Between altars and desks. Ethnic leadership and local power in the pen of three priests-chroniclers of Lake Titicaca (1570-1650)

Abstract

By late sixteenth century colonial rule in Southern Andes included processesof reduction of ethnic groups to pueblos de indios (native villages) and anincrease of the religious conversion by parish priests (curas doctrineros). Thetransformations among the native groups in 1570-1650 enabled new marginsof action for three social actors that became knots of local power: the provincialgovernor (corregidor), the ethnic leader (cacique) and the priest. To examinethe interactions between these authorities in the pueblos belonging to thecorregimientos of Lake Titicaca we analyze some discourses elaborated byreligious about their contemporary caciques: such as Fray Martín de Murúa,Fray Alonso Ramos Gavilán and Licenciado Pedro Vallejo de Velasco, whoseoffices where in the pueblos of Capachica (corregimiento of Paucarcolla),Copacabana (corregimiento of Omasuyos) and Caquiaviri (corregimiento ofPacajes), respectively, during the last decades of the sixteenth century andthe first half of the seventeenth century.