Cacica en Cusco

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

Source: The Americas, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Apr., 2008), pp. 547-581
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30139176
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TheAmericas
64:4 April 2008, 547-581
Copyrightby the Academy of American
FranciscanHistory
"INSPITEOF HERSEX":
THECACICAAND THEPOLITICSOFTHEPUEBLO
IN LATECOLONIALCUSCO*
In October,1797,theindiosprincipalesof theAndeanpuebloof Mufiani

appealedto theroyalcourtin Cuscoto deposetheirgovernor,or cacica,
DormMariaTeresaChoquehuanca.1 Not challenginghereditary
Choque-
huancarule,they insteadfocusedon MariaTeresa'sincompetenceandher
sex, complainingof "themiseriesthatwe havesufferedwith [her]inappro-
* My sincere thanksto the threereadersfrom TheAmericas and to Michael Breen for theirexcellent
and helpful comments;and to Helen Nader and Bianca Premofor theirgenerousresponsesto out-of-the-
blue inquiries.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Sexto Congreso Internacionalde
Etnohistoriain Buenos Aires, as part of the Simposio de Polftica,Autoridad,y Poder, and I am greatly
indebtedto the coordinators,commentators,panelists and audience for their questions and suggestions.
And, once again, my deepest thanksto Donato Amado and MargarethNajarroin Cusco, who made this
archival project possible. Research for this paper was generously supported by the Social Science
ResearchCouncil, Reed College, and the Michael E. and Carol S. Levine Foundation.
1 I use
"cacique"(and "cacica")ratherthan"curaca"or "kuraka,"as this was the usage in eighteenth-
century documents. In colonial Andean communities, caciques were responsible for tributecollection
and maintainingorder,and played a dominantrole in the communaleconomy. Widely used by the eigh-
teenthcentury,the term appliedto individualsrangingfrom the college-educatedhereditarygovernorof
a pueblo more than 1000-strong,and the illiteratetributecollector of an ayllu with 40 inhabitants,and
thus imposes an artificialuniformityon a wide arrayof offices, individuals, and communities.As this
article argues, cacicas tended to appear in communities with well-established hereditaryhierarchies,
althoughthese includedboth small, noble ayllus among Cusco's Incas and the largepueblos and moieties
of the Titicaca basin. For the cacique and colonial indigenous society, KarenSpalding, Huarochiri:An
Andean Society UnderInca and Spanish Rule (Stanford:StanfordUniversity Press, 1984); MariaRost-
worowski de Diez Canseco, Curacas y sucesiones, Costa Norte (Lima: Minerva, 1961); Steve J. Stern,
Peru's Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest:Huamanga to 1640 (Madison:Univer-
sity of Wisconsin Press, 1982); Carlos J. Diaz Rementeria,El cacique en el virreinatodel Perri:estudio
histOrico-juridico(Sevilla: Universidadde Sevilla, 1977); Silvia Rivera, "El Mallku y la sociedad colo-
nial en el siglo XVII: el caso de Jestis de Machaca"Avances [La Paz] 1 (1978): 7-27; ThierrySaignes,
Caciques, Tributeand Migration in the SouthernAndes: Indian Society and the Seventeenth Century
Colonial Order(London:University of London, 1985); Luis Miguel Glave, Trajinantes:Caminos indi-
genas en la sociedad colonial, siglos XVI y XVII (Lima: Instituto de Apoyo Agrario, 1989); Nathan
Wachtel,Le Retour des Ancetres: Les Indiens Urus de Bolivie XXeme-XVIemesiecle: Essai d'Histoire
Regressive (Paris:Gallimard,1990); FranklinPease, Curacas, reciprocidady riqueza (Lima: Pontificia
UniversidadCatOlicadel Pern, 1992); RobertoChoque Canqui,Sociedad y economia colonial en el sur
andino (La Paz: Hisbol, 1993); ScarlettO'PhelanGodoy, Kurakassin sucesiones: Del cacique al alcalde
de indios, Perd y Bolivia 1750-1835 (Cusco: Centro Bartolome de Las Casas, 1997); Karen Powers,
547
548 "IN SPITEOFHERSEX"
priateentryintothe cacicazgo,"addingthat"onaccountof herdistinctsex

she shouldby justicebe deposed,becauseshe is not worthyof so estimable
anoffice."2Thatofficewascentralto theindigenouspoliticsof colonialPeru,
thelegalandadministrative orderingof whichplacedmostof theIndianpop-
ulationin relativelyautonomous,land-owning"pueblosde indios"over
whichthe cacique,responsiblefor collectingthe crown'stributeandmain-
tainingorder,presidedas somethingbetweena chief anda lord.As the vil-
lageleadersin a parallel,populartraditionthatreservedits authority
formen,
principalesasserted that this bastionof elite indigenousauthority
oughtnot be heldby a woman.But theymadeclearthatit sometimeswas:
MariaTeresahadgovernedMufianifor five years.Norwas she alone.Caci-
cas governedpueblosand ayllus throughoutthe Andes, and it was quite
commonforthehusbandsof cacicalheiressesto rulein theirnames.3
TheseindigenousAndeanwomenlordshavelongdrawnthenoticeof his-
torians,althoughmostdiscussionhasbeenanecdotal,focusingon individu-
als ratherthanon the relationsof colonialgovernance,genderideologies,
andindigenouspoliticsin whichsuchfemaleauthoritywas situated.4Those
AndeanJourneys:Migration,Ethnogenesisand the State in Colonial Quito (Albuquerque:University of

New Mexico Press, 1995); Susan Ramirez, The WorldUpside Down: Cross-CulturalContactand Con-
flict in Sixteenth-CenturyPeru (Stanford:StanfordUniversity Press, 1996); WardStavig, The Worldof
TripacAmaru: Conflict, Communityand Identity in Colonial Peru (Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1999); Kenneth J. Andrien, Andean Worlds:Indigenous History, Culture, and Consciousness
underSpanishRule, 1532-1825 (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press, 2001); SinclairThom-
son, WeAlone WillRule: Native Andean Politics in the Age of Insurgency(Madison:University of Wis-
consin Press, 2002); Sergio Serulnikov,SubvertingColonialAuthority:Challengesto SpanishRule in the
Eighteenth-CenturySouth Andes (Durham:Duke University Press, 2003); S. Elizabeth Penry, "Trans-
formationsin IndigenousAuthorityand Identityin ResettlementTowns of Colonial Charcas(Alto Peril)"
(PhD Diss., University of Miami, 1996); David T. Garrett,Shadows of Empire: The Indian Nobility of
Cusco, 1750-1825 (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 2005), particularlypp. 34-38 for the vari-
ety within cacical office.
2 ". . las miserias
que hemos sufridocon el postizo ingreso . . . al cacicazgo . . . ella por su distinto
sexso se deve porjusticia deponerlaque no es digno de este empleo tan recomendable.. . ." ARE, PRA
343. The ChoquehuancasruledAzangaroAnansayafrom before the conquestto independence.Leonardo
Altuve Carrillo,Choquehuancay su arenga a Bolivar (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1991), pp. 41-6.
3
Variouslya village, neighborhood,clan, or extended family, the ayllu is the basic unit of Andean
society, a grouping of people, bound by kinship, for productiveand reproductivepurposes.Before the
Spanish reducciones of the 1570s, successful ayllus were distributedacross space in numeroussettle-
ments; the colonial ayllu, as legally defined, was a land-holding,corporateentity and a constituentpart
of a largerparishor pueblo.Thepueblo is a village or town establishedby the Spanish,composed of con-
gregated ayllus. For the ayllu, TristanPlatt, "Mirrorsand Maize: the Concept of Yanantinamong the
Macha of Bolivia" pp. 228-259 in AnthropologicalHistory of Andean Polities, eds. John V. Murra,
NathanWachtel,and JacquesRevel (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1986).
4 For discussion of individualcacicas, see, for
examples, KarenVieira Powers, "A Battle of Wills:
InventingChiefly Legitimacyin the Colonial NorthAndes,"pp. 183-214 in Susan Kellogg and Matthew
Restall, eds., Dead Giveaways: Indigenous Testamentsof Colonial Mesoamerica and the Andes (Salt
DAVIDT. GARRETT 549
who have examinedthe cacicamorebroadlyas a phenomenonof colonial

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

the last generationsof the colonialera,this essayuses the lens of genderto
examinesuchnegotiations,butwithattentionnot so muchto the agencyof
individualactorsas to the structural role thatfemalesuccessionto cacical
office playedin the allocationof authorityin colonial,indigenoussociety.
Most obviously,thatcacicasappearrepeatedlyin 18th-century documents
requiresthatwe refinepatriarchal modelsof indigenouspolitics.9Refinebut
not reject:male caciquesgreatlyoutnumbered female,and contemporary
discussionof cacicasbetrayedambivalence to womenpossessingsuchpolit-
ical authority.So too does the preponderance of cacicalheiresses,whose
husbandsruledin theirnames,overgoverningcacicas(althoughan interro-
gationof the archivalsourcessuggeststhatthewrittenperformance of male
rule disguisesthe locationof paramount authoritywith the cacicalcouple
ratherthanone of its members).Thisambivalencestandsin markedcontrast
to the widespreadacceptanceof indigenouswomen'sactive role in the
Andeanmarket,andof theeconomicauthority it brought.1-Inthat,concerns
aboutfemaleexerciseof cacicalpowersuggestthe genderingof authority
itself in waysthatdo not entirelycoincidewitha public/private dichotomy.
Whileformal,politicalauthority thatassociatedwithoffices-was under-
stoodas male,the economicauthorityassociatedwith marketactivityand
privatepropertywasclearlyopento women.Thatthecacicazgowastheone
colonialpoliticaloffice routinelyheldby womenexposesa centraltension
in theconstitutionof cacicalauthorityundercolonialrule:betweenthetacit
(andat timesexplicit)treatment of aylluandpueblolordshipsas hereditary,
familialpossessions,andassertionsby Spanishofficialsthatthe cacicazgo
was a bureacuratic office withinthe crown'sgift. Formorethantwo cen-
turies, untilthe GreatRebellionof 1780-2,thattensionstoodat theheartof
therelationsbetweentheindigenouseliteandthecrown'sofficers;wherever
9 Silverblatt,Moon, Sun and Witches;Graubart,With Our Labor and Sweat; Steve J. Stern, The
SecretHistoryof Gender:Women,Men, and Power in ColonialMexico (ChapelHill: Universityof North
Carolina WeAloneWillRule.
Thomson,
Press);
10 Jane E.
Mangan, TradingRoles: Gender,Ethnicityand the Urban Economy in Colonial Potosi
(Durham: DukeUniversity "Indian
Press,2005);ElinorBurkett, Women TheCase
andWhiteSociety:
of Sixteenth-Century
Peru,"pp.101-128inAsunciOn Lavrin, Women:
ed.,LatinAmerican Historical
Greenwood
(Westport:
Perspectives Press,1978);Maria
Rostworowski,LamujerenPeruprehispanico
(Lima: deEstudios
Instituto 2001);Frank
Peruanos, Salomon, Women
"Indian of EarlyColonial
Quito
asSeenthroughtheirWills,"
Americas44:3(January1988),pp.325-41; Gauderman,
Kimberly Women's
Lives in Colonial Quito: Gender,Law, and Economy in SpanishAmerica (Albuquerque:University of
NewMexicoPress,2003);AnnZulawski,
"Social andEthnicity:
Gender
Differentiation, Urban Indian
in Colonial
Women LatinAmerican
Bolivia,1640-1725," ResearchReview25:2(1990),pp.93-113;
Graubart,WithOurLaborand Sweat;Silverblatt,Moon, Sun, and Witches,pp. 109-124; Leo J. Garofalo,
"TheEthno-Economy andStimulants:
ofFood,Drink, ofRaceinColonial
TheMaking LimaandCuzco"
ofWisconsin,
(PhDDiss.,University 2001).
DAVIDT. GARRETT 551
theyheld office, cacicasembodieda local resolutionin favorof hereditary

possessionby the Indiannobility.
Peeringintothe pueblofromthe vantagepointof the cacicaalso allows

