Ward Stavig Potosi

Continuing the Bleeding of These Pueblos Will Shortly Make Them Cadavers: The Potosi Mita,
Cultural Identity, and Communal Survival in Colonial Peru

Author(s): Ward Stavig
Source: The Americas, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Apr., 2000), pp. 529-562
Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1008172
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The Americas
56:4 April 2000, 529-562
Copyrightby the Academy of American
FranciscanHistory
CONTINUINGTHE BLEEDINGOF THESE PUEBLOS

WILL SHORTLYMAKE THEM CADAVERS:
THE POTOSIMITA, CULTURALIDENTITY,AND
COMMUNALSURVIVALIN COLONIALPERU*
The
exploitationof Andeanvillagersundertheforcedlaborregimefor
the mines of Potosi is almost as infamous as the silver they extracted

from the cerro rico is famous.' Establishedby Viceroy Toledo in the
1570s, the mita, as the system of forced laborwas known, remainedin place
until the smoke and shot of LatinAmericanindependencestruggleswere in
the air. For over two centuries, Spain forced thousandsupon thousandsof
naturales (a common colonial term for indigenous people) from communities throughoutthe southern Andean highlands to lend their muscle and
sweat, and all too often their blood and their lives, to keep Potosi's veins
open and flowing. Throughthis work the mitayos and their communitiesnot
only drove the colonial economy, but also were a majorforce in sustaining
the Spanish empire and in helping forge the modernworld's dominanteconomic system. Conversely,mita exploitationthreatenedthe very survivalof
the communities subject to it. The mita was so onerous that virtually all
indigenouspeoples subjectto the labordraft,regardlessof ethnicityor class,
raised an almost continuousvoice of protestfrom theircommunitiesagainst
the mita and its abuses. Tensions createdby the mita also severely strained
the bonds that linked community,curaca, and the state, which were primary
ingredientsin the social glue thatkept colonial Andeansociety from coming
apart.To avoid descending into the mines, and to escape such horrorsas
laboringover mercuryvapors, many people permanentlyfled their communities, giving up the status of originarios (communitymemberswith rights
* I would like to thankArnoldBauer,Dan Calhoun,and Rollie
Poppinofor commentson early versions and Ella Schmidtand the helpful anonymousreadersfor theiruseful suggestions on later versions.
Parts of this article have appearedin WardStavig, The Worldof Tapac Amaru (Lincoln: University of
NebraskaPress, 1999).
1 Potosi is properlywrittenwith an accent on the "i" but it is so
commonly writtenwithoutthe accent
that I have opted for the convenience of not using the accent.
529
530
COMMUNAL SURVIVAL IN COLONIAL PERU
such as access to land and subjectto state obligations)to becomeforasteros

(indigenous person not living in communityof origin, or descendantof the
same, withoutcommunalrightsbut exempt from many state obligations).2In
this way the mita, one of the few forces thathad potentialfor unitingAndean
peoples in opposition to the state also fracturedthem. Communalsolidarity
was severely strainedand neitherthe sharedexperience of the mita nor the
commonality of experience in Potosi created sufficient cohesion to overcome the ethnic and regional differencesthat divided them.
In recent years the importanceof Potosi silver has led considerableattention to be focused on the cerrorico, its workers,and the economy by scholars such as Peter Bakewell and EnriqueTandeterwho benefited from pioneering works such as those of Alberto CrespoRodas and Gwendolin Cobb
and GabrielRen6-Moreno.In addition,Jeffrey Cole has drawn attentionto
royal concerns about the mita and the difficulty faced in reforming the
system.3Unlike most otherstudies of the mita thatcenteron Potosi, this article examines the impactof the silver mining complex on the Andes from the
focal point of indigenousvillagers and the communitiesin which they lived.'
The analytic lens is trained outwardfrom the community as it brings into
focus the web of relationshipsthat villages constructedwith Potosi, and its
economic orbit, through direct and indirect coercion as well as by "free"
(within the colonial context) choice. These complex interactionsare examined throughthe experience of villagers in the provinces of Quispicanchis
and Canas y Canchis (Cuzco) located between the former Inca capital and
Lake Titicaca. Sources from the early years of Potosi are used to provide
depth and understanding,particularlyin the first few pages, but the research
centers primarilyon the mid-seventeenththrougheighteenthcenturies.The
article examines how communities in Canas y Canchis and Quispicanchis,
2 The situationsof
originariosand, especially, forasterosvaried significantlyfrom place to place and
over time. Space does not allow for a more complex definition here. One might look at Ann Wightman,
IndigenousMigrationand Social Change: The Forasteros of Cuzco 1570-1720 (Durham:Duke University Press, 1990); and KarenPowers, "ResilientLordsand IndianVagabonds:Wealth,Migration,and the
ReproductiveTransformationof Quito's Chiefdoms, 1500-1700," Ethnohistory38:3 (1991).
3 There is a growing literatureon Potosi and the mita. One might begin by examiningthe following:
Peter Bakewell, Miners of the Red Mountain: Indian Labor in Potosi, 1545-1650 (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press, 1984); Jeffrey A. Cole, The Potosi Mita 1573-1700: CompulsoryIndian
Labor in the Andes (Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress, 1985); EnriqueTandeter,Coercionand Market.
Silver Mining in Colonial Potosi, 1692-1826 (Albuquerque:Universityof New Mexico Press, 1993). For
early works see Gwendolin Cobb, Supply and Transportationfor the Potosi Mines, 1545-1640,"HAHR
29:1 (1949); Alberto CrespoRodas, "El reclutaminetoy los viajes en la 'mita'del Cerrode Potosi, in La
MinerfaHispana e IberoAmericana(Leon, 1970); GabrielRene'-Moreno,"LaMita de Potosi en 1795,"
Revista del Institutode InvestigacionesHist6ricas de la UniversidadTomdsFrids, Potosi 1, (1959-60).
4 For anotherregional study of the mita see Roberto Choque Canqui, "El papel de los capitanesde
indios de la provinci Pacajes'en el entero de la mita' del Potosi,"RevistaAndina 1:1 (1983).
WARDSTAVIG
531
faced with fleeing and reluctanceto work in Potosi, developed strategiesto

