.35Nonetheless,she remained
formallythe cacicauntilherdeatha decadelater,in so doingensuringthat
the office passedto hergrandchildren.
To the south,in the Vilcanotahighlands,DoriaCatalinaSalasy Pachacuticclaimedin herwill thatshe owned
landin Layothathadbeengivenherby the communityandthe corregidor
in compensationfor servicesanddebtsas cacica,suggestinga very active
engagement.And in 1795, whenDoriaJulianaCarlosUisa, who hadgovernedAchayasince the deathof her father,was brieflydeposedin favor
Don FelipeCarlosUisa, she was quicklyreinstatedby the Intendant"[in
responseto] the clamorof the Indians"who consideredFelipeincapableof
governing.36
Suchtestimonydoes notprovideclearanswersto what,if any,particular
forcaciof thecaciquewereconsideredinappropriate
dutiesandauthorities
Cuscoit was plaucas. But it suggeststhatto peoplein eighteenth-century
siblethatwomencacicasmight"govern,"a relationto the communitythat
was, in testimony,distinguishedfrom simplyhavingformalclaim to the
office.Thatwomenwho actuallywieldedcacicalauthorityraisedconcerns
is clear;so too is boththatsuchwomenwereaccepted,andthatthe formal
recognitionof a cacica'sauthoritycould maintainfamilialpossessionof
office,whethershe actuallyruledor not.PerhapsdonFranciscoXavierTico
betterin 1791thananymoderncomChipanacapturedtheseambivalences
mentarywhen,seekingrestitutionof his family'sruleoverZepitaUrinsaya,
nearLakeTiticaca,he notedthathis sister,DoriaJulianaTicoChipana,had
beencacicauntilshewaskilledby rebelsin 1781,andthatshehadgoverned
well "inspiteof hersex."37
33Sahuaraura
battle
Incanoblesinthefirstmajor
ofCusco's
waskilledleading
theroyalist
regiment
atSangarard.
of therebellion,
34ARC,RA,Ord.,31(1798),ff. 62-75.
35ARC,CAB,Ped.,116(1787-1799).
36"alclamor
delosnaturales"
ARC,Int.Gob,147.
37"apesardesusexo"BNP,C-1705.

DAVID T. GARRETT
563
In short,if somewhatsuspectcacicaswerenonethelesswidelyaccepted.
I have come acrossonly two explicitchallengesto the rightof an Indian
noblewomanto inheritor rulebecauseof hersex; one is thatagainstMaria
The otheragaincomesfromTaray.WhenRitaTamTeresaChoquehuanca.
Lucas
succeededto the cacicazgoin 1762,he was chalfather
boguacso's
(whoseparentshadheld
lengedby a cousin,DoriaGregoriaTamboguacso
the cacicazgobeforeJoseph).In the ensuinglawsuit,noneof the witnesses
challengedGregoria'sancestry,northe standingof herhusband(Fernando
Pumayalli,whowouldtestifyon Rita'sbehalftwentyyearslater);but,while
one creolegaveexamplesof nearbycacicas,otherwitnessesinsistedthat"it
is theIncaandimmemorialcustomthatwomendo not succeedto thiscaciThat"Incaandimmemorialcustom"changed(withoutcomment)
cazgo."38
in two decadessuggeststhatthe issue was less a firmcommitmentto male
successionthana rhetoricaldeploymentof customto servecontemporary
politicalinterestswithinthe community.39
Still,the invocationof customto denywomenpoliticalauthorityis noteworthy:certainlyno witnessin the colonialAndeswouldhaveassertedthat
by custom women did not inheritproperty.Indeed,more strikingthan
womenpossessingpoliticalauthorityis thatthis possessionand exercise
forindigenouswomenhadconsiderable
werecircumscribed,
powerin colonial Andean society.4-Over the past decades historianshave exposed
women'scentralrolesin thecolonialeconomy,as traders,lenders,landownIndiannobleers, and the dominantforce in manyurbanmarketplaces.41
Whilein theorythe huswomenamassed,andinherited,sizablefortunes.42
band's permissionwas necessaryfor notarizedcontracts,most of the
indigenouseconomyoperatedoutsidethepurviewof the notary,andIndian
womenengagedon theirown in businessdealings.Inca noblewomenin
ownedtextile
urbanCuscowereactivegrainmerchantsandmoneylenders,
in theforcedsalesof the
factoriesandtaverns,andjoinedwithcorregidores
fortunes
of
the
richest
of
these
the
reparto;
equaledthoseof therichestInca
38ARC,RA,Ord.,31 (1798),f. 18v".. . es costumbre
e ymmemorial
nosuccedan
las
ynconcuza
hembras
enesteGobierno."
39Graubart,
ofpre-conWith
OurLabor
andSweat,
passimforthepolitical
deployment
pp.158-185
incacicalsuccession
battles.
quest"custom"
4- Forwomen's
B. Taylor,
Homicide
and
informal
rolein villagepolitics,seeWilliam
Drinking,
in Colonial
Mexican
Rebellion
Stanford
Press,1979),pp. 116-7;and
(Stanford:
Villages
University
Stern, The Secret History of Gender,pp. 204-8.
41Mangan,
alson6above.
Roles,pp.9-13fora surveyof theliterature;
Trading
42SusanKellogg,"FromParallelandEquivalent
to Separate
butUnequal:
Tenochca
Mexica
inIndianWomen
ed.bySusanSchroeder,
Women,
1500-1700,"
ofEarlyMexico,
pp.123-144
Stephanie
Haskett
of Oklahoma
Wood,andRobert
Press,1997),p. 134forcolonialinheri(Norman:
University
tancelaw.

564
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
noblemen.43
Ruralcacicasalsoownedconsiderable
DoriaCatalina
property:
Salasy Pachacutic'sestateincludedthe local oven, a smalltextilefactory,
andhaciendasworth10,000pesos,andin herwills she insistedthatall was
acquiredthroughherown work,withno helpfromhertwo husbands.44
Theauthority
of Indiannoblewomenwasnotlimitedto therealmof propfromthe
ertyandthe market.Evidencehereis scarcer,but documentation
GreatRebellionof 1780-82makesclearthatelite womenhadconsiderable
powerin theircommunities.DoriaMicaelaBastidas,Jose GabrielTtipac
Amaru'swife, was centralto the rebellion'sleadership.45
The cacica of
was executedalongwiththe Ttipac
Acos, DoriaTomasaTitoCondemyata,
Amarufamilyfor havinggatheredtroopsto defenda rivercrossing,while
in CavanillaDoriaJuanaQuispeYupanqui
alsoralliedtributaries
to join the
rebellion.46
More generally,statementsin lawsuitsmake clear that such
womenwereforcesto reckonwithin theirpueblos.Afterthe rebellionthe
widowof the caciqueof Guarina,in La Paz, soughtthe office in the name
of theirunderagedaughter,
notingthatshehadconsiderable
experiencegovthe
town
her
In 1794,whenthe princierning
during husband'sabsences.47
pales of AzangaroUrinsayacomplainedto the CuscoAudienciaaboutthe
abusiveruleof theircacique,Don DomingoMangoTurpa,they conceded
that,as he spentmostof his timein Cuscoenmeshedin lawsuits,theyhad
sufferedlittle directlyfrom his hands.Rather,his wife, DoriaAntonio
Chuquicallata,
governedin his steadand was a terror,subjectingthemto
"abusesandmistreatment
. . . so thattheyfearto enterherhouse[toprovide]
the customaryservice."48
Such commentssuggesthostilitytowardwomen'spower,manifestin
gruesomepopularviolenceagainstcacicasaroundLakeTiticacaduringthe
Rebellion.Indeed,in 1781the womenfromthe commonsof Azangarohad
hungthoseof theMangoTurpafamilyin themainplaza;andin Juli,aftera
massacreof the Indiannobility,rebelswere reputedto have drainedand
43 AAC, II-7-128; ARC, COR, Ped., 90
(1756) for the tradedispute involving Dofia Phelipa Pillco

Sisa; ARC NOT18, 133 Juan Bautista Gamarra,133 n/f, 23 August 1758 for the will of Dofia Tomasa
Ramos Tito Atauchi;n/f, 12 February1777 and n/f, 20 October 1745 for Dofia Antonia Loyola Cusitito
Atauyupanquiand Dofia CatalinaSutapongo.
44 See above, n19.
45 Leon G.
Campbell, "Womenand the Great Rebellion in Peru, 1780-1783," The Americas 42:2
(1985), pp. 163-96. ColecciOnDocumentaldel Bicentenariode la RevolucionEmancipadorade Ttipac
Amaru,ed. by LuisDurandFlOrez(Lima:1980),IV:pp. 14,20-25,42, 188-208.
46 DurandFlorez, ed., ColecciOnDocumentaldel Bicentenariode la

Revolucion,III:pp. 56, 76, 324.
47 Thomson, WeAlone WillRule, 233.
p.
48". . .
algunos dafiosy maltrato. . . y que por to tanto temen entrara su casa con el servicio que es
costumbre.. . ." ARC, RA, 14 (1794).

