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A Sense of Belonging: Colonial Indian Cofradias and Ethnicity in the Valley of Lima, Peru Author(s): Paul Charney Reviewed

work(s): Source: The Americas, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Jan., 1998), pp. 379-407 Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1008415 . Accessed: 04/09/2012 16:54
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The Americas 54:3 January 1998, 379-407 Copyright by the Academy of American Franciscan History

A SENSE OF BELONGING: COLONIAL INDIAN COFRADIAS AND ETHNICITY IN THE VALLEY OF LIMA, PERU*
THE COFRADIA THENEWETHNICITY AND population, forced relocation, and migration, which resulted in the implosion of many ethnic (as well as linguistic) distinctions among the Indian peoples. Facilitating this implosion was a label "indio," which eliminated-philoEuropean-invented sophically, juridically, and legally-virtually all ethnic differences. Yet it bestowed upon the Indian peoples a separate existence. In the Peruvian Andes, Indians themselves during rebellious episodes contributed to this ethnic leveling when they called for pan-Andean unity or the return of the pax incaica. To be sure, numerous Indian groups did not entirely loose their distinct identities, and the ethnic implosion itself varied in time and space. Ethnic differences could be maintained through the upkeep of cultural and racial traits, such as in dress, language, marital patterns, or territorial and social boundaries. In large measure, the leveling or disappearance of precontact ethnicities occurred at a faster rate in the urban environments where Indians from rural areas took up residence, or in any region where Spanish culture or non-Indian peoples predominated.' There, the invented "indio" or

ith the Spanish conquest came racial miscegenation, de-

* This article is based on material consulted in the following Spanish archives: Archivo General de Indias, Seville; Archivo General de la Naci6n, Lima; Archivo Arzobispal, Lima; Biblioteca Nacional, Lima (abbreviated hereafter as AGI, AGN, AA, and BN, respectively); cuaderno, legajo, and folio (abbreviated as c., leg., and fol., respectively). I found useful the discussion of the term "indio" in Karen Spalding, De india a campesino: 1 cambios en la estructura del Peru colonial (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1974), pp. 147-192. See Steve Stern's analysis of the Taki Onqoy nativist movement in the sixteenth century and his review of the literature on eighteenth century rebellions in the Andes respectively in Peru's Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest, Huamanga to 1640 (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1982) pp. 55-62 and "The Age of Andean Insurrection, 1742-1782: A Reappraisal" in Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, 18th to

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A SENSE OF BELONGING

new ethnicity was the viable alternative and thus stronger, while the autochthonous base and ethnic distinctions remained weaker. This weakness differentiated urbanized Indians from their rural counterparts who sustained their links to the past far longer. The city of Lima and its hinterland, the Lima valley, was one such place with few, if any autochthonous survivals. The Spanish conqueror, Francisco Pizarro, founded the city in 1535 amidst at least 200,000 Indians, though epidemic diseases dramatically dwindled those numbers. Demographic recovery here was negligible. However, the dependable stream of Indians emigrating from the provinces to the viceregal capital and its hinterland maintained the Indian population between 5,000 and 6,000 from about 1600 to the end of the colonial period, though Spaniards and mixed bloods in this period outnumbered Indians in the city and black slaves did so in the countryside.2 In all that time, the documents do not indicate enduring ethnic distinctions among the Indians, in either the city or rural area, let alone any reference to precontact ethnicities. Of course, that does not mean that no such ethnicities existed, that is, for at least part of the time. Santiago del Cercado, an Indian settlement built in 1570 on the eastern outskirts of the city, was host to a multitude of ethnic groups forced to come from the nearby highlands to work temporarily (the mita de plaza) for the valley's Spanish residents. On the land set aside in accordance with their geographical and ethnic origins, the Indians constructed their make-shift shelters. Over time, however, the Cercado became less Indian and accommodated a more permanent population composed of Spaniards and mixed bloods. Other distinct groups were intermittenly noted as well. A 1653 dispute over a plot of land in the settlement identified the Yauyos of the
20th Centuries, Steve J. Stern, ed. (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), pp. 34-93. For an example of the breakdown of ethnic distinctions among the Indians in Antequera de Oaxaca see John K. Chance, Race and Class in Colonial Oaxaca (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1978); and for a general discussion of the loss of ethnicity, see David Cahill "Colour by Numbers: Racial and Ethnic Categories in the Viceroyalty of Peru, 1532-1824," Journal of Latin American Studies 26: pt 1 (1994), 327-332. 2 Paul Charney, The Destruction and Reorganization of Indian Society in the Lima Valley, Peru, 1532-1824 (Ph.D. diss., The University of Texas at Austin, 1989), pp. 35-37, 174-177, and tables 1.1, 1.2, 4.2 and 6.3. See also my master's thesis, The Urban Indian: A Case Study of the Indian Population of Lima in 1613 (M.A. thesis, The University of Texas at Austin, 1980), p. 42; Mario Cirdenas Ayaipoma, "Demografia del pueblo de Santiago del Cercado," Revista del Archivo de la Naci6n 8 (1985), 101-102; and, "Dirigendo el adjunto papel en que se explica la poblaci6n que contiene el reyno del Peru en su estado actual," (1792), AGI, Estado 75, fol. 33.

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central highlands as on of the litigants, and the 1613 census of the city's Indian population counted the Cafiaris, the Spaniards' northern ethnic allies. This same census also listed Indians from various parts of Spain's overseas empire.3 Nevertheless, such ethnic differentiation did not characterize the Indian experience in the Lima valley. Most Indians who no longer identified with their precontact ethnicities simply attached themselves to the contrived and imposed ethnicity-"indio." The cofradia, or lay confraternity that the Spaniards transplanted to the New World became one of the underpinnings of this new ethnicity. According to historian, Albert Meyers: In places in which various ethnic groups (Spaniards,Blacks, Mestizos, Indians) occupied a relatively small area the brotherhoods(cofradia) becamevehiclesof ethnogenesis,that is, promotersof new ethnicgroups. This was especiallycommon in urbanareas where the political and cultural presence of the dominant society was experienced daily by the dominated groups. It was more importantfor these dominatedgroups than for the indigenous population in the countrysideto belong to a formalorganizationwith statutes and regulationsapprovedby the colonial authoritiesbecause they could enjoy a degree of independencein their culturaland religiouslife whichmay not otherwisehave been possible.4 Such an argument can thus be applied in the case of the Lima valley. Despite their foreign origin, the cofradias supplied the Indians with the legal tools to erect boundaries between themselves and non-Indians. Therefore, the cofradias in the urban environment, or even in rural areas where there was a mixture of non-Indians and Indian groups, did provide the building blocks of ethnicity, or, as one anthropologist might put it, for the creation of social boundaries in space and time.5 On the other hand, symbols connected with the Inca past became
3 Charney, The Destruction, pp. 350-354; Mario Cirdenas Ayaipoma, La reducci6n indigena del Cercado (Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Carlos, 1972); Miguel de Contreras, Padrdn de los indios de Lima en 1613. Introduction by Noble David Cook, (Lima: Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, 1968) pp. 336, 344-345, 507, and for others it is passim or in separate counts made of Asian "Indians" and Chileans in the document; Lyn Brandon Lowry, Forging an Indian Nation: Urban Indians under Spanish Colonial Control (Lima, Peru, 1535-1765) (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1991), pp. 131-135. 4 Albert Meyers, "Religious Sodalities in Latin America: A Sketch of Two Peruvian Case Studies," in Albert Meyers and Diane Elizabeth Hopkins, eds., Manipulating the Saints: Religious Brotherhoods and Social Integration in Postconquest Latin America (Hamburg; Wayasbah Publication 8, 1988), p. 11. Frederick Barth, "Introduction," in Frederick Barth, ed., Ethnic Groups and Boundaries 5 (Boston: Little, Brown, Co., 1969), pp. 14-17.