amelioratetheirmita burdenand ensurethe complianceof communitymembers with colonial demands.Failureto comply with these demandsput both
communitymembersand the curacain jeopardy of state reprisalsincluding
jail, obraje labor and loss of access to land. In evolving these strategies,
Andean villagers sought to enforce communal solidarity and in this way
safeguardtheir existence. Service to the crown in the mita was viewed by
Cuzco villagers as guaranteeingthem access to land within a largely selfgoverning village structure-preserving their way of life, their culture.
Thus, they struggledto comply, while at the same time protestingthe mita
and the abuses it fostered. This quid pro quo of labor in exchange for land
and culturalsurvivalwas anchorednot only in imperialdemands,but also in
Andean understandingsof the "exchanges" that governed relationships
between ruled and ruler.5Thus, while the mita seriously destructuredcommunities at one level, at anotherlevel it also providedspecial impetusto villagers to reinforce communal solidarity.In this way the most destructuring
force in the SouthernAndes next to epidemics, the mita, also functionedto
maintainor develop structuresof identity and solidaritythat allowed communities to cope with the problemscreatedby the mita.
The provinces of Quispicanchisand Canas y Canchis were selected for
several reasons. Their distance from the cerro rico heightened some of the
mita-relatedproblemsthey faced. The specializationof the peoples of Canas
y Canchisin the transportof goods based on a heritageof llama herdingcreated contradictionsfor some villagers by allowing them to take advantageof
the lucrativemarketin Potosi, as well as otherlocal and regionalmarkets,to
supplement their income. Likewise, many people in Quispicanchis were
involved in coca productionand a majormarketfor this fatigue-lesseningand
5 For a discussion of these issues one might begin with E.P. Thompson,"TheMoral Economy of the
English Crowd in the Eighteenthcentury,"Past and Present, 50 (February1971). For a more updated
view of Thompson's thoughts on moral economy as it has come to be used in other fields, especially
peasant studies, see "Moral Economy Reviewed" in Customs in Common (London, 1991) especially
pages pp. 339-351. Much of this discussion is drawn from an article of mine in the Hispanic American
Historical Review (WardStavig, "EthnicConflict, Moral Economy, and Populationin Rural Cuzco on
the Eve of the ThupaAmaro II Rebellion,"HAHR,68:4 (November 1988). A conversationwith Brooke
Larsonat the 1986 CLASCOconferencein Lima and the papershe presented,"'Exploitation'and 'Moral
Economy' in the SouthernAndes: A CriticalReconsideration,"were helpful to me. Also on the Andes,
see TristanPlatt,Estado bolivianoy ayllu andino (Lima, 1982) and ErickD. Langer,"LaborStrikes and
Reciprocityon ChuquisacaHaciendas,"HAHR,vol. 65:2 (1985). In Mexico see Kevin Gosner,Soldiers
of the Virgin(Tucson:University of Arizona Press, 1992). Also see James L. Scott, The Moral Economy
of the Peasants: Rebellion and Subsistencein SoutheastAsia (Yale University Press:New Haven, 1976)
and Weaponsof the Weak:EverydayForms of Peasant Resistance (Yale University Press: New Haven,
1985). Thompson has been criticized for not differentiatingbetween sectors of the "community,"a differentiationthat is fundamentalto my argument.
532
COMMUNALSURVIVALIN COLONIALPERU
hunger-dampeningleaf were the minersin Potosi. Thus,Canasy Canchisand