DAVIDT. GARRETT
565
drunkthe blood of one cacica.49Takentogether,such incidentsand complaints about abusive cacicas and caciques'wives show oppositionto
womenpossessingsuchpower,butalso underscore
thattheydidpossessit.
Andthey displayedit. Eighteenth-century
paintingsof elite Incawomen
featurea servantholdinga parasoloverthe noble,illustrating
the performanceof femaleauthority.50
Thewillsof highlandcacicaslistlavishvestments,
largelyof indigenousgarb-Fianacasworthdozens of pesos, llicllas and
acsus madeof vicunaandfine wool andembroidered
with gold andsilver
thread.51
marked
their
status
their
Noblemen,too,
through clothes,butby the
eighteenthcenturythese were the garbof well-to-docreoles:jacketsand
trousers,capes,beaverhats.Certainlyindigenousnoblemenweremore"histhannoblewomen,
morelikelyto be literateandfluentin Spanish,
panicized"
withgreaterknowledgeof coloniallaw andtheworkingsof colonialgovernment.As a result,indigenousauthority
washispanicized:
themost
culturally,
Indian
in
man
a
was
the
most
like
his
creole
powerful
community
neighbors
andmostdistantfromthe villagecommons.Thisgenderedperformance
of
culturalidentityreflecteda broadercodingof authority,
withthe markersof
Spanish-ness
indicatingpoliticalpower.At the sametime,thecolonialorder
requiredandproducedindigenouspoliticalauthorityin ruralcommunities;
thatIndiannoblewomenwereless culturally"Spanish"
thantheirmalepeers
have
to
make
cacicas
to
communities.52
might
helped
acceptable
But analyzingcacical authoritybased solely on the caciqueor cacica
overlooksa centralaspectof Andeanculture:notwithstanding
theoccasional
bachelor,spinster,or widowedcacique,and despitethe formalcolonial
49
Caciques and other male nobles were also subjected to extreme and ritualistic violence;
Szeminski's findings suggest some gendering to the actions, although descriptions in any detail are
scarce. Gilberto Salas Perea, Monografia Sintitica de Azcingaro(Puno: EditorialLos Andes, 1966), p.
22; Jan Szeminski, "Why Kill the Spaniard?New Perspectives on Andean InsurrectionaryIdeology in
the 18th Century"in Steve J. Stern, ed., Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World,18th to 20th Centuries(Madison:University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), p. 171.
50 Luis Eduardo
Wuffarden,"La descendenciareal y el 'renacimientoinca' en el virreinato,"in Los
Incas, reyes del Perd (Lima:Banco de Credito,2005), pp. 217, 227.
51 The lliclla is a
rectangularwoven shawl, worn (pinnedacross the chest) over the acsu, a wrapped
skirt or dress of a rectangularweaving; the fiaiiacais a small cloth worn on top of the head as a sign of
high female rank. In 1756 among the clothing of Doria Rafaela Tito Atauchi, the daughterof the Inca
cacique of Copacabanaand wife of the cacique of Pucarani(both in La Paz), was a taffeta-linedvelvet
liatiacaappraisedat a remarkable36 pesos, ANB, EC-1773-83. For noblewomen's clothing generally.
ADP, INT, 51; ARC, N18, 133 JuanBautistaGamarra,n/f, 26 August, 1755; n/f, 9 January1749; and n/f,
12 February1777.
52 For
gender and ethnic identity in twentieth-centuryCuzco, Marisol de la Cadena, "'Women are
More Indian':Ethnicityand Genderin a CommunitynearCuzco"pp. 329-348 in Ethnicity,Marketsand
Migrationin theAndes:At the Crossroadsof HistoryandAnthropology.ed. by Brooke Larsonand Olivia
Harris(Durham:Duke University Press, 1995).

566
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
of thecacicazgoasheldby anindividual,
in theirrolein vilunderstanding
to speakof a cacicalcoupleorhousehold.
Cerlagelife it is moreaccurate
lawsuits
include
of
abuses
tainly
againstcaciquesgenerally
complaints
by
thecacique'sspouseandchildren.53
valueof embedBeyondthepractical
thecacical
dingcaciquesandcacicasin theirdomesticeconomies,
treating
as
a
unit
also
the
enormous
of
couple
acknowledges
importance dualismin
A unityrequiresopposedconstituent
Andeanthought.54
parts;in that,the
cacicalcouple-whatever
theirstanding
in theeyesof Spanishlaw-more
bothcommunity
andauthority
thanjust the caciqueor
fullyrepresented
cacica.WhilereadingcolonialAndeansocietythrough
Incapracimperial
tice is problematic,
the motherandprincipalwife of the Incaemperor
in rule;and,according
to Betanzos,
theIncaemperor
activelyparticipated
married
hisprincipal
wifeatthetimeof hisascentto thethrone,suggesting
thatsupreme
residedwitha couple.55
Thearchival
record
politicalauthority
hintsata similarunderstanding
of cacicalauthority
withinthepuebloin the
late colonialsouthernhighlands.
AntoniaChuquicallata-the
heiressto
Saman'scacicazgowho tributaries
claimedactuallygovernedAzangaro
of Azangaro
in legaldocuherselfas a "cacica"
Urinsaya-didnotdescribe
ments.56
Andyet,tothemaleeldersofAzangaro
shewas,witha formidable
thatderivedfromherancestry,
herhusband,
andherrolein the
authority
cacicalhousehold.
Thissuggeststhat,in practiceif not formally,
cacical
oftenlaywiththecouplemorethanjustthecaciqueorhusband-authority
whenhusbands
ruledwithheiresses.57
Thentheunionof legitiparticularly
mateauthority,
heldby a womanthrough
withits formalexerinheritance,
cise by a man(oftenfromanothercommunity),
joinedfemaleandmale,
andoutsideworld,hereditary
andacquired
community
authority.
it remains
thatwomenformally
Nonetheless,
possessedpoliticalauthorityfarlessthantheywieldedeconomicclout,withmenenjoyinga monopcontrolling
oly on theelectiveofficesof thepuebloanddisproportionately
with
the aristocratic
of the cacicazgo.Nor is this inconsistent
authority
andexertitletotheirproperty
Spanish
society,inwhichwomenmaintained
53 For
examples, ANB, EC-1762-144; ANB, Ruck, 217; ARE, PRH, 184.
54 Silverblatt, Moon, Sun and Witches,
pp. 20-66; Therese Bouysse-Cassagne, "Urco and uma:
Aymaraconcepts of space"pp. 201-227 in AnthropologicalHistory of Andean Polities, ed. by Murraet
al.; Floyd G. Lounsbury,"Some aspects of the Inkakinshipsystem"pp. 121-136 in AnthropologicalHistory of AndeanPolities, ed. by Murraet al.
55
D'Altroy, The Incas, pp. 91, 103-106.
56
Although in a 1797 dispute she did refer to herself as the ". . . casica proprietariopor derecho de
sangredel Pueblo de Saman. . . ." ARE PRA 392; ARE PRA 482 for claims of Inca ancestry.
57 For referencesto cacical
couples collectively as the "los caciques gobernadores"of their community, see ANB, EC-1793-11 (Chucuito);ARC, N18 110 Joseph BernardoGamarra,3 July 1785, f. 710
(Oropesa);ARC, AUD, Ord., 33 (1799) (Juli).

