Tupac Amaru II November 18, 2009

This week’s lecture and discussion on the rebellions of the late eighteenth century in the Andes was very interesting to me. It made it clear why we studied the reasons for the period of peaceful coexistence in the earlier part of the Hispanic/Andean relationship- conflict was bound to erupt eventually. The reasoning behind the Tupac Amaru rebellion is fairly obvious due to the oppressive nature of the Spanish on the indigenous people. Indians found themselves in a flooded market and had difficulties in obtaining the money needed to pay taxes and for repartos, which were forced purchases of commodities from the government (according to Alberto Flores Galindo). Conditions allowed an alternative to colonial domination to emerge in the southern Andes. All that was required beyond that was to destroy the image of the absolute authority of the Spanish king. Amaru acquired status as rightful ruler, being the fourth grandson of the last Inca.

Amaru had his portrait painted holding the symbols of Inca royalty to help claim his status. He had peasants treat him as an Inca and was followed by a close group of supporters. He made an army that replicated the hierarchy of colonial society and he tried to meld Inca culture with Christianity- using Christian religious beliefs with Incan traditional ceremonies and customs. All of these things helped him attract a wide base of support for the movement.

Supporters were drawn to the drastic action of the rebellion because they believed in Amaru’s claim that he would change the government. As we said in class, one of the battle cries was “Long live the king, down with bad government.” This kept away any accusations of treason, but got the point across about their concerns. Supporters wanted to end the reparto and mita systems, too, due to their oppressive nature and corruptible potential. The corregidors would act dually as merchants and raise prices to absurd amounts and there was nothing the natives could do about it. With all of these grievances and Amaru’s rightful claim to the Inca throne, it is very clear as to why people would have joined the cause.

Although it seems drastic to start a rebellion to promote change, it really seems like it was the only option. Amaru did attempt to peacefully fix their problems by writing letters to the king, but he was completely ignored and nothing was accomplished. It would have been very difficult to sit around and let an unorganized, disconnected sort of government system take away all of your rights to things like property and even royalty. I agree with Amaru’s thinking and think it is unfortunate that he did not achieve what he set out to do.

Centralized Power November 11, 2009

In class we discussed the way a time was seen in the Andes for about a century after the Spanish invasion when things were mostly peaceful and stable. Indigenous people were certainly exploited in many ways, but were given opportunity to be involved in the life and workings of society. The power at the time was decentralized in such a way that things easily remained calm.

As the rulers in Spain began an attempt to form a parallel beaurocracy in the Americas, primarily by Charles III’s initiative, and power was pushed to be centralized, a series of explosions ensued. In terms of Creole identity, one of the first events to occur was their alienation from peninsular Spaniards. Non-Spanish people were excludeed from office and clergy experienced attacks. The Jesuits were even expelled eventually.

The military was formed in the Americas at this point in time. It was an entirely new institutional creation and a source of new privileges. There was now a visible social standing based on military rank and uniform. A census started at this point in time as well, finally ensuring the payment of taxes due to being able to fully account for everyone living in the region. With the census and a new system for taxes, people began to try to prove their ethnicity. Indigenous people wanted to distance themselves from their indigenous roots. The further away from indigenous and the closer to whiteness- the better. Mestisos were half white and half indigenous, a much better situation in terms of social and economic life. This idea of “whitening” is very interesting to me. The greater and greater percentage of Spanish a person had, the higher their status would be. Not only were the higher in society just based on appearance, though, they also had many more opportunities and more money. It is really amazing that this kind of social stratification could all be so precisely based upon this kind of racial makeup.

Consummation of Marriage November 6, 2009

One of the aspects of the trial in Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance is the view of what constituted marriage in that time period in Spain. I found this very interesting because it is an issue that could not be addressed similarly in this day and age. Basically, the Catholic church and the Spanish court (in terms of their laws) considered marriage official only once it had been consummated. In other words, you were not legally bound to someone until you had actually sealed the deal with sex. 

In the book, this makes a very interesting situation due to the fact that Francisco Noguerol uses this view of what is considered legal marriage to fight the lawsuit that was started against him. Noguerol was practically forced to marry his first wife Beatriz by his commanding mother. He got a large dowry from her father, which he immediately used to get himself across the Atlantic to Peru. After having been in Peru for a number of years, Noguerol was informed by one of his sisters in a letter that Beatriz had died. A few years later he married a widow living in Peru and when the two of them returned to Spain he was informed that Beatriz was actually still alive. 

The lawsuit that she had begun upon learning about her husband’s second marriage was based upon charges of Bigamy. In order to prove his innocence, he declared that he married Catalina in “good faith and truthful ignorance” and that in fact he was never legally married to Beatriz in the first place due to the fact that they had never consummated the marriage. It is amazing to me that this could be brought up as a real defense! Noguerol was very aware and conscious of being married to Beatriz for many years and even recieved the dowry- yet when pressed for a defense he could easily claim it to be invalid. He and Catalina did come out on top in the case and he did not lose all of his money or possessions as Beatriz had hoped. Although it is an unfortunate situation the first wife, it is also a very intriguing and understandable type of scenario. Unless Noguerol was lying about everything, he truly had no reason to not marry Catalina and did nothing knowingly wrong. I thought the outcome of the trial was legitimate for the time, but it seems very likely that it could never have gone that way in a court today. He would have been legally married to two living people with no legal grounded excuse.

I thought the book did a great job portraying the way life was in that time period. Women had a very different role then and additionally so did sex. It is amazing how far we have come from that type of social construction.

Christianizing the Andes November 2, 2009

The Jose de Acosta on the Salvation of the Indians article really describes the reality of what Spanish evangelism was like and how it was responded to in the Andean region. Acosta was a Spaniard and a member of the Jesuit clergy, known for his many teachings and writings in the late 1500s. His extensive travel and missionary work in the Andean region- particularly Peru- and Mexico really prepared him to be a great leader in terms of religious thought and evangelical strategy in the new world.

Although at first his thoughts seem quite pessimistic and almost defeated, he sends a clear message of hope. It seems very understandable that in an attempt to convert natives from an entirely different culture and world view who even speak another language primarily, one would run into many problems. As we discussed in class, they obviously could not just use literary or written resources. This was not a huge problem for the Spanish, though, who were used to evangelizing to pagan Europeans who were sometimes even illiterate. Techniques of using pictures, drawings, and building elaborate churches and cathedrals to depict Christianity were utilized.  It was probably easy to convey the centrality of God, the necessity of Jesus, and the ever present help of the Holy Spirit. It would have been easy to portray the usefulness of Mary and her importance in the story. It would have even been easy to show the day of judgment, death, and destruction and how one can be saved from it. The most difficult part, and the part Acosta actually describes as such, is the ability to make the natives actually believe it or actually care.

It would have been easy for the natives to just go along with the priests and missionaries who were telling them what to do and how to behave. The natives obviously did just appease them in many ways, which is what Acosta had such a problem with. It would certainly bring up the question- what is the point? The indigenous people might have seen the three parts of the trinity and Mary as different gods and the saints as their own idea of ancestors that one could implore. According to Acosta, and what does make some real sense, is that in order to be effective there needed to be a greater number of priests and missionaries to keep the new converts accountable and growing in their faith. Acosta’s hope even in the midst of this seemingly hopeless scenario came from the fact that he believed God would not forsake the Andean region or the people there. He believed that all would be revealed in its due time. This was, in my opinion, probably a very inspiring and encouraging writing for missionaries at this time because I think it gives great reason to continue in an effort that at times might have felt completely futile.