Quispicanchiswere articulatedthrough forced and free labor to the local,
regional, and Atlantic world economies. These multiple articulationsAndean/viceregal/European,
micro/macro-provide the backdropfor examthe
efforts
of
Andean
peoples to maintaintheirways of life while living
ining
with the yoke of Spanishimperialismaroundtheircommunalnecks.6In addition, these provincesare a good region from which to examinethe role of the
state for decisions made by the Spanishcrown reverberatedloudly in Cuzco
communities such as Tungasuca,Pampamarca,and Surimana,the villages
ruledover by the eighteenthcenturyrebel leaderTripacAmaruwhose rebellion sought, among other aims, to end the dreadedmita.
The analysis also follows Cuzco mitayos to Potosi to examine ways in
which theirlives in the Villa Imperialwere shapedby colonial policies that,
as with other mitayos, segregatedthem residentiallyby race from the Spanish and divided them by ethnicitywithin the barriosset aside for them, while
subjectingthem to difficult living conditions and a frightful work environment. This separationand segregation,as we shall see, had a strong,if unintentional,influence on the maintenanceof communaland regional identities
of mitayos and theirfamilies by functioningto diminisheven furthererosion
of communalsolidarity,considerabledamage always being done.
The article also pays particularattention to indigenous use of Spanish
institutionalstructures,particularlythe law, which they sought to use toward
their own ends. As Eric Hobsbawmputs it, they were "workingthe system
... to their minimum disadvantage."7At the same time, the article shows
how naturales transformed these institutions or, as Michel de Certeau
argues,divertedtheiruse "fromits intendedaims."Accordingto de Certeau,
Evenwhentheyweresubjected,indeedevenwhentheyacceptedtheirsubjecthatwere
tion,the Indiansoftenusedthe laws,practices,andrepresentations
to endsotherthanthoseof theconimposedon themby forceorby fascination
querors;they madesomethingelse out of them;they subvertedthemfrom
within-not by rejectingthemor by transforming
them(thoughthatoccurred
as well),butby manydifferentwaysof usingthemin theserviceof rules,customsor convictionsforeignto the colonizationwhichtheycouldnot escape.
the dominantorder:theymadeit functionin anotherregTheymetaphorized
ister.Theyremainedotherwithinthesystemwhichtheyassimilated
andwhich
assimilatedthemexternally.
Theydivertedit withoutleavingit.8
6 Doreen
Massey, "DoubleArticulation.A Place in the World"in Displacements: CulturalIdentities
in Question (Bloomington:IndianaUniversity Press, 1994), pp. 110-121.
7 Eric Hobsbawm,"Peasantsand Politics," Journal of Peasant Studies, 1, no.1 (1973).
8 Michel de Certeau,The Practice of EverydayLife, Steven F Rendell, trans.(Berkeley:
University
of CaliforniaPress, 1984), pp. 31-32.
WARDSTAVIG
533
POTOSI
RICHES
ANDCOMMUNAL
DECLINE
After the fall of Tawantinsuyu,Europeansquickly spread out over the
remains of the Inca Empire in search of the sources of gold and silver that
dazzled Pizarro and his men. In 1545 this search was rewardedwhen an
Indian named Hualpa, working for a Spaniard, discovered what soon
became the world's greatest silver mine. The Spaniardregistered the first
claim at Potosi and was among the first to be enrichedby its ore. Like later
mitayos, neitherHualpanor his grandchildren,who petitionedthe crown for
rights and exemptions in compensationfor the service their grandfatherhad
renderedSpain, benefited from the discovery.9
Word of the precious ore spreadlike wildfire and Potosi, despite being
located in a cold, sterile, windswept and sparsely inhabited region of the
Andes some 4,000 meters above sea level, spranginto existence overnight.
Their heads filled with dreamsof riches, Spaniardsrushed to the cerro rico
and "Indianscame from all partsto extract silver from the hill," many sent
Just a few years after silver was discovby theircuracasor encomenderos.10
ered the wry Jesuit, Father Joseph de Acosta, observed that the "force of
silver, which drawesunto it the desire of all thinges, hathpeopled this mountaine more then (sic) any other place in all these Kingdomes.""1
By 1610
Potosi had some 160,000 residents, including 76,000 Indians and some
6,000 people of partialor full African heritage,but as silver productionfell
so did the population.12By 1719, with an epidemic ragingin Potosi, the Villa
Imperial had shrunk to 60,000 and as the eighteenth century closed the
numberof residentswas estimatedat 24,500.13
In the first years after discovery the amountof ore extractedfrom Potosi
was trulyfantasticand it was duringthese boom years thatthe first naturales
from Canas y Canchis were sent to Potosi. Don Carlos Inca, the heir to the
Inca throne and the Spanish puppet ruler,had been grantedan encomienda
in Canasy Canchisandhe owned mines in Potosi. In 1566 Don Carlosasked
9 FatherJoseph de Acosta, The Natural & Moral History of the Indies, C. Clements Markham,ed.
(London:HakluytSociety, 1880), p. 197.
10 Pedrode Cieza de Leon, Travelsof Pedro de Cieza de Leon, C. ClementsMarkham,ed. and trans.
(London:HakylutSociety, 1864), p. 387.
11 Acosta, Natural & Moral History, p. 197.
12 Bartolom6Arzins de Orstia y Vela, Historia de la Villa
Imperial de Potosi, Lewis Hanke and
GunnarMendoza, eds. Vol. 1 (Providence:Brown University Press, 1965), p. 286.
13 Arzins, Historia, III, 85; Pedro Vicente Cafiete
y Dominguez, Gufa Hist6rica, Geogrdphica,
Fisica, Politica, Civil y Legal del Gobierno e Intendenciade la Provincia de Potosi (Potosi: Editorial
Potosi, 1952), p. 38.
534
his agent to sell the mines and "tohave care and administration[of] the Indians that I have and had in said villa."14
However, it was not throughmine work, but the transportof goods to the
cerro rico that most communities of the upper Vilcanota first began their
relationship with Potosi. Luis Miguel Glave uncovered twenty-four contracts to carry coca from Paucartambo,a province of Cuzco bordering
Quispicanchis, to Potosi between the years 1560-1575. Fourteen of these
contractswere from Canas y Canchis, leading Glave to state that there was
"a labor specializationof the Canas in the transportof coca."15The trajines
or transportof goods remaineda very importantactivity in Canasy Canchis
throughoutthe colonial period, but once institutedit was the mita that took
most Cuzco naturalesto distantPotosi.
By 1560, the richest most accessible ores had been mined and returns
were starting to diminish. Free Indians and Spaniards, along with their
yanacona, drifted away as the mines got deeper, the work harder,and the
rewards less. Low wages and arduous work held as little attractionfor
indigenous workers as for anyone else.16 The shortage of labor became a
serious concern for miners and the crown. Faced with declining quintos and
a scarcity of labor, Spain decided to force Andean villagers to carry the
burden of production through the imposition of the mita. Prosperitywas
returnedto Potosi when the amalgamationprocess, which used poisonous
but precious mercuryto refine low-grade ores, was introducedby Viceroy
Francisco de Toledo in the 1570s. The processing of low-grade ore meant,
however, that vast quantities of ore had to be mined to make the process
profitable.This, in turn,made necessary massive numbersof workersto do
the digging, carrying, refining, and building the new process demanded.
Thus, to secure a labor supply adequatefor increasedneeds, Toledo imposed
the mita on indigenouscommunitiesin the southernAndeanhighland.At the
same time he fixed wage levels for the mita at about one-thirdto one-half
those of free workers.Toledo also restructuredcommunallife by "reducing"
ayllus into villages to assurebettercontroland to facilitate,among otherreasons, the mita and tributecollection. By 1574 the new system was in place
and the first mitayos arrivedin Potosi. After its introduction,this mita subsidy of both workersand lower fixed wages drove the mining industryand
14 ANB.E.P. Bravo, 1568, f39v. (MC97e) 1566, VIII, 27. Cuzco. Cartade Poder: Don Carlos Inca,
vecino, a Pedro de la Torre,vecino de la ciudad de La Plata por diversos efectos incluyendo de minas e
indios.
15 Luis Miguel Glave, "Laproducci6nde los trajines:coca y mercadointernocolonial,"HISLA,No.
6 (Lima, 1986), p. 30.
16 Glave, "La
producci6n,"p. 35.
WARDSTAVIG
535
maintainedPotosi's economic prominence,but at a heavy cost to communities such as those of ruralCuzco. However, the alterationsToledo made in
communalstructureswould, ironically,prove to be an importantcomponent
in their long-termsurvival.
MIGRATION,FLIGHT,FAMILY,AND COMMUNALSUPPORT
The mita affected a vast region of the southernAndes that stretchedfrom