DAVIDT. GARRETT
567
but wereexcludedfrom
controloverit in marriage,
cised considerable
betweenformaloroffiThissuggestsa dichotomy
formalrolesinpolitics.58
of
Andean
reform
definedin the great
cial authority,
societyby viceroy
Toledoandhis advisorsin the 1570s,andtherealmof economic,familial,
but
communities
inAndean
thatmattered
andpersonal
enormously
authority
The
administration.
of
functioned
awayfromthe directpurview Spanish
withofficesof municaffiliated
exerciseof colonialofficialauthority-that
limitedtomen.59
the
church-was
and
formally
royalrule,
ipalgovernment,
Incacabildo
of
Cusco's
officesof electorandstandard-bearer
Thehonorific
notonewomanappears
wereheldby Incanoblemen:
amongoveronehuninnoAndthedemocratic
book.6electoral
dredelectorsin the18th-century
the
alcalde-were
cabildo
and
reforms-thevillage
vationsof theToledan
to a womanalcaldeor
male:I haveneverfoundreference
alsoexclusively
in thearchive.61
cabildo-member
to thisexclusionwasthecacica,exposinga cenTheoneclearexception
in thelaws
of cacicalpower,recognized
in thedefinition
tralcontradiction
and
office
of colonialPeruas botha bureaucratic (hence,male) a family
Withthiswe returnto the
gendered).62
possession(hence,notnecessarily
authorof thelatecolonialcacica:shepossessed
characteristic
oneuniversal
of aristothesupremacy
ity basedon a familialclaim,therebyembodying
controlof cacicalofficein theIndianrepublicoverthe
cratic,seigneurial
of cacicalpowerandits inclusionin the domainof the
bureaucratization
colonialstate.So toodidthecacicalheir,andwhenanadultsonsucceeded
communal
foreclosed
hisfatheras caciquefamilyauthority
politics.Butin
claimto a cacicazgo
wheretherewassomerecognized
themanyinstances
butnomaleheir,thecacicalheiresscreateda spaceof aristocratic
authority
fromroyalintrusion,
withinthepueblothatwasprotected
yetopento arismalecompetition.
tocratic,
58
Mary Elizabeth Perry,Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville (Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1990), pp. 14-20. And, of course, Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna and Calder& de la
Barca's El alcalde de Zalamea.
59 Conventsoffered a
partialexception for Spanishwomen. KathrynJ. Burns, Colonial Habits: Convents and the SpiritualEconomyof Cuzco, Peru (Durham:Duke University Press, 1999).
60 ARC, COR, Civ., 29, 620.
61 See Bianca Premo,"Fromthe Pockets of Women:The
Genderingof the Mita, Migration,andTribute in Colonial Chucuito, Peru" The Americas 57:1 (July 2000), pp. 63-4 for concern by the Potosi
cabildo that the demographichavoc wroughtby the Potosi mita had led to women alcaldes aroundTiticaca; the absence of archivalmention of such women suggests that this was rhetoricalhyperbole.
62 A similar contradictionmanifested itself in
Spain, over women's inheritance and exercise of
seigneurialauthority.CristianBerco, "JuanaPimentel, the Mendoza Family, and the Crown,"pp. 27-47
in Helen Nader, ed., Power and Gender in Renaissance Spain (University of Illinois Press, 2004); and
the discussion of Leonor de la Vega and Aldonza Tellez de la Vega in L.J. Andrew Villalon, "The
Anatomy of an AristocraticPropertyDispute, 1350-1577" (PhD Diss., Yale University, 1984).

568
"INSPITE
OFHERSEX"
By no meanswas the sex of the caciquethe only,or even a dominant,

issue in pueblo politics, which for the two centuriesbetweenToledo's
reformsandthe rebellionsof 1780-82were drivenlargelyby competition
betweenthecommonsandhereditary
elites,andwithinthoseelitesforconin the
trolof cacicaloffice.Thefirstwastheresultof a centralcontradiction
colonialcodificationof theIndianRepublic.Weknowverylittleabouthow
aylluleaderswerechosen,whattheirpowerswere,andwhatweretheinternal stratain pre-conquest
communities.ButHabsburgofficialsweredeeply
in the
concernedaboutvillagestructure,
whichtheyaggressivelyreordered
late 1500s.Thecentralreformwas the resettlement
of dispersedayllusinto
largervillagesmodeledon theCastilianmunicipalidad,
ideallyfairlydemoBoth a
craticandby law (butnot practice)closedto Spanishsettlement.63
in
itself
and
a
of
its
constituent
the
community
ayllus, pueblohad
composite
an electedcabildoand officers,most importantlyalcaldesand regidores,
chosenfromandby the originarios,responsiblefor local governanceand
of communalland.64
As in Spain,officeholdingandelection
thedistribution
were the preserveof men, so thatdemocraticauthorityin the pueblowas
clearlygenderedas male,withapparentdeferenceto age as wel1.65
of indigenous
Holdingthe nativeelite responsiblefor the "barbarism"
their
his
had
made
clear
Toledo
and
advisors
hostilityin anti-aristosociety,
craticdecreessuchthat"theprincipalcaciquesnot interferein the elections
the
andthat"neither
foralcaldes,regidores,andotherofficesof therepublic,"
freBut
the
or
be
as
alcalde
nor
his
second
elected
regidor."66
person
cacique
quentmentionof caciquesbetraysthepowerthatthoseatthetopof thesoci63 For the
municipalidad,Helen Nader, Liberty in Absolutist Spain: The HabsburgSale of Towns,
1516-1700 (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), pp. 17-45.
64 Men in the
"reptiblicade indios" fell into a numberof legal categories, which were simplified in
the eighteenthcentury.The most common was that of originario, an adult man under50 who was a full
memberof the communityin which he lived and had access to communalland; in returnhe owed tribute and was responsiblefor communalburdens(most onerously,from Canasy Canchissouth,the mining
mita to Potosi). Reservadoswere those over 50 who, in theory,received less land and did not pay tribute
or owe labor service. Forasteros were migrants,who had left their own communities and settled elsewhere, who were responsiblefor lower tributeand exempt from the mita, but did not have formalaccess
to communallands. Nobles were exempt from tributeand personalservice; the source of nobility could
be writtenconcession by the crown, or custom. In addition,every communityhad its "principales,"usually noble or originarios,who generally spoke for the communityand from whom elective officers were
drawn.
65Stern, The Secret
History of Gender,pp. 151-215; Thomson, WeAlone WillRule.
66 ,,. . . los
Caziques principales,no le entremetanen las eleciones de los Alcaldes y Regidores y
demas oficiales de la Republica . . . no elijan al Cazique ni segunda persona paraAlcalde o Regidor."
Thomas de Ballesteros, Tomoprimero de las ordenanzasdel Peril (Lima: Francisco Sobrino y Bados,
1752), Book II, Title I, Ordenanzasv-vi.