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integral to Indian formulations of a collective identity, whether in rural or urban environments. But did such a pan-Andean symbol have a greater impact on the daily lives of Andean peoples than the cult of the saints around which the cofradias organized themselves? Perhaps so for the eighteenth century, considering the extent to which rebel Indian leaders used the Inca past as a rallying cry and a rationale for killing Spaniards. Nevertheless, this unifying symbol is questionable because not all Indians bothered to rebel or were particularly hostile enough towards Spaniards to do so. And pointing to the midseventeenth century folk-style, invocations of Satan and the Inca in the same breadth by some of Lima's humbler and non-white residents seems to trivialize and bastardize the matter of pan-Andeanism.6 Possibly the colonial pageants, or mascaras with their color and glitter, in which the dead "Inca" kings were on parade helped better preserve pan-Andeanism in the Indian consciousness. Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo y Rocha, a creole resident of the city of Lima, professor of mathematics at the University of San Marcos, royal accountant, poet, and dramatist was also a keen observer of the colonial mascaras. Peralta's account of the 1723 celebration that marked the marriage of the Prince of Asturias included a street parade of the twelve Inca kingsthe "cesares incas,"-who headed the Indian gremios, or guilds, some of them affiliated with the cofradias. Proud and titled caciques residing in the viceregal capital willingly portrayed the dead Inca kings and their great captains. Most could claim a distinguished lineage: Francisco Taulli Chumbi Saba, descendent of don Alonso Saba and cacique of Pachacamac, a precontact sacred pilgrimage site 20 miles southeast of Lima, and don Francisco Inquill Tupac, "noble principal" of Cuzco. Their dress and adornments indicated their regal bearing and status: "cutlasses richly sheathed, and variously colored, satin shirts ... some fringed and of sheer linen ... others wore delicate cumbi shirts (a fine vicufia wool usually worn by elites and priests in precontact times), variously hued colors, and bordered with graceful animal figures, and beautiful birds; and some with wooden spears called Chunta." The organizer of the "Inca" procession, don Salvador Puycan, happened to be an officer of the Indian Regiment of Lima. Another luminary, don Lorenzo de Avendano, "noble Natural, (dressed) in rich finery of blue
6 Alberto Flores Galindo, Buscando un Inca: Identidad y utopia en los Andes (Lima, Editorial Horizonte, 1994), pp. 78-79. I certainly do not mean to trivialize Galindo's study; he convincingly shows that the Inca utopia flourished in the rural highlands, though I do doubt its impact on urbanized Indians.

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velvet, precious jewels, and a graceful white plumed hat" rode a "spirited horse."' This pageantry perhaps titillated the memories of Indian onlookers and participants about the past greatness of the Inca state, thus sparking a pan-Andean consciousness. At the same time, the mascaras symbolically asserted order and hierarchy in a place where Indians needed structure in their lives, because in the Lima valley few Indians could claim it as their ancestral home. Honoring the dead Inca kings often had more to do with memory than structure, though such memory could be very much behind rebellious movements. Yet, a pageant studded with colorful reminders of those who were once in charge could be ultimately ephemeral and tangential to the daily activities of most Indians. The cofradia, on the other hand, clearly provided the Indians with an enduring and palatable sense of belonging and structure. Devastated by diseases that undermined family and communal life, the Indian peoples embraced this venerable institution because they found it useful in rebuilding their lives, regardless of their implicit acceptance of Spanish rule by doing so. Organized around racial or ethnic groups and associated with the religious orders, the cofradias functioned to serve the social and religious needs of their members, the cofrades. The church viewed them as a way to recruit and retain Indians in the faith and as a source of income for itself and the cult. As social welfare agencies, they helped to cover the expenses for masses and burial of the deceased cofrades. Sometimes they also provided loans and charity for the membership. To support such expenses and ecclesiastical functions, the cofradia depended on donations, bequeathals, and membership fees, as well as on the income from land, livestock, and other commodities and properties owned by the cofradia itself. Annually elected officials, the mayordomos, managed the economic activities and financial accounts of the cofradias. Assisted by lower-level officers, they convened meetings and organized fiestas of the patron saints. Such functions would find expression in the Indian cofradias of the Lima valley. This study will thus show how Indians rightly considered the cofradias they belonged to as their own. The evidence for this assertion is
7 Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo y Rocha, Jubilos de Lima y fiestas reales (Lima, 1723), unpaginated throughout; Lowry, Forging an Indian Nation, pp. 270-273, 288; D. A. Brading. The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State 1492-1867 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 391-395.

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reflected in the numbers of Indians who joined the cofradias, headed them, and supported them in devotional and financial ways. Moreover, they acted to retain and use those resources transferred to them by cofrades and even non-cofrades, both men and women, for future generations. Indians drawn to them were rewarded with a sense of belonging, underscored by the notion of "one big family." At the same time, the Indian cofradia largely mirrored the larger society's hierachical manifestations and socioeconomic divisions.8 Paradoxically, the Indians adopted and manipulated an essentially foreign institution to suit their own needs and purposes. This enabled them to maintain their separate identity-the new ethnicity--over the long term, while calls to pan-Andeanism arose too infrequently to have much impact on daily living. Therefore, the following analysis will examine the colonial Indian cofradia in the Lima valley in terms of membership, the Indians' religiosity, and retention of Indian resources, all of which revealed varying degrees of institutional and ethnic loyalty.
THE INDIAN MEMBERSHIP

Four years after Lima'sfoundation,the the conquerors organized first cofradia, by 1585,23 represented and Indians(7), Spaniards(6), and blacksand mulattoes(10). The appearance Indiancofradias of fromso earlyon was typicalof suchareas,in contrast placesmore to did remoteandrural wherecofradias not appear untilthe seventeenth century.In 1619 there were 46 in the city of Limacould boast 46 blacksandmulattoes(15)]; the numand Indians(13), [Spaniards(18), of Indian in the valleythroughout colonial ber the perioddid cofradias cennot varywidely,[21 (1619),25 (city only, 1653),28 (eighteenth the segreof The formation the Indiancofradias exemplified tury)].9 gationistattitudesand policies of the colonialSpanish, just as the
8 Meyers, "Religious Sodalities in Latin America," 11; Olinda Celestino and Albert Meyers, "The Socio-Economic Dynamic of the Confraternal Endowment in Colonial Peru: Jauja in the Eighteenth Century," in Manipulating the Saints, pp. 101-103, 105-107; George M. Foster, "Cofradias and Compadrazgo in Spain and Spanish America," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 9:1 (1953), 18-19. Recent European historiography of confraternities in early modern times has similarly examined the central place that the institution has been assigned in the community, going beyond the mere devotional history and antiquarianism. See the review article by Ronald F. E. Weissman, "Cults and Contexts: In Search of the Renaissance Confraternity's Ritual," in Konrad Eisenbichler, ed., Crossing the Boundaries: Christian Piety and the Arts in Italian Medieval and Renaissance Confraterities (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991), pp. 201221. 9 Olinda Celestino and Albert Meyers, Las Cofradias en el Peru: regi6n central (Frankfurt, 1981), pp. 110-111, 119-121, and cuadros section for the 1619 and 1653 figures. For the eighteenth

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others surely had.10 Financial mismanagement and church and state restrictions might at any time cause a cofradia to be terminated. But since the Indian population hardly changed numerically throughout the colonial period, the numbers cited above do suggest the Indians' continuing and steady support of their cofradias. In fact, the number of Indian cofradias came in a very close third behind Spaniards and nonIndians. Harder to define chronologically is when the popularity of the cofradias might have risen or fallen in particular periods (if that is even the case), or when they had changed substantially in membership, or how the Indians' view of them changed over the years. Regardless of chronological imprecision, the "one big family" view of the cofradia did not likely change; instead, it consistently provided for Indians a kind of ethnic refuge. The familial notion appeared in the constitutional statutes of at least eight urban-based Indian cofradias, coupled with hierarchial, ethnic, and occupational preferences. Not unlike urban cofradias, three of the eight were affiliated with guilds and as such may have excluded women. Sent to the Council of the Indies for validation in the 1760s, the statutes laid out a set of rules and regulations for their respective memberships, which probably had existed for quite some time." They all promoted a familial atmosphere, charted roads to salvation, and
century and some 1619 figures, see Charney, Indian Society in the Valley of Lima, Peru, 1532-1824 (A revised version of my Ph.D. diss., 1995), table 4.1. 10 In urban Quito there was never a dense precontact population, and the coming of the Spaniards brought with it disease and rural-to- urban migration. The Indian cofradias similarly followed "an extreme early model of socio-racial segregation." See Martin Minchom, The People of Quito, 1690-1810: Change and Unrest in the Underclass (San Francisco: Westview Press, 1994), pp. 83-85. See also Karen Vieira Powers, Andean Journeys: Migration, Ethnogenesis, and the State in Colonial Quito (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995), chapters 1 and 2. Her discussion of seventeenth century emigration from the Indian to the Spanish spheres in colonial Quito is useful. 11See Table 1 for the list of the eight cofradias. Seven of the constitutions are in untitled (1762), and untitled (1763), AGI, Audiencia de Lima 814 and 818 (abbreviated hereafter as AL, respectively), unnumbered fols. Sent to Spain, together with 22 constitutions of other racial groups to obtain the approval of the Council of the Indies, these constitutions accorded with the seventeenth century councils of Lima and a series of Church and Crown decrees. They had been already approved by Lima's prebend and juez ordinario de cofradias, and constituted petitions and proofs of legitimacy. For a discussion of such procedures, see Celestino and Meyers, Las cofradias, pp. 132-134. The eigth constitution, Copacabana's, was a 1725 printed copy of the 1621 original and found in: Papeles Varios, Colecci6n Vargas, t. 43, nu. 6, libro 23 (Jesuit Library, Lima, Peru). The discussion on the constitutions appears without footnotes unless I make a direct and extended quotation.

