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CulturalInterbreedings:Constituting
the Majorityas a Minority
SERGE GRUZINSKI
E.H.E.S.S.
NATHAN WACHTEL
College de Franco
From the time of the Spanish invasion, in the Andean world as in Mexico, a
mere handful of conquistadorescame to impose their domination upon the
indigentmasses. One cannot,therefore,begin by speakingof minoritiesnor of
the marginalizationof Amerindianpopulations, even when these decrease
dramaticallyfollowing the demographiccatastropheof the sixteenth century,
for in spite of this they remainsignificantlymore numerousthan the Spanish.
Yet it is truethatthe term Indianappears,from its origins even, as a derogato-
ry term (see the flood of contemporaryliteratureon savages, idolaters,and so
forth) and that it is in fact applied even now in countries such as Peru and
Bolivia, where the autochthonoussubstratumsurvives in many regions, to the
populationsleast integratedinto nationallife, who might be considered,in this
sense, as "marginal."What, then, has takenplace duringthese last five centu-
ries?
231
232 SERGE GRUZINSKI AND NATHAN WACHTEL
At the same time, the transformationof indigenous modes of life and tradi-
tions into expressions of a minority followed anotherpath. In the sixteenth
century,the place of the Indiancity in Renaissancefestivals is never second-
ary or accessory. Whetherit concerns a scenic representationof the Fall of
Rhodes (1539) or the celebration of the funeral of Charles V (1559), the
Indians and the authoritiesof the parcialidadesparticipatedin a mannerthat
was as extensive as it was active. Their visibility, to use an anachronism,was
optimal. In the following century,with the demographicdecline of the Indian
population, the social deteriorationof its elites, and the entrenchmentof
Hispanic society, this interventionwould take a differentturn.After the flood
of 1629 which affected only the indigenouspopulationof Mexico, the Indians
ceased to constitute a majority.On the contrary,they appearedthereafteras
survivors of a group on route to extinction.
Throughoutthe seventeenthcentury,public and official usages of the Indi-
an tradition developed which reduced it to exoticized forms or used it to
reevaluate memories of a past abolished for good. The villancicos sung in
Mexico, for example, put on stage Indianswhose language,accent, dress, and
reactionsentertainedthe audience.The artistsof Creole and peninsularMexi-
co in particularexploited the indigenous vein with insistence and talent. In
truthit was impossible for the urbanelites to ignore these Indians,who made
up an integralpartof their daily routines.Again it was necessaryto metamor-
phize the Indian reality to better integrateit into the Baroque entertainment
and imagination.Musicians, poets, decorators,and paintersemployed it as a
source of flashy exoticism. They treatedit as an estheticizedvision and, thus,
strippedit of all displeasingor menacingharshness,purifyingit of any foreign
or disorientingnote. This reflection of the Indianworld could only be festive,
the interventionof Mexicans on the stage being synonymous with joy and
exhilaration:
Los Mejicanos alegres
tambiena sus usanzasalen.4
In this expurgatedform, the Indianworld gained, throughoutthe seventeenth
century,its place in the streetfestivals and in the most sophisticatedentertain-
ments given at the Courtor in the city. It appearedin the ceremonialhalls of
the palace where one did not hesitate to display it before the gaze of viceroys
and their retinue newly disembarkedfrom the old world. The masterpieceof
Juana Ines de la Cruz, Los empenos de una casa, concludes with a sarao
4 Sor JuanaInes de la Cruz, Obras completas, t. II (Mexico, FCE), 16.
CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 235
lettered Creoles and Europeanvisitors. This recovery was founded upon the
first archeologicalworks begun at the end of the seventeenthcentury.In this
period the Italian Gemelli Carericame to admire the sculpted stones which
featuredan eagle on a nopal, or cactus, while literateMexicans were already
speculatingaboutthe site of the temple of Huizilopochtliwhich some amongst
them believed to be under the cathedral.10From this period the excursion to
antiquities (for example, the pyramids) of Teotihuacanalso became a must
requiringan indispensableextension to any stay in Mexico. Teotihuacanwas
to be visited in the same way: One went to the Churchof Guadalupe.