DAVIDT. GARRETT
569
etiesof theformerIncarealmsstillretained.DuringthereformsPeru'sSpanish officialsdebatedwhatrolethisindigenouseliteshouldhavein theviceregal order;in the end, the crown'sdependenceon nativelords'abilityto
As a result,the
extracttributeandmobilizelaborcorveescarriedthe day.67
crownrecognizedthecacicazgoandtriedto modelit on a hereditary
lordship,
so that as it evolved the formal descriptionof the cacique'sauthority
Christian
extendedbeyondtributecollectionto promotingrespectable,
living
andpreventingdiscord;settlingsmalldisputes;assigningandexecutingcorof thecommunity.
andgenerallyservingas patriarch
poralpunishment;
betweenthedemocraticideals,institutionsandoffices
Thiscontradiction
in the cacicazgoconstiof the colonialpuebloandthe powerconcentrated
tutedone of theprincipaltensionsin theIndianrepublic-as theprincipales
in
couldtestify.68
As in Muriani,
of MurianiandMariaTeresaChoquehuanca
were
actors.
important
manycommunitiesthe principalesand originarios
Courtcases oftensaw a scoreor so men,led by a few takingthe honorific
Still, in most communities,and
"Don,"testifyon behalfof "el comtin."69
particularlyin large pueblos with complex economies and hierarchies,
caciques-of the entirepuebloor of individualayllus-were the dominant
forceuntilafterthe GreatRebellion,whena widespreadassertionof (male)
democraticpowerweakenedthe Indiannobilitybeforeits legal abolitionin
the nineteenthcentury.
The cacicazgothus stood at the heartof pueblopolitics, and was the
object of noble politickingas men of elite lineagessoughtto claim the
office. Some communitieshad establisheddynasties-the Tamboguacsos
In others,the cacicazgofell withinthe gift of the
andthe Choquehuancas.
crownto be occupiedon an "interim"
basisby a royalappointee;maneuto
obtain
these
offices
was
central
to thepoliticsof thepueblo,albeit
vering
men
limited
to
from
the
But manycacicazdominant
generally
lineages.70
gos fell in between:hereditaryin a familywherethe late caciqueleft no
adultheir,or sufficientlyin the hold of an interimcaciquethathis son or
son-in-lawbecamethe obvioussuccessor.In thesecases, cacicasplayeda
67 Francisco Falcon,
"RepresentaciOnhecha . . . sobre los daiios y molestias que se hacen a los
Indios"in ColecciOnde documentosineditos del Archivode Indias, ed. Luis Torresde Mendoza, Series
I, VII: pp. 451-95 (Madrid:Ministeriodel Ultramar,1864-84); JuanPolo de Ondegardo,RelaciOnde los
fundamentosacerca del notable dalio que resultade no guardara los Indios sus fueros (Lima: Sanmarti
y ca., 1916); Hernandode Santillan,Relacion del gobierno de los Incas (Lima: Sanmartiy ca., 1927).
68 Thomson, WeAlone WillRule,
pp. 27-63.
69 ANB, EC-1762-144; ARC, COR, Prov., aim., 84
(1745-73) for Mamaniof Marangani.
70 For
politicking aroundinterimcacicazgos, ANB, EC-1780-58 (Hulloma,Pacajes);andARC, RA,
Adm., 167 (1808-9) for the 1759 cacical election in Rurioa.

570
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
centralrolein elitepolitics,in twoways.First,as anheiressthecacicadiscontrolof office.Second,

playedandenableda family'sintergenerational
cacicalaspirants
outnumbered
and
female
succession
offices,
helpedmediatecompetition
maleelite,withmarriage
to thecacical
amonga broader
heiressservingas themechanism
wasassigned
by whichcacicalauthority
whilealsomakingpossiblethereproduction
of a broader
elite.
hereditary
Thesepolitics,andthe roleof the cacica,differedby community
and
In
that
the
between
Cusco
and
an
area
suffered
Titicaca,
region.
highlands
annuallaborcorveesto Potosi'sminesandthe
heavilyfromtheobligatory
thismitaprovoked,
cacicalheiresses
bothbrought
politicalconmigrations
men
in
the
Indian
for
successful
and
enabled
upward
repubtinuity
mobility
to cacical
theirmarriage
tookovercacicazgosthrough
lic, as sons-in-law
alsohelpedto preventconsolidation
Suchsuccession
couples'daughters.71
DonBaltasar
Mamani
of cacicalauthority
in onemaleline.In Marangani
Doi%CeciliaPocco,
in themid-1700s
aftermarrying
ruledAylluLurucachi
dozenof thecomof theprevious
Yet
more
than
two
thedaughter
cacique.
of
their
Don
SantosMamani,
men
the
rule
to
son,
munity's joined oppose
thathisfatherhadbeenaforastero,so the
specifically
citingas a grievance
enabledtheincorporation
Herefemalesuccession
soncouldnotsucceed.72
butthe male
of a successfuloutsiderto takeon the communal
burdens,
ruleinone
effortstoestablish
eldersof thecommunity
hereditary
repudiated
maleline.
the Titicacabasinandthe Inca-dominated
In otherareas,particularly
ratherthan
the
Indian
around
Cusco,
republichadprovincial,
provinces
over
the
control
region'scacicazhereditary
pueblo,elites,whomaintained
to themaincommonin theseareas,cacicaswereessential
gos.Particularly
rule
nobilities.
of suchprovincial
tenanceandreproduction
Spanish madeno
nobles.73
of
Indian
for
extra-local
associations
Regionaleliteswere
place
thusself-fashioned
buildingon thefoundagroups,in thesetwoinstances
marChristian
societies.
tionsof powerfulandhierarchical
pre-conquest
in
Indian
the
to
see
flourish
were
the
institution
Spanish eager
riage--one
noblelineagesto forgebondsacrossseveralprovinces.
republic--allowed
of authority
of theseregionalelites,andtheallocation
In theperpetuation
role.
withinthem,cacicasplayeda central
71AlsoARC,COR,Prov.,Ord.,76(1780-84),
to
succession
AruniMolloApasa's
forDonCristobal
AnnWightandthemitainthebishopric,
in 1761.Formigration
ofAylluAnzainSicuani
thecacicazgo
man, Indigenous Migration and Social Change: The Forasteros of Cuzco, 1520-1720 (Durham:Duke
Press,1990).
University
72ARC,COR,Prov.,Crim.,84(1745-73);
Amaru,
pp.231-2.
of Tiipac
Stavig,TheWorld
73Withtheverylimited
"Elalferez
real."
inCusco.
Incacabildo
oftheceremonial
Amado,
exception

DAVIDT. GARRETT
571
In theAymarasocietiesaroundLakeTiticaca,ancient,powerfulpueblos
ruleof equally
withpopulationsin thethousandscameunderthehereditary
ancient,and powerful,lineages,many tracingtheir ancestryto the Inca
emperorsandpre-conquestlocal lords.74Herein the mid-1700sa scoreor
so families created a regional aristocracythroughmatrimonialbonds
of Azangaro
stretchingacrossthe lake. The bondsof the Choquehuancas
Don
Blas
of Maria
illustrative.
are
(brother
Choquehuanca
Anansaya
of
Maria
the
of
married
Doria
Siriani,daughter
Teresa)
cacique Carabuco,
fifty milesawayon theeasternshoreof thelake.Maria'smotherwas a FernandezChuy,thecacicalfamilyof Laxasouthof thelake.75Inturn,theFerwiththe cacicalhousesof PucaraniandCopacanandezChuyintermarried
bana.76In the 1770s, such interwovennetworksof cacical dynastiesleft
undertheruleof aninterrelated
thousandsof tributaries
Often,
aristocracy.77
as
well
as
or
the
the
wife's
instead
of
husfamily cacicazgo
occupying
band's,thesecacicalcoupleswereamongtherichestin IndianPeru,amassing fortunesof over 10,000pesos;classtensionswithinthe Indianrepublic
werecorrespondingly
The
strongerherethanelsewherein the bishopric.78
formationof this cacicalaristocracyincreasinglyexcludedsecondaryvilfrom
lage elites frompower,fuelingthe oppositionto "wife-takers"--men
communities
who
obtained
the
other
cacicazgothroughmarriage--detected
by Thomson.79
AroundCusco,cacicaswereequallyimportantto the consolidationand
reproductionof the regionalIncanobility,but with Cusco'speculiarhistoryits organizationdifferedmarkedlyfromthatof the Titicacabasin.A
majorSpanishcity, Cuscononethelessretainedimportantfeaturesof the
city's formerimperialsociety.Inca Cuscohad compriseddozensof kinship groups,linked togetherin complex hierarchiesof interdependence
and each scatteredover the region.8-The Toledanreductionshad under74 Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,pp. 106-13.
75 ANB, EC-1789-80; ARE, PRA, 290.
76 ANB, EC-1773-83; and AGN-A, IX, 31-3-4, f. 103.
77 ANB, EC-1785-23 (for Don Ambrosio
Quispe Cavana of Cavanilla and Doha Maria Ygnacia
ChiqueYnga Charajaof Pomata);ARC, N18, 124 Joseph BernardoGamarra,f. 233 (for Don Bernardo
Succacahuaof Umachireand the daughterof Don Manuel GarciaCotacallapaof Usicayos); ARC, N18,
288 Villavisencio, f. 352, 27-02-1778 (for FranciscoSuccacahuaand the daughterof Quiquijana'sprinalliances.
cipal caciques);below for the Mango Turpa-Chuquicallata
78 Fernandez
Chuy in Copacabana(AGN-A, IX, 31-3-4, f. 10); also Quispe Cavana in Pomata,
Mango Turpain Saman, Succacahuain Quiquijana;Garrett,Shadows of Empire,pp. 131-2. Also Glave,
Vida,Simbolos y Batallas, pp. 117-78; Choque Canqui,Sociedad y economia colonial; and Rivera, "El
Mallku y la sociedad colonial."
79 WeAlone WillRule,
pp. 77-80.
80Silverblatt,Moon, Sun, and Witches,
pp. 20-66; D'Altroy, The Incas, pp. 103-6, Brian Bauer,
Ancient Cusco: Heartlandof the Inca (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004), pp. 177-9.