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subscribed to the notion of mutual aid. All implicitly recognized among the membership differences in wealth and status, but some specifically expressed ethnic and professional exclusionism. They also emphasized hierarchy. Six of the eight cofradias allowed hermanos 2412tovote for one or two mayordomos from among themselves; moreover they had the right to be buried in the chapel of the cofradia with the pomp and ceremony due them, while hermanos menores (minor), the remaining membership, did not usually have such voting, burial, or officeholding privileges. The provisions made the mayordomos and lesser officers responsible for the various festivals. For example, San Cristobal's hermanos 24 met on January 20 to elect an officer who was given the task of organizing the July 27 festival of the patron saint. He then solicited the membership "for help to pay the masses, sermons, music, and other expenses,"13 which indicates that the mayordomo was not solely responsible for financing a festival. Despite some delegation of duties, the mayordomos played the crucial role of keeping the cofradia membership in line. The members too had certain obligations. Mayordomos would make certain that all members attended the meetings (cabildos), participated in the festivals, contributed to masses, burials, or even to the bail of fellow members, and informed the mayordomo of their absence from the city. A member who failed to carry out any or all of these obligations risked fines and, for continuing infractions, expulsion from the cofradia. Copacabana was exceptional in allowing dual or multiple memberships, but only for two years, while members fulfilled outstanding obligations in another cofradia. Moreover, the mayordomos were to maintain the harmony among the membership, to keep accounts, to visit the ill in the Indian hospital and those in jail, and to collect alms from the membership or general citizenry. At Santa Ana's cabildo, the mayordomos acted "con modestia tratandose con amor para que hara paz y buenos correspondencia entre todos y se eviten dissenciones y disturbos."'14 In effect, the mayordomos, together with the membership, had
12 The number 24 (veinticuatro) applied to alderman or municipal officers in Seville and other towns in Andalusia, or to the corporation that consists of 24 members. No doubt it was transplanted in the New World. See Mariano Veliquez and Edward Gray, comps. Dictionary of English and Spanish, (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1973), and Juan Corominas, Diccionario critico etimol6gia de la lengua castellana, 4 vols (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1954). In the context of the cofradia, I assumed that hermanos 24 refers to such officers that have a higher status than menores, as well as special privileges. 13 Untitled (1762), AGI, AL 814: 15th provision of Santa Crist6bal's constitution. 14 Ibid., The 11th provision of Santa Ana's constitution.

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to carry out certain obligations intended to promote the familial spirit, financial solvency, and solidarity of the cofradias. Two other areas addressed in the constitutions-membership or entrance fees, and funeral rituals-best illustrated hierarchy and socioeconomic divisions, but these were tempered by a charitable and familial spirit. Membership dues and the number of candles given by the cofradias at a cofrade's funeral differentiated the hermanos 24 from menores (see Table 1). Although five of the eight cofradias made distinctions in the membership fees, six did so in regards to candles displayed at the cofrades' funerals. This recognition carried over into the next generation. At least in the constitutions of Loretto and Nifio Jesuts, the cofrades' sons, daughters, and spouses were considered as part of the membership and the number of candles at their funerals varied according to the member's status: those of hermanos 24 had more candles than those of the menores. Notwithstanding the obvious material rewards to be gained by recruiting wealthy individuals, three TABLE 1 Membership Dues and the Number of Candles at the Cofrades' Funeral, Lima Valley
Dues in pesos [1] [2] Number of Candles [1] [2]

San Cristobal (fishermen, 1681) Santa Ana (silversmiths, 1611) Rosario (1600) Loretto (1607) Candelaria (1644) Nifio Jesuts (1715) San Joaquin (silkweavers, 1744) Copacabana (1621)

12 20 4 4 3 4 4 4

8 12

12 12 14

6 6 6

14

Note: [1] = hermanos 24, [2] = hermanos menores Source: AGI, Audiencia de Lima 814 and 818 (1762 and 1763), unnumbered folios. For Copacabana, see Papeles Varios, mss. colecci6n Vargas, t. 43, nu. 6, libro 23 (Jesuit Library, Lima, Peru). Though they may be inaccurate, the dates refer to the foundation of the cofradias according to the petitions for approval. All were in Lima proper, excluding the Cercado.

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A SENSE OF BELONGING

cofradias-Santa Ana, Nifio Jesuts,Loretto-explicitly encouraged the poor to join with reduced fees and contributions. Candelaria even provided non-member, poor Indians wax candles at their funerals and, along with Loretto, accepted the responsibility for caring for orphaned children of the poorest members until the age of four. Both San Crist6bal's fishermen and Santa Ana's silversmiths established emergency funds for natural disasters or for children of recently deceased members. In the process of getting approved, San Crist6bal actually noted its assistance in the task of flood control on several occasions. Such acting out of the spirit of charity and public service partially drew on a more pragmatic motive-recruiting members. Deathbed requests for memberships were not unheard of. If so desired and for 12 pesos, Loretto provided the appropriate funeral arrangements. Furthermore, the mayordomos' visits to the Indian hospital in Lima as mandated by the constitutions might have been done in an effort to get last minute memberships and bequests. In return, the cofradia provided burial arrangements. These hospital and deathbed visits or any kind of visibility on the part of the cofradia might secure the appreciation of the families and translate into future bequests or new members. Indian cofradias thus became involved in the larger society, mirroring its divisions and tempering them at the same time with the familial spirit or with Christian charity. Other statutes dealt with gender, occupation, and ethnicity. The cofradia-gremio (craft) probably excluded women, though it made no specific references. As a fishermen's gremio, San Crist6bal gave preference to that occupation which had become dominated by Indians up and down coastal Peru. It did allow Spaniards to be members but disparagingly labeled them "esclavos devotos," not hermanos 24, thus depriving them of any officeholding and voting privileges. Although permitting Spaniards to be hermanos 24, Candelaria prohibited them from "attending the council meetings for they were only for Indians," which had the effect of keeping Spaniards out of the inner circles. This willingness to admit Spaniards on a limited basis perhaps reflected the cofradia's desire to have them be only notary publics, a profession apparently reserved for hermanos 24. Copacabana specified that the mayordomo and other officers must be an "indio de naci6n" and Spanish cofrades were obliged neither to vote nor to attend council meetings. But Rosario strictly prohibited all non-Indian confrades, and San Joaquin, the silkweavers gremio, required the cofrades to be proficient in their trade, as well as "good and legitimate Indians." Such

