Andean Cosmopolitans: Indigenous Journeys to the Habsburg Royal Court

FAIN: HB-50610-15

Jose Carlos de la Puente
Texas State University - San Marcos (San Marcos, TX 78666-4684)

I am applying for a grant to complete the first in-depth study about the travels of native Andeans to the Habsburg royal court in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Andean Cosmopolitans brings to the fore the indigenous leaders and legal agents who played an active part in gaining access to the Spanish system of justice for native Andeans. They influenced Crown policies at the highest level, turning stays at the court into a negotiation about the nature of the state in the New World. The story unfolds simultaneously in distant settings of the early modern Atlantic world. The focus is less on fixed ethnic and legal identifications, or on discontinuous places and regions, as it is on fluid identities, interconnections, and the interplay between local and global scenarios. I highlight the role played by native Andeans in the formation of a 'legal Atlantic,' an organic network of litigants, petitioners, attorneys, and ideas of law and justice bridging courtrooms in Spain and America.

Associated Products

That Which Belongs to All: Khipus, Community, and Indigenous Legal Activism in the Early Colonial Andes (Article)
Title: That Which Belongs to All: Khipus, Community, and Indigenous Legal Activism in the Early Colonial Andes
Author: De la Puente Luna, José Carlos
Abstract: Drawing from recent studies on “paper” and ethnographic khipu as well as on current discussions on indigenous engagements with the colonial system of justice, this essay reclaims the pueblo, in its political expression as a governing council, as the main locus for indigenous collective legal activism in the rural Andes during the Habsburg era. Based on the evidence included in Viceroy Toledo’s 1570 investigation about the judicial endeavors of the Huanca group, I have shown that traditional mechanisms for allocating labor tasks and, after the Spanish conquest, apportioning tribute quotas among different ayllu underscored community-wide litigation and the search for favor at local and metropolitan courts, thus subjecting this type of legal initiative to the social rules, practices, and expectations governing sapci (communal) endowments and funds. The possibility of evaluating the performance of pueblo and multi-pueblo authorities in charge of collective resources and holding these leaders accountable for any mismanagement or misappropriation of sapci legal funds was embedded in the planning and assessment of collective action that khipu devices facilitated. These twin processes conferred a moderate, yet previously overlooked degree of control in legal strategies and decisions to mid-ranking ayllu and cabildo authorities and, ultimately, to the Andean commoners who were directly involved in the reproduction of sapci regimes.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/tam.2014.4
Access Model: Subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: The Americas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Prizes

Tibesar Prize
Date: 11/30/2015
Organization: The Americas
Abstract: The award recognizes the best article to appear in the previous volume year of The Americas.

Andean Cosmopolitans: Seeking Justice and Reward at the Spanish Royal Court (Book)
Title: Andean Cosmopolitans: Seeking Justice and Reward at the Spanish Royal Court
Author: José Carlos de la Puente Luna
Abstract: After the Spanish victories over the Inca claimed Tawantinsuyu for Charles V in the 1530s, native Andeans undertook a series of perilous trips from Peru to the royal court in Spain. Ranging from an indigenous commoner entrusted with delivering birds of prey for courtly entertainment to an Inca prince who spent his days amid titles, pensions, and other royal favors, these sojourners were both exceptional and paradigmatic. Together, they shared a conviction that the sovereign's absolute authority would guarantee that justice would be done and service would receive its due reward. As they negotiated their claims with imperial officials, Amerindian peoples helped forge the connections that sustained the expanding Habsburg realm's imaginary and gave the modern global age its defining character. Andean Cosmopolitans recovers these travelers' dramatic experiences, while simultaneously highlighting their profound influences on the making and remaking of the colonial world. While Spain's American possessions became Spanish in many ways, the Andean travelers (in their cosmopolitan lives and journeys) also helped to shape Spain in the image and likeness of Peru. De la Puente brings remarkable insights to a narrative showing how previously unknown peoples and ideas created new power structures and institutions, as well as novel ways of being urban, Indian, elite, and subject. As indigenous people articulated and defended their own views regarding the legal and political character of the "Republic of the Indians," they became state-builders of a special kind, cocreating the colonial order.
Year: 2018
Publisher: Austin: University of Texas Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Prizes

Flora Tristán Book Award
Date: 5/7/2019
Organization: Latin American Studies Association

---