572
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
minedsuch ayllu networks,andby the 1750s Cusco'spuebloswere discrete communities.But still bindingthem togetherwas the kinshipnetwork of the erstwhileroyal Incas (broadlyredefinedthroughtwo centuries of Spanish rule). Several colonial, Inca ayllus enjoyed near
universalmale nobility,andtogetherwith otherIncalineagesandhereditarycacicalfamiliesthey formeda broadercaste, perhapsone-twentieth
of the indigenouspopulation,thatenjoyeda nearmonopolyon the area's
cacicazgos.81
The generousconcessionof nobility(by edict and by custom)to the
Incasleft farmorenoblesthancacicazgosaroundCusco.Herefemalesuccessionplayeda crucialrole in bothestablishingcontinuityacrossgenerations andallowinga mechanismby whichto contestpossession.In Taray,
the two successionbattlesfeatureda male heiragainstan heiressandher
locally prominenthusband.In the first, Lucas was successful;in the
second,RitaandSebastian.Perhapswe see a shiftto greatercreolepower
andthe consolidationof parent-childsuccession;or perhapsjust the same
Whatis strikingis howoften
structural
contestplayingitselfoutdifferently.
a cacicalheiressstoodat the heartof suchcompetition:father-sonsuccession was by no meansthe norm.In a centuryof undisputedTamboguacso
rule in Taray,only once in five successionsdid a son follow his father.82
The frequencyof female successionproduceda constanttrafficin Inca
the bondsbetweenthe Incanobilityof different
noblemen,strengthening
villages and leaving many ayllus underthe rule of men from outside.83
Thus,fromthe 1740sto 1790Santiago'sAylluChocowas governedby the
of Don Diego Yarisiandtheirhusbands,Inca
daughterandgranddaughter
in
noblemenfromotherparishes.Nor was successionalwaysharmonious:
Chocothe claim of DoilaCatalinaTisoc Sayritupaandher husband,Don
GabrielGuamantica(son of the caciqueof Guarocondo),was unsuccessfully challengedby Catalina'syoungersisterandher husband,the son of
the caciqueof Ayllu Sucso in San Sebastian.Akin to the "wife-takers"
InMaras,
aroundTiticaca,suchforasterocaciquesdidnotgo unchallenged.
DonPabloLlanacAucapuma,caciqueof one ayllu,unsuccessfullyopposed
andherhusband,anInca
theaccessionof DofiaJulianaSanchoUscapaucar
ButthesebatnoblefromPucyura,to anotherof thepueblo'scacicazgos.84
tles hadmoreto do withintra-elitepoliticsthanwitha popularrepudiation
of the practice.
81Garrett,"Los Incas borbOnicos."
82 Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,p. 94.
83 See Table 1, for Bela, Guarocondo,Maras,
Guayllabamba,Lamay,Caycay and Oropesa.
84 ARC, COR, Ped., 90 (1753-65).

DAVIDT. GARRETT
573
In somecases,cacicaswere"secondbests,"a wayto maintaina lineage's

hold on a cacicazgoin the absenceof a maleheir.Indeed,JulianaSancho
fatherleft thecacicazgofirstto herbrotherSebastian;she sucUscapaucar's
ceededonly becausehe died withoutheirs.85But at times daughterswere
to sonsas heirs.In the 1780sand1790sPucyura'sAylluAyarmaca
preferred
sonof oneof thepueblo'sInca
wasruledby DonBlasQuispeUscayamayta,
of
Dofia
Marcusa
Don
and
husband
Nancay.Her grandfather,
lineages
in
the
middle
had
been
the
of
the
century,
ayllu'scacique
MiguelNancay,
whenhe achievedlastingfamefor travelingto Limato successfullydefend
of theparishpriest.Heruncle,
the community'smill againstthe aspirations
RatherthanpassPascualNancay,was caciqueof anotherayllu,Collana.86
ing directlyfromfatherto son, herethe pueblo'sayllucacicazgosmoved
to consolidatecontrolover
amongseveralnoblelineages,who intermarried
the largercommunitywithoutany one establishinghereditaryrule over a
particular
ayllu.87
Indeed,in some cases a cacicalmatrilineapparently
preventedany one
malelineagefromestablishingdominionoverothernoblelines in the comsuburbof Cusco,was hometo many
munity.San Sebastian,an agricultural
of theimperialIncaayllus,amongwhichAylluSucso(thedescendants
of the
IncaViracocha)
wasexceptionalin its size andnobility:in 1768all 120of its
men enjoyedthe nobleexemptionfromtributeandpersonalservice.From
the 1750sto the early1790sSucso'scaciquewas Don CayetanoTupaGuaAn Incanoble,CayetanocamefromAylluAucaylli,of which
manrimachi.88
his fatherwasa partbutnotcacique;fromhername DonaPascualaQuispe
Sucso--his motherappearsto havecomefromAylluSucso.Cayetanosucceededanuncleas anelectorof theIncacabildo,andbecamecaciqueof two
of San Sebastian'ssmaller,non-nobleayllusin the 1750s.He thenmarried
DoriaAsenciaQuispeSucsofromAylluSucso.Notably,she broughtas part
of herdowryhershareof the "casaprincipal"
of SanSebastian,suggesting
that she was the cacical heiress--although,strikingly,he, not she, was
referredto as cacique.Buttheirsonsdidnot succeedCayetano(oneinstead
tryingto claimthe cacicazgoin Santiago,anotherservingas caciqueof San
85 See the
copy of his will in the claim to the cacicazgo made by Don Mauricio Uscamayta.ARC,
AUD, Ord., 27 (1798).
86 ARC, INT, RH, 211
(1801); ARC, N19 77 Pedro Joaquin Gamarra,f. 584, 16-08-1804; ARC,
CAB, Ped., 117 (1800-09); "Indiosde sangrereal,"Revista del ArchivoHistOricodel Cusco 1:1 (1950):
pp. 211-2.
87
Similarly, in Guarocondo a noble from Urubamba, Don Lorenzo Copa Cusicondor, married
GabrielGuamantica'shalf-sister Sebastianaand succeeded their father,Don Joseph Guamantica,while
Gabrieloccupied the cacicazgo in Santiagothroughhis marriage.ARC, INT, Gob., 133 (1785).
88 ARC, N18, 245
Rodriguezde Ledezma, f. 507, 27 June 1790.