a new perspectiveon two contradictions centralto the constitutionof the
Indianrepublic'sinternalpolitics. First is in the allocationof the elite
authorityof the cacique.Scholarlyinterestin caciquesover the past few
decadeshassparkedconsiderable discussionof howcolonialcacicalauthor-
ity was legitimated,and challengedthroughillegitimation,withinindige-
nouscommunities.11 Withits emphasison culturalconstructions of "just"or
"legitimate" rule,thefocus of suchenquiry hasbeen on norms and theirvio-
lations,not on the mechanicsof cacicalsuccessionandelection,so central
to the pueblofromthe late sixteenthto the lateeighteenthcentury.Moving
beyondconcernsof legitimacy,studyof the cacicaandfemalesuccession
foregrounds noblemalecompetitionas a crucialdomainof indigenouspol-
itics. The largerand morecomplexcommunitiesand multi-puebloethnic
societies of the colonialAndes had pronouncedsocial hierarchies,and
caciquesandcacicalfamiliesalmostinvariablycamefromtheelite strataof
their communities.12 Familieslike the Choquehuanca, who managedto
establishandmaintaincontrolovera cacicazgofor manygenerations,were
the exception.In areaslike Cusco,withlargeIndiannobilities,competition
amonghereditary noblesfor controlof cacicazgoswas fierce.In others,the
pressures of the colonialorderweresuchthatdominanthouseholdsandlin-
eagesroseandfell withinone or two generations,andprominentmenwere
eagerto win cacicaloffice whenit fell open.Eventhe Choquehuancas and
theirpeersaroundTiticacasoughtto strengthen theircontroloversocietyby
alliancesbetweencacicaldynasties.Thus,the negotiationandcompetition
surrounding thepossessionof cacicaloffice constituteda principalarenaof
colonial,indigenouspolitics,and in this cacicasplayeda crucialrole. As
heiressesthey reproduced inter-generationalhierarchies;but as wives they
allowedcacicalauthorityto move betweendifferentnoble patrilines,and
thusto addresscompetitionamongIndiannoblemenfor the cacicazgo.
11 Rostworowski de Diez
Canseco, Curacas y Sucesiones; Pease, Curacas, reciprocidady riqueza;
Susan Ramirez,"The 'Duel- of Indios': Thoughtson the Consequencesof the Shifting Bases of Power
of the `CuracasViejos Antiguos' underthe Spanishin SixteenthCenturyPeru,"Hispanic AmericanHis-
torical Review 64:4 (November, 1987): pp. 575-610; Powers, Andean Journeys; Stern, Peru's Indian
Peoples; O'Phelan Godoy, Kurakassin sucesiones; Spalding, "Social Climbers";Garrett,Shadows of
Empire,pp.148-180. And, for seventeenth-centuryconcernsaboutcacical legitimacy,see Felipe Guaman
Poma de Ayala, Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno, ed. by Juan V. Murraand Rolena Adorno. Mexico
(City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1980), p. 768.
12 Garrett,Shadows
of Empire;David Cahill and Blanca Tovias, eds., Elites indigenas en los Andes:
Nobles, caciques y cabildantes bajo el yugo colonial (Quito:Ediciones Abya Yala, 2003).
Elitecompetitionfor cacicalpowerwas but one arenaof politicsin the

colonialpueblo.The legal distinctionat the heartof the colonialorder,
betweenIndianandSpanishrepublics,placedthemajorityof theindigenous
populationin self-governingcommunitieswitha dualorganization of polit-
ical authority.
Sixteenth-centuryattemptsto reformindigenousAndeansoci-
ety alongthe lines of ruralCastilesoughtto placethe electiveandreason-
ablydemocratic(if exclusivelymasculine)officesof alcaldeandthecabildo
at the heartof local politics.However,the need to maintainhierarchical
structuresto facilitateextractionfromthe indigenouseconomyled to the
preservationof the cacicazgo.And while effortsto affect the balanceof
power,betweenthemorepopularofficesof alcaldeandcabildoandtheelite
controlinstitutedin the cacicazgo,wereconstant,thatbalancefavoredthe
latteruntilwell intothe eighteenthcentury.
Then,bothhelpingto provokeandaidedby the GreatRebellion,popu-

lar challengesto cacicalauthoritybroughtabouta consolidationof demo-
craticrule in the puebloin the last decadesof Spanishrule. Elaborating
changingidealsandrelationsof authority,a wealthof scholarshipoverthe
pastfifteenyearshashighlightedboththe depthof thisprofoundchangein
the socialorderof indigenouscommunities,andtheturbulenceof the tan-
sition.13This democraticchallengeto elite rule coincidedwith effortsby
ruralcreolesto usurpthe local authorityof the Indiannobility,and both
challengesto thecaciqueswereabettedby a crownthatbecameopenlyhos-
tile to the Indianelite followingthe rebellion.Oftencacicasstood at the
centerof these new politics,as bothMariaTeresaChoquehuanca andthe
principalesof Murianicould testify.But while village eldersrejectedthe
cacica as both the embodimentof noble authorityand a threatto male
authority, creolemensoughtcacicasas wives in aneffortto legitimatetheir
new,elite authorityin ruralsociety.14
Information aboutcacicalauthorityandsuccessionis anecdotal:colonial

authoritiesmaintainedno systematicrecordsof cacicalrule,andbeyondthe
broadest(oftenignored)stricturesof coloniallaw,informationcomesfrom
wills, successiondisputes,and otherlegal proceedings.These makeclear
13 David Cahill, From Rebellion to

Independence in the Andes: Soundingsfrom Southern Peru,
1750-1830 (Amsterdam:Aksant Academic Publishers,2002), 152-168; Nuria Sala i Vila, Y se arm6 el
tole tole: tributoindigenay movimientossociales en el virreinatodel Perti, 1784-1814 (Huamanga:Insti-
tuto de estudios regionales Jose Marfa Arguedas, 1996); O'Phelan Godoy, Kurakas sin sucesiones;
"
Thomson, WeAlone WillRule; Serulnikov,SubvertingColonial Authority;Penry, Transformations."
14 Cahill, From Rebellion to
Independence,157-159.
DAVIDT. GARRETT 553
Woman
caticpt
is.caticpt
It Woman
asheirms.;.bastvmd
.f Woman tscacique
eaoth of tht abtxt
Unde
Altitudein Meteis,
5000
4000
3000
:20X,
ICCI)
5)3
0
5)3
Map 1. Women Caciques
thatcacicaswerecommonin latecolonialCusco,a bishopricthatstretched

hundredsof miles fromthe semi-tropical valleysnorthof the city to Lake
Titicaca[Map1].15In 1790,three-quarters of its 300,000peoplewereclas-
sifiedas Indian,livingin diversesocietiesalongthebishopric'smanyrivers,
and on the high slopes above.16Thosein the temperatenorth(2000-3500
meters)tendedto be Quechua-speaking agriculturalists.Across the bish-
opric'smiddle, societies the
along ridgedividing the TiticacaandAmazon
15 "Indian"is used to referto those so classified

legally, on the basis of bilateralIndianancestry:they
constituted the "reptiblicade indios." "Spaniard"refers to everyone else: those in the "reptiblicade
esparioles.""Creoles"were people of Spanish ancestryborn in Peru. Many "creoles"were in fact mes-
tizo, but this term had derogatorysocial and economic implicationsin the colonial period.
16
HipOlitoUnanue, Guiapolitica, eclesicisticay militardel virreynatodel Peru para el alio de 1793.
Ed. with prologue by Jose Durand(Lima:COFIDE, 1985), pp. 89-90.
page
line?
line?
father
father father
father
parents
husband
father
fathermother
husband
husband?
father
parents husbandsister
father
parents? next
on
Succession
From
FromFemale
Female
From
From
FromFromUnclear
FromFromFrom
From
FromFrom
FromFrom
From
FromFrom
continued
1783 1781
1770
1767
1745-1768
Dates* 1790s
1760s-1780s
Until1750s-1790s
1769--ca.
Ca.1768-1781
1787-90
1781-97
1800-1810s
1770s
1760s-1780s
1780s-1790s
1760s
1770s-1784
1770s--ca.
1755--ca.
1774--???
1769--???
???-17381755-67
1767-1782
???-1755
PROVINCES
Ynga)
Sayritupa) Uscamayta) Sunatupa)
Cusicondor)
Sayritupa) Cusi
Rosas)Riquelme) Sayritupa)
Tupa Alvarez)
Choquecahua) Tisoc
Guamantica) Copa
Quispe Prado
Chiguantupa)
NEIGHBORING Tisoc (Santos Mayon
Nicolas
Ramon
AND son son son
grandchildren children? son
Rule(Vicente
(Cayetano
name
(Simon
of (Joachim
(Gabriel
of of (Francisco
(Don(Don
widow of of (Lorenzo
(Antolin
(Marcos
nameof (Josef(Manuel
name
1 of
own Guamanrimcahi)
name name name name
name own nameown
Type
CERCADOHusband
In Husband
Husband
In Husband
Husband
In In Husband
Cacica,
Husband
Husband
In In Husband
Husband
In Husband
In Husband
In Husband
TABLE
Ayllu
CUSCO
:
: Sucso
Chimu
: Sucso
:
Chachapoyas Maras
:
: Choco
: Choco
: Cachona
: Cachona
: Poroy
:
Collana
: LamayLamay
COLONIALSebastian Ana : :
Sebastian
Sebastian Guayllabamba
Maras Yucay
Pueblo/Parish Poroy : : :
Guarocondo
: San
San San : Anta
: : Zurite
: Zurite
Anta : :
Bel&
LATE : : . : Santa
: Santiago
: Santiago
: : Santiago
Santiago
: LaresLares
y y
IN
Cusco
Province
Cusco Cusco Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Abancay
Abancay
Abancay
Abancay
Abancay
Abancay
Urubamba
Urubamba
UrubambaCalcaCalca
CACICAS
Atauchi
SucsoRocca Sayritupa Quispe Uscapaucar
Tito
Guamantica
Tecsetupa Yarisi Mandortupa
YngaPilcotupa Pomayalli
Paucarpuria
Paucarpuria
AuccatincoSinchi Tisoc Sahuaraura
Quispe Pallasca Sancho Diaz
Uclucana Ramos Dominga
Poma
Santusa
Leonarda
Rafaela
Asencia Manuela
JuanaCatalina
Maria
Eulalia
Petrona
Maria Fernanda Sebastiana
Gregoria
Juliana
Michaela
Isidora
Michaela
Bernarda
Rosas Orcoguaranca
Guaman
1
Cacica
Doria
Doria
DoriaDoria
Doria
Dona
DoriaDoria Doria[ Doria
Doria
Doria DoriaDoria
DoriaDoria
Doria
DoriaDoria
DAVIDT. GARRETT 555
72,the
Gre-
Asen- Joseph In
forIII:534-
Ord. Novem-Gamarra
forManuela, Dominga,
mother father cousin
father father
husband mother
brother mother
mother 121 14
For BET,
Prov.,ff.,
N18, 37:928; Salvador:
Maria Bautista
Succession
FromFrom From
From 7 7 From FromFromFromFromFrom 47:1043; 526
ForCiv.ARC,
COR,San Juan
Ord. ARC,
Santiago: Paez,
CAB, ARC, 133
Anta:
1770 1784 COR,Marfa, (1798).
N18,
1700s 1780s for ARC, 31
50:1149.
ARC, Melendez
Guayllabamba:
(1754-73).Bernarda,
Ord. ARC,
1755--ca.
1782-84
Dates* 1789--???
1780-97
Mid1770s
1770s-1810s
1775-1780s
1765--ca.
1750s-1770 1800-1810sOrd.
1770-1780
early for 184
(1787);
84 RA,
COR, Fernanda,
(1798). N19
139
Leonarda, For27 (1790);
Crim. ARC, Oropesa:
ForARC, Gob. 6 ARC,
Leg.
Apotupa) Prov., Ord.
Unzueta) agents)y Cusipaucar) Ana: INT, Zurite:
Ord. Taray:C-4222.
Sahuaraura)
Alvarez)Sebastian: COR,61r. RA,
Unzueta) and
Guaypartupa SantaARC, RA,
Sierra
Orcoguaranca)
Jos6 (1790).
Colquepata:
Bustinza San andARC, Real ARC,6
(through (1797), C-4218
1797.
son grandchildren 204ARC, Ord.
Rule(Miguel
of (Hermengildo
(Sebastian (Tomas
(Tomas
(Jose
of (Pedro
(Francisco
(1786).
July (1781)
Poroy: 70.
BNP,
name
namename 8 RA,(1760-73).
RH Michaela,
of 178
name own
Pomayalli) own own name ff., For 114249;
Maras:
61:1395 INT, ARC, (1798),
TypeHusband
In Husband
Husband
In In In Husband
Husband
Husband
In Husband RH
Husband 411 (1808-9). Ped.CRA31
INT, Ord. 167ARC,
(1785).
Lamay:
Coya:
CAB,AREOrd.
12362.
Ayllu : Cuzco CuzcoCuzco ARC, COR,
Ledezma, Ynga,
Adm. 1782
: : : : ARC, AUD,
de Gob.
rolls; ARC, RA,Poma (1798), Caycay:
Salvador
INT,31 August ARC,
LamayCoya
Coya San
Taray Oropesa
Oropesa
Oropesa ARC, 21 Catca:
1775.
: : : : Catca tribute Rosas
: : Colquepata
: Caycay
: Colquepata
: : : Rodriguez
Catalina,
Ord. 67.
Taray,
forARC, 334, July
Pueblo/Parish
: 1762
248forEulalia, RA, 8 to
LaresLares
Lares
Lares
Lares ],
for 1770; [
(1798),
y y y y y
ayllus N18, 1765;1796; ARC, 31 claim
5 July Gamarra,
Province
CalcaCalca
Calca
Calca
Calca
Paucartambo
PaucartamboQuispicanchis
Paucartambo Quispicanchis
Paucartambo Quispicanchis T. Ord.
7 Guarocondo:
ARC, May Taray, Gamarra,
(1753-66)
17 ff., to 180
93 October RA,
ff., 11 376(1781).
N18 Tamboguacso
Yauric Rafaela, claim ARC,Bautista
Adm. 228ff., the
for
Sunatupa Ariza 662 ARC, Juan in
61:1397
y COR, Lira, Sarmiento, Taray,
Orcoguaranca
Paucar de to
133
Prado Bustinza (1770);121, Ord.,
Yauric
Tupa Chiguantupa
RosasGuambotupaSahauraura ARC, TapiaTamboguacso N18,
Melchora,
YngaGuambo 336Arias claim post-1780,
(continued) Tamboguacso
Armendariz COR,the
1 DI,35 Gamarra,
Belem
258
In
for for
ARC,
Melchora
Isidora
Maria
Rita
Juana
AnaMartina
Phelipa
Martina Sebastiana
Melchora Eulalia N18, N18, ARC, 1767;
AGN, 1812;
[1778];
Apocondori Ariza Approximate. Yucay: ],
TABLE
Cacica
DoriaDoria
Dona
Doria
Doria
Doria
Dona
DonaDoria
DonaDoriaDona * Sources:
cia,ARC, Bernardo
ARC,
goria,
7. May ber[
Tamboguacso
Women Caciques
2 Woman is cacique
Woman ashtirmn*. iscacique
husband
Ecthofthtabovt
Undew
in1A4i,..itts
Altitade
5000
4000
3000
2E03
1000
500
0
Map 2. WomenCaciques-Cusco Detail
basinsformedan agropastoralist boundarybetweentheseandthe complex