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attention given to the possibility of white membership in the Indian cofradias naturally responded to a diverse ethnic and racial environment. However, of all Copacabana's new members throughout the eighteenth century only one was made to pay 12 pesos-three times the normal dues-"for not being a legitimate Indian."15Moreover, the pro-Indian and anti-Spanish, even anti-hegemonic clauses, appeared as an effort to redefine the racial hierarchy in reverse order, revealing the care taken to maintain Indian control of the cofradias. The "big family," near-exclusive club atmosphere expressed by the constitutions garnered Indian membership and contributed to the cofradias' popularity. Indian men and women joined these organizations in considerable numbers, if the information derived from their wills can be used as an indicator. In the sample of 123 wills, 26 female Indian testators of the 59, or 44 percent, claimed to be cofrades. Of that number, at least four native-born (Lima valley) women and seven migrants identified themselves as hermanas 24. A high number of men were also hermanos 24, and of the 64 male testators 33, or 52 percent, belonged to Indian cofradias. And almost half of all testators were cofrades, while little difference between native-born and migrant cofrades, strongly suggesting that the latter easily integrated into Lima's Indian society (see Table 2). Undoubtedly, the numbers and percentages varied over time, and they might even be skewed by inclusion of all-male craft cofradias. Anthropologist Lyn Lowry examined 43 wills of Lima's Indians for the period, 1600-1620, and found that 75 percent of men belonged to the cofradias, while for women, 55 percent.16Men considered the cofradias to be new avenues of power and prestige, hence their higher percentage. But the data above, mainly in the 1600s, indicate that women also attained the status of hermanas 24 and in significant numbers, which suggests that they were no less capable nor less ambitious than men, though they might have been normatively prohibited from serving as mayordomos. Despite the gender-based distinctions or the unknown impact of the gremios, the figures impart the popularity of the cofradias among Lima's Indians. Membership numbers for individual cofradias are lacking. However,
15 Untitled (1763), AGI, AL 818: 10th provision of Landelaria's constitution. Libro de actas de la cofradia de nuestra sefiora de copacabana ... (1758), AGN, Juzgado de Cofradias: Real Audiencia (abbreviated hereafter as JCRA), c. 174, unnumbered fols. 16 Lowry, "Religi6n y control social en la colonia; El caso de las indias urbanos de Lima, 1570-1620," Allpanchis 32 (Cusco, 1988), 27.

TABLE 2
Number and percentage of cofrades

Native-born = 67 Migrant = 56

M/21 [14] and F/13 [4] = 34 (51%) M/12 [9] and F/13 [7] = 25 (45%) 33 (52%) 26 (44%) 59 (48%)

64 males + 59 females = 123 [] = hermanos 24 Source: Based on Appendix VI, the sample of 123 Indian Wills in: Paul Charney, Indian Society in the Lima diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1995).

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Copacabana's record of voting in the eighteenth century gives an idea of the size that a cofradia could potentially obtain. The number of votes cast by members (whether they be hermanos 24 or menores is not made clear) in the election of Copacabana officers ranged from 50 to 60 in the years 1727, 1742-1745, 1751, and 1795-1802, while in other years, (1747-48, 1751-52, 1753, 1756) it was much lower, left unclear, or went unrecorded and, unfortunately, female participation or membership appears to be muted.17 At least this cofradia had few problems keeping a steady membership. Of course, the size of other cofradias varied: the only other concrete data was San Cristobal's with 25 members in 1690.18 The economic data in the wills of the cofrades suggest that wealth could not have been the chief criteria for recruitment. Humble folk, together with a well-to-do elite, belonged to the cofradia. At least eleven migrant members were landless (and urban dwellers often rented space in Lima) or had few assets beyond some clothes, tools of the trade, furniture, personal items, and barnyard animals. Although all except for two native-born cofrades owned some land or their own living quarters, the amount of land and assets varied greatly among them. And only eight testators claimed noble status (indio noble) or leadership positions. Cofradia membership represented a cross-section of society, though the educated and wealthy, of course, always had the better chance in getting to be mayordomos or influencing the operations of the cofradia.19 Nevertheless, this characteristic of the cofradia-the members representing a broad spectrum of the Indian population of the valley-was tempered by the familial notion which underscored the new ethnicity.
RELIGIOSITY

A strange blend of religiosity and financial support went hand in hand with cofradia affiliation. Not unexpectedly, both men and women cofrades, more so than non-cofrades, gave limosnas (alms) and property bequests to their cofradias (see Table 3). Among women, however, as many cofrades as non-cofrades gave offerings for masses, as opposed to men, among whom, cofrades offered more masses than
17Libro de actas ... (1758), AGN, JCRA, c. 174. 18Ibid. 19The social heterogenity has been noted for European fraternities. See Weissman, "Cults and Contexts," p. 209.

TABLE 3

Indian Involvement in Catholicism Based on the Sample of 123


Native born = 67 Masses NC C NC Rent/Sale C NC Masses

Male Female Percent of total

10 12 22 (67)
Limosnas NC

19 13 [81] 32 (94)

4 6 10 (30)
Bequest

6 3 [29] 9 (26)

5 10 15 (48)
Limosna

[66]

NC

NC

Male Female Percent of total Male Female

2 2

8 5

4 -

8 5

3 2

4
(12) NC = 16 NC = 17 34

[25]

13
(38) C = 21 C = 13 33

4
(12)

[25]

13
(38)

5
(16) Male Female

[29]
NC = 15 NC = 16 25

Key: NC = noncofrade, C = cofrade. [ ] = percent of both C + NC; for example, under the migrant-rent represents 36% of the total number of migrants, 56. ( ) = percent of total NC or C; for example, under the m = 6, which is 19% of the total migrant NC = 31. Note: Masses for testators and/or relatives; rent/sale refers to property sold or rented to pay for masses offerings to help support the cofradias; and bequests to cofradias were in the form of goods or landed prope separate and distinct in terms of percentage and numbers. Sources: Based on Appendix VI, "A Sampling of 123 Indian Wills in: Paul Charney, Indian Society in the Lim diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1995)

PAUL CHARNEY

393

unaffiliated males. Was women's religiosity, then, higher than men's? Lyn Lowry has explored such gender differences and has shown that, because positions were opening up for Indian men in the militia or craft gremios, they left fewer legacies to the cofradias in the second half of the seventeenth century than in the first half; women, who were barred from holding such positions, left bequests at the same rate.20 Although few eighteenth century wills exist to be statistically significant, Lowry suggests that men became less supportive of cofradias as they found other avenues of prestige and power, especially in the eighteenth century. But such a distraction did not make the cofradias less popular. A distinction does appear in limosnas and property bequests between cofrades and non-cofrades, but not so much between migrant and native-born, nor men and women. In other words, including non-cofrades in the count of benefactors misrepresents and dilutes the extent of the actual support from the cofrades because the former tended to be less obliging to cofradias they simply did not belong to. Even unaffiliated men bequeathed alms and property to their favorite cofradias, but less than the cofrades themselves did. To be sure, changing attitudes might have come about because of widening opportunities for men, though membership in the militia, for instance, did not preclude contributions to cofradias. And despite the number of women claiming to be mayordomos in their wills, men dominated and became more visible in that post. All the mayordomos listed in Copacabana's eighteenth century records were men, and the same held true for its hermanos 24 listed for the election of various officers.21 This male dominance perhaps reflects a trend in the late colonial period, though it hardly means that women were any less active in cofradia activities.22 In fact, the cofradia remained the only institution Indian women could join and possibly exert some influence. Furthermore, gender could not always determine whether or not a bequest was made to the cofradias; it may well be the presence or absence of surviving heirs, or even the economic worth of the estateand not always a man's or woman's level of devotion to a cofradia.
20Lowry, Forging an Indian Nation, pp. 157-158, and table 6 and graphs 1 and 2. 21 Libros de actas ... (1758), AGN, JCRA, c.174. 22 James Lockhart has found that Nahua women actively participated in one cofradia, the Most Holy Sacrament, some even serving as officers, and their membership in it was higher than the men. See his, The Nahuas After Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through the Eighteenth Centuries (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), pp. 226- 228.

394

A SENSE OF BELONGING

Relative poverty and the primary obligation to family members conditioned the succor given to religious functions and institutions. This generosity logically came from those who could afford it. However, religiosity should not be dismissed because it often undergirded cofradia membership. For the Indians of the Lima valley, a number of barometers can be used to measure their involvement in the new religion. The testators designated a certain number of masses and bequests of cash and property to the cofradias; in addition, they claimed ownership of such religious items as rosaries, crucifixes, carved statuettes, and paintings of various saints. These specifications reveal the Indians' devotion to Catholicism, or at least to its trappings. A number of testators even paid their cofradia membership fees posthumously, probably a last ditch effort to gain eternal salvation and a decent burial. To what extent they ingested Catholicism is another matter. One could find many Indians just as devoted to the outward manifestations of Catholicism as they were to learning the dogma. The Jesuits of the Cercado and other religious orders of the city parishes become actively involved in evangelical efforts that included teaching doctrine to the Indians in their own language. Indian leaders assisted in those efforts. Don Gonzalo, cacique of Lima, was seen in the 1550s making sure that the Indians went to mass and punishing those who did not.23Whether coerced or otherwise, evangelization did not prevent Indians from subscribing to a popular brand of religion that had little relation to Catholic liturgy. This popular religion was urban-based, though some of its Indian participants came from the rural highlands and other Indians practiced it in several communities in Lima's hinterland. Indians-together with blacks, mulattoes, and mestizos-participated and engaged in such heterodox practices as the ritual use of coca for chewing, divination, and curing, or they believed in the efficacy of love potions or powders and fortune-telling. A brisk coca trade with the nearby central highlands involving Indians and mestizos continually reinforced heterodoxy, especially among nonwhites and the humble classes. Rural Indians migrating to Lima undoubtedly brought their own 'folk traditions' with them, and naturally so did the African slaves and Spaniards. Thus, the "fusion" of elements from these different ethnic traditions that were nearly impossible to separate comprised a
23

Lowry, "Religi6n y control," pp. 18-23.