574
"IN SPITE OF HER SEX"
Sebastian's
ThissuggeststhattheAylluSucso--withits
AylluSahuaraura).89
noblemen
aware
of
their
many
privileges--solvedthe problemof internal
in
an
outsider
withmaternal
tiesto theaylluas cacique;
hierarchy
by bringing
assertedmaledominanceby recognizinghim, not his wife, as cacique;yet
keptcommunalcontrolby tyingtheofficeto a matriline.
To be sure,not alwaysdid the husbandrulewith,or in the nameof, the
cacica.Throughout
thebishoprica numberof womenruledovertheircommunities,almostalwaysas widows,as motheror grandmothers
preserving
family rule until the next generationreachedmaturity(Tables1 and 2),
an
althougheven heretherewere exceptions.DoriaMartinaChiguantupa,
unmarried
beatawho lived in seclusionin Cusco,succeededher fatheras
cacicaof mostof the ayllusin the parishof Colquepataandformallygovernedformorethanthirtyyears,usuallythroughmaledeputies.InthesouthernhighlandsCatalinaSalasPachacuticandTomasaTitoCondemayta
governeddespitehavingliving husbands.But overall,the governingcacica
personifieda family'scontroloverits community,
strongenoughto weather
the absenceof an adultson or son-in-law.
Cacicasalso loomedlargein anothernegotiationat the heartof pueblo
politics:the borderbetweenIndianand Spanish.From 1690 to 1790 the
in the bishopricof Cuscowentfromscarcely
numberof rural"Spaniards"
to
over
or
from
aboutfourpercentof the populationto over
5,000
50,000,
Most were impoverishedmestizos,but every provincehad its
eighteen.9-elite
of hacendados,miners,andmerchants,whichgrewover the
Spanish
eighteenthcentury.Whilelocal elites of the two ethnicrepublicshadlong
as late as 1750manycacicalfamilies
forgedbondsthroughintermarriages,
in theirgenealogies.91
hadno Spaniards
Butfromthen,suchmarriages,and
creolecaciques,becamemorecommon:from 1760to 1780 in Acos, Anta,
and Taray,creole husbandsenteredimportantcacicazgosthroughtheir
wives.92To be sure,in the 1770sas manycacicalheiressesmarriedIndian
noblemenas creoles,andcacicalpolitickingremainedlargelya concernof
89 ARC, INT, Gob., 139
(1787); ARC, CAB, Ped., 116 (1787-99).
9--Garrett,Shadows
of Empire, pp. 60-71. During that period the Indian population went from
120,000 to 240,000.
91 ANB, EC-1793-11 (Chucuito); Horacio Villanueva
Urteaga, ed., Cuzco 1689, Documentos:
economfay sociedad en el sur andino (Cusco: Centro Bartolome de Las Casas, 1982), pp. 195 (Anta)
and 397 (Guaquirca).
92 For Don Tomas Escalanteand DoriaAna Tito
Condemaytaof Acos, ARC, N18, 258 JosephTapia
Sarmiento,f. 357, 6 May 1767. Ana was succeeded by DoriaTomasaTito Condemayta,who also marin her own name. For
ried a creole (Don FaustinoDelgado) but is describedas the "cacicagobernardora"
Delgado, Scarlett O'Phelan Godoy, Un siglo de rebeliones anticoloniales: Perri y Bolivia 1700-1783
(Cusco: CentroBartolomede Las Casas, 1988), p. 315.

DAVID T. GARRETT
575
in the last decades

the Indianrepublic.But thatwouldchangedramatically
of thecolonialera,as thecacicazgobecamethe site of other,largerpolitical
contestsandtheIndiannobilitylost its controlof thepuebloandits position
of privilege.
Fromlate 1780through1781,muchof theIndianpopulationfromCusco

rebellionsled
southto Potosiroseagainstthecolonialorder.Theinter-related
by TtVacAmaru,the Cataribrothers,andTapacCatari,andthe countless
jacqueriestheyprovoked,constitutedthe mostsweepingchallengeto SpanWhileloyalist
ish rulein theAmericasfromtheconquestto independence.93
forcesreasserted
royalcontrolby 1782,theGreatRebellionandtheensuing
of theruralpoliticalorderthatwiped
royalresponseprovokeda restructuring
of
the
Indian
the
social
nobility.The interactionof threechalaway
space
authority
producedthiserasure:theexpansionof creole
lengesto aristocratic
to
crown's
efforts
extendits authorityandto checkthatof the
the
power,
Indianelite,andpopularoppositionwithintheIndianrepublic.Slowingthis
generalmove was the courts'commitmentto respectingwell-documented
claimsfromparticular
families,butby the outbreakof theWarsof Independencein 1809,theIndiannobilitywasno longera powerfulsectorof society.
In seekingto expandroyalandpopularauthority,
bothcrownofficersandvilmen
female
lage
explicitlychallenged
power,althoughcreoles supported
women'ssuccessionto officeas a meansby whichto extendcontroloverthe
pueblo,throughmarriage;androyalofficials'assaulton cacicaswas disciplinedby thecourts'occasionalinsistenceon respectingpreviouslyconceded
after
privileges.Inthat,whilethepoliticsof thepueblochangeddramatically
therebellions,thecacicaremainedat theirheart.
Therebellionswereresponsesto thecrown'seffortsto expandits control
over the viceroyaltyandto increaserevenues;in theiraftermath,far from
of thesereforms.A
backingdown,royalofficialsincreasedtheintrusiveness
was
in
Audiencia
founded
and
a
new
Cusco,
Royal
systemof provincial
governancewas established,in whichthe corregidorwas replacedby the
(very similar)subdelegate,but now every five or ten of these governors
cameunderthe authorityof an intendantlocatedin thenearestcity.94At the
local level, responsibilityfor tributecollectionmoved from the interim
93 O'Phelan
Godoy, Un siglo de rebeliones anticoloniales; Thomson, WeAlone Will Rule; Serulnikov, Subverting Colonial Authority;Cahill, From Rebellion to Independencein the Andes; Walker,
SmolderingAshes; Garrett,Shadows of Empire.
94 John R. Fisher, Governmentand
Society in Colonial Peru: The Intendant System, 1784-1814
(London:University of London,Athlone Press, 1970).

576
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
cacique(a positionformallyabolishedin 1790) to the new "recaudador,"

caciquesoftencontinuedto serveas tributecollector.95
althoughhereditary
as it included
FortheIndiannobility,thislastchangeprovedcatastrophic,
of Carbe Spanish.As thesubdelegate
a clearpreferencethattherecaudador
in
.
.
.
the
new
of
in
"the
system govprincipalobject
avayaargued 1784,
ernment. . . is thatof creatingSpanishcaciquesin eachprovinceandtheir
Drivingthis changewas the erroneousbelief among
respectivepueblos."96
SpanishofficialsthattheIndiannobilityhadbeenresponsiblefor therebellion,whentheupperranksof theIndianrepublichadremainedoverwhelmingly loyal to the crown,andsufferedenormouslosses at the handsof the
rebels.97But also behindthe reformwas a commitmentto bureaucratizing
and redefininglocal rule in the Andeancountryside.In lawsuitsagainst
was
Spanishtributecollectorsroyaljudgeswouldinsistthattherecaudador
"withoutthetitles,conceptor authorityof thecacique,nordoeshe haveany
othersuperiorityover the Indians"thanthe authorityto collect tribute.98
Tellingly,thejudgeherereferredto the positionas an "empleo":the office
was a bureaucratic
post,not familialproperty.Whilethis reformdid much
and
to hispanicizetheoffice,it alsorenderedit explicitlymale.Subdelegates
intendantsrepudiatedeffortsby creolewidowsto follow cacicaltradition
and occupytheirlate husbands'offices by explicitlyinvokingsex; as the
intendantof Cuscoputit, "theoffice of tributecollectoris a publicoffice,
not suitedto beingheldby women."99
The replacementof Indianinterimcaciquesby creole recaudadores
shiftedruralpower from the Indiannobilityto Peru'screoles. But this
realignmentof social hierarchywas effectedover two generations,during
arisof hereditary,
whichcacicasplayeda centralroleas thepersonification
tocraticauthorityin theIndianrepublic.Cacicasbenefitedfromthecrown's
selectiverecognitionof its debtto thosewho haddefendedroyalrule;and
as manycaciqueshaddiedin therebellion,a numberof loyalistcacicazgos
andto orphaneddaughas caretakers,
passedto mothersandgrandmothers
ters as heirs.m Indeed,in the immediateaftermathof the rebellion,such
96
ANB, EC-1797-46 for the decree.
96 ARE, PSG, 158. "... siendo
que el objeto principal... en el nuevo sistema de govierno ... es el de
crearcaciques Espanoles en cada partidoy sus respectivos pueblas."
97 Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,pp. 183-210.
98 ARC, INT, Gob., 150 (1800-1802), Catca. ". sin titulo, concepto, ni autoridadde cacique, ni
tener otra alguna superioridaden los naturales.." In practice, the recaudadorretainedthe privileges
and authorityof the cacique.
99 ARC, INT, Gob., 147 (1796-7); Acomayo.".
que el officiode Recaudadorde Tributoses un
empleo Pdblico, ageno de desemperiarsepor Mugeres."
100Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,pp. 218-21, 233-44.

