The Invisible Miners of Huancavelica: "Indios Mineros" and the Value of Regional Archives to Colonial History

• In Event: Nuevas exploraciones y lecturas del corpus y el archivo coloniales

Abstract

Scholarship on Colonial Latin America has grown in both geographic scope and methodological sophistication in recent decades, yet regional archives continue to be an underutilized resource. While the challenges of working in regional archives, from transportation to organizational obstacles, are significant, technological advances have made it possible to put previously ignored regional archives in conversation with those in colonial centers of power. Adding these sources to scholarship promises to challenge even widely held assumptions about the colonial period. The Huancavelica Mercury mines in Peru, for example, have long been regarded as the archetypal example of Spanish colonial oppression. From the mortality of forced indigenous laborers to the continuing environmental damage caused by mercury contamination, the mines became a symbol from the sixteenth century to the present of the abuses that characterized colonial mining. Recent research in the local archives, however, reveals that the local indigenous community successfully leveraged their early services to the Crown to secure certain protections, including exemption from forced labor and continued access to the mines themselves. These revelations challenge the rendering of Huancavelica that has persisted since the sixteenth century and demonstrate to Peruvian authorities and academics alike the value of preserving their many regional archives.

Author

• Mark P Dries, Eastern Illinois University