Quispicanchis and Canas y Canchis in the north to near what is now the
Argentine-Bolivianborder in the south." Only males between 18 and 50
were legally subject to the labor draft,the base mita populationin the subject provinces being 91,000 when established.No more thanone-seventh of
these men were to serve each year.This septima was referredto as the mita
gruesa and came to 13,500 in the first years. Mitayos were supposedto work
one week and have two weeks free so only 4,500 people-the mita ordinaria-were supposed to be toiling at any one moment. However, mitayos
had to sell their "free"labor for most, if not all, of their "restperiods" in
orderto survive.In the 1680s, a little over a centuryafterthe mita was established, only 33,423 of the original 91,000 remained.The fleeing, death and
disease that led to theirdecline had takentheir toll in ruralCuzco. The originario population of Canas y Canchis plummeted from 6,023 in 1575 to
3,683 in 1684 and to 1,755 in 1728.'8In 1617 the mita gruesa from Canas y
Canchis numbered754 men. By 1733 it had fallen to 318 and near 1780
there were only 269 mitayos in the province.The septimafor the villages of
Sicuani and Pichigua (Canas y Canchis) were 52 and 128 respectively in
1575, but by 1733 the numberof subject men had droppedto 30 and 65. In
1692 the septimafor the villages of Quispicanchiswas 111, but by the 1780s
the same septima containedonly 44 men.19
The migratoryprocess quickly became all too familiarto those subjectto
service in Potosi. It began in earnestwhen the corregidoror his representa17 John Hemming, The
Conquest of the Incas, (New York: HarcourtBrace Jovanovich [Harvest
Book], 1970), p. 407; Cafiete y Dominguez, Guia Hist6rica, pp. 106-107; Alberto Crespo Rodas, "El
Reclutamientoy los Viajes en la 'Mita' del Cerrode Potosif,"pp. 471-475. The provinces includedin the
mita were Porco, Chayanta,Paria,Carangas,Sicasica, Pacajes Omasuyos, Paucarcolla,Chuquito(these
last four are on the shores of Lake Titicaca)Cavanaand Cavanilla,Quispicanches,Azangaroand Asilla,
Canes and Canches.
18 Luis Miguel Glave, Vidasimbolos y batallas. Creacidny
recreacidnde la comunidad indigena.
Cusco, siglos XVI-XX.(Lima, 1992), p. 64.
19 Glave, Vidasimbolos y batallas, p. 66;
Magnus Morner,Perfil de la sociedad rural del Cuzco a
fines de la colonia, (Lima: University del Pacifico, 1978), p. 116; ANB. M147, (Minas 1365) Nueva
Numeraci6nGeneralde 1733. Archivo Generalde la Naci6n. Buenos Aires (AGN.B.A.) Sala 9, 14-8-10.
Mita. Ordenanzasde virreyes.Potosi. 1683-774. 1692 Mita;Factorssuch as changes in provincialboundaries and lacuna in the data make provincewidemita evaluationsproblematic.
536
tive officially notified the communityand their curacaof their obligation to

