“A los Reales pies de Vuestra Magestad”: The Process of Building and Recognition of Vicente Mora Chimo as a Legitimate Political Figure in Early Bourbon Peru

• In Event: Re-pensando el sujeto político indiano: representaciones y performatividades políticas en el siglo XVIII hispanoamericano

Abstract

Linked to the Spanish arbitrista and proyectista traditions, the indigenous memorials of the 17th and 18th century played an important role in the development of an indigenous narrative of social injustice as well as of political participation in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Unlike their peninsular relatives, in the case of the indigenous memorials, they were very likely the result of collective efforts; and, increasingly, the written texts were as relevant for their political goals as the people that stood behind them. For that reason, this work analyzes the evolution of Vicente Mora Chimo as a political figure. In order to do so, I will examine his political career through the evolution of his texts. He went from being an Indian of the Chimú Valley, who struggled to be authorized for representing his own family at a local level in the 1710s, to become representative of the Indian Nation of Peru in the courts of Spain for almost two decades in the 1720s and 1730s. The directions that his career took was the result of tensions among different sectors of the indigenous elites and his ability to negotiate with the Spanish power in their terms. I suggest that these tensions and negotiations can be traced through the discursive evolution of his texts.

Author

• Jaime Vargas Luna, University of Wisconsin - Madison