PAUL CHARNEY

395

popular religion. Historian Iris Gareis argues that such fusion served as an integrative mechanism that paved the way for a "new cultural identity."24 Whether or not aspects of popular religion might have crept into the Indians' cofradia activities and functions is unknown. Besides, the cofradias in the Lima valley never had a strong autochthonous base. In contrast, the cofradias in isolated rural areas commonly functioned as covers for organized "heresy"-at least, that is what the church authorities commonly accused them of-or for a purer Indian folk religion: they also laid the groundwork for a cultural syncretism, or even corresponded to precontact structures like the Andean ayllu.25Popular religion in Lima might have been forced underground because of the close monitoring of the authorities. Therefore, it unlikely found a home within the cofradia organization, though that did not prevent individual Indians from engaging in such condemned rituals and, at the same time, from being devoted cofrades. Popular religion could work to set apart Indians, as well as other ethnic and racial groups from the Spanish ruling class. The European and Indian mix in popular religion is nonetheless revealing of the uncertainity of Spanish "cultural hegemony" in a physical space-the viceregal capital-where they would be expected to have pre-eminence in all things sacred and profane. The words of the Indians themselves convey a sense of their devotion to the foreign institution that they made their own and used for their own purposes. Relocated to the Cercado in the early seventeenth
24 Iris Gareis, "Religi6n popular y etnicidad: La poblaci6n indigena de Lima colonial," Allpanchis, 23:40 (1992), 117-143; See also Maria Emma Mannarelli, "Inquisici6n y mujeres: Las hechiceras en el Peru durante el siglo XVII," Revista Andina, 3:1 (Cusco, 1985), 146-147; Frederick P. Bowser, The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524-1650 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), pp. 251-253; Causa criminal contra Alonso Cabello, traginador de coca (1669), AA, Secci6n: Idolatrfas y hechiceria, leg. 5, exp. 23, fols. 1-20. 25 Amos Megged, "Accomodation and Resistance of Elites in Transiton: The Case of Chiapas in Early Colonial Mesoamerica," HAHR 71:3 (1991), 492-500. Tristan Platt, "The Andean Soldiers of Christ: Confraternity Organization, the Mass of the Sun, and Regenerative Warfare in Rural Potosi (18th-20th Centuries)," Journal de la Societ9 des Americanistes 73 (1987), 146-173; Flavio Rojas Lima, La cofradia: reducto cultural indigena (Guatemala: Centro Editorial Vile, 1988), pp. 12, 16-17; Rafael Var6n, "Cofradifasde indios y poder local en el Pertl colonial: Huaraz, siglo XVII," Allpanchis, 17:20 (Cusco,1982), 135-140; Celestino and Meyer, Los cofradias, p. 127; Stephanie Wood, "Adopted Saints: Christian Images in Nahua Testaments of Late Colonial Toluca," The Americas 47:3 (1991), 291-293; Murdo L. MacLeod, "The Social and Economic Roles of Indian Cofradias in Colonial Chiapas," in Jeffrey A. Cole, ed., The Church and Society in Latin America (Tulane: Center of Latin American Studies, 1984), pp. 77-78. Members of a community-type ayllu identified with a common ancestor.

396

A SENSE OF BELONGING

century in accordance with the reduction policy, the Indians of San Lazaro, a city parish on the north bank of the Rimac River, complained in a petition to the corregidor (Spanish official) of the distance they had to go in order to care for their cofradias' images housed in city churches. They also griped that the Jesuits held them at mass until two in the afternoon on Sunday, and the distance to the central plaza prevented them from returning before the doors of the Cercado closed at 7:00 p.m. The petition explained that when they lived in San Lizaro, they regularly attended masses in the main Cathedral, which they reached by simply crossing the bridge, and afterwards heard another mass as cofradia members in the place where their images were kept. One such later mass delivered in Quechua at Santo Domingo even appealed to ladinos, or hispanized Indians. The uproar eventually allowed the cofradia of Copacabana to return to San Liazaroin 1616 for good, and its members offered their labor services to build a church.26 Even in Lima, the language of the Inca survived, and Indians, though coming from many different provinces, wanted it spoken as a badge of separate identity. Living among Spaniards and joining in Catholic devotion did not entirely dissolve their indigenous roots. The Indians attended masses willingly-up to a point. But they were less than enthusiastic when masses (specifically the Jesuit one) took them away from their cofradia obligations. They wanted to continue their healthy connection to the cofradias' patron saints. Perhaps Copacabana's leadership said it best in reference to the cofrades' support. Captain don Antonio Quispe, don Diego Chambachumbe, and Francisco Solano gathered in 1677 with the membership to reaffirm the cofradia's foundation 70 years earlier (some might say re-foundation in San Lizaro). They boasted of having "one of the best-built and adorned churches that there is [to house their patron saint, the Virgin Mary] in the said city (Lima) and each day the devotion of the naturales [Indians] grows" and further stated that "it is a rare Indian who dies without leaving in his will ... some quantity for this 'santita casa.' "27 In any event, the Indians' piety brought the Church material rewards. To pay the priests to say masses, Indians bequeathed them money or land; or, Indian testators instructed executors to alienate their estates. This latter occurred among 29 percent of
26 Untitled (year?), AGI, Patronato Real 248, ramo 37, unnumbered fols.; Lowry, Forging an Indian Nation, 48-51. 27 Untitled (1677), AL no number, AGI, unnumbered folios.

PAUL CHARNEY

397

native-born testators and 36 percent of migrants (see rent/sale, Table 3). Some of the buyers were not Indian. For instance, in 1598 the priest of the Indian town of Lurigancho (about 15 miles northeast of Lima) sold five acres of land there for 40 pesos to a Spanish farmer. An Indian left the land to the Spanish priest only a month before for the purpose of paying for masses.28 In her study of late sixteenth century wills of Mexican Indians, historian Sue Cline suggests that bequests of property to the church for masses clearly undermined the once closed system of redistributing resources to succeeding generations of Indians.29 Similarly in the Lima valley, Indian support of the Catholic Church and worship of Catholicism drained some resources away from the Indian family and community and put them in the hands of outsiders. Indian attention given to the saying of masses through capellania or chaplaincy, also indicates devotion to the new religion. A capellania was a mortgage loan on any sort of property whose annual income covered the costs of masses said in memory of the capellania's founder. Although these Christianized Indians showed concern for their eternal salvation, only seven out of the 123 wills used in this study actually established capellantas. Historian Manuel Burga's study on the subject suggests that the Indians left their assets to the colonial church "in an attempt to prove the good quality of their Christianity prior to death."30Perhaps the true believers did not think they lost much at all; to them, spiritual comfort could not be quantifiable. Such piety, as we shall see, did not necessarily result in the total loss of Indian resources to the church or to non-Indians.
THE RETENTION INDIANRESOURCES OF

back-up beneficiaries of the Indians' landholdings. Faced with the distinct possibility of the early demise of their lineage and the subsequent vacancy of their lands, Indian testators stipulated that bequests of land

Spanish intrusion onto indigenous turf: they acted as secondary or

The Indian-managed cofradias prevented the worst scenario of

28 Rodrigo Castillejo (1597-1598), AGN, Protocolos Notariales (abbreviated hereafter as PN) fols. 1460-1461. 29 S.L. Cline, Colonial Culhuacan, 1580-1600: A Social History of an Aztec Town (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986), pp. 80- 84. 30 Manuel Burga "Triumph of Colonial Christianity in the Central Andes: Guilt, Good Conscience, and Indian Piety," in Mark Szuchman, ed., The Middle Period in Latin America: Values and Attitudes in the 17th-19th Centuries (Boulder: Lynne Riener Publishers, 1989), p. 48.