serve in the Villa Imperialand the date they had to depart.In 1655 the crown
representativein Quispicanchis informed the villagers of Pomachape that
"theyought and they are obliged to dispatch 'yndios' to the Potosi mita."He
told the curaca,BartolomeChoqueFonsa, thathe was to bring his people to
the nearbyplaza of Pomacanche"with their llamas and all provision in the
form as is accustomed"under penalty of 200 lashes and four years in an
obraje.20The process was similar in the neighboringcommunity of Papres
some 30 years later.There the corregidororderedvillagers to gatherin the
plaza and throughan interpreterhe informedthem of their obligation while
warning their cacique that the mitayos must be present and ready on the
appropriateday with theirsupplies,coca, llamas and otherthings they would
need so that they could leave for Potosi without delay.21
While the state requisitioned only adult men, for the communities of
Cuzco the mita was a family affair.Mitayos almost never went alone, wives
and children accompanyingtheir men. If there was no wife someone else
went. Diego Choque, wifeless, left Pomacanchefor the cerro rico with his
mother, and when Juan Pacha, also without a spouse, departedfrom Sangarari the eight-year-old daughterof Aria Rrosa was sent along to assist
him.22Childrenfrom ruralCuzco most often accompaniedtheir parentsto
Potosi, but this was not always the case. When the contingent from Papres
departedin 1687 many mitayo couples left their children behind. Agustin
Quispe and his wife bid farewell to three children. Mateo Masi and Isabel
Poco had to leave "one young (tierno) son," while Melchor Canaya, who
had been selected to go as a backupworkeror remuda,and his wife, Juana
Caya, left two "hijos tiernos."23
Evaluatingthe impact of the mita on childrenis complicatedby the fact that some colonial officials includedchildren
in the record,while othersrecordedonly adults.For instance, anotherlist of
mitayos from Papres does not mention children either going or being left,
while the same document recordedthat couples from nearby Pomacanche
had childrenwith them.24Similarly,in a 1689 survey of parishesin Quispicanchis and Canasy Canchissome priestsmentionedthe mita and othersdid
not. However, almost all of those who did, such as those of Sicuani, Langui,
20 ADC. Corrg.Prov.
Leg. 60, 1601-1677. 1655. Pomacanchemita. Maestro del Campo Joseph de
los Rios y ...
21 ADC. Corrg.Prov. Leg. 61, 1679-1705. 1687. Mita de
Papres.
22 ADC. Corrg.Prov.Leg. 60, 1601-1677. 1646. Mita de
Quispicanchis.ADC. Corrg.Prov.Leg. 61,
1679-1705. 1690. Mita. Pomacanche,Sangarar6.
Papres.
Quispicanchis.
WARDSTAVIG
537
Layo, San Pedro de Cacha, and San Pablo de Cacha noted that the families
accompaniedthe men.25
One way communitiestriedto lessen the burdenof those selected was by
using communalresourcesto provide the mitayos with supplies to help sustain them while away. Variationsin the goods families of equal size had on
theirllamas as they starteddown the royal roadtowardPotosi suggest differing levels of communalsupport.However, since people took theirown supplies differences may have stemmed from individualwealth, but no matter
what the supplementthe primaryburdenwas borneby the mitayo family.
Mitayos from the Cuzco region typically took with them large loads of
coca, grown in the nearby province of Paucartamboor even in Quispicanchis, to avoid having to purchasethe precious leaf in the inflated marketof
Potosi and to sell to help maintain themselves. While unfortunatelynot
revealing if the goods were personalor communal,a 1690 list or c6dula (the
term was also used to describe the workerson it) of mitayos and their wives
from Pomachapedetails the supplies takento Potosi. MartinChoque and his
wife, JosephaMalque had six llamas loaded with corn, chufio (freeze-dried
potatoes), wheat, coca and their toldo (presumablya tent-like shelter),while
JosephAlvaradoandTeresaSisa left with the same goods, but with only four
loaded llamas. In 1770 a Potosi official noted the goods, such as Peruvian
chili or aji and coca, arrivingwith the mitayos and observed that they sold
These goods
many of these provisions, especially to the Indianmerchants.26
and people representjust one small portionof the wealth, humanand otherwise, that the mita transferredout of indigenous communities and into the
non-subsistencecolonial economy.27
Few Cuzco mitayos had the resourcesto purchasetheir way out of service, as did many naturalesin regions closer to the Potosi market.Thus, this
practice, known as faltriquera, was not widespread in rural Cuzco. Mita
captains from Canas y Canchis in the late seventeenthcenturytestified that
there were few indios de faltriquera,or colquehaques as they were also
called, in theirprovince, "becausethose [Indians]thatthere are, are few and
25 Cuzco 1689. Economia sociedad en el sur
andino. Informesde los pdrrocosal obispo Molliendo,
y
HoracioVillanuevaUrteaga,pr6logo y transcripci6n(Cuzco: Centro
Bartolom6de Las Casas, 1982), pp.
127-173 and 236-252.
26 ANB. E.C.
1770, p. 81. Don ManuelMaruri,regidorde Potosi y receptordel derechode alcabalas,
sobre que se continuanel pago de las que estan obligados a pagar los enteradoresde mita y sus segundos de los efectos de comestibles y ropa de la sierraque introducenen la villa para su expendido en las
tiendas, plazas y canchas.
27 ADC. Corrg.Prov. Leg. 61, 1679-1705. 1690; Mita. Pomacanche.For a discussion of the transfer
of wealth out of the communitiessee Nicolas Sinchez-Albornoz,Indios y tributosen el Alto Peru'(Lima:
Institutode Estudios Peruanos, 1978).
538
COMMUNAL
IN COLONIAL
SURVIVAL
PERU
poor."Likewise, the captainsfrom Quispicanchiswhen asked if there were