DAVIDT. GARRETT
577
heiresses enabledsurvivingmembersof Titicaca'scacical dynastiesto

the regionalaristocattemptto rebuildthe kin networksthathadstructured
had
been
Pedro
Don
MangoTurpa(who
studyingin Cuscowhenthe
racy.
rebellionbrokeout, andthusescapedthe carnagearoundTiticaca)quickly
marriedDofiaAna MariaChoquehuanca
Sifiani,whose immediatefamily
hadall diedat Sorataandwhothusbecametheteen-aged"cacicaprincipal"
of Carabuco.1--1
Continuinguntil the outbreakof the wars of independencein 1809,
of particularly
prominentloyalistcaciques
daughtersand granddaughters
a few alliances
continuedto inheritthe office. However,notwithstanding
and
from
the
like thatof MangoTurpa Choquehuanca
mid-1780son
Sifiani,
theirhusbandswere almostinvariablySpanish.In that,femalesuccession
both enabledroyal officials to stripIndiancaciquesof their office, and
As the presumption
allowedcreolesto gaincontrolof Indiancommunities.
in someformgave way to the presumption
thatcacicazgoswerehereditary
wouldreplaceall butthe moststrongly-docthatthe new tribute-collectors
umentedproprietary
caciques,courtsbecamemore hostile to succession
deviated
from the father-sonideal. The Incas'traditionof
that
practices
succession
facilitatedthe royal assault,as the royal
daughter/son-in-law
courtsinterpretedthe husband'srule as an interimappointment,and the
office no longerthe hereditarypossessionof the family.102
Thus,the caciof
had
moved
for
at
least
four
cazgo Lamay--which
generationsthrougha
noblefemaleline--passedto thefirstof a seriesof creolesin 1782whenthe
courtsrefusedto confirmthe new Incacaciqueof Lamay,who haddistinguishedhimselfin the crown'sdefenseduringthe rebellionandsoughtthe
officethroughhis wife.1--3
Courtsand governorslookedmorefavorablyon the claimsof cacicas'
creolehusbands.Heretherenewedeffortsto genderruralauthorityas male
andraceit as Spanishcollided.Forthesealliancesnicelyresolvedsomeof
the contradictions
in the crown'spost-rebellionpolicy towardthe cacical
elite: they tacitlyrecognizedthe claimsof loyalistfamilies,while moving
authorityin thepuebloto the Spanishrepublicandallowinga formalasser1--1
In August, 1781, rebel armiescapturedthe pueblo of Sorata,a refuge of royalistcreoles and Indian
nobles from the areasnorthand east of Titicaca;the ensuing massacredecimatedthe region's indigenous
elite. OtherMango Turpasintermarriedwith the Chuquicallata,hereditarycaciques of Saman and San
Taraco.ANB, EC-1786-175; ARE PSG, 149 (1790). Don MarianoQuispe Cavana (son of Antonio of
Cavanilla)marriedDoriaMariaRosario Llaclla GarciaPaca, an orphanedcacical heiress from Juli, and
served as cacique there in the 1790s; ARE, PRA, 386 (1797); ARE, PRA, 299 (1796).
102See also Guarocondoand
Pucyura:ARC, INT, Gob., 133 (1785); ARC, INT, RH, 202 (1798).
103ARC, RA, Ord., 18
(1795); ARC, N18, 181 T.S. Gamarra,17 July 1799.

"INSPITE
OFHERSEX"
578
were
tion of royalcontroloverthe office,as suchcreoleappointments
InAnta,NicholasRosaswassucceeded
viewedas interim.104
by hiscreole
to rulethrough
his wife
InTaraySebastian
Unzuetacontinued
son-in-law.
Don
In neighboring
RitaTamboguacso.
Coyahis nephew, Hermenegildo
Unzueta,elopedwiththe 17-yearoldheiressDoriaMariaYngaPaucarin
And so on
1789, and the couplesuccessfullysoughtthe cacicazgo.'--5
thebishopric.106
throughout
Indiannoblewomencertainlyperceivedthis changein policy. In
PedroMangoTurpalostcontrolof thecacicazgoafterhis wife
Carabuco,
DoriaBernarda,
In 1805their22-yearolddaughter,
diedin themid-1790s.
her
to theintendant
of LaPazthatherfatherhadnotprotected
complained
a
Don
Pedro
de
Leario.
to
interests
andrequested
creole,
permission marry
Manuel
withhercreolehusband--Don
By theendof theyearsheappeared
Therapidshiftin
for the cacicazgo.107
Bustillos,not Leario--petitioning
for
her
both
marital
Bernarda's
preference a creole,rather
strategy
suggests
thanIndiannoble,spouseto helppursueherclaim,andthatcreolesappreofferedtotapinto,ortakeconthatcacicalheiresses
ciatedtheopportunities
trolof, puebloeconomies.108
tocreolementodefend
andherpeersturned
ThatBernarda
MangoTurpa
theirpositionwasa resultnotonlyof thecrown'scleardesireto establish
classin thepueblo,butalsoof a proruralcreolesas thenewdominant
anti-noble
societies.Duringtherebellion,
nouncedshiftwithinindigenous
their
wrath
directed
as communities
violencehadbeenwidespread,
against
withthedefeatof the
didnotdissipate
Thatantagonism
thenativeelite.109
cacicalfamriotsagainstsurviving
rebels:the1780sand1790ssawpopular
"--This
cacical
to
to
the
courts
and
ilies, frequent
dynasties.
depose
appeals
1--4
to be namedcaciqueof TarayafterRitaTamunsuccessful
Unzueta's
See Sebastian
attempt
wasacknowledged.
claimof theirchildren
deathin 1798;theproprietary
ARC,AUD,Ord.,
boguacso's
31(1798).
1--5
ARC,AUD,Ord.,6 (1790)and9 (1791).
1--6
of Dofia
Narsiso
Table1;alsoARC,INT,Gob.,142(1790)forCaptain
(husband
Valdeiglesias
inPacarectambo;
Martina
TitoSuticCallapitia)
ADP,INT,35;ARC,AUD,Ord.,33(1799)forthehusof thelateDon
inLampa
andCalapuja;
heiresses
bandsof Pacoricona
AGN,DI,574fortheson-in-law
ofTiquillaca;
ascacique
Andres
ARC,AUD,
ARC,AUD,Ord.,30(1798)andOrd.33(1799);
Calisaya
to
inJuli.AlsoCahill,FromRebellion
of twoheiresses
forthecreolehusbands
Admin.161(1801-02);
Independence,157-9.
107ABN,EC,1805-19
andEC,1807-11.
1--8
inwhichsheinsisted
divorce
1808forDonaPetrona
AAC,LXIV-4-62,
proceedings
Sinanyuca's
inCoporaque.
hercreolehusband
thatshehadmarried
onlytoholdontothefamilycacicazgo
1--9
Shadows
WeAloneWillRule;Garrett,
Thomson,
of
Szeminski,
"WhyKillthe Spaniard?";
Empire.
11-el toletole,pp.118-27.
Salai Vila,Yse armO

DAVIDT. GARRETT
579
popularoppositionresonatedwitheffortsby Spanishgovernorsto promote

to the indigenousnobility.111
the cabildoandits officesas a counterbalance
on
the
an
assault
aristocratic
Formally
authority, impactof invigorateddemocraticgovernancewas deeplygendered,as the 1797challengeto ChoqueSo do the complaintsof Doria
huancaauthorityin Murianidemonstrates.
of
the
widow
Taraco's
IsabelMangoTurpa,
San
hereditary
caciquewhohad
In 1802,Isabelwroteto theintendant
beenappointedcacicaon his death.112
of Punothatin electingits alcaldethecommunityhad"laughingly
castaside
.
.
in
Pablo
.
of
the
my proposal,appointing
Quispe
spite
prevalencein this
individualof a disobedientspirit";Quispehadlongbeena staunchfoe of the
This formalrepudiation
of herpowerwas reflectedin a
Chuquicallatas.113
in
loss
of
1800
she
sent
a plaintiveletterto her son in
general
authority:
Puno,detailingher plight:"theIndians,seeingthatI am a poor,destitute
woman,pay no attentionto me, and often thereis no one to bringme a
pitcherof waterto thekitchen.-,,114
Isabel'semphasison her sex highlightschangingrelationsof ethnicity,
estate,gender,and authorityin the pueblo.Despitethe assaulton aristocratic,indigenousauthority(culminatingin its abolitionat independence),
for noblementhe democraticofficesof pueblogovernmentremainedopen.
Many communitiesdid not repudiatetheir cacical families, and former
caciquesretainedauthority
by occupyingtheelectedofficeof alcalde.Inthe
short-livedconstitutional
orderof 1811-14,Indiannoblemenservedon the
andafterindependence
men from
new,inter-ethnic
puebloayuntamientos;
old cacical familiesnumberedamongthe electorsfor the PeruvianconIn contrast,insofaras indigenousnoblewomenbecame simply
gress.115
"indias,-"
they lost formalpoliticalauthority.One responsewas for Indian
noblewomento becomeless IndianandmoreSpanish.Thus,whentheSpanish vecinasof Lampawroteto the viceroyin Limain 1813 to complain
aboutthe decliningsubservienceof the pueblo'sIndianpopulation("with
theirarrogantandseditiouscharacter"),
one of the signerswas DoriaIgnacia Pacoricona,fromthe old cacicalfamily.116
Independence
broughttheendof theIndianelite.Formally,thishappened
in 1825,withthe abolitionof the cacicazgoandof legal nobility,although
111O'Phelan
Godoy, Kurakassin sucesiones; Sala i Vila, Yse arm6 el tole tole, pp. 151-62; Garrett,
Shadows of Empire,pp. 226-7.
112ARC, PRA, 170. Both families had been staunchdefendersof the crown in the rebellion.
113ARE, PRA, 139 and 320.
114ARE, PSG, 180.
115Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,pp. 226-7, 246-7, 253-4.
116BNP, Man., D-6075.