398

A SENSE OF BELONGING

revert to cofradia ownership upon the death of the testators' heirs. The bequeathals contributed to the expenses of burial and masses for descendents, but part of the landed bequests remained in the hands of the cofradia. Generally in cases of sole surviving spouses, the testator designated his cofradia as successor to the spouse's inheritance. Parents did the same with their children and grandchildren, upon whose demise their property transferred to the cofradia chosen by the testator.31 This stipulation covered the expenses of burial and averted the loss of income-bearing property to outsiders. As disease ravaged the Indian population, individuals turned to the cofradias. The absence of spouses and progeny resulted in the Indians' bequests to the cofradias and to ritual relatives. Those with greater accumulations of wealth gave most generously in their wills. As a member of the Indian cofradia, San Miguel, Simon Saoni of the fishing village of Surquillo (five miles south of Lima) in 1596 designated the cofradia heir to a fifteen acre farm to provide support for its membership and expenses. Saoni was childless. Pedro HernAndez, survived by neither a wife nor children, named in his 1641 will the Indian cofradia of the Cercado, Madre de Dios (or Zaragoza) as sole heir to all of the proceeds obtained from the sale of his property and from the collection of debts. Moreover, he bequeathed additional real estate to his compadre and the compadre's children on condition that they pay for masses and give Madre de Dios five patac6nes (a patac6n is a silver coin weighing one ounce).32 For lack of heirs or after the death of kin or even quasi-kin, other testators likewise instructed that their respective cofradias benefit from their estates.33 These bequeathals had the
31 Autos formados por los mayordomos ... (1767-1817), AGN, Temporalidades: Censos y Cofradifas(abbreviated hereafter TCC), leg. 323, fols. 12-13, 15, 25. This document provides a list of Indian bequests to various cofradias in the Lima area. See also the sample of Indian wills as used in table 2, and Testimonio de Juana Taulli ... (1622), AA, Cofradifas(abbreviated hereafter Cof.) leg. 40, unnumbered fols, and in the same leg. see Mayordomos ... de las Animas de Purgatorio, el Cercado, sobre la donaci6n de Ana Pizarro, india ... (1607), AA, Cof., leg. 40, unnumbered fols. 32 Testamentos de indios, AGN, one leg., unnumbered fols; the wills of Saoni (1596) and Hernandez (1641). Wills and donations made by Indian migrants without heirs in the 1570s set the pattern of benefitting church-operated establishments, like that of the Indian hospital of Santa Ana, with money bequests, clothing, livestock; see Marcos de Esquival (1569-1577), AGN, PN, fols. 189, 326, 509, 582. For the definition of patac6n, see Diccionario de la Lengua Espafiola (Madrid: Real Academia Espafiola, 1970). 33 Crist6bal de Pifieda (1620-1623), AGN, PN, fol. 16 contains the will of Juana Pazna; Testamentos, AGN, will of Maria Cecilia (1682); and El capitin don Juan Rivera, natural originario del pueblo de Santiago de Cercado y mayordomo actual de la cofradia de santissima sacramento

PAUL CHARNEY

399

effect of sustaining the circulation of property and its accompanying benefits among Indians, even in the absence of surviving blood relatives. The Indian cofradias thus maintained resources to assist other cofrades and extend the supportive functions of the Indian family. Even the caciques' acquisition of land should be examined in light of where some of it ultimately ended up. In a long term lease agreement for three lives with a Spaniard, Magdalena's (an Indian town 4 miles south of Lima) cofradia, Concepci6n, because the beneficiary of a bequest made by the cacique's daughter, dofia Francisca Quinca, in 1598. The Spaniard succeeded his father in the second life, paying to the cofradia 18 pesos annually.34The example of a 1603 boundary measurement indicated that the 35 acres of land once belonging to the pre-reduced community of Surco (Surco viejo, 7 miles due south of Lima) and very near a huaca site (a precontact place of worship) had been acquired by the cacique, don Francisco Tantachumbi. He later transferred it to the cofradia Madre de Dios in the late sixteenth century, even though he also left another 40 acres of land to the Jesuits.35 Loyalty to a religious order tended to undermine the Indian hold on resources. Other transferrals tempered the effects of the private accumulation of wealth, and so preserved such a hold. This ownership by the cofradias benefited the wider community of Indians in the valley. Indians took seriously their cofradia obligations, however burdensome. And in spite of the prohibition, some held multiple memberships, or they even made substantial bequests to cofradias in which they were not members, either way reflecting the popularity of the cofradias.36 Historian Iris Gareis maintains that Lima's Indians transformed the tradition of "prayers" to the Andean divinities into prayers
... (1776-1817), AGN, TCC, leg. 323, contains the will of don Domingo Pasqual (1734), unnumbered fols. 34 Pifieda (1611-1612), AGN, PN, fols. 181-183. 35 Testimonio del expediente sobre el deslinde de tierras pertencientes a los indios del pueblo de Surco y al de la chacra de hacienda de San Juan del Colegio de la compania de Jesuis (1603), BN, B1342, fols. 16-17, 28. 36 For examples, see Testamentos, AGN, wills of Alonso Vallejos (1669) and Ana Maria (1660). In fact, don Domingo Pasqual (his will was also in Testamentos and dated 1734) of the Cercado acted as the mayordomo of Sacramento, while being a member of Candelaria. See Pasqual's will in: "El capitin don Juan de Rivera ... (1776-1817)," AGN, TCC, leg. 323. See also Testimonio de testamento de Andres Cancho-haique, indio ... ortorg6 en 9 de Marzo de 1686, AGN, Derecho Indigena y Encomienda (abbreviated hereafter as DIE), c. 151, fols. 1-3; Iris Gareis found similiar patterns, see her "Religi6n popular," pp. 133-134, and Minchom suggests it in; "The People of Quito," p. 83.

400

A SENSE OF BELONGING

to the cofradias'saints. Loyalty shown to varioussaints helps explain, The very individualswho became membersto more than one cofradia paved the way for inter-cofradiacooperation and a collective spirit. The account book of San Joseph noted several exchanges with Las Animas and other cofradias of offerings and religious items.38Such inter-cofradia cooperationmight have been the norm. Accordingto a 1630s litigation case, an Indian testified that the mayordomosof Copacabanaand Candelariacustomarily"help one another in their fesin tivals."39 or most cofradiasparticipated processionson common All such as Christmas,Holy Week, Day of the Dead, religious holidays, Corpus Cristi, and the Assumption,which enabled members to view each other acrosscofradialines and to decide to expandtheir loyalties a bit. contact emerged from the multiple beMuch of the cross-cofradia to the institutions. Despite her membershipin Las Animas, quests Mariade la O instructedin her 1676 will that the Cercado'sConcepci6n receive 50 pesos to help finance its religious festivals in December. In 1639, Maria Cayn divided her husband'sinheritanceequally, nine acres of land in Carabayllo(an Indiantown 15 miles due north of Lima), between her cofradia,San Joseph, and another, Las Animas. Some Indian testators She also left alms to three other cofradfas.40 even bequeathed alms or landed propertyto cofradiasthey were not membersof simplybecausetheir deceasedrelativeswere. Jos6 Fernfindez de la Cruzof Magdalenaleft two pesos to San Joseph, the cofradia of his father. Although a member of Las Animas, de la Cruz also contributedtwo pesos in 1688 to Sacramentofor the celebration of Corpus Christi and to help in paying for the waxed candles. He directed the mayordomos to collect the money from the sale of his Don Juan HuaAnother testatormade similararrangements. goods.41 resident of Callao (the port city of Lima) and principal(subquilla, a altern chief) of Surco (near Surco viejo), left one peso yearly in 1633 to apply to the festival expenses of two cofradias,though he had be37Gerais, "La religi6n popular," pp. 131, 133-134. 38 CofradifasVarias: San Joseph (1775-1778), AA, Cof., leg. 40, unnumbered fols. 39Autos seguidos por los mayordomos de la cofradia de nuestra sefiora de Copacabana contra los mayordomos de la cofradia de Jesuis ... (1631), AGN, Real Audiencia: Causas Civiles (abbreviated hereafter as RACC) c. 310, fol. 99. 40Testamentos, AGN, wills of Cayn (1639) and de la O (1676). 41 Ibid., will of de la Cruz (1688).