colquehaquesin their province answered no "becausethey are few and all
come in person to serve their mita."28
Among those selected there was occasionally someone who possessed
sufficient resources to pay for a substitute.This was an expensive process
for no one would go to Potosi without substantialcompensationundersuch
When Mateo Gamarrawas assigned to Langui's (Canas y
circumstances.29
Canchis) mita in the 1790s he purchaseda substitutebecause his wife was
ill and could not make the hardjourney. He hired FernandoGamarra,perhaps a relative, for 179 pesos only to have Fernandoflee leaving Mateo
broke and pursued by the people in Potosi who had received neither the
mitayo nor the money due them.30Two centuries earlier Luis Capoche had
observed that desperatenaturaleswould give fifteen or twenty head of livestock "thatis all their wealth" to avoid the mita and that was exactly what
Mateo Gamarrahad done. However, few could purchasetheirway out of the
mita repeatedlyand Gamarrawas no exception. He had sold goods, food,
and animals,and used what silver he had to hire a replacementto be with his
sick wife. When he was again selected for the mita because, in reality, his
earlier obligation had not been filled, there was nothing left. Gamarrapursued the only option left open to him, he appealed to colonial officials for
exemptionfrom the mita. Besides having triedto comply with his obligation
the year before, he argued that he was "of advanced age, as his grey hair
showed, [andwith] the habitualillnesses of deafness and the swelling of one
leg." He also arguedthat it was unjustthatthe communityhad selected him
as captainof the mita after what he had been through"wantingme to sacrifice to the death."31The community had asked too much. Gamarrahad to
protecthimself so he sought relief from the state for state imposed demands.
However,the process of "workingthe system"put him at odds with his community ratherthan the colonial regime, which had createdthe mita.
There were others like Gamarrawho purchasedtheir way out of service,
but they appearto have been few and far between. For instance,in the 1630s
Diego Arqui of Pichigua said that he used his lands to pay his obligations,
Sinchez-Albornoz, Indios y tributos,pp. 142-149.

29 Sinchez-Albornoz, Indios y tributos,p. 103; John Rowe, "TheInca under
SpanishColonial Institutions,"HAHR37:2 (1957), p. 176. The amountrequiredvaried accordingto distance from Potosi, and
it also changed with the passage of time. In general,the furtherone went from Potosi the greaterthe cost
of a substitute.
30 ADC. Intend. Ord. Leg. 41, 1797. Expedte seguido por Mateo Gamarrasobre que el Subdo se
releve del cargo de nombramentode Capitanenteradora la mineriadel trapichede la Villa de Potosi.
31 Ibid.
28
WARDSTAVIG
539
including his Potosi entero or payment.32In reality,faltriquerawas nothing

more than a cash subsidy to miners and refiners who, especially in periods
of low productivity,preferredcash, althoughthey also made money illegally
rentingout the mita labor providedby the state. For more wealthy naturales
and those with readyaccess to lucrativelabor or commoditymarkets,faltriquera was an option that allowed them to avoid the rigors of forced labor.
For the poorer membersof the communityit was a glaring reminderof the
class differentiationthat existed within communities.
Thus, communitymembersdid not always sharethe mita burdenequally.
Wealth, influence, and ayllu affiliation created tensions and discontent as
some originarioswere forced to serve in the mita more often than others.A
Combapatatributarytestified that it was the poor and those without means
who were sent to Potosi.33Not all of those who avoided the mita, however,
purchased a replacement. Some tried more devious means. When Jos6
Chaco, a Coporaquecobrador,fled with the tributeit was discoveredthathe
had accepted bribes from those seeking to avoid the cerro rico. Mateo Arpi
had paid 50 pesos, much less than the cost of a substitute,while Melchor
Umidiaurihad "bought"a position serving the priestto free himself from the
mita.34Those without means, or without special attachmentsto the curaca,
resentedpracticessuch as these that placed an unfairburdenon the poorer,
less well connected, members of the community. The mita captain of
Yanaoca complained that the same people were repeatedly sent to Potosi
"withoutgiving them the rest disposed by ordinances."At the same time the
Combapatacaptain maintainedthat such mistreatmentof poor community
memberswas among the reasons that mitayos remainedin Potosi.35
Many Quispicanchismitayos departedfrom the pampa (plain) of Antucota. In 1644 don JuanLaymichape,a cacique from Marcaconga,left from
there as the enterador of his ayllu with a contingent that included himself
and sixteen mitayos and their families along with their llamas, coca, chuiio
and corn. Thirtyyears later,in 1674, Laymichapewas still a curacain Marcaconga, but when he saw his people off to the Villa Imperialthe contingent
numberedonly seven. In three decades his community's mita had plum-
32 ADC.
Corrg.Prov. Leg. 60, 1601-1677. 1633. Don Diego Arqui yndio viejo naturalde Pichigua
(hurinsaya).
33 S'nchez-Albornoz, Indios y tributos,p. 144.
34 ADC. Corrg. Prov. Crim. Leg. 81, 1776-84. 1780. Coporaque. Criminal contra Jose Chaco o
Ylachaco por usurpacionde RS. tributosal Rey, y a los yndios quando fue cobradorde este ramo en el
ayllo Ancocagua de este mismo pueblo.
35 Sinchez-Albornoz, Indios y tributos,p. 144.
540
meted to less thanone-half of what it had been!36One can only wonderwhat