Gemelli Careri had the privilege of meeting the greatest connoisseur of
relics of Indian civilizations, don Carlos de Sigtienza y Gongora. The latter
had gathereda collection of Indiancodex so famous-"alhajas tan dignas de
aprecio y veneracionpor su antigtiedad,y ser originales"1-that he dreamed
of presenting it as a gift to the libraries of the Escurial, the Vatican, and
Florence. The deciphering of the manuscripts,as well as his archaeological
explorations,had given him a broadfamiliarityfor his era and was authorita-
tive enough to allow him to impose his vision of the past. The image which he
proposedconcerningthe ancient Mexicans is flattering.l2It contrastssharply
with the vision of pagan idolaters plunged into sin and barbarity.
But interest in the pre-Hispanicpast was not merely an exercise in erudi-
tion. It satisfied more immediate designs. During this period pre-Hispanic
archaeologywas in tune with politics. Baroquefestivals have providedus with
the example of the triumphalarch conceived by don Carlos in honor of the
marquis de Laguna and on which Aztec kings allegorically embodied the
"political virtues." The rehabilitatedvision of Indianness served a double
function: It carrieda message intendedfor the metropolisrepresentedby the
viceroy even as it served to root the memory of a young fatherlandcalled
Mexico in Indian prehistory.The Indians found themselves doubly dispos-
sessed of their past.
or engaging in the frenzied dance that went with it. For the Churchthe argu-
ments were strong:the indecency of the participants,the profanationof litur-
gical ornamentsand clothing, the mishaps,the excessive expenditures,andthe
grotesqueaspect of the celebrations.Civil authoritieswould no longer put up
with seeing Indiansundressedin public: "Lalimpieza y aseo es uno de los tres
principalesobjetos de la policia y este no solo comprehendelas calles y plazas
de las poblaciones, sino tambien las personas que las habitan cuyo traje
honesto y decente influye mucho en las buenascostumbres."In truth,wearing
an indigenous costume was not forbidden,but the combinationswhich "dis-
torted"traditionalclothing were no longer tolerated: "con andrajosu otros
semejantestrapos,come suelen hacerlo a imitacion de los individuosde otras
castas."Also banishedwere, consequently,"mantas,sabanas,frezadas,jergas
o lo que Ilaman chispas, zarapesu otro qualquieragiron o trapo semejante."
Men of the Enlightenmentalso intended to normalize appearances,"con la
inteligencia de que siendo como es en los hombres la desnudez un indicio
vehementisimo de ociosidad o de malas costumbres."13For a population
materially incapable of dressing themselves correctly, this was a signal for
them to be driven back into the squalid suburbs.
In other terms, in the second half of the eighteenth century, under the
pressures of enlightened despotism, numerous forms of expression in the
Indian town suffered all sorts of restrictions:the suppressionof the poorest
confraternitiesor those without properand due authorization,the banning of
indigenoustheater,limitationsimposed upon processions, on marches,and on
public demonstrationsof indigenous religiosity, the destruction of chapels
built by the Indians. This sequence of measures did not in any case concern
only the indigenous world but encompassed the ensemble of popular prac-
tices, whether of half-caste, Spanish, or African origin. Projects envisioning
the imposition of the Castilianlanguagecompleted a mechanismunderwhich
the motivation for public order, hygiene, and decency combined to justify a
progressive elimination of Indian visibility.
THE LEGAL DEATH OF INDIANS IN THE TOWN
The decrees of the Cortesof Cadiz and the decisions of the young independent
state became linked to the pursuitof Enlightenmentpolitics in their attackon
even the structuresof the indigenousgroup.In suppressingindigenousmunic-
ipal institutions,the civil and ecclesiastictribunalsreservedfor Indiansbrother-
hoods and communities-juzgado de Indios, provisorato de Indios-the
Mexican authoritiesunderminedthe foundationsand effaced the prerogatives
throughwhich the Mexican Indianshad maintaineda collective and juridical
identity and a communal existence.
The Andean world was also, from the sixteenth century on, the theater of
multiple culturalconfrontations,of intermixings,migrations,and interbreed-
ing that engenderednew collective identities. The processes of acculturation
developed in both directions:On one side, the indigenous societies subjected
to the colonial system received, according to diverse modalities, Occidental
contributions;and on the other, the Spanish were inevitably subjectedto the
influences of the American milieu (on this "inverse acculturation,"which
producedCreole culture, see the work of Solange Alberroon The Spanish in
Colonial Mexico).14We are interestedhere in the phenomenaof acculturation
affecting indigenous societies, which themselves appear complex, variable,
and even contradictory.To summarize(and simplify), one can distinguish in
the Andean world two opposed types of acculturation:
First, on the one hand,principallyin the frameworkof indigenouscommu-
nities stemming from colonial reductions, Amerindiansocieties absorbed a
certainnumberof occidental elements while integratingthese in the systems
of representationgovernedby a specifically autochthonouslogic: This type of
acculturationengenderedwhat was defined precisely by the term Indianness
and correspondedeventually to a process of Andeanization.