Aymara-speaking societiesaroundLakeTiticaca(3800-4000meters);the
linguisticborder of QuechuaandAymaraclearly,if imprecisely,followed
this social and ecologicaldivide.In its own fashion,the colonialarchive
reproducesthis geography.The Inca nobility-imperialrulersreducedto
dominatingthe villages aroundCusco city-are the best-documented
indigenousgroupin the colonialAndes.17 Thegreatcacicaldynastiesof the
pueblossuperimposed on the sefioriosaroundTiticacaalso left a sizable
17
Carolyn Dean, Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ: Corpus Christi in Colonial Cuzco, Peru
(Durham:Duke University Press, 1999); David Cahill, "Una nobleza asediada:Los nobles incas del
Cuzco en el ocaso colonial," pp. 81-110 in Cahill and Tovias, Elites indigenas en los Andes; Donato
Amado, "El alferez real de los Incas:resistencia,cambios, y continuidadde la identidadinca,"pp. 55-80
in ibid.;David T. Garrett,"LosIncas borb6nicos:la elite indigenacusqueriaen visperasde TtipacAmaru"
RevistaAndina 36 (Spring, 2003), pp. 9-63.
DAVIDT. GARRETT 557
record;for the communitiesin between,andin the west of the bishopric,

on cacicalauthority.18
thereis scantinformation
In at leastseventeenof theroughlythirtyInca-ruled villagesandparishes

withintwenty-fivemilesof Cuscocity,cacicasandtheirhusbandsgoverned
at some pointbetween1750 and 1800 [Table1 andMap 2]. Morethana
dozenof thesewomenruledin theirown right,exercisingcacicalauthority
andresponsiblefor theircommunities' obligationsto the crown.If nottypi-
cal, they were by no meansextraordinary. Furthersouth,in the Vilcanota
highlands andthe Titicacabasin,the much thinnerarchivalrecordnonethe-
less providesevidenceof at leastone rulingcacicain almosteveryprovince
from1750to 1800 [Table2], andruleby cacicasandtheirhusbands,or the
latterin theirwives'names,was common.
Howeverlimitedandanecdotal,thisevidenceallowsthreebroadconclu-
sions.First,withinthe areafromCuscoto La Paztherewas regionalvaria-
tion.Cacicasweremorecommonin theInca-dominated villagesaroundthe
city of Cuscothanin theAymarasocietiesto the south.Thisdifferencemay
justbe apparent, reflectingonlytheIncas'over-representation in thearchive.
But in sectionthreeI suggestthatfemalesuccessionplayeda particularly
important role in the politicsof Cusco'scolonialIncas,enablingthe move-
mentof cacicalofficebetweencompetingnoblemalelineages.Second,and
hereless ambiguously, throughout the southernhighlandscacicalheiresses,
whoinheritedofficesandwhosehusbandsruledeitherwiththemor in their
names,outnumbered cacicaswhoformallygovernedon theirown;andthese
latterusuallyexercisedformalauthorityonly aftertheircacique-husbands
died.Thisunderstates the preponderance of heiresses,as the writtenrecord
oftendoesnot tell how a caciquecameto possessoffice:themoreinforma-
tionone finds,the morelikelya marriageto his predecessor's daughterwill
emerge.Finally,whenwomeninheritedor occupiedcacicazgostheydid so
throughhereditary claims.I havefoundonlyoneinstancein whicha woman
withoutclear familialclaim to the office occupieda cacicazgo,whereas
interimmalecaciqueswereas commonas hereditary caciquesin 18th-cen-
turyCusco.19 In that,cacicaspersonifiedhereditary, aristocraticauthorityin
Indiansociety,anda women'sinheritance of cacicalofficeassertedthecon-
18
Choque Canqui, Sociedad y economics;Thomson, WeAlone Will Rule; Glave, Trajinantesand
Vida, simbolos y batallas: CreaciOny recreaciOnde la comunidad indigena. Cusco, siglos XVI-XX
(Lima:Fondo de CulturaEconOmica,1993); Stavig, The Worldof TapacAmaru;Wachtel,Le Retourdes
Ancetres.
19 Dofia CatalinaSalas Pachacutic,an Inca noblewomanfrom Zurite with no
y hereditaryclaims to
the offices, held the cacicazgos of Yanaocaand Layo. ARC, N18, 292 Zamora:402-13, 21-10-1785.
24-C- EC
1790s BNP,
267ff.,ANB,
17-7-1779
1760s-81
1760s-70s?
1770s-80s
1720s-30s
1770s? Zepita:
Years**
mid-1700s 1780s
1790s
1790s
1780s
1770s-1781
1790s
1778-1780
1770s,
1780s-90s
1770s? 302-12
Machaca,
110;
de
Villagarcia:
Acuria
280PRA,
14 Jesus
N18
N18 ARE,
ARC, 1790-28;
ARC, Acora:
EC
PAZ* Toro:
LA ANB,
Yanaoca:
1793-11;
and EC
Quispicanchis
Quispicanchis
Province Tinta
Tinta
Lampa
Lampa
Chumbivilcas
Azangaro
Chucuito
Chucuito
Azangaro Sicasica
Sicasica
Omasuyos
Omasuyos
Chucuito Cotaguasi,
Layo ANB,Tiaguanaco:
NORTHERN (1789);
4,
AND 11:312-4;1796-97;
Ord.
Chucuito:
BET EC
RA,
2
CUSCO ANB,
ARC, (1796-7);
ARC,
Hilayhua 147
TABLE Laxa:
Toro involvement.
A. Urinsaya Machaca Nicacio:
Gob,
103;
Acomayo
SOUTHERN de Pomacanchis:
IN
Taraco INT,
(1794);
31-3-4,
Community
Acos,
Pomacanchis
Yanaoca,
Layo Cupi San
Cotaguasi,
Nicacio Achaya
AcoraYunguyo
Copacabana
Zepita Laxa
Tiaguanaco
Jesus 14
320-1;ARC,
acknowledged IX,
Ord.
CACICAS 11:309,
Achaya:
husband's AUD, AGN-A,
a BET 180;
ARC,
ARC, PSG
without
Cupi:
andCopacabana:
GOVERNING Colque
own, 170113;
her Sangarard:
Pachacutic
Pachacutic Guarachi PRAPSG
y y Alacca on and21-10-1785;
Uisa Cachicatari
Condemayta Turpa Xauregui
Chipana ARE,
ARE,
SalasPachariCarlos
Tito Salas 402-13,
Pacaje Mango Tico
Catacora
Angela governing
Fernandez
Campos
Paxipati
Josefa Acomayo,
Vilcapi as Taraco:
Collque Yunguyo:
Acos, San
Catalina
Tomasa
Ana Catalina
Lucia
Bernarda
Isabel
Juana Isidora
Juliana
Juliana
Maria
Maria
Felipa
Maria
Teresa Zamora:
1791;
Described 292
Approximate.
*
CacicaDoila
Doha Doha
Doha
Doila
Doila
Dona
Dam
Doha
Doha
Dada
Doila
Doha
Dolia
Dona
Doria ** Sources: 1705,
1797-46.
and01-1789;
DAVIDT. GARRETT 559
tinuingauthorityof herfamilyin thecommunity;

whileruleby cacicas'hus-
bandsaffirmedmaleauthority.
The cacicawas not a late colonialinnovation.Whileevidenceis scarcer

for the Habsburgera andrarefor the pre-conquest Andes,it appearsthat
femalepoliticalauthoritywas well establishedat the time of the Spanish
conquestandcontinuedto be a featureof indigenouspoliticsin thesixteenth
andseventeenthcenturies.20 Graubart has challengedSilverblatt'sgeneral-
ized colonialnarrativeof patriarchalusurpationof femalepoliticalauthor-
ity, arguingthatsuch authorityhas not been demonstrated in manyareas
underInca rule.21However,for the Incas of Cusco the sixteenth-century
sourcesdo suggestboth that women ruled over some communitiesand
playedan activerolein governancegenerally.UnderSpanishrulethesetra-
ditionsof authorityconfronteda formalassertionthatindigenousauthority
be masculine,coincidentwithattemptsto imposeprimogeniture. Following
decadesof discussionandvacillation,in 1614PhilipIIIdecreedthat"since
theprovincesof Peruwerediscoveredit hasbeen. . . thecustomamongthe
Indiancaciquesthatsons succeedfathersin cacicazgos,andmy will is that
the said custombe maintained."22 However,earlierroyaldecreessuggest
thatfather-sonsuccessionhad held no hegemonyin Andeancustom;one
from1602observedthatAndeancustomwas for "sons,brothers,andclose
relativesinherit"cacicazgos.23
As Graubart argues,thismoveto a preference
forfather-sonsuccessionunintentionally defineda colonialspaceforoffice-
holdingby noble women.24The 1614 decree hadthe effectof refashioning
the cacicazgoor curacazgointo a modifiedmayorazgowith its preference
for parent-childsuccession,so thatin the absenceof sons (a commonphe-
nomenonin theepidemic-wracked colonialAndes)daughterswouldbe pre-
ferredto malecousinsandbrothers.As we shallsee, in practicesuccession
20 Rostworowski, Curacas Sucesiones; Silverblatt,Moon, Sun, Witches,

y pp. 20-108; TerenceA.
D'Altroy, The Incas (Oxford:Blackwell, 2000), pp. 103-8; Urton,History of a Myth,pp. 41-70.
21Grabuart,"ConNuestro
Trabajo,"pp. 281-90; Silverblatt,Moon, Sun and Witches,pp. 150-3. See
also Alejandro Diez, Pueblos y cacicazgos de Piura, siglos XVI y XVII (Piura: Biblioteca Regional,
1988), pp. 45-6; KerstinNoawack, "Aquellassenorasdel linaje real de los Incas:Vivir y sobrevivircomo
una mujerinca noble en el Peril colonial temprano,"pp. 9-54 in Cahill and Tovias, Elites indigenas en
los Andes.
22".. . desdequese descubrieron
lasprovincial
delPerilhaestadoenposesiOny costumbre entre
losindioscaciquesdequeloshijossucedena lospadres
enloscacicazgos,y mivoluntad
es queladicha
costumbre se conserve
y guarde."DiazRementeria,
Elcacique enel virreinato
delPeru,p. 218.
23"[Aloscacicazgos] se heredan
porsucesiOndepadres
a hijos,hermanos, masprOxi-
y parientes
mos,siendolegitimos.. ."(22February1602).DiazRementeria,Elcaciqueenel virreinato
delPerd,
p. 218.
24 Graubart,WithOur Labor and Sweat,
pp. 164-6.
dependedas muchon localpoliticsas on thebroadstrictures of coloniallaw.

But whethercoloniallaw createda space for womenlords in the Indian
republic,or simplyprovideda mechanismby whichpre-conquest traditions
of femaleoffice-holdingwere conveyedinto colonialsociety,seventeenth
andeighteenthcenturydocumentsfromthe Cuscoareaassertthatcacicas
wereseenas a traditional
partof the Indianrepublic'spolitics.25
Thatis notto say theywentunnoted:cacicasprovokedcommentin mid-

18th-century Cusco.Occasionalexplanations in the archivalrecordabouta
woman'spossessionof office suggestthat(male)Spanishofficials,creoles,
andIndiannobleslookedon thephenomenon withconcernedinterest.While
for most cacicas thereis no qualifyingobservation,those that exist are
enlightening.In Taraytwo Tamboguacso cousins,whose familyhad gov-
ernedat leastsincethe 1600s,battledoverthepueblo'scacicazgoin 1782.26
Don Toribio'sfatherDon Josephhadbeencaciqueuntilhis deathin 1761;
Joseph'scousinDon Lucashadthenheldthe office.AfterLucas'sdeathin
the late 1770s, Toribio marriedLucas's widow and challenged his
cousin/step-daughter Doila Rita and her creole husband,Don Sebastian
Unzueta,for the cacicazgo.In his investigation,the corregidoraskedRita's
witnesseslilt' it is truethatin the pueblosof this provinceit is customary
thatdaughterssucceedto cacicazgos."27 All seventeenmen she presented
dulysaidyes, buttheyarenotwitnesseswhosetestimonywe shouldreadily
dismiss.Taraywas a strongholdof the colonialIncanobility,andthosetes-
tifyingincludedone of the electorsfromCusco'sIncacity council,the sac-
ristanof Taray'schurch(andthatof neighboring Pisac),the villagealcalde,
and overalla respectablecross-sectionof Taray'sInca elders,along with
men from well-establishedcreole families.Don FernandoPumayalli,the
Incaelector,gave examplesof five cacicasin nearbyparishes,governing
6'. . . without
any objection,[and]this is withoutknowinghow to readand
write"--areminderthatby the late 1700sIndiannoblemenoftenhadbasic
literacy,becomingan informal,genderedqualificationfor cacicaloffice.28
25 ARC, INT, RH, 218 (1807), f. 6r for