must have gone throughthe mind of Laymichapeas he watched his people
departfrom Antucota fully realizing that, if the present were like the past,
some would not return.In 1690 mitayos not only still left from Antucota
pampa,but "anarbour[hadbeen] built for the purposeof the despatchof the
mita."37Despite the sharpdecline in population,the mita, as symbolized by
the constructionof the arbour,was as strongas ever.For over a centurymore
the peoples of Quispicanchisand Canasy Canchiswatchedtheirloved ones,
friends, and fellow communitymembersdisappeardown the royal road for
the mines and refining mills of Potosi.
The villagers of Quispicanchisand Canas y Canchis were just part of a
massive, but supposedly temporary,forced migrationfrom Andean villages
to Potosi. In the late sixteenth centuryLuis Capoche reflected on the scope
of the movement noting that because of the mita "the roads were covered
In 1792 the MercurioPeruand it seemed thatthe whole kingdommoved."38
ano describedthe departureof mita contingents.
TheIndiansthatgo to Potosiandits refiningmillsleavetheirhomelandwith
... Thedayof theirdeparture
is verysad.... [After
verymuchmournfulness.
mass]theypay [thepriest]in orderto entreatfromtheAllpowerfulthe success of theirjourney.Thentheyleavefortheplazaaccompanied
by theirparrelatives
and
and
each
other
with
andsobs,
tears
ents,
friends; hugging
many
and
followed
their
children
and
take
to the
wife, they
they say goodbye
by
withtheirsufferinganddepression.Thedolefulandmelanroadpreoccupied
cholynatureof thissceneis augmented
by thedrumsandthebellsthatbegin
to signalsupplications.39
The mitayos were to be paid for their travel to and from Potosi, but the
payment or leguaje was a matterof continual contention not only between
mitayos and miners, but also between the crown and the mining sector.
Despite repeatedroyal orders,colonial officials lacked the will, or perhaps
the power, to enforce payment. Since it was against the crown's intereststo
suspend the mita if the leguaje was not paid, the position of those authorities inclined to enforce payment was weakened. Thus, leguaje institutedto
help mitayos and those left behind to survive, was nonexistentor inconsis-
37 ADC. Corrg. Prov. Leg. 60, 1601-1677. 1646. Mita. Quispicanchis.ADC. Corrg.Prov. Leg. 60,
1601-1677. 1674. Mita. Marcaconga.
37 ADC. Corrg.Prov. Leg. 61, 1679-1705. 1690. Mita. Pomacanche,Sangarari.
38 Luis Capoche (1585), "Relaci6nGeneralde la Villa Imperialde Potosif,"in Relaciones
hist6ricas
literarias de la America Meridional (Madrid:Biblioteca de autoresespafioles, (1959), p. 135.
39 MercurioPeruano, 1792. Edicion Fuentes, I, 208 as cited in GabrielRen&-Moreno,"La Mita de
Potosi en 1795," p. 8.
WARDSTAVIG
541
tent for most of the colonial period. For Cuzquefiomitayos this meant onehalf year of service, threemonthseach way, was only partiallycompensated,
if at all. As late as 1729 villages in Canas y Canchis were still demanding
the payment, but they were also threateningto withhold tribute if leguaje
was not paid.40Thus, they attemptedto pressurethe state into forcing the
paymentof what was by law theirs.
For the Cuzquefiomigrantsthe trek across the altiplanowas long and difficult, cold or rainaddingto the hazards.For some threemonthsthese Cuzco
families walked and campedtheirway some 450 miles throughthe Andes to
the cerrorico underthe guidanceand supervisionof the enteradoror captain
of the mita.4' For those with small childrenthe journey must have been especially arduous.Perhapsthis is why some couples made what must have been
the very difficultdecision not to take theirchildrenwith them which, in turn,
provided strong incentive to return.Thus, the sheer distance to Potosi was
also a significantproblemfor mitayos like those from Cuzco that the forced
laborersfrom provincesnearerthe cerrorico did not face. In 1689, a Sicuani
priest reported that the number of community members continued to
decline, "it is rarethat [the mitayos and theirfamilies] returnfor lack of provisions and for the very greatdistancethatthey are from Potosi and because
the Royal ordinancesare not complied with."42Mitayos were supposed to
serve one year in Potosi, but the "greatdistance"and time of travel led the
communitiesof Canas y Canchis and some other distantregions to develop
a policy of two years service. Thus, the burdensand separationsforced on
peoples who came from villages in these provinces were even greaterthan
for others.A Canasy Canchispriest,sensitive to the impactof colonial exactions and abuses, complained the communities were "dissipated"due to
pressuresfrom corregidores"andprincipallythe mita of Potosi, where each
two years they despatchfrom each parishmore thantwenty Indians,that are
entire families."43
Despite the problems, Quispicanchis and Canas y Canchis were recognized by the state as being very consistent in their delivery of mitayos. A
40 ANP.
SuperiorGobierno(S. Gob.) L.8, C. 146, 1729. Expedientepromovidoanteel SuperiorGobierno, sobre la regulacionde los tributosde la Provinciade Canas y Canches, paraque se les pague a los
indios del servicio de minas, la bonificaci6n de leguaje, cuando concurrena lugares apartados.ANB.
MSS2 (Ruck). 1603. Paraque el corregidorde Potosi y los demis ... hagan pagarlo que se ocupan en
yr y bolver a sus pueblos, fl53-154v).
41 Hemming, Conquest of the Incas, p. 407; Cafiete y Dominguez, Guia hist6rica, pp. 106-07;
Crespo Rodas, "El reclutamineto,"pp. 471-75.
42 Cuzco 1689, p. 243.
43 Cuzco 1689, p. 241. For a similarpolicy in the Lake Titicacaregion see BNP. B585.1673. Despacho de la mita de Potosi. Puno, 2 November 1673.
542
seventeenth century document that stipulates which communities the governmentconsidered buenos, medianos, o malos (good, average, or bad) in
their mita compliance has "bueno"behind almost all Cuzco communities.
This was not the case for all regions. The nearbyprovince of Chucuitoin the
Lake Titicacabasin certainlydid not have such a reputation."The high level
of mita compliance in Quispicanchisand Canas y Canchis was reflected in
the increasingpercentageof all mitayos who were from ruralCuzco, especially Canas y Canchis. When the mita was first established,Canas y Canchis contained5.9 percentof the total numberof mitayos. By 1692 this percentage had increased to 11.9, making it the province that supplied the
highest percentageof mitayos to Potosi.45By fulfilling theirmita obligations
the communities of ruralCuzco maintainedtheir good standing,their right
to exist. It was understoodas establishinga bond of reciprocitybetween subjects and the crown.46However, the villages of Cuzco paid a heavy price for
their strict compliance with the mita as many mitayo families remainedin
Potosi or became forasteros.47
By the late seventeenthcentury colonial officials could no longer avoid
the fact that the failure of mitayos to return home was devastating the
provinces. Viceroy de la Palata's census of the 1680s revealed that since
Toledo established the mita a little more than a century earlier there were
58,092 fewer tributaries,over half the original total, living in the communities subject to the mita and that 5,557 originarioswere living in Potosi. He
orderedthese people returnedto their communitiesand excused them from
tributefor one year, but as was often the case the orderwas not enforced. In
1692, Viceroy Monclova found 6,084 originariosstill living in Potosi. While
Quispicanchishad only 143 originariosresidentin the Villa Imperial,Canas
y Canchis had 999, more than any other province. Includedin the list were
only those adult males born in their provinces who had come to Potosi, not
those born in Potosi who were referredto as "criollos"(not to be confused
with people of Europeandescent born in the New World,the more common
44 AGN. B. A. Sala 9, 6-2-5, 22. Meml de las Provinciasy Pueblos qe estan obligados a enuiaryndios
para la mita del cerro de Potosi con distincion de quales son buenos medianos y malos, 2 fs.
45 Nicolas Sainchez-Albornoz,"Mita,migracionesy pueblo. Variacionesen el espacio y en el tiempo.
Alto Peri, 1573-1692, " Historia Boliviana, III (1983), p. 59; For percentagesof all provinces see Ward
Stavig, "TheIndianPeoples of RuralCuzco in the Era of ThupaAmaro,"Ph.D. dissertation.University
of California,Davis (1991), p. 351.
46 Tandeter,Coercionand Market,p. 19.
47 AHP. C.R. 26. Yanaconas.In the late sixteenth
century several people with origins in the upper
Vilcanotawere registeredin Potosi as yanaconaof the crown. Among those who took such action were:
Domingo Ato, aged thirty, from Tinta and married;Francisco Guanco, a twenty-year-old man from
Sicuani who had lived in Potosi since he was a small child; and Juan Saucani from Guaro(c), whose
fatherhad been a huayrador,and who was marriedand had a four-month-oldbaby.
WARDSTAVIG
543
usage of the term) in parish records.48These originarios composed a very