Gareis argues, the Indians' multiple memberships in the cofradias.37

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401

longed to neither one. But don Juan's grandson, don Antonio Garcia Huaquilla, in 1648 bequeathed three acres of land to San Miguel, the cofradia of his grandfather.42 Inter-cofradia backing, whether from members or not, consequently became a mainspring of the Indians' collective identity. Membership in different cofradias, however, sometimes brought on conflict over resources left behind by cofrades. A desire to secure sufficient funds placed the cofradias into contention and directly involved them in the probate affairs of the family. Dofia Juana Chumbi's 23 August 1627 will and her codicile of May 1628 provided the gist for a legal battle between the cofradias Copacabana and Nifio Jesus. In her will she bequeathed to her husband, Pedro de los Reyes, "a large house" on the street Malambo in Lima's parish of San Laizaroon the north bank of the Rimac river. This property had been part of her dowry and she established it as a capellania. After Los Reyes' death, according to the dofia's instructions, Copacabana would take possession of the house. A portion of the rental income paid for 40 masses, while the rest went to support the upkeep of Copacabana's patron saint. She appointed Nifio Jesuis to administer the capellania, though the actual owner of the Malambo property was Copacabana. In fact, Chumbi's codicile in May of 1628 reiterated Copacabana's ownership after the death of Reyes. The dispute arose over which cofradia should benefit from that part of the rental income not pocketed by the priest.43 Upon her husband's death in 1630, the legal fireworks began. Nifio Jesuis's mayordomos argued that Chumbi secretly communicated to her confessor a memoria (statement) in June of 1628 which allegedly limited Copacabana to six years of enjoying the rental income, and Nifio Jesuiswould collect it thereafter. The latter further claimed that she also decided to be buried in its chapel, not Copacabana's.44Chumbi's secrecy was necessary, Nifio Jesuis explained, for "fear of her husband and of the Indians of Copacabana who opposed her and wanted the capellania and the rent of the said house pass on to the cofradia of Copacabana."45And so under duress did Chumbi testate a will favoring Copacabana. Nifio Jesus' supporting witnesses agreed that Pedro
42Ibid., wills of both Huaquillas (1633) and (1648). 43 Autos seguidos por los mayordomos (1631) AGN, RACC, c. 310, fols. 1-5. 44Ibid., fols. 23-25, 27, 53, 122. 45Ibid., fol. 28.

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A SENSE OF BELONGING

de los Reyes mistreated his wife over the matter, one even testifying that she suffered a head injury as a result of his beatings. Los Reyes' current wife, Isabel Rodriguez, stated that her husband told her that after his death the house would go to Nifio counJestis.46Copacabana tered by denying the use of any pressure to persuade Chumbi and by declaring that her will and codicile only assigned Nifio Jesus the administration of the capellanta and actually gave Copacabana the house. Its mayordomos noted that Chumbi's husband showed little interest in either cofradia since he was the mayordomo and a member of another, Consolaci6n. According to Copacabana's six witnesses, Chumbi demonstrated her devotion to Copacabana by attending its festivals and masses, and that de los Reyes did not influence Chumbi in the disposal of the property. Antonio Tamayo, the public notary, gave damaging testimony to the effect that the memoria of June 1628, which limited Copacabana's collection of the rent, as presented in evidence by Chumbi's confessor and by Nifio Jestis, was never notarized.47 Although it remained unresolved, the context of the litigation suggests deep-seated animosities between the two cofradias. Nifio Jesuis questioned the veracity of Copacabana's witnesses and made the standard charge that they gave biased testimony because of their Copacabana membership. Actually the few noting their affiliations indicated cofradias other than Copacabana, though the guitarmaker de los Reyes employed two of its witnesses.48 Nonetheless, Nifio Jesus' evidence appeared weak, based on hearsay, unnotarized and perhaps falsified documents, and a insufferable prejudice against Copacabana's Indians for their supposed lack of religiosity. Nifio Jesus's mayordomos expressed their disdain for Copacabana by characterizing its members as "ill-disciplined (sueltos) and subject to no religion," and they accused them of irresponsible spending habits.49 The other side's argument that the husband had little interest in his wife's property seemed out of the ordinary. Of course, anything could have happened during the one and a half years that Chumbi was ill, as one witness observed:50 she might have been conceivably pressured by Copacabana, or, for that matter, by Nifio Jesus as well. Her substantial estate-homes, four slaves, furniture, a quantity of silver-was perhaps
46

Ibid., 47Ibid., 48 Ibid., 49 Ibid., 50 Ibid.,

fols. 62-64, 113-123. fols. 53, 64-72, 84-110. fols. 97-110, 127. fols. 77-78, 122. fol. 129.

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worth fighting for.51 Urban real estate, the crux of the dispute, had a great deal of value as income to all cofradias. Multiple cofradia links and bequests, as in the Chumbi case,52 could provoke two or more cofradias into conflict over their devotee's estate. Favoring one cofradia over another further exacerbated the rivalry. Chumbi's case shows what might have occurred with some frequency: cofradias pressured their devotees, especially wealthy ones, to bequeath to them a portion or all of their estates, thereby producing a legal and emotional quagmire for all those involved. Families found themselves with divided loyalties because family members joined different and sometimes rival cofradias. If they each joined multiple cofradias, then they further complicated the family's obligations and commitments. Laying aside for a moment the seamy side of cofradia recruitment and financing, the Chumbi case does inform us about the extent to which cofradias penetrated the Indians' daily lives. Even some of the witnesses not belonging to either cofradia, Nifio Jestls or Copacabana, became involved in the fray. Chumbi, like other cofrades, felt obliged to support a number of cofradias but felt a special obligation and loyalty to one, Copacabana. Her husband, however, perhaps felt differently. The crucial point is their emotional and spiritual attachment to an institution they called their own. No doubt, such attachment stemmed from the fact that some cofradias coexisted in the same territory. Some Indian cofradias in fact coexisted in the same territory, and together they drew from the same resources as their cofrades, both in urban Lima-the Cercado and San Laizaro, for example-and in the rural communities surrounding the viceregal capital. The wills of the humble and well-born reveal that a portion of the cofradias' farm lands lay within the boundaries of the community. Both Indian farmers and the cofradias shared the use of the same irrigation canals. As such, the cofradias' landed enterprises became integrated into the community memberships' work experiences and living arrangements.53 Urban properties belonging to the
51Ibid., fols. 1-12. 52 Ibid., fols. 2-6. Chumbi left alms to five different cofradias. 53 The following refer to cofradia lands in the Indian communities of Surco, Magdalena, Carabayllo, and Cacahuasi (incorporated into the Cercado): Contiene este proceso ... a pedimiento de don Domingo Tantachumbi, hijo y sucesor de don Francisco Tantachumbi, cacique y gobernador del pueblo de Surco ... (1642), BN, B870, fols. 7-14, contains the will of don Domingo, 1636; Francisco Rolddn (1734- 1742), AGN, PN, fols. 56-60, 149-151; Francisco Cayetano Arrendondo (1727-1734), AGN, PN, f. 86; Castillejo (1599-1602), AGN, PN, fols. 673-674; Testamentos,