Caycay's cacique in the 1750s basing his claim on that of his
grandmother,Doha Ana Cusimaytay Espinoza, "cacicaprincipaly gobernadoraque fue en la provincia
de Paucartambo."ARC, RA, Ord., 27 (1798), f. 22r, for seventeenth-centurydocumentsrecognizingthe
claims of "Dona CathalinaSisa, casica que fue en propiedad"in Maras.Whetherthese claims are accu-
rateis, of course, not certain,but thatthey were made to establishthe legitimacyof latercacical claimants
suggests their political value; see Powers, "A Battle of Wills."
26 ARC, RA, Ord., 31
(1798), ff. 62-75.
27 "Comoes verdad
que en los Pueblos y lugares de distritode la mencionadaProvinciaay costum-
bre de que sucedanlas hembrasen los casicasgos... ." ARC, RA, Ord., 31 (1798), ff. 60r.
28
Dominga Quispe Guaman,IsidoraDiaz, JuanaUclucana,MariaRamos Tito Atauchi,and Martina
Chiguantupa.ARC, RA, Ord., 31 (1798), ff. 62. ". . . sin que aiga embarazo,esto es sin saber leer, ni
escribir."
DAVIDT. GARRETT 561
Otherwitnesses were more interestedin the circumstancesin which a

womanmightinheritoffice. Botha creoleandTaray'sIndianalcaldetesti-
fied that". . . in the pueblosof this province,as in its neighbors,in the
absenceof menwomengovernthe cacicazgos,thatis [if they are]heirsby
the directline, andeverybodyknowsthiscustom."29 Othersmadeclearthat
not only was femalesuccessionacceptable, but also that(in the wordsof
Pisac's sacristan),"by custom. . . women succeedto the cacicazgoand
governfor themselves."3-
Otherdocumentsshow a similar,conditionalacceptanceof femalesuc-

cession and rule.31In 1770 Don PedroSahuaraura RamosTito Atauchi
explainedthathe servedas caciqueof theAylluCuzcoin Oropesathrough
his wife, "DoriaSebastianaBustinzaYaurecArisa,legitimatedaughterof
thelateDonJospehBustinzaandDonaMelchoraYaurecArisawhois alive,
governessof the said ayllu to whom [the cacicazgo]fell by absenceof a
male[heir]sinceherancestors,andthecacicazgopassesto my saidwife .. .
[andso] I wasnamedinterimcaciqueandconfirmedby theRoyalandSupe-
riorGovernment, untilthereis a maleor femalesuccessor."32 The implica-
tionis thateithera maleor femaleheirwouldbe acceptable,butin thelatter
caseherhusbandwill rule.AfterSebastiana's death,Pedroretainedthecaci-
cazgo in the nameof theirthreechildren;when he was killed by Ttipac
Amaru'sforcesin 1780, MelchoraYaurecArizareoccupiedthe cacicazgo
untilherdeathin the mid-1780s.33 Suchpracticewas fairlycommon:wid-
owedmothersandgrandmothers ruledin the nameof underageheirs.
This, of course,raisesthe issue of whetherthese womenwho formally

possessedthe cacicazgoactuallyexercisedits authority,andattendedto its
duties:didMelchoraYaurecArizapersonallyinstructthevillageofficersin
theirduties,overseethe collectionof tributeanddistributionof land,and
29 ARC, RA, Ord., 31 (1798), ff. 73 ". . . en los Pueblos de esta Provinciacomo en las demas
que a
falta de Barones gobiernanlas mugeres los Casicasgos, esto es siendo acreedoraspor linea recta y que
nadie ignora desta costumbre."
3- ARC, RA, Ord.,31
(1798), f. 68 ". por costumbreassi en esta provinciacomo en otras subceder
a las hembrasen los casicasgos y gobernarpor ellas mismas."
31In 1732 the
corregidorconcluded that "ser costumbreel que hereden y subsedanhembrasen los
casicasgos de dicha villa" of Maras.ARC, RA, Ord., 27 (1798), f. 50r. Also Don Miguel Guaypartupa's
attemptto regain the cacicazgo of Lamay,in the name of his wife. ARC, AUD, Ord., 18 (1795).
32 ARC, N18, 133 JuanBautistaGamarra,n/f, n/d. "DoliaSebastianaBustinzaYaurecArisa
hija lex-
itima de Don Jospeh Bustinza ya difunto y de DoriaMelchoraYaurecArisa que al presentevive gover-
nadorade dichos ayllos en quien recay6 dho ayllo a falta de varon desde sus antepasados,y . . . recae
dho gov.no en la dha mi muger lex.ma . . . de consentim.toy beneplasito [de Doha Melchora]por hal-
larse ya de abansadahedad fui nombradopor tal casique interinoy confirmadopor el R1y Sup.rGov.no
de estos Reynos, hasta en el interimque tenga susesion de varon o de hembra.. . ."
so on? For most instancesthe recordis so brief that such questionsare

unanswerable, butit is noteworthythatthe matterwas openlyaddressedin
colonialtestimony.Indeed,in 1782 severalwitnessesin the Tamboguacso
successiondisputenamedMelchoraYaurecArizaas one of severalcacicas
who governedfor themselvesin nearbycommunities.34 Anotherwas Pedro
Sahuaraura's mother, Doria MariaRamos TitoAtauchi in Cusco'sSantiago
parish,who governedAylluCachona(underhereditarySahuaraura control)
afterhis death.In 1787, she soughtpermissionto appointa segunda(Don
LorenzoQuispeTacuri,an Inca noble relatedto her by marriage)to per-
formherresponsibilities, becauseof her age.35Nonetheless,she remained
formallythe cacicauntilherdeatha decadelater,in so doingensuringthat
the office passedto hergrandchildren.To the south,in the Vilcanotahigh-
lands,DoriaCatalinaSalasy Pachacuticclaimedin herwill thatshe owned
landin Layothathadbeengivenherby the communityandthe corregidor
in compensationfor servicesanddebtsas cacica,suggestinga very active
engagement.And in 1795, whenDoriaJulianaCarlosUisa, who hadgov-
ernedAchayasince the deathof her father,was brieflydeposedin favor
Don FelipeCarlosUisa, she was quicklyreinstatedby the Intendant"[in
responseto] the clamorof the Indians"who consideredFelipeincapableof
governing.36
Suchtestimonydoes notprovideclearanswersto what,if any,particular

dutiesandauthorities of thecaciquewereconsideredinappropriateforcaci-
Cuscoit was plau-
cas. But it suggeststhatto peoplein eighteenth-century
siblethatwomencacicasmight"govern,"a relationto the communitythat
was, in testimony,distinguishedfrom simplyhavingformalclaim to the
office.Thatwomenwho actuallywieldedcacicalauthorityraisedconcerns
is clear;so too is boththatsuchwomenwereaccepted,andthatthe formal
recognitionof a cacica'sauthoritycould maintainfamilialpossessionof
office,whethershe actuallyruledor not.PerhapsdonFranciscoXavierTico
Chipanacapturedtheseambivalences betterin 1791thananymoderncom-
mentarywhen,seekingrestitutionof his family'sruleoverZepitaUrinsaya,
nearLakeTiticaca,he notedthathis sister,DoriaJulianaTicoChipana,had
beencacicauntilshewaskilledby rebelsin 1781,andthatshehadgoverned
well "inspiteof hersex."37
33Sahuaraura
waskilledleading
theroyalist ofCusco's
regiment battle
Incanoblesinthefirstmajor
atSangarard.
of therebellion,
34ARC,RA,Ord.,31(1798),ff. 62-75.
35ARC,CAB,Ped.,116(1787-1799).
36"alclamor ARC,Int.Gob,147.
delosnaturales"
37"apesardesusexo"BNP,C-1705.
DAVID T. GARRETT 563
In short,if somewhatsuspectcacicaswerenonethelesswidelyaccepted.
I have come acrossonly two explicitchallengesto the rightof an Indian
noblewomanto inheritor rulebecauseof hersex; one is thatagainstMaria
TeresaChoquehuanca. The otheragaincomesfromTaray.WhenRitaTam-
boguacso's fatherLucas succeededto the cacicazgoin 1762,he was chal-
lengedby a cousin,DoriaGregoriaTamboguacso (whoseparentshadheld
the cacicazgobeforeJoseph).In the ensuinglawsuit,noneof the witnesses
challengedGregoria'sancestry,northe standingof herhusband(Fernando
Pumayalli,whowouldtestifyon Rita'sbehalftwentyyearslater);but,while
one creolegaveexamplesof nearbycacicas,otherwitnessesinsistedthat"it
is theIncaandimmemorialcustomthatwomendo not succeedto thiscaci-
cazgo."38 That"Incaandimmemorialcustom"changed(withoutcomment)
in two decadessuggeststhatthe issue was less a firmcommitmentto male
successionthana rhetoricaldeploymentof customto servecontemporary
politicalinterestswithinthe community.39
Still,the invocationof customto denywomenpoliticalauthorityis note-
worthy:certainlyno witnessin the colonialAndeswouldhaveassertedthat
by custom women did not inheritproperty.Indeed,more strikingthan
womenpossessingpoliticalauthorityis thatthis possessionand exercise
werecircumscribed, forindigenouswomenhadconsiderable powerin colo-
nial Andean society.4-Over the past decades historianshave exposed
women'scentralrolesin thecolonialeconomy,as traders,lenders,landown-
ers, and the dominantforce in manyurbanmarketplaces.41 Indiannoble-
womenamassed,andinherited,sizablefortunes.42 Whilein theorythe hus-
band's permissionwas necessaryfor notarizedcontracts,most of the
indigenouseconomyoperatedoutsidethepurviewof the notary,andIndian
womenengagedon theirown in businessdealings.Inca noblewomenin
urbanCuscowereactivegrainmerchantsandmoneylenders, ownedtextile
factoriesandtaverns,andjoinedwithcorregidores in theforcedsalesof the
reparto; the fortunesof the richest
of theseequaledthoseof therichestInca
38ARC,RA,Ord.,31 (1798),f. 18v".. . es costumbre ynconcuza e ymmemorialnosuccedan las

hembrasenesteGobierno."
39Graubart,WithOurLabor andSweat, pp.158-185 passimforthepolitical
deployment ofpre-con-
incacicalsuccession
quest"custom" battles.
4- Forwomen's informalrolein villagepolitics,seeWilliam B. Taylor,
Drinking,Homicide and
in Colonial
Rebellion Mexican Villages Stanford
(Stanford: University Press,1979),pp. 116-7;and
Stern, The Secret History of Gender,pp. 204-8.
41Mangan, Roles,pp.9-13fora surveyof theliterature;
Trading alson6above.
42SusanKellogg,"FromParallelandEquivalent to Separate butUnequal: TenochcaMexica
Women, pp.123-144
1500-1700," inIndianWomen ofEarlyMexico, ed.bySusanSchroeder, Stephanie
Wood,andRobertHaskett
(Norman: of Oklahoma
University Press,1997),p. 134forcolonialinheri-
tancelaw.
noblemen.43Ruralcacicasalsoownedconsiderable property:DoriaCatalina
Salasy Pachacutic'sestateincludedthe local oven, a smalltextilefactory,
andhaciendasworth10,000pesos,andin herwills she insistedthatall was
acquiredthroughherown work,withno helpfromhertwo husbands.44
Theauthority of Indiannoblewomenwasnotlimitedto therealmof prop-
ertyandthe market.Evidencehereis scarcer,but documentation fromthe
GreatRebellionof 1780-82makesclearthatelite womenhadconsiderable
powerin theircommunities.DoriaMicaelaBastidas,Jose GabrielTtipac
Amaru'swife, was centralto the rebellion'sleadership.45 The cacica of
Acos, DoriaTomasaTitoCondemyata, was executedalongwiththe Ttipac
Amarufamilyfor havinggatheredtroopsto defenda rivercrossing,while
in CavanillaDoriaJuanaQuispeYupanqui alsoralliedtributaries
to join the
rebellion.46More generally,statementsin lawsuitsmake clear that such
womenwereforcesto reckonwithin theirpueblos.Afterthe rebellionthe
widowof the caciqueof Guarina,in La Paz, soughtthe office in the name
of theirunderagedaughter, notingthatshehadconsiderable experiencegov-
erning the town her
during husband'sabsences.47 In 1794,whenthe princi-
pales of AzangaroUrinsayacomplainedto the CuscoAudienciaaboutthe
abusiveruleof theircacique,Don DomingoMangoTurpa,they conceded
that,as he spentmostof his timein Cuscoenmeshedin lawsuits,theyhad
sufferedlittle directlyfrom his hands.Rather,his wife, DoriaAntonio
Chuquicallata, governedin his steadand was a terror,subjectingthemto
"abusesandmistreatment . . . so thattheyfearto enterherhouse[toprovide]
the customaryservice."48
Such commentssuggesthostilitytowardwomen'spower,manifestin
gruesomepopularviolenceagainstcacicasaroundLakeTiticacaduringthe
Rebellion.Indeed,in 1781the womenfromthe commonsof Azangarohad
hungthoseof theMangoTurpafamilyin themainplaza;andin Juli,aftera
massacreof the Indiannobility,rebelswere reputedto have drainedand
43 AAC, II-7-128; ARC, COR, Ped., 90

