City Indians in Spain's American Empire

Urban Indigenous Society in Colonial Mesoamerica and Andean South America, 1530-1810

Bibliographic Data

ID2774569
AuthorsR A Kashanipour (Northern Arizona University, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume93
Issue4
Pages700-701
Publication date2013-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-2351825
OpenAlexW2317124512
LanguageEN
Citations received13

Charles Gibson concluded his seminal ethnohistorical work The Aztecs under Spanish Rule (1964) by describing urban areas as spaces that advanced the deterioration of colonial indigenous societies. In the city, Gibson claimed, indigenous communities decayed into a pueblo bajo characterized by extreme poverty, rampant criminality, and dysfunctional institutions. City Indians in Spain’s American Empire represents an overdue revision of the Gibsonian perspective and shows that native societies not only endured the challenges of city life but also were critical to the development and maintenance of colonial societies as a whole. This excellent volume explores the myriad methods of indigenous agency to show the malleability of indigenous societies within urban spaces across colonial Latin America.Bringing together multiple generations of ethnohistorians of Mesoamerica and the Andes, this anthology takes up a range of issues directly related to urban indigenous populations in Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru, including ethnic identity, migration, property, and local governance. Uniting the essays is a mutual interest in examining how city-dwelling Indians shaped the urban world by drawing upon long-standing ethnic traditions, maintaining rural connections, and navigating social relations divided by colonial authority. John Chance, who once described the near-complete dearth of knowledge about indigenous peoples beyond the countryside, introduces the volume by noting that while Spaniards may have established colonial cities, indigenous peoples, through their societies and institutions, made them distinctly their own. The chapters on the construction of identity illustrate the shifting landscapes of ethnicity in colonial cities. David Cahill shows that in Cuzco, the Ayarmaca and Pumamarca used kinship ties and lineage claims to merge into one ayllu as a single ethnicity. This, he argues, allowed them to shift from marginalized positions to noble status among Andean indigenous groups. Susan Schroeder examines a generalized Nahua identity in the writings of the seventeenth-century annalist Chimalpahin. In historical memory, the great altepetl of Tenochtitlan served as the point of identification for commoners and nobles across central Mexico.Mobility emerges as an important aspect of urban life. Paul Charney illustrates that in establishing distinct indigenous communities in early colonial Lima such as Santiago del Cercado, Spanish authorities defined a space where indigenous migrants found “a socially and economically differentiated and racially conscious society” (p. 100). Gabriela Ramos claims that while Lima and Cuzco indeed attracted migrants from the countryside, urban indigenous social relations were far from harmonious. The ongoing movement of migrants disrupted indigenous elite networks of authority, particularly in Cuzco. Rachel Sarah O’Toole shows that late colonial Spaniards struggled to control the movement of populations both from the countryside and within Trujillo. Often declared vagrants by colonial authorities, indigenous migrants established economic connections that not only moved wealth between urban and rural areas but also allowed for the creation of social associations that protected indigenous cultural practices within the city.A series of compelling chapters highlight how indigenous institutions operated under colonial urban conditions. William F. Connell finds that Spanish indigenous alliances were central to the creation of colonial institutions in Mexico in the first decades after the conquest. Until 1565, the restoration of Aztec governance, particularly the position of the tlatoani, instilled peace and stability within Mexico Tenochtitlan. Mark Lentz carefully shows that in spite of diverse ethnic populations in late colonial Mérida, indigenous urban political governance directly mirrored rural Maya institutions. Urban cabildos struggled to navigate the multiple layers of authority to maintain political autonomy, as Maya elites used cabildos to challenge property and hereditary claims by nonindigenous populations, a strategy that became increasingly unsuccessful through the eighteenth century. Margarita R. Ochoa aptly illustrates that while indigenous property rights may have declined in late colonial Mexico City, the urban Indian retained a distinctly indigenous character formed by generations of navigating community and colonial institutions of authority.The comparative nature of this volume shows the great diversity of experiences for urban Indians, particularly in the area of ethnic relations. Robinson A. Herrera posits that the multiethnic population of Santiago de Guatemala struggled to navigate the Spanish institutions and the distinct populations within the city. In eight barrios, Nahuas from central Mexico lived among Q’eqchi’ and Kaqchikel from Guatemala. Spaniards, terrified of indigenous rebellions, regularly employed violence to control, separate, and terrorize urban populations. Dana Velasco Murillo and Pablo Miguel Sierra Silva reveal that indigenous groups in midcolonial Zacatecas and Puebla artfully navigated the complex web of social relations within these cities. In spite of a wide variety of labor and class conditions, urban Indians cohesively integrated with other ethnic groups, particularly people of African descent.City Indians represents an important work that captures how indigenous societies were not simply the lower masses of colonial cities but rather were important, though overlooked, contributors to the colonial world. Kevin Terraciano, a preeminent historian of rural Mesoamerica, concludes this volume with the reminder that indigenous peoples continue to move into cities across the Americas, where they face deeply rooted challenges of social and cultural viability

Archaeology · Colonialism · Empire · Ethnic group · Ethnology · Geography · Indigenous · Latin Americans · Mesoamerica · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · History · Latin American history and culture · Law

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