580
"IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
overtheprecedinggenerationtheofficethathadenabledtheirauthoritywas
claimedby creolesandby the crown,andthe Indianrepublicitself repudiAfter1825the "tworepublics"of coloatedits hereditary
rulingstratum.117
nial Peru the unequalbut separaterealmsof SpaniardandIndian--were
replacedby theethnicallystratifiedRepublicof Peru,suchthattheveryidea
At the
of an "Indiannobility"hadno placein the new nationalpolitics.118
individuallevel, old cacicalfamiliesmaintained
theirprivilegeby marrying
creolesandbecoming"white,"bringingcacicallandsas privateproperty
intothecontrolof a newruralelitethataggressivelyuseda languageof ethitselffromthe Indianpeasantry.
nicityto differentiate
So completewas this elisionof a spaceof Indianprivilege,thatonly in
thepastdecadeshastheroleof indigenouselitesin colonialsocietyattracted
of
the noticeof scholars;studyof the caciquehas produceda reevaluation
thatenabled
of colonialsocietyandof the collaborations
the organization
of identity,community,
andculas well as a rethinking
Spanishsovereignty,
turein the Indianrepublic.Similarly,attentionto the cacicarefocusesour
view of thepoliticsof theIndianpueblo,andtheeffectson themof colonial
legislation,the state,andcreolesettlement.Mostobviously,sucha perspective foregroundsthe genderingof authority,confirmingbut also nuancing
thepatriarchy
of cacicalruleto accountforbothwomen'sformalpossession
of the office andthe centralityof the cacicalcoupleas the dominantpolitical force in most communities.Focus on the cacica also elucidatesthe
importanceof elite powerandpoliticsin the Andeanpueblo,revealinga
largerstratumof nobles who dominatedthe communitiesof the Indian
republicfor mostof the colonialera,andwho competedfor the paramount
authorityof the cacique, a competitionoften conductedand resolved
throughthe tyingof cacicalofficeto a nobleheiress.If formallysuchpoliof successionranafoulof boththecrown'seffortsto
tics anddetermination
affirmfather-sonsuccessionandroyalcontroloverthe cacicazgo,in pracon whichSpanticethecacicasolidifiedthenoblecontrolovercommunities
ish rulerelied.In herpossessionof patriarchal
office, the cacicaembodied
thatconstitutedthe colonialorderin thepueblo:between
the contradictions
sovereignstateandthe
popularandelite localrule;betweena bureaucratic,
locallordson whichit relied;andbetweentheidealof puebloautonomyand
creolepopulation.
the ever-expanding
117Nils Jacobsen,
Mirages of Transition:The PeruvianAltiplano, 1780-1930 (Berkeley:University
of California
Press,1993),pp.122-4.
118MarcThurner,From Two
Republicsto One Divided: Contradictionsof Colonial Nationmakingin
DukeUniversity
Peru(Durham:
Press,1996).

DAVIDT. GARRETT
581
broughtdown the colonialorder,and

Eventually,those contradictions
with it the cacique.Certainly,democraticoppositionto aristocratic
power
stateseekingto controlofficescreatedandconcededby
anda strengthening
earlierabsolutistmonarchswerecommonin the Atlanticworldin the late
1700s,andelsewheretheseforceshadsimilarlygenderedimplications.The
andmaritalallianceby whichhighlandcrecomplexprocessof usurpation
oles managedto win controlof the Indianpueblowas morepeculiarto the
Andes.And,of course,theresultantpost-colonialsocietyof theAndes,with
its democraticpueblosunderconstantassaultfrom an invigoratedcreole
for a modernpoliticaleconomy
elite anda liberalstate,set the groundwork
in the highlands that both denied and reproducedthe two-republic
dichotomyon whichthe colonialorderwas erected.Historianshave long
emphasizedhow the expansionof capitalistrelationsof productionand
the puebloeconomy,
worldmarketsin the nineteenthcenturytransformed
andmorerecentlyhow the expansionof the statein the eighteenthcentury
Thatin the processthe possibilitydisappeared
reworkedpueblopolitics.119
thata DofiaJulianaTico Chipanawouldbe able to ruleher community,a
pesar de su sexo andin keepingwith generationsof practice,remindsus
andcompromises
bothof theenormousvarietyin themyriadcollaborations
thatcomprisedrulein the earlymodernworld,andthe unnotedelisionsin
LatinAmerica'spost-colonialtransition.
Reed College
DAVIDT. GARRETT
Portland,Oregon
119FlorenciaMallon, The
Defense of Communityin Peru's CentralHighlands: Peasant Struggle and
Capitalist Transition, 1860-1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983); Herbert S. Klein,
Haciendas and Ayllus: Rural Society in the Bolivian Andes in the Eighteenthand Nineteenth Centuries
(Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress, 1993); Jacobsen,Mirages of Transition;O'PhelanGodoy, Kurakas
sin sucesiones; Thomson, WeAlone WillRule; Serulnikov,SubvertingColonial Authority.


In Spite of Her Sex David Garret

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In Spite of Her Sex David Garret

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"In Spite of Her Sex": The Cacica and the Politics of the Pueblo in Late Colonial Cusco

Author(s): David T. Garrett

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Tue, 2 Apr 2013 15:39:45 PM

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priateentryintothe cacicazgo,"addingthat"onaccountof herdistinctsex

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who have examinedthe cacicamorebroadlyas a phenomenonof colonial

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Focusingon the cacicain the bishopricof CuscoandnorthernLa Paz in

Mangan, TradingRoles: Gender,Ethnicityand the Urban Economy in Colonial Potosi

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theyheld office, cacicasembodieda local resolutionin favorof hereditary

Canseco, Curacas y Sucesiones; Pease, Curacas, reciprocidady riqueza;

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Elitecompetitionfor cacicalpowerwas but one arenaof politicsin the

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Map 1. Women Caciques

thatcacicaswerecommonin latecolonialCusco,a bishopricthatstretched

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Map 2. WomenCaciques-Cusco Detail

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record;for the communitiesin between,andin the west of the bishopric,

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whileruleby cacicas'hustinuingauthorityof herfamilyin thecommunity;

The cacicawas not a late colonialinnovation.Whileevidenceis scarcer

22".. . desdequese descubrieron

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Caycay's cacique in the 1750s basing his claim on that of his

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Otherwitnesses were more interestedin the circumstancesin which a

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so on? For most instancesthe recordis so brief that such questionsare

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(1756) for the tradedispute involving Dofia Phelipa Pillco

Amaru,ed. by LuisDurandFlOrez(Lima:1980),IV:pp. 14,20-25,42, 188-208.

46 DurandFlorez, ed., ColecciOnDocumentaldel Bicentenariode la

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By no meanswas the sex of the caciquethe only,or even a dominant,

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centralrolein elitepolitics,in twoways.First,as anheiressthecacicadiscontrolof office.Second,

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In somecases,cacicaswere"secondbests,"a wayto maintaina lineage's

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