(1756) for the tradedispute involving Dofia Phelipa Pillco
Sisa; ARC NOT18, 133 Juan Bautista Gamarra,133 n/f, 23 August 1758 for the will of Dofia Tomasa
Ramos Tito Atauchi;n/f, 12 February1777 and n/f, 20 October 1745 for Dofia Antonia Loyola Cusitito
Atauyupanquiand Dofia CatalinaSutapongo.
44 See above, n19.
45 Leon G.
Campbell, "Womenand the Great Rebellion in Peru, 1780-1783," The Americas 42:2
(1985), pp. 163-96. ColecciOnDocumentaldel Bicentenariode la RevolucionEmancipadorade Ttipac
Amaru,ed. by LuisDurandFlOrez(Lima:1980),IV:pp. 14,20-25,42, 188-208.
46 DurandFlorez, ed., ColecciOnDocumentaldel Bicentenariode la
Revolucion,III:pp. 56, 76, 324.
47 Thomson, WeAlone WillRule, 233.
p.
48". . .
algunos dafiosy maltrato. . . y que por to tanto temen entrara su casa con el servicio que es
costumbre.. . ." ARC, RA, 14 (1794).
DAVIDT. GARRETT 565
drunkthe blood of one cacica.49Takentogether,such incidentsand com-

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

lagelife it is moreaccurate to speakof a cacicalcoupleorhousehold. Cer-
tainly lawsuits againstcaciquesgenerally include complaints of abusesby
thecacique'sspouseandchildren.53 Beyondthepractical valueof embed-
dingcaciquesandcacicasin theirdomesticeconomies, treating thecacical
couple as a unit alsoacknowledges the enormous importance dualismin
of
Andeanthought.54 A unityrequiresopposedconstituent parts;in that,the
cacicalcouple-whatever theirstanding in theeyesof Spanishlaw-more
fullyrepresented bothcommunity andauthority thanjust the caciqueor
cacica.WhilereadingcolonialAndeansocietythrough imperial Incaprac-
tice is problematic, the motherandprincipalwife of the Incaemperor
activelyparticipated in rule;and,according to Betanzos, theIncaemperor
married hisprincipal wifeatthetimeof hisascentto thethrone,suggesting
thatsupreme residedwitha couple.55
politicalauthority Thearchival record
hintsata similarunderstanding of cacicalauthority withinthepuebloin the
late colonialsouthernhighlands. AntoniaChuquicallata-the heiressto
Saman'scacicazgowho tributaries claimedactuallygovernedAzangaro
Urinsaya-didnotdescribe herselfas a "cacica" of Azangaro in legaldocu-
ments.56 Andyet,tothemaleeldersofAzangaro shewas,witha formidable
authority thatderivedfromherancestry, herhusband, andherrolein the
cacicalhousehold. Thissuggeststhat,in practiceif not formally, cacical
authority oftenlaywiththecouplemorethanjustthecaciqueorhusband--
particularly whenhusbands ruledwithheiresses.57 Thentheunionof legiti-
mateauthority, heldby a womanthrough inheritance,withits formalexer-
cise by a man(oftenfromanothercommunity), joinedfemaleandmale,
community andoutsideworld,hereditary andacquired authority.
it remains
Nonetheless, thatwomenformally possessedpoliticalauthor-
ityfarlessthantheywieldedeconomicclout,withmenenjoyinga monop-
oly on theelectiveofficesof thepuebloanddisproportionatelycontrolling
the aristocratic
authorityof the cacicazgo.Nor is this inconsistent
with
Spanish society,inwhichwomenmaintained andexer-
titletotheirproperty
53 For
examples, ANB, EC-1762-144; ANB, Ruck, 217; ARE, PRH, 184.
54 Silverblatt, Moon, Sun and Witches,
pp. 20-66; Therese Bouysse-Cassagne, "Urco and uma:
Aymaraconcepts of space"pp. 201-227 in AnthropologicalHistory of Andean Polities, ed. by Murraet
al.; Floyd G. Lounsbury,"Some aspects of the Inkakinshipsystem"pp. 121-136 in AnthropologicalHis-
tory of AndeanPolities, ed. by Murraet al.
55
D'Altroy, The Incas, pp. 91, 103-106.
56
Although in a 1797 dispute she did refer to herself as the ". . . casica proprietariopor derecho de
sangredel Pueblo de Saman. . . ." ARE PRA 392; ARE PRA 482 for claims of Inca ancestry.
57 For referencesto cacical
couples collectively as the "los caciques gobernadores"of their commu-
nity, see ANB, EC-1793-11 (Chucuito);ARC, N18 110 Joseph BernardoGamarra,3 July 1785, f. 710
(Oropesa);ARC, AUD, Ord., 33 (1799) (Juli).
DAVIDT. GARRETT 567
cised considerable controloverit in marriage, but wereexcludedfrom

formalrolesinpolitics.58Thissuggestsa dichotomy betweenformaloroffi-
definedin the great
cial authority, reformof Andean societyby viceroy
Toledoandhis advisorsin the 1570s,andtherealmof economic,familial,
andpersonal authoritythatmattered enormouslyinAndean communities but
functioned of
awayfromthe directpurview Spanish The
administration.
withofficesof munic-
affiliated
exerciseof colonialofficialauthority-that
ipalgovernment, royalrule, andthe church-was formally limitedtomen.59
Thehonorific officesof electorandstandard-bearerof Cusco's Incacabildo
wereheldby Incanoblemen: notonewomanappears amongoveronehun-
dredelectorsin the18th-century book.6-
electoral Andthedemocratic inno-
vationsof theToledan reforms-thevillage cabildo and the alcalde-were
alsoexclusively male:I haveneverfoundreference to a womanalcaldeor
cabildo-member in thearchive.61
Theoneclearexception to thisexclusionwasthecacica,exposinga cen-
tralcontradictionin thedefinitionof cacicalpower,recognized in thelaws
of colonialPeruas botha bureaucratic (hence,male) a family
office and
possession(hence,notnecessarily gendered).62Withthiswe returnto the
oneuniversal of thelatecolonialcacica:shepossessed
characteristic author-
ity basedon a familialclaim,therebyembodying thesupremacy of aristo-
cratic,seigneurialcontrolof cacicalofficein theIndianrepublicoverthe
bureaucratizationof cacicalpowerandits inclusionin the domainof the
colonialstate.So toodidthecacicalheir,andwhenanadultsonsucceeded
hisfatheras caciquefamilyauthority communal
foreclosed politics.Butin
themanyinstances wheretherewassomerecognized claimto a cacicazgo
butnomaleheir,thecacicalheiresscreateda spaceof aristocratic authority
withinthepueblothatwasprotected fromroyalintrusion, yetopento aris-
malecompetition.
tocratic,
58
Mary Elizabeth Perry,Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville (Princeton:PrincetonUni-
versity Press, 1990), pp. 14-20. And, of course, Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna and Calder& de la
Barca's El alcalde de Zalamea.
59 Conventsoffered a
partialexception for Spanishwomen. KathrynJ. Burns, Colonial Habits: Con-
vents and the SpiritualEconomyof Cuzco, Peru (Durham:Duke University Press, 1999).
60 ARC, COR, Civ., 29, 620.
61 See Bianca Premo,"Fromthe Pockets of Women:The
Genderingof the Mita, Migration,andTrib-
ute in Colonial Chucuito, Peru" The Americas 57:1 (July 2000), pp. 63-4 for concern by the Potosi
cabildo that the demographichavoc wroughtby the Potosi mita had led to women alcaldes aroundTiti-
caca; the absence of archivalmention of such women suggests that this was rhetoricalhyperbole.
62 A similar contradictionmanifested itself in
Spain, over women's inheritance and exercise of
seigneurialauthority.CristianBerco, "JuanaPimentel, the Mendoza Family, and the Crown,"pp. 27-47
in Helen Nader, ed., Power and Gender in Renaissance Spain (University of Illinois Press, 2004); and
the discussion of Leonor de la Vega and Aldonza Tellez de la Vega in L.J. Andrew Villalon, "The
Anatomy of an AristocraticPropertyDispute, 1350-1577" (PhD Diss., Yale University, 1984).
568 "INSPITE
OFHERSEX"
By no meanswas the sex of the caciquethe only,or even a dominant,

issue in pueblo politics, which for the two centuriesbetweenToledo's
reformsandthe rebellionsof 1780-82were drivenlargelyby competition
betweenthecommonsandhereditary elites,andwithinthoseelitesforcon-
trolof cacicaloffice.Thefirstwastheresultof a centralcontradiction in the
colonialcodificationof theIndianRepublic.Weknowverylittleabouthow
aylluleaderswerechosen,whattheirpowerswere,andwhatweretheinter-
nal stratain pre-conquest communities.ButHabsburgofficialsweredeeply
concernedaboutvillagestructure, whichtheyaggressivelyreordered in the
late 1500s.Thecentralreformwas the resettlement of dispersedayllusinto
largervillagesmodeledon theCastilianmunicipalidad, ideallyfairlydemo-
craticandby law (butnot practice)closedto Spanishsettlement.63 Both a
community in itself anda of
composite its ayllus, pueblohad
constituent the
an electedcabildoand officers,most importantlyalcaldesand regidores,
chosenfromandby the originarios,responsiblefor local governanceand
thedistribution of communalland.64As in Spain,officeholdingandelection
were the preserveof men, so thatdemocraticauthorityin the pueblowas
clearlygenderedas male,withapparentdeferenceto age as wel1.65
Holdingthe nativeelite responsiblefor the "barbarism" of indigenous
Toledo
society, and his had
advisors made cleartheirhostilityin anti-aristo-
craticdecreessuchthat"theprincipalcaciquesnot interferein the elections
foralcaldes,regidores,andotherofficesof therepublic,"andthat"neither the
caciquenor his second personbe electedas alcaldeor regidor."66But thefre-
quentmentionof caciquesbetraysthepowerthatthoseatthetopof thesoci-
63 For the
municipalidad,Helen Nader, Liberty in Absolutist Spain: The HabsburgSale of Towns,
1516-1700 (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), pp. 17-45.
64 Men in the
"reptiblicade indios" fell into a numberof legal categories, which were simplified in
the eighteenthcentury.The most common was that of originario, an adult man under50 who was a full
memberof the communityin which he lived and had access to communalland; in returnhe owed trib-
ute and was responsiblefor communalburdens(most onerously,from Canasy Canchissouth,the mining
mita to Potosi). Reservadoswere those over 50 who, in theory,received less land and did not pay tribute
or owe labor service. Forasteros were migrants,who had left their own communities and settled else-
where, who were responsiblefor lower tributeand exempt from the mita, but did not have formalaccess
to communallands. Nobles were exempt from tributeand personalservice; the source of nobility could
be writtenconcession by the crown, or custom. In addition,every communityhad its "principales,"usu-
ally noble or originarios,who generally spoke for the communityand from whom elective officers were
drawn.
65Stern, The Secret
History of Gender,pp. 151-215; Thomson, WeAlone WillRule.
66 ,,. . . los
Caziques principales,no le entremetanen las eleciones de los Alcaldes y Regidores y
demas oficiales de la Republica . . . no elijan al Cazique ni segunda persona paraAlcalde o Regidor."
Thomas de Ballesteros, Tomoprimero de las ordenanzasdel Peril (Lima: Francisco Sobrino y Bados,
1752), Book II, Title I, Ordenanzasv-vi.
DAVIDT. GARRETT 569
etiesof theformerIncarealmsstillretained.DuringthereformsPeru'sSpan-
ish officialsdebatedwhatrolethisindigenouseliteshouldhavein thevicere-
gal order;in the end, the crown'sdependenceon nativelords'abilityto
extracttributeandmobilizelaborcorveescarriedthe day.67 As a result,the
crownrecognizedthecacicazgoandtriedto modelit on a hereditary lordship,
so that as it evolved the formal descriptionof the cacique'sauthority
extendedbeyondtributecollectionto promotingrespectable, Christianliving
andpreventingdiscord;settlingsmalldisputes;assigningandexecutingcor-
poralpunishment; andgenerallyservingas patriarchof thecommunity.
Thiscontradictionbetweenthedemocraticideals,institutionsandoffices
of the colonialpuebloandthe powerconcentrated in the cacicazgoconsti-
tutedone of theprincipaltensionsin theIndianrepublic-as theprincipales
of MurianiandMariaTeresaChoquehuanca couldtestify.68 As in Muriani,
in
manycommunitiesthe principalesand originarios were importantactors.
Courtcases oftensaw a scoreor so men,led by a few takingthe honorific
"Don,"testifyon behalfof "el comtin."69 Still, in most communities,and
particularlyin large pueblos with complex economies and hierarchies,
caciques-of the entirepuebloor of individualayllus-were the dominant
forceuntilafterthe GreatRebellion,whena widespreadassertionof (male)
democraticpowerweakenedthe Indiannobilitybeforeits legal abolitionin
the nineteenthcentury.
The cacicazgothus stood at the heartof pueblopolitics, and was the

object of noble politickingas men of elite lineagessoughtto claim the
office. Some communitieshad establisheddynasties-the Tamboguacsos
andthe Choquehuancas. In others,the cacicazgofell withinthe gift of the
crownto be occupiedon an "interim" basisby a royalappointee;maneu-
vering to obtaintheseoffices was centralto thepoliticsof thepueblo,albeit
generally limitedto men from the dominant lineages.70But manycacicaz-
gos fell in between:hereditaryin a familywherethe late caciqueleft no
adultheir,or sufficientlyin the hold of an interimcaciquethathis son or
son-in-lawbecamethe obvioussuccessor.In thesecases, cacicasplayeda
67 Francisco Falcon,
"RepresentaciOnhecha . . . sobre los daiios y molestias que se hacen a los
Indios"in ColecciOnde documentosineditos del Archivode Indias, ed. Luis Torresde Mendoza, Series
I, VII: pp. 451-95 (Madrid:Ministeriodel Ultramar,1864-84); JuanPolo de Ondegardo,RelaciOnde los
fundamentosacerca del notable dalio que resultade no guardara los Indios sus fueros (Lima: Sanmarti
y ca., 1916); Hernandode Santillan,Relacion del gobierno de los Incas (Lima: Sanmartiy ca., 1927).
68 Thomson, WeAlone WillRule,
pp. 27-63.
69 ANB, EC-1762-144; ARC, COR, Prov., aim., 84
(1745-73) for Mamaniof Marangani.
70 For
politicking aroundinterimcacicazgos, ANB, EC-1780-58 (Hulloma,Pacajes);andARC, RA,
Adm., 167 (1808-9) for the 1759 cacical election in Rurioa.
centralrolein elitepolitics,in twoways.First,as anheiressthecacicadis-