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Indian cofradiaswere in predominatelyIndianneighborhoods.Moreover, the evidence suggests that the urban Indian residentswho were cofradiaofficersused rooms in their own homes for the safekeepingof their cofradia'spatron saint, or they served food and drink to fellow Indians thus concofradesat their homes duringreligious holidays.54 sidered cofradiasas inseparablefrom their daily lives. Some of the Indiansthemselvesleft statementsof the ways that their cofradiasbecame woven into the texture of their lives. Indiantestators of the Limavalley identifiedvariouslinks to cofradiasin their appointments of executorsand legal guardiansand in their namingof debtors and creditors. This identification involved mayordomos, and ipso facto, the cofradiasthemselves, who fulfilled various duties as estate administrators, surrogateparents,or moneylenders. Beginning in the early 1600s, Indian mayordomosassumed executorships when the testators lacked survivingrelatives or bequeathed some propertyto the cofradfas,or when the testator and the Indian officer simply belonged to the same cofradia.55 Religious piety, the absence of heirs, or the desire to support fellow cofrades rendered mayordomosas the testators' logical choice for executorships.When called upon, the cofradiasand their officers became the overseers of the propertyIndian families left behind. Indiancofradias,too, became sourcesof smallloans to their cofrades whether they lived in the city or in Lima's countryside.Membersincurreddebts to their cofradias,not only because of the loans, but also because some also owed rent on the cofradia'spropertyor for delinquent membershipfees. Typically,the testator assignedpropertyand goods for sale in order to pay for the cofradiadebt.56Other Indians chose to directincome from their estates to fulfilldebts owed to Indian
AGN, will of Jos6 Fernandez de la Cruz (1688); Autos formado por los mayordomos ... (17671817), AGN, TCC, leg. 323; Untitled (no date), AGN, JCRA, leg. 1, contains the 1642 will of Catalina Francisca; Testimonio de lo escrito de trato y convenio que celebran los indios de la comunidad de Surco con el Padre Bartolome de la Rea ... sobre el aprovechamiento de las aguas del rio de Surco y de los riegos ... (1803), AGN, Juzgado de Agua, c. 3.3.16.40, unnumbered fols. 54 Testamentos, AGN, wills of Maria de la O (1676), and Tombis Garcia Flores (1761). 55 Testamentos, AGN, wills of Alonso Condor (1632), Martin Arma (1634), Julio Aula (1636), Francisco Tesina (1642), Alonso Vallejos (1669), and Juan Augustin de Osorno (1687); Autos formado por los mayordomos ... (1767-1817), AGN, TCC, leg. 323, contains the will of Maria Geronimo (1688), unnumbered folios; Pifieda (1620-1623), fols, 55-58, 15-19. 56 Castillejo (1599-1602), AGN, PN, fols. 672-675; Arrendondo (1727-1734), AGN, PN, fol. 731: Testamentos, AGN, will of Maria Jacoba (1652), Juana Bartolo (1657), and Blasido Puno Cansinos (1776).

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the cofradias.

cofradias.To repayhis 73 peso debt to Nifio Jests, don Diego Pinco of Surco instructedin his 1739 will that the cofradiacollect annual payments from three acres of land mortgaged to the Jesuit estate, San Juan (nine miles south of Lima).57These monetary payments circulated benefits among the members,and Indiancreditorsassignedtheir creditsto the cofradias.The 1601will of dofiaMariaHuacha,widow of the cacique of Carabayllo,designated the money owed to her to pay for the candlesused by her cofradia,Rosario.58 Cofradesalso procured financialassistancefrom fellow members.For example, Alonso Tacu noted in his 1621will that two "hermanos" his cofradia,San Joachin of the parish of San Laizaro), owed him a peso apiece.59 The diverse (in nature and circumstancesof these debtor-creditorrelationshipssuggest that Indiansdependendedupon their religiouscofradias,not only for their spiritual needs but also for financial assistance. Cofradias became a source of Indian identity and, not always successfully,they acted as a defense againstthe transferof lands or monies to Spaniards. Instead of losing their lands or homes to non-Indianoutsidersbecause of indebtedness,Indianscould repay the cofradiasout of their estates. Hence, debtor-creditorties forged the underpinningsof interdependencies and of ethnic and institutionalloyalties among Indians. An individualtoo poor to leave any legacy to his or her cofradia might express loyalty in another way. A 1643 visita of Pachacamac revealed that Indianmen and boys had harvested20 bushels of wheat to be marketed for the cofradiasRosario and Concepcion.60 Indians thereby supportedone another by lending their labor to support the cofradias. In turn, the cofradias provided their members with food, drink, and music at religious festivals and funerals.Not only through bequests or alms, then, did the Indiansdemonstratetheir allegience to
CONCLUSION

From early on the cofradiasbecame a bulwarkof the Indians'new ethnicity, or "ethnogenesis,"especially in areas like the Lima valley where the autochthonousbase was virtuallynon-existent.Under these circumstances Indiancofradiasformed early and endured.As an inte57 Roldain (1734-1742), AGN, PN, fols. 150-151. 58 Castillejo (1599-1602), AGN, PN, fols. 899-902. 59Pifieda (1620-1623), AGN, PN, fols. 351-352. 6 Visita de Pachacamac (1643), AA, Expediente. XXI, leg. 7, fol. 10.

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gral part of the larger society, and in many ways mirroringits social divisions,the cofradiamust not be viewed only throughits devotional activities. One historian has suggested that the cofradia should be understood in two ways-static and dynamic.61 The static cofradia a consensus atmosphere. Despite being modeled on the promotes Spanishones, the Indiancofradias'statutesgave a stable structureand meaning to the contrived "indio" identity, and the members'various links and obligationsto them created the sense of belonging to "one big family."Indianswillinglyleft behind propertyitems to their favorite cofradia(s), not simply to support the cult but to reciprocatefor years of being provided spiritual and collective support. And these bequestsdid carveout a physical,if not social space for Lima'sIndians, which was true whether they be in the city or in the countryside. Furthermore,the multiple membershipsand bequests reflected the popularityof the cofradias,and as such underscoredethnic solidarity. In contrast,popular religion with its multiculturaland racially-mixed involvement,inhibitedsolidarityfor any one group.Whereasthe cofradiastructureintentionallyfostered ethnic and racialsegregationand thereby afforded Indians the opportunityto forge a distinct identity. That is not to say that membersof Indiancofradiaswere all Indian,but the few documents on this subject do suggest an effort to exclude non-Indiansand to create a certain ethnic consciousnessand loyalty. As a dynamicinstitution,the cofradiaprovided a forum for social conflict and the exercise of power. The late French historianMichel Foucault understoodpower to be diffuse and to come from below in multifacetedrelationshipsthat molded by families, modes of production, and institutions.Relations of power could actuallytranscendrecognized barriersand norms,and could occasionallybe inverted,which may have stemmed from the diverse and plural nature of 'resisThe inversion of power relations can be found in the antitances.'62
61 In his discussion of the common characteristics of cofradias in Guatemala, Flavio Rojas Lima suggests this useful static-dynamic dichotomy model. See his, La cofradia reducto cultura indigena, (Guatemala; Centro Editorial Vile, 1988), pp. 17-18. 62 Michel Foucualt, The History of Sexuality, 3 vols. translated by Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage Books, 1990) pp. 1, 92-102; Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge; Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977 Colin Gordon, ed., (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980), pp. 142, 207-208; Joseph Rouse, "Power/Knowledge," in Gary Gutting, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Foucault (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 106-109. Foucault's conceptualization of power, though criticized for being too broad and lacking specificity as to render it cognitively useless, is nonetheless flexible and therefore far more useful than overly structured paradigms. Moreover, it modifies and sometimes negates top-down analysis of power. Of course,

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Spanish, exclusionaryclauses of the Indian cofradias' constitutions. They could be construedas a subtle form of resistance,even more so if promulgatedat the behest of the cofrades themselves. And power from below as in the intrafamilyand inter-cofradiasquabbles that arose in one case, broke the consensus atmospherethat the cofradia was suppose to create and sustain. The persuasion,duress, and manipulationexhibitedin that case, thoughunsettling,could have marked similar efforts made by mayordomosand their assistants,along with the cofrades and their family members, to pressure other well-to-do Indiansinto giving bequests. This is power exerted at different levels and not necessarilytop-down. But being in a position of power and prestige the mayordomo can also do good and bring unity, such as when he (sometimes she?) assumes the paternalisticfunctions of a guardianor executor, or he keeps the cofradesin line in faithful accordance with the duties prescribedto him in the cofradia statutes. Hence, the dynamic nature of power relations resided in their continual shifting and realigning.That power took such manifold forms endowed certain Indiansat particulartimes with the opportunityand abilityto exercise it, whichcould easily spill over into the affairsof the family and household to cause mischief or to do good. In that sense, the public and private aspects of cofradiabecame barely distinguishable. Indianshad therebyincorporatedanotherSpanishimport-the cofradia-into their daily lives and sought to mold it to meet their spiritual and materialneeds, as well as their statusaspirations.In doing so, they achieved a degree of autonomy, and along with it, power; paradoxically, their embracing of the cofradias implied accommodation nonetheless,if not their acceptanceof the colonial system.But if social control or consensus-building the end-result,then the Indianshad was a hand in shapingit to satisfytheir own search for a recipe that would give them identity and a sense of self-worth.
West Texas A&M University
PAUL CHARNEY

Canyon, Texas

I am aware of the cottage industry of criticisms spawned by Foucault's view of the world, but one critical work I found useful was: J.G. Merquior, Foucault (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), passim, especially pp. 108-118 for his discussion of Foucault's concept of power.

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