14
Solange Alberro: Les Espagnols dans le Mexique colonial. Histoire d'une acculturation
(Cahiers des Annales, Paris, 1992).
CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 241
into what has become, in effect, their communityof Indianness.On the high
AndeanplateauaroundLake Titicaca,the Incas had themselves imposed their
dominance,one or two centuriesbefore, over a half a dozen chieftainshipsor
realms that still formed, at the time of the Europeaninvasion, distinct socio-
political unities which the Spanishdesignatedby the term naciones (contain-
ing in turn diverse subdivisions). These Lupaqas,Pacajes, Carangas,Soras,
and other Quillacas spoke the same language,Aymara,and shareda common
universe of symbolic representations.Where among these Indians lay the
limits of a sentimentof belonging to a collective entity? The lines of greatest
separationmight lay within the Aymarawhole, among the different nations
noted by colonial documentation.But the lines of separationbetween different
social groupshave a more or less strongintensity, allowing thresholdsto shift
at various levels accordingto the historical conjuncture.It is in this manner
that the politics of the regroupingof the population(reducciones),carriedout
principallyby viceroy Franciscode Toledo, helped to disruptthe political and
socio-economic organization of the indigenous world: The Cacique hier-
archies suffered a repeated series of ruptureswhile affirming new autono-
mies. The Spanish authoritiesimposed in effect taxation (for the tributeand
the mita) within the frameworkof the regroupedvillages, which in the end
formed the basic units of viceroy administration.With this progressive frag-
mentation,from the end of the sixteenth century to aroundthe beginning of
the seventeenth, the traditionalnetworks of solidarity were forced to define
themselves within increasinglynarrowlimits, passing, thus, from membership
in a vast chieftainshipto attachmentto the indigenous communityof colonial
origin.
A remarkablephenomenonmanifesteditself in most of the regroupedvil-
lages: They were always composed of two halves, generally designated ac-
cordingto the categoriesof High and Low, which regroupedthe ayllus of new
communities. To put it anotherway, despite the disruptionsprovoked by the
Europeaninvasion and by the process of dividing up the old chieftainships,
the colonial communities were reconstitutedeverywhere on the basis of a
dualistic organization.In his advice to Francisco de Toledo for the Govern-
ment of Peru,15 the auditorJuande Matienzo officially recommendedthat the
new villages be placed into two principaldistricts:hence, the recognitionand
application by the Spanish authoritiesthemselves of a specifically Andean
model. But the permanenceof the principles of organizationwas from that
time on combined with profoundchanges regardingtheir exercise, for it was
the same system of bipartitedivision and of interlockings,peculiarto Andean
dualism, on which the definition of collective identities at a more local level
was founded by lowering the threshold of the largest division. Despite this
reduction of underlying territorialunity, the principles of dualistic organi-
16
Cf Nathan Wachtel. Le retour des ancetres. Les Indiens Urus de Bolivie (XXeme-XVIeme
siecle). Essai d'histoire regressive. (Paris, 1990), 549-58.
244 SERGE GRUZINSKI AND NATHAN WACHTEL
17 Ibid, 476-7.
CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 245
as far away as those of Cuzco (37 percent), Lake Titicaca (18 percent),
Huamanga (11 percent), and more distant still, since certain ones amongst
them are originally from Quito, Bogota, and even from Mexico. The census
indicates that an enormous majority of the Indian yanaconas (536, or 78
percent) are guayradores,or miners, who use traditionalAndean techniques.
For nearly thirty years, in effect, from 1545 to around 1575 (when the amal-
gam was introduced),these Indians essentially controlled the extraction of
crude ore that was later convertedinto silver. These Indiansformed teams of
workerswho negotiatedreal contractswith the Spanishmining entrepreneurs:
They procuredthe necessarytools for themselves and agreedto supply a fixed
quantity of minerals while keeping the extracted surplus for themselves.
Moreover, the Spanish had to employ the same indigenous teams to make
silver from their portion of the ore. Certain sectors of the Andean world,
therefore, are to be found notably engaged in the new economic networks
from very early on. The other yanaconas of Potosi were essentially artisans
such as tailors, cobblers, saddlers, and carpenters,who worked at crafts that
the Spanishintroduced.Therewas even a complementof 47 merchantswhose
presence appearsall the more notablein the traditionaleconomic organization
in the central and southernAndes founded on an ideal of complementarity
which excluded commercial exchanges.