playedandenableda family'sintergenerational controlof office.Second,
cacicalaspirantsoutnumbered and
offices, female succession helpedmedi-
atecompetition amonga broader maleelite,withmarriage to thecacical
heiressservingas themechanism by whichcacicalauthority wasassigned
whilealsomakingpossiblethereproduction of a broaderhereditary elite.
Thesepolitics,andthe roleof the cacica,differedby community and
region. In the highlands between Cusco and Titicaca, an area that suffered
heavilyfromtheobligatory annuallaborcorveesto Potosi'sminesandthe
migrations thismitaprovoked, cacicalheiressesbothbrought politicalcon-
tinuity and enabled upward mobilityforsuccessful men in theIndian repub-
lic, as sons-in-law tookovercacicazgosthrough theirmarriage to cacical
couples'daughters.71 Suchsuccession alsohelpedto preventconsolidation
of cacicalauthority in onemaleline.In Marangani DonBaltasar Mamani
ruledAylluLurucachi in themid-1700s aftermarrying Doi%CeciliaPocco,
thedaughter of theprevious cacique.Yet more than two dozenof thecom-
men
munity's joined oppose to therule of theirson, Don SantosMamani,
specifically citingas a grievancethathisfatherhadbeenaforastero,so the
soncouldnotsucceed.72 Herefemalesuccession enabledtheincorporation
of a successfuloutsiderto takeon the communal burdens, butthe male
eldersof thecommunity repudiatedeffortstoestablishhereditary ruleinone
maleline.
In otherareas,particularly the Titicacabasinandthe Inca-dominated
provinces around Cusco, the Indian republichadprovincial, ratherthan
pueblo,elites,whomaintained hereditarycontrolover theregion'scacicaz-
gos.Particularly commonin theseareas,cacicaswereessential to themain-
tenanceandreproduction of suchprovincial Spanish madeno
nobilities. rule
place for extra-localassociationsof Indian nobles.73Regionaleliteswere
thusself-fashioned groups,in thesetwoinstances buildingon thefounda-
tionsof powerfulandhierarchical pre-conquestsocieties.Christianmar-
riage--one the
institution were
Spanish eager to see in
flourish the Indian
republic--allowed noblelineagesto forgebondsacrossseveralprovinces.
In theperpetuation of theseregionalelites,andtheallocation of authority
withinthem,cacicasplayeda central role.
71AlsoARC,COR,Prov.,Ord.,76(1780-84), AruniMolloApasa's
forDonCristobal to
succession
in 1761.Formigration
ofAylluAnzainSicuani
thecacicazgo AnnWight-
andthemitainthebishopric,
man, Indigenous Migration and Social Change: The Forasteros of Cuzco, 1520-1720 (Durham:Duke
Press,1990).
University
72ARC,COR,Prov.,Crim.,84(1745-73);Stavig,TheWorld pp.231-2.
Amaru,
of Tiipac
73Withtheverylimited oftheceremonial
exception inCusco.
Incacabildo "Elalferez
Amado, real."
DAVIDT. GARRETT 571
In theAymarasocietiesaroundLakeTiticaca,ancient,powerfulpueblos
withpopulationsin thethousandscameunderthehereditary ruleof equally
ancient,and powerful,lineages,many tracingtheir ancestryto the Inca
emperorsandpre-conquestlocal lords.74Herein the mid-1700sa scoreor
so families created a regional aristocracythroughmatrimonialbonds
stretchingacrossthe lake. The bondsof the Choquehuancas of Azangaro
Anansaya are Don
illustrative. Blas Choquehuanca (brother of Maria
Teresa) married Doria Maria Siriani,daughterof the of
cacique Carabuco,
fifty milesawayon theeasternshoreof thelake.Maria'smotherwas a Fer-
nandezChuy,thecacicalfamilyof Laxasouthof thelake.75Inturn,theFer-
nandezChuyintermarried withthe cacicalhousesof PucaraniandCopaca-
bana.76In the 1770s, such interwovennetworksof cacical dynastiesleft
thousandsof tributaries undertheruleof aninterrelated Often,
aristocracy.77
occupying the wife's family cacicazgo as well as or instead of the hus-
band's,thesecacicalcoupleswereamongtherichestin IndianPeru,amass-
ing fortunesof over 10,000pesos;classtensionswithinthe Indianrepublic
werecorrespondingly strongerherethanelsewherein the bishopric.78 The
formationof this cacicalaristocracyincreasinglyexcludedsecondaryvil-
lage elites frompower,fuelingthe oppositionto "wife-takers"--men from
other communities who obtained the cacicazgothroughmarriage--detected
by Thomson.79
AroundCusco,cacicaswereequallyimportantto the consolidationand
reproductionof the regionalIncanobility,but with Cusco'speculiarhis-
toryits organizationdifferedmarkedlyfromthatof the Titicacabasin.A
majorSpanishcity, Cuscononethelessretainedimportantfeaturesof the
city's formerimperialsociety.Inca Cuscohad compriseddozensof kin-
ship groups,linked togetherin complex hierarchiesof interdependence
and each scatteredover the region.8--
The Toledanreductionshad under-
74 Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,pp. 106-13.
75 ANB, EC-1789-80; ARE, PRA, 290.
76 ANB, EC-1773-83; and AGN-A, IX, 31-3-4, f. 103.
77 ANB, EC-1785-23 (for Don Ambrosio
Quispe Cavana of Cavanilla and Doha Maria Ygnacia
ChiqueYnga Charajaof Pomata);ARC, N18, 124 Joseph BernardoGamarra,f. 233 (for Don Bernardo
Succacahuaof Umachireand the daughterof Don Manuel GarciaCotacallapaof Usicayos); ARC, N18,
288 Villavisencio, f. 352, 27-02-1778 (for FranciscoSuccacahuaand the daughterof Quiquijana'sprin-
cipal caciques);below for the Mango Turpa-Chuquicallata alliances.
78 Fernandez
Chuy in Copacabana(AGN-A, IX, 31-3-4, f. 10); also Quispe Cavana in Pomata,
Mango Turpain Saman, Succacahuain Quiquijana;Garrett,Shadows of Empire,pp. 131-2. Also Glave,
Vida,Simbolos y Batallas, pp. 117-78; Choque Canqui,Sociedad y economia colonial; and Rivera, "El
Mallku y la sociedad colonial."
79 WeAlone WillRule,
pp. 77-80.
80Silverblatt,Moon, Sun, and Witches,
pp. 20-66; D'Altroy, The Incas, pp. 103-6, Brian Bauer,
Ancient Cusco: Heartlandof the Inca (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004), pp. 177-9.
minedsuch ayllu networks,andby the 1750s Cusco'spuebloswere dis-

crete communities.But still bindingthem togetherwas the kinshipnet-
work of the erstwhileroyal Incas (broadlyredefinedthroughtwo cen-
turies of Spanish rule). Several colonial, Inca ayllus enjoyed near
universalmale nobility,andtogetherwith otherIncalineagesandhered-
itarycacicalfamiliesthey formeda broadercaste, perhapsone-twentieth
of the indigenouspopulation,thatenjoyeda nearmonopolyon the area's
cacicazgos.81
The generousconcessionof nobility(by edict and by custom)to the

Incasleft farmorenoblesthancacicazgosaroundCusco.Herefemalesuc-
cessionplayeda crucialrole in bothestablishingcontinuityacrossgenera-
tions andallowinga mechanismby whichto contestpossession.In Taray,
the two successionbattlesfeatureda male heiragainstan heiressandher
locally prominenthusband.In the first, Lucas was successful;in the
second,RitaandSebastian.Perhapswe see a shiftto greatercreolepower
andthe consolidationof parent-childsuccession;or perhapsjust the same
structural Whatis strikingis howoften
contestplayingitselfoutdifferently.
a cacicalheiressstoodat the heartof suchcompetition:father-sonsucces-
sion was by no meansthe norm.In a centuryof undisputedTamboguacso
rule in Taray,only once in five successionsdid a son follow his father.82
The frequencyof female successionproduceda constanttrafficin Inca
noblemen,strengthening the bondsbetweenthe Incanobilityof different
villages and leaving many ayllus underthe rule of men from outside.83
Thus,fromthe 1740sto 1790Santiago'sAylluChocowas governedby the
daughterandgranddaughter of Don Diego Yarisiandtheirhusbands,Inca
noblemenfromotherparishes.Nor was successionalwaysharmonious: in
Chocothe claim of DoilaCatalinaTisoc Sayritupaandher husband,Don
GabrielGuamantica(son of the caciqueof Guarocondo),was unsuccess-
fully challengedby Catalina'syoungersisterandher husband,the son of
the caciqueof Ayllu Sucso in San Sebastian.Akin to the "wife-takers"
aroundTiticaca,suchforasterocaciquesdidnotgo unchallenged. InMaras,
DonPabloLlanacAucapuma,caciqueof one ayllu,unsuccessfullyopposed
theaccessionof DofiaJulianaSanchoUscapaucar andherhusband,anInca
noblefromPucyura,to anotherof thepueblo'scacicazgos.84 Butthesebat-
tles hadmoreto do withintra-elitepoliticsthanwitha popularrepudiation
of the practice.
81Garrett,"Los Incas borbOnicos."

82 Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,p. 94.
83 See Table 1, for Bela, Guarocondo,Maras,
Guayllabamba,Lamay,Caycay and Oropesa.
84 ARC, COR, Ped., 90 (1753-65).
DAVIDT. GARRETT 573
In somecases,cacicaswere"secondbests,"a wayto maintaina lineage's

hold on a cacicazgoin the absenceof a maleheir.Indeed,JulianaSancho
Uscapaucar's fatherleft thecacicazgofirstto herbrotherSebastian;she suc-
ceededonly becausehe died withoutheirs.85But at times daughterswere
preferredto sonsas heirs.In the 1780sand1790sPucyura'sAylluAyarmaca
wasruledby DonBlasQuispeUscayamayta, sonof oneof thepueblo'sInca
lineages and husband of Dofia Marcusa Nancay.Her grandfather, Don
MiguelNancay, had been the ayllu'scacique in the middleof the century,
whenhe achievedlastingfamefor travelingto Limato successfullydefend
the community'smill againstthe aspirations of theparishpriest.Heruncle,
PascualNancay,was caciqueof anotherayllu,Collana.86 Ratherthanpass-
ing directlyfromfatherto son, herethe pueblo'sayllucacicazgosmoved
amongseveralnoblelineages,who intermarried to consolidatecontrolover
the largercommunitywithoutany one establishinghereditaryrule over a
particularayllu.87
Indeed,in some cases a cacicalmatrilineapparently preventedany one

malelineagefromestablishingdominionoverothernoblelines in the com-
munity.San Sebastian,an agricultural suburbof Cusco,was hometo many
of theimperialIncaayllus,amongwhichAylluSucso(thedescendants of the
IncaViracocha) wasexceptionalin its size andnobility:in 1768all 120of its
men enjoyedthe nobleexemptionfromtributeandpersonalservice.From
the 1750sto the early1790sSucso'scaciquewas Don CayetanoTupaGua-
manrimachi.88 An Incanoble,CayetanocamefromAylluAucaylli,of which
his fatherwasa partbutnotcacique;fromhername DonaPascualaQuispe
Sucso--his motherappearsto havecomefromAylluSucso.Cayetanosuc-
ceededanuncleas anelectorof theIncacabildo,andbecamecaciqueof two
of San Sebastian'ssmaller,non-nobleayllusin the 1750s.He thenmarried
DoriaAsenciaQuispeSucsofromAylluSucso.Notably,she broughtas part
of herdowryhershareof the "casaprincipal" of SanSebastian,suggesting
that she was the cacical heiress--although,strikingly,he, not she, was
referredto as cacique.Buttheirsonsdidnot succeedCayetano(oneinstead
tryingto claimthe cacicazgoin Santiago,anotherservingas caciqueof San
85 See the
copy of his will in the claim to the cacicazgo made by Don Mauricio Uscamayta.ARC,
AUD, Ord., 27 (1798).
86 ARC, INT, RH, 211
(1801); ARC, N19 77 Pedro Joaquin Gamarra,f. 584, 16-08-1804; ARC,
CAB, Ped., 117 (1800-09); "Indiosde sangrereal,"Revista del ArchivoHistOricodel Cusco 1:1 (1950):
pp. 211-2.
87
Similarly, in Guarocondo a noble from Urubamba, Don Lorenzo Copa Cusicondor, married
GabrielGuamantica'shalf-sister Sebastianaand succeeded their father,Don Joseph Guamantica,while
Gabrieloccupied the cacicazgo in Santiagothroughhis marriage.ARC, INT, Gob., 133 (1785).
88 ARC, N18, 245
Rodriguezde Ledezma, f. 507, 27 June 1790.
574 "IN SPITE OF HER SEX"
Sebastian's
AylluSahuaraura).89ThissuggeststhattheAylluSucso--withits
many noblemen aware of theirprivileges--solvedthe problemof internal
hierarchy in
by bringing an outsider
withmaternal tiesto theaylluas cacique;
assertedmaledominanceby recognizinghim, not his wife, as cacique;yet
keptcommunalcontrolby tyingtheofficeto a matriline.
To be sure,not alwaysdid the husbandrulewith,or in the nameof, the
cacica.Throughout thebishoprica numberof womenruledovertheircom-
munities,almostalwaysas widows,as motheror grandmothers preserving
family rule until the next generationreachedmaturity(Tables1 and 2),
althougheven heretherewere exceptions.DoriaMartinaChiguantupa, an
unmarried beatawho lived in seclusionin Cusco,succeededher fatheras
cacicaof mostof the ayllusin the parishof Colquepataandformallygov-
ernedformorethanthirtyyears,usuallythroughmaledeputies.Inthesouth-
ernhighlandsCatalinaSalasPachacuticandTomasaTitoCondemayta gov-
erneddespitehavingliving husbands.But overall,the governingcacica
personifieda family'scontroloverits community,strongenoughto weather
the absenceof an adultson or son-in-law.
Cacicasalso loomedlargein anothernegotiationat the heartof pueblo

