Socially and culturally ambiguous: criollo-mestizo population in the 17th century, Tucumán

Abstract

This article analyzes the influence of indigenous societies on the descendants of Spanish conquistadors, known as criollos. The subject is approached through a case study which shows how a faction of San Miguel de Tucumán town council (cabildo) tried to prevent the admission of Juan Jordán de Trejo as deputy governor (teniente de gobernador). He belonged to the Melián de Leguizamo y Guevara family, owners of encomiendas in Tafí, but his lower lineage made him served as the town’s administrator. Specific characteristics of his intercultural persona resembling a mirror image -referred to as Spanishization or Westernization of the Indians- will be studied, including his fluency in the indigenous language, his knowledge of pre-Hispanic societies and their territories and his illiteracy. His role as interethnic mediator (passeur culturel), and the advantages and drawbacks such a profile presents at different junctures, for social and political participation in the dominant group, will also be analyzed.