An anonymousdescriptionof Potosi, dating from 1603, confirms this inte-
grationinto the colonial economic system in anothercontext (afterthe Indians
had long lost technical control over the productionof silver). An enumerated
table of the indigenouspopulationindicatesthat 30,000 Indiansworkedin the
mines or performedthe services linked to the exploitation of mines, while
30,000 others "find themselves in this City occupied with diverse trades and
activities."'8 Regarding the former, if the hardest tasks (mostly inside the
mine) were carried out by the 4,780 miners forced into obligatory labor,
another10,000 free workerswere requiredat the various stages of production.
Still, this half of the populationreceived salaries(unequalaccordingto wheth-
er one is dealing with the mita or a voluntary engagement). The Indians
occupied with other trades, which constitutedthe other half, appearedto be
working on their own behalf. Among these, one discovers 1,000 merchants
who supplied the constructiontimber;2,700 who procuredthe wood for fuel;
and, last, 10,000 Indians who transportedto the city the necessary foodstuffs
and fodder. The Indians in this last category were not limited to the tasks of
transport:Without a doubt they also included Indians coming from commu-
nities to sell a partof theirproduceat Potosi and those who maintainedin this
way (along with the other migrants) the multiple links between the rural
milieu and the urbancenter.
All of these Indiansrubbedshouldersin Potosi, learningfrom one another
18 Ibid., 478-9.
246 SERGE GRUZINSKI AND NATHAN WACHTEL
19 Ibid. 480-2.
CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 247
districts of La Paz, 61 percent were women, and only 39 percent, men. This
strong imbalanceconfirms, on the one hand, the vital role that women played
in the migratorymovements towardsthe city and the processes of interbreed-
ing. As recent work shows, it was generally migrants(or their descendants)
who, from an early epoch of the colonial period, exercised the urbanoccupa-
tions of domestics and, above all, the activity of sellers (regatonas) in the
marketstalls.26But the imbalanceregisteredby the census also indicated,on
the other hand, the complex problem of identifying individuals attributedto
the category of half-caste. It will be recalled here that one of the most visible
criteria, and one which denoted a self-designation, for example, that of
clothing, was in effect truly pertinentonly for women. Half-caste men distin-
guished themselves little, in this view, from the Creole membersof society (if
not by the quality of their clothing); while half-caste women, from the six-
teenth century on and throughoutthe colonial and later republicanperiods,
despite the many changing fashions, wore clothing that differentiatedthem as
much from the Spanish as from the Indians.Even today (and since aroundthe
end of the eighteenthcentury),in La Paz as on all the high Andean plain, the
famous pollera (gatheredand layered skirts), inheritedfrom an ancient form
of dress used by Creole women, is a quasi-emblematicsign of the chola.27
Why does the latter,who does so much to distinguishherself from the Indian
woman, not follow the course of Occidentalizationto its end? Her daughter,
especially now, doubtless does so: Did not the pollera mark a stage in the
process which has continued through generations?This apparentlymodest
costume raises the whole problem, which we may only invoke here, of the
autonomy of a half-caste culture.
If the constitutionof the Indiansas a minorityhas followed, in Mexico and
in the Andean world, distinct modalities and differentrhythms,in the end it
results in a common effacementof the collective identitiescreatedby colonial
domination. During several centuries Indianization and Occidentalization
have produced opposite effects, but the processes in reality have become
intermingled;and it is Occidentalizationwhich, everywhere, has finished as
the victor.But this has not been entirelytrue,for Indiansremainminoritiesall
the same, if one is to be precise. Is this a question of last vestiges before an
ineluctable and final disappearance,or will the construction of new con-
sciousnesses of identity open other perspectives for them (as the "neo-
indigenist"movementswhich have been developing over the course of the last
few years seem to testify)? The question reaches beyond the bounds of our
brief reflection here.
Yet the Mexican case as well as that of the Andean world should perhaps
26 Ibid. 192 and
passim.
27
Cf Rossana Barragan,"Entre polleras, nanacas y lliqllas. Los mestizos y cholas en la
conformacion de la "TerceraRepublica," in Tradiciony modernidad en los Andes, Henrique
Urbano, ed. (Cuzco, 1993), 43-73.
250 SERGE GRUZINSKI AND NATHAN WACHTEL