politics:the borderbetweenIndianand Spanish.From 1690 to 1790 the
numberof rural"Spaniards" in the bishopricof Cuscowentfromscarcely
5,000 to over 50,000, or fromaboutfourpercentof the populationto over
eighteen.9--Most were impoverishedmestizos,but every provincehad its
Spanish elite of hacendados,miners,andmerchants,whichgrewover the
eighteenthcentury.Whilelocal elites of the two ethnicrepublicshadlong
forgedbondsthroughintermarriages, as late as 1750manycacicalfamilies
hadno Spaniards in theirgenealogies.91Butfromthen,suchmarriages,and
creolecaciques,becamemorecommon:from 1760to 1780 in Acos, Anta,
and Taray,creole husbandsenteredimportantcacicazgosthroughtheir
wives.92To be sure,in the 1770sas manycacicalheiressesmarriedIndian
noblemenas creoles,andcacicalpolitickingremainedlargelya concernof
89 ARC, INT, Gob., 139

(1787); ARC, CAB, Ped., 116 (1787-99).
9--Garrett,Shadows
of Empire, pp. 60-71. During that period the Indian population went from
120,000 to 240,000.
91 ANB, EC-1793-11 (Chucuito); Horacio Villanueva
Urteaga, ed., Cuzco 1689, Documentos:
economfay sociedad en el sur andino (Cusco: Centro Bartolome de Las Casas, 1982), pp. 195 (Anta)
and 397 (Guaquirca).
92 For Don Tomas Escalanteand DoriaAna Tito
Condemaytaof Acos, ARC, N18, 258 JosephTapia
Sarmiento,f. 357, 6 May 1767. Ana was succeeded by DoriaTomasaTito Condemayta,who also mar-
ried a creole (Don FaustinoDelgado) but is describedas the "cacicagobernardora"in her own name. For
Delgado, Scarlett O'Phelan Godoy, Un siglo de rebeliones anticoloniales: Perri y Bolivia 1700-1783
(Cusco: CentroBartolomede Las Casas, 1988), p. 315.
DAVID T. GARRETT 575
the Indianrepublic.But thatwouldchangedramatically in the last decades

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

southto Potosiroseagainstthecolonialorder.Theinter-related rebellionsled
by TtVacAmaru,the Cataribrothers,andTapacCatari,andthe countless
jacqueriestheyprovoked,constitutedthe mostsweepingchallengeto Span-
ish rulein theAmericasfromtheconquestto independence.93 Whileloyalist
forcesreasserted royalcontrolby 1782,theGreatRebellionandtheensuing
royalresponseprovokeda restructuring of theruralpoliticalorderthatwiped
away the social space of the Indiannobility.The interactionof threechal-
lengesto aristocraticauthority producedthiserasure:theexpansionof creole
power, the crown's efforts to extendits authorityandto checkthatof the
Indianelite,andpopularoppositionwithintheIndianrepublic.Slowingthis
generalmove was the courts'commitmentto respectingwell-documented
claimsfromparticular families,butby the outbreakof theWarsof Indepen-
dencein 1809,theIndiannobilitywasno longera powerfulsectorof society.
In seekingto expandroyalandpopularauthority, bothcrownofficersandvil-
lage men explicitlychallenged female power,althoughcreoles supported
women'ssuccessionto officeas a meansby whichto extendcontroloverthe
pueblo,throughmarriage;androyalofficials'assaulton cacicaswas disci-
plinedby thecourts'occasionalinsistenceon respectingpreviouslyconceded
privileges.Inthat,whilethepoliticsof thepueblochangeddramatically after
therebellions,thecacicaremainedat theirheart.
Therebellionswereresponsesto thecrown'seffortsto expandits control

over the viceroyaltyandto increaserevenues;in theiraftermath,far from
backingdown,royalofficialsincreasedtheintrusiveness of thesereforms.A
Royal Audiencia was founded in Cusco, and a new systemof provincial
governancewas established,in whichthe corregidorwas replacedby the
(very similar)subdelegate,but now every five or ten of these governors
cameunderthe authorityof an intendantlocatedin thenearestcity.94At the
local level, responsibilityfor tributecollectionmoved from the interim
93 O'Phelan
Godoy, Un siglo de rebeliones anticoloniales; Thomson, WeAlone Will Rule; Serul-
nikov, Subverting Colonial Authority;Cahill, From Rebellion to Independencein the Andes; Walker,
SmolderingAshes; Garrett,Shadows of Empire.
94 John R. Fisher, Governmentand
Society in Colonial Peru: The Intendant System, 1784-1814
(London:University of London,Athlone Press, 1970).
cacique(a positionformallyabolishedin 1790) to the new "recaudador,"

althoughhereditarycaciquesoftencontinuedto serveas tributecollector.95
FortheIndiannobility,thislastchangeprovedcatastrophic, as it included
a clearpreferencethattherecaudador be Spanish.As thesubdelegate of Car-
in
avayaargued 1784, "theprincipalobject . . . in the new of
system gov-
ernment. . . is thatof creatingSpanishcaciquesin eachprovinceandtheir
respectivepueblos."96 Drivingthis changewas the erroneousbelief among
SpanishofficialsthattheIndiannobilityhadbeenresponsiblefor therebel-
lion,whentheupperranksof theIndianrepublichadremainedoverwhelm-
ingly loyal to the crown,andsufferedenormouslosses at the handsof the
rebels.97But also behindthe reformwas a commitmentto bureaucratizing
and redefininglocal rule in the Andeancountryside.In lawsuitsagainst
Spanishtributecollectorsroyaljudgeswouldinsistthattherecaudador was
"withoutthetitles,conceptor authorityof thecacique,nordoeshe haveany
othersuperiorityover the Indians"thanthe authorityto collect tribute.98
Tellingly,thejudgeherereferredto the positionas an "empleo":the office
was a bureaucratic post,not familialproperty.Whilethis reformdid much
to hispanicizetheoffice,it alsorenderedit explicitlymale.Subdelegates and
intendantsrepudiatedeffortsby creolewidowsto follow cacicaltradition
and occupytheirlate husbands'offices by explicitlyinvokingsex; as the
intendantof Cuscoputit, "theoffice of tributecollectoris a publicoffice,
not suitedto beingheldby women."99
The replacementof Indianinterimcaciquesby creole recaudadores
shiftedruralpower from the Indiannobilityto Peru'screoles. But this
realignmentof social hierarchywas effectedover two generations,during
whichcacicasplayeda centralroleas thepersonification aris-
of hereditary,
tocraticauthorityin theIndianrepublic.Cacicasbenefitedfromthecrown's
selectiverecognitionof its debtto thosewho haddefendedroyalrule;and
as manycaciqueshaddiedin therebellion,a numberof loyalistcacicazgos
passedto mothersandgrandmothers andto orphaneddaugh-
as caretakers,
ters as heirs.m Indeed,in the immediateaftermathof the rebellion,such
96
ANB, EC-1797-46 for the decree.
96 ARE, PSG, 158. "... siendo
que el objeto principal... en el nuevo sistema de govierno ... es el de
crearcaciques Espanoles en cada partidoy sus respectivos pueblas."
97 Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,pp. 183-210.
98 ARC, INT, Gob., 150 (1800-1802), Catca. ". sin titulo, concepto, ni autoridadde cacique, ni
tener otra alguna superioridaden los naturales.." In practice, the recaudadorretainedthe privileges
and authorityof the cacique.
99 ARC, INT, Gob., 147 (1796-7); Acomayo.". que el officiode Recaudadorde Tributoses un
empleo Pdblico, ageno de desemperiarsepor Mugeres."
100Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,pp. 218-21, 233-44.
DAVIDT. GARRETT 577
heiresses enabledsurvivingmembersof Titicaca'scacical dynastiesto

attemptto rebuildthe kin networksthathadstructuredthe regionalaristoc-
racy.Don Pedro MangoTurpa(who had been studyingin Cuscowhenthe
rebellionbrokeout, andthusescapedthe carnagearoundTiticaca)quickly
marriedDofiaAna MariaChoquehuanca Sifiani,whose immediatefamily
hadall diedat Sorataandwhothusbecametheteen-aged"cacicaprincipal"
of Carabuco.1--1
Continuinguntil the outbreakof the wars of independencein 1809,

daughtersand granddaughters of particularly prominentloyalistcaciques
continuedto inheritthe office. However,notwithstanding a few alliances
and
like thatof MangoTurpa Choquehuanca from
Sifiani, the mid-1780son
theirhusbandswere almostinvariablySpanish.In that,femalesuccession
both enabledroyal officials to stripIndiancaciquesof their office, and
allowedcreolesto gaincontrolof Indiancommunities. As the presumption
thatcacicazgoswerehereditary in someformgave way to the presumption
wouldreplaceall butthe moststrongly-doc-
thatthe new tribute-collectors
umentedproprietary caciques,courtsbecamemore hostile to succession
practices that deviatedfrom the father-sonideal. The Incas'traditionof
daughter/son-in-law succession facilitatedthe royal assault,as the royal
courtsinterpretedthe husband'srule as an interimappointment,and the
office no longerthe hereditarypossessionof the family.102 Thus,the caci-
of
cazgo Lamay--which had moved for at least four generationsthrougha
noblefemaleline--passedto thefirstof a seriesof creolesin 1782whenthe
courtsrefusedto confirmthe new Incacaciqueof Lamay,who haddistin-
guishedhimselfin the crown'sdefenseduringthe rebellionandsoughtthe
officethroughhis wife.1--3
Courtsand governorslookedmorefavorablyon the claimsof cacicas'

creolehusbands.Heretherenewedeffortsto genderruralauthorityas male
andraceit as Spanishcollided.Forthesealliancesnicelyresolvedsomeof
the contradictions in the crown'spost-rebellionpolicy towardthe cacical
elite: they tacitlyrecognizedthe claimsof loyalistfamilies,while moving
authorityin thepuebloto the Spanishrepublicandallowinga formalasser-
1--1
In August, 1781, rebel armiescapturedthe pueblo of Sorata,a refuge of royalistcreoles and Indian
nobles from the areasnorthand east of Titicaca;the ensuing massacredecimatedthe region's indigenous
elite. OtherMango Turpasintermarriedwith the Chuquicallata,hereditarycaciques of Saman and San
Taraco.ANB, EC-1786-175; ARE PSG, 149 (1790). Don MarianoQuispe Cavana (son of Antonio of
Cavanilla)marriedDoriaMariaRosario Llaclla GarciaPaca, an orphanedcacical heiress from Juli, and
served as cacique there in the 1790s; ARE, PRA, 386 (1797); ARE, PRA, 299 (1796).
102See also Guarocondoand
Pucyura:ARC, INT, Gob., 133 (1785); ARC, INT, RH, 202 (1798).
103ARC, RA, Ord., 18
(1795); ARC, N18, 181 T.S. Gamarra,17 July 1799.
578 OFHERSEX"
"INSPITE
tion of royalcontroloverthe office,as suchcreoleappointments were

