“Do not allow that the encomendero forces us to personal services or mistreats us”. Infrajudicial violence and punishments in an Indian village in La Rioja, late seventeenth century

Abstract

This article examines the punishments and mistreatments that the Indigenous people of Guaco -La Rioja, Tucumán Province, Viceroyalty of Peru- suffered at late 17th century, from a trial and the Inspection of Luján de Vargas. In order to determine if these punishments were legitimate, we will examine the legislation of the Indian villages and several Indian testimonies found in colonial files. This paper will show that the power of certain offices used violence as a mechanism of infrajudicial coercion, in a context where practices of personal service still prevailed. Then, we will analyse the Hispanic-Creole imaginary that underlies these punishments, observing what the dominant establishment fears and wants to prevent through violence and intimidation. Finally, we will reflect on the multiple dimensions of punishments and mention some of theindigenous strategies to denounce them.