InAnta,NicholasRosaswassucceeded
viewedas interim.104 by hiscreole
son-in-law.InTaraySebastianUnzuetacontinued to rulethroughhis wife
RitaTamboguacso. In neighboring Don
Coyahis nephew, Hermenegildo
Unzueta,elopedwiththe 17-yearoldheiressDoriaMariaYngaPaucarin
And so on
1789, and the couplesuccessfullysoughtthe cacicazgo.'--5
throughoutthebishopric.106
Indiannoblewomencertainlyperceivedthis changein policy. In
Carabuco, PedroMangoTurpalostcontrolof thecacicazgoafterhis wife
diedin themid-1790s. In 1805their22-yearolddaughter, DoriaBernarda,
complained to theintendant of LaPazthatherfatherhadnotprotected her
interestsandrequested to
permission marry a Don
creole, Pedrode Leario.
By theendof theyearsheappeared withhercreolehusband--Don Manuel
Therapidshiftin
for the cacicazgo.107
Bustillos,not Leario--petitioning
Bernarda's maritalstrategysuggestsbothher preference a creole,rather
for
thanIndiannoble,spouseto helppursueherclaim,andthatcreolesappre-
ciatedtheopportunities offeredtotapinto,ortakecon-
thatcacicalheiresses
trolof, puebloeconomies.108
ThatBernarda MangoTurpa andherpeersturned tocreolementodefend
theirpositionwasa resultnotonlyof thecrown'scleardesireto establish
ruralcreolesas thenewdominant classin thepueblo,butalsoof a pro-
nouncedshiftwithinindigenous societies.Duringtherebellion,anti-noble
violencehadbeenwidespread, as communities their
directed wrathagainst
Thatantagonism
thenativeelite.109 didnotdissipate withthedefeatof the
rebels:the1780sand1790ssawpopular cacicalfam-
riotsagainstsurviving
and
ilies, frequent to thecourtsto depose cacical "--This
dynasties.
appeals
1--4 Unzueta's
See Sebastian unsuccessful
attemptto be namedcaciqueof TarayafterRitaTam-
deathin 1798;theproprietary
boguacso's wasacknowledged.
claimof theirchildren ARC,AUD,Ord.,
31(1798).
1--5
ARC,AUD,Ord.,6 (1790)and9 (1791).
1--6
Table1;alsoARC,INT,Gob.,142(1790)forCaptain Narsiso (husband
Valdeiglesias of Dofia
MartinaTitoSuticCallapitia) ADP,INT,35;ARC,AUD,Ord.,33(1799)forthehus-
inPacarectambo;
bandsof Pacoricona
heiressesinLampaandCalapuja;AGN,DI,574fortheson-in-law of thelateDon
Andres ascacique
Calisaya ARC,AUD,Ord.,30(1798)andOrd.33(1799);
ofTiquillaca; ARC,AUD,
Admin.161(1801-02);forthecreolehusbands inJuli.AlsoCahill,FromRebellion
of twoheiresses to
Independence,157-9.
107ABN,EC,1805-19andEC,1807-11.
1--8 1808forDonaPetrona
AAC,LXIV-4-62, divorce
Sinanyuca's inwhichsheinsisted
proceedings
hercreolehusband
thatshehadmarried inCoporaque.
onlytoholdontothefamilycacicazgo
1--9 "WhyKillthe Spaniard?";
Szeminski, Thomson, WeAloneWillRule;Garrett,Shadows of
Empire.
11-- el toletole,pp.118-27.
Salai Vila,Yse armO
DAVIDT. GARRETT 579
popularoppositionresonatedwitheffortsby Spanishgovernorsto promote

the cabildoandits officesas a counterbalance to the indigenousnobility.111
Formally an on
assault aristocratic the
authority, impactof invigorateddem-
ocraticgovernancewas deeplygendered,as the 1797challengeto Choque-
huancaauthorityin Murianidemonstrates. So do the complaintsof Doria
IsabelMangoTurpa, the widow of San Taraco's hereditary caciquewhohad
beenappointedcacicaon his death.112 In 1802,Isabelwroteto theintendant
of Punothatin electingits alcaldethecommunityhad"laughingly castaside
my proposal,appointing PabloQuispe . . . in spiteof the prevalencein this
individualof a disobedientspirit";Quispehadlongbeena staunchfoe of the
Chuquicallatas.113This formalrepudiation of herpowerwas reflectedin a
general loss of authority:in 1800 she sent a plaintiveletterto her son in
Puno,detailingher plight:"theIndians,seeingthatI am a poor,destitute
woman,pay no attentionto me, and often thereis no one to bringme a
pitcherof waterto thekitchen.-,,114
Isabel'semphasison her sex highlightschangingrelationsof ethnicity,
estate,gender,and authorityin the pueblo.Despitethe assaulton aristo-
cratic,indigenousauthority(culminatingin its abolitionat independence),
for noblementhe democraticofficesof pueblogovernmentremainedopen.
Many communitiesdid not repudiatetheir cacical families, and former
caciquesretainedauthorityby occupyingtheelectedofficeof alcalde.Inthe
short-livedconstitutional
orderof 1811-14,Indiannoblemenservedon the
new,inter-ethnic puebloayuntamientos; andafterindependence men from
old cacical familiesnumberedamongthe electorsfor the Peruviancon-
gress.115In contrast,insofaras indigenousnoblewomenbecame simply
they lost formalpoliticalauthority.One responsewas for Indian
"indias,-"
noblewomento becomeless IndianandmoreSpanish.Thus,whentheSpan-
ish vecinasof Lampawroteto the viceroyin Limain 1813 to complain
aboutthe decliningsubservienceof the pueblo'sIndianpopulation("with
theirarrogantandseditiouscharacter"), one of the signerswas DoriaIgna-
cia Pacoricona,fromthe old cacicalfamily.116
broughttheendof theIndianelite.Formally,thishappened
Independence
in 1825,withthe abolitionof the cacicazgoandof legal nobility,although
111O'Phelan
Godoy, Kurakassin sucesiones; Sala i Vila, Yse arm6 el tole tole, pp. 151-62; Garrett,
Shadows of Empire,pp. 226-7.
112ARC, PRA, 170. Both families had been staunchdefendersof the crown in the rebellion.
113ARE, PRA, 139 and 320.
114ARE, PSG, 180.
115Garrett,Shadows
of Empire,pp. 226-7, 246-7, 253-4.
116BNP, Man., D-6075.
overtheprecedinggenerationtheofficethathadenabledtheirauthoritywas
claimedby creolesandby the crown,andthe Indianrepublicitself repudi-
atedits hereditaryrulingstratum.117After1825the "tworepublics"of colo-
nial Peru the unequalbut separaterealmsof SpaniardandIndian--were
replacedby theethnicallystratifiedRepublicof Peru,suchthattheveryidea
of an "Indiannobility"hadno placein the new nationalpolitics.118At the
individuallevel, old cacicalfamiliesmaintainedtheirprivilegeby marrying
creolesandbecoming"white,"bringingcacicallandsas privateproperty
intothecontrolof a newruralelitethataggressivelyuseda languageof eth-
nicityto differentiateitselffromthe Indianpeasantry.
So completewas this elisionof a spaceof Indianprivilege,thatonly in

thepastdecadeshastheroleof indigenouselitesin colonialsocietyattracted
the noticeof scholars;studyof the caciquehas produceda reevaluation of
the organization of colonialsocietyandof the collaborations thatenabled
Spanishsovereignty, as well as a rethinking
of identity,community, andcul-
turein the Indianrepublic.Similarly,attentionto the cacicarefocusesour
view of thepoliticsof theIndianpueblo,andtheeffectson themof colonial
legislation,the state,andcreolesettlement.Mostobviously,sucha perspec-
tive foregroundsthe genderingof authority,confirmingbut also nuancing
thepatriarchy of cacicalruleto accountforbothwomen'sformalpossession
of the office andthe centralityof the cacicalcoupleas the dominantpoliti-
cal force in most communities.Focus on the cacica also elucidatesthe
importanceof elite powerandpoliticsin the Andeanpueblo,revealinga
largerstratumof nobles who dominatedthe communitiesof the Indian
republicfor mostof the colonialera,andwho competedfor the paramount
authorityof the cacique, a competitionoften conductedand resolved
throughthe tyingof cacicalofficeto a nobleheiress.If formallysuchpoli-
tics anddetermination of successionranafoulof boththecrown'seffortsto
affirmfather-sonsuccessionandroyalcontroloverthe cacicazgo,in prac-
ticethecacicasolidifiedthenoblecontrolovercommunities on whichSpan-
ish rulerelied.In herpossessionof patriarchal office, the cacicaembodied
the contradictions thatconstitutedthe colonialorderin thepueblo:between
popularandelite localrule;betweena bureaucratic, sovereignstateandthe
locallordson whichit relied;andbetweentheidealof puebloautonomyand
the ever-expanding creolepopulation.
117Nils Jacobsen,
Mirages of Transition:The PeruvianAltiplano, 1780-1930 (Berkeley:University
Press,1993),pp.122-4.
of California
118MarcThurner,From Two
Republicsto One Divided: Contradictionsof Colonial Nationmakingin
DukeUniversity
Peru(Durham: Press,1996).
DAVIDT. GARRETT 581
Eventually,those contradictions broughtdown the colonialorder,and

with it the cacique.Certainly,democraticoppositionto aristocratic power
anda strengthening stateseekingto controlofficescreatedandconcededby
earlierabsolutistmonarchswerecommonin the Atlanticworldin the late
1700s,andelsewheretheseforceshadsimilarlygenderedimplications.The
complexprocessof usurpation andmaritalallianceby whichhighlandcre-
oles managedto win controlof the Indianpueblowas morepeculiarto the
Andes.And,of course,theresultantpost-colonialsocietyof theAndes,with
its democraticpueblosunderconstantassaultfrom an invigoratedcreole
elite anda liberalstate,set the groundwork for a modernpoliticaleconomy
in the highlands that both denied and reproducedthe two-republic
dichotomyon whichthe colonialorderwas erected.Historianshave long
emphasizedhow the expansionof capitalistrelationsof productionand
worldmarketsin the nineteenthcenturytransformed the puebloeconomy,
andmorerecentlyhow the expansionof the statein the eighteenthcentury
reworkedpueblopolitics.119 Thatin the processthe possibilitydisappeared
thata DofiaJulianaTico Chipanawouldbe able to ruleher community,a
pesar de su sexo andin keepingwith generationsof practice,remindsus
bothof theenormousvarietyin themyriadcollaborations andcompromises
thatcomprisedrulein the earlymodernworld,andthe unnotedelisionsin
LatinAmerica'spost-colonialtransition.
Reed College DAVIDT. GARRETT

Portland,Oregon
119FlorenciaMallon, The
Defense of Communityin Peru's CentralHighlands: Peasant Struggle and
Capitalist Transition, 1860-1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983); Herbert S. Klein,
Haciendas and Ayllus: Rural Society in the Bolivian Andes in the Eighteenthand Nineteenth Centuries
(Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress, 1993); Jacobsen,Mirages of Transition;O'PhelanGodoy, Kurakas
sin sucesiones; Thomson, WeAlone WillRule; Serulnikov,SubvertingColonial Authority.

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

Author(s): David T. Garrett

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In October,1797,theindiosprincipalesof theAndeanpuebloof Mufiani

priateentryintothe cacicazgo,"addingthat"onaccountof herdistinctsex

AndeanJourneys:Migration,Ethnogenesisand the State in Colonial Quito (Albuquerque:University of

who have examinedthe cacicamorebroadlyas a phenomenonof colonial

Focusingon the cacicain the bishopricof CuscoandnorthernLa Paz in

theyheld office, cacicasembodieda local resolutionin favorof hereditary

Peeringintothe pueblofromthe vantagepointof the cacicaalso allows

Elitecompetitionfor cacicalpowerwas but one arenaof politicsin the

Then,bothhelpingto provokeandaidedby the GreatRebellion,popu-

Information aboutcacicalauthorityandsuccessionis anecdotal:colonial

13 David Cahill, From Rebellion to

Map 1. Women Caciques

thatcacicaswerecommonin latecolonialCusco,a bishopricthatstretched

15 "Indian"is used to referto those so classified

Map 2. WomenCaciques-Cusco Detail

basinsformedan agropastoralist boundarybetweentheseandthe complex

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

In at leastseventeenof theroughlythirtyInca-ruled villagesandparishes

tinuingauthorityof herfamilyin thecommunity;

The cacicawas not a late colonialinnovation.Whileevidenceis scarcer

20 Rostworowski, Curacas Sucesiones; Silverblatt,Moon, Sun, Witches,

dependedas muchon localpoliticsas on thebroadstrictures of coloniallaw.

Thatis notto say theywentunnoted:cacicasprovokedcommentin mid-

25 ARC, INT, RH, 218 (1807), f. 6r for

Otherwitnesses were more interestedin the circumstancesin which a

Otherdocumentsshow a similar,conditionalacceptanceof femalesuc-

This, of course,raisesthe issue of whetherthese womenwho formally

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

Suchtestimonydoes notprovideclearanswersto what,if any,particular

38ARC,RA,Ord.,31 (1798),f. 18v".. . es costumbre ynconcuza e ymmemorialnosuccedan las

43 AAC, II-7-128; ARC, COR, Ped., 90

drunkthe blood of one cacica.49Takentogether,such incidentsand com-

understanding of thecacicazgoasheldby anindividual, in theirrolein vil-

cised considerable controloverit in marriage, but wereexcludedfrom

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

The cacicazgothus stood at the heartof pueblopolitics, and was the

centralrolein elitepolitics,in twoways.First,as anheiressthecacicadis-

minedsuch ayllu networks,andby the 1750s Cusco'spuebloswere dis-

The generousconcessionof nobility(by edict and by custom)to the

81Garrett,"Los Incas borbOnicos."

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

Indeed,in some cases a cacicalmatrilineapparently preventedany one

Cacicasalso loomedlargein anothernegotiationat the heartof pueblo

89 ARC, INT, Gob., 139

the Indianrepublic.But thatwouldchangedramatically in the last decades

Fromlate 1780through1781,muchof theIndianpopulationfromCusco

Therebellionswereresponsesto thecrown'seffortsto expandits control

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

heiresses enabledsurvivingmembersof Titicaca'scacical dynastiesto

Continuinguntil the outbreakof the wars of independencein 1809,

Courtsand governorslookedmorefavorablyon the claimsof cacicas'

tion of royalcontroloverthe office,as suchcreoleappointments were

popularoppositionresonatedwitheffortsby Spanishgovernorsto promote

So completewas this elisionof a spaceof Indianprivilege,thatonly in

Eventually,those contradictions broughtdown the colonialorder,and

Reed College DAVIDT. GARRETT

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