significant segment of what should have been the Canas y Canchis population, considering that the entire population of the province-men and
women, young and old, originarios and forasteros, Indians and non-Indians-was 14,200 in 1689-90.49When family members are included in the
total, a quarterto a thirdof what should have been the Canasy Canchispopulation lived in or near Potosi. Forced labor in the cerro rico indeed drained
life out of ruralCuzco.
Efforts to force the returnof mitayos and their families to the provinces
of origin did not die and in 1754 originarios were once again ordered to
returnto theirprovinces. 1756 figures indicatethatthe originariopopulation
of the Villa Imperialhad droppedfrom over 6000 to 2969. However, while
the mitayos may have left Potosi they did not necessarily returnto their
ayllus. Corregidorsin the mita provinces complainedthatbecause of desertion, moving to other regions, or not being well guardedby the captain of
the mita-"for one of these same causes"-there was a lack of cedulas to fill
the quotas.Orellana,a crown official involved in the mid-eighteenthcentury
controversy over originarios resident in Potosi, confronted the same
dilemma that others before him had faced. He clearly recognized the needs
of the crown and noted that years earlier the government had suggested
indigenous people settle near Potosi. The originarios,he argued,were voluntarilyfulfilling this crown desire. He also noted, ironically if not hypocritically, that "it is not a crime in the Indians having sought their liberty
[from their communities] ...
imitating all other men prone to leave subju-
gation." Orellana,however, also recognized the problem this presentedto

the communities and commented that the difficulty was an old one with
"perniciousresults in the destructionof these pueblos and principallythose
of greatestdistance."He added "thatcontinuingthe bleeding of these pueblos will shortly make them cadavers."In the end, Orellanarecommended
that the governmentought to proceed gently in any changes, which usually
meant that nothing would be done.50
Originariosfrom Canas y Canchis and Quispicanchiswho remained at
the cerrorico sometimes continuedto pay tributeand serve in their commu48 ANP. Derecho
Indigena(D.I.) L.XXIV C.706. 1786. Autos promovidosen virtuddel decretoexpedido por el SuperiorGobiernopara que se empadronasena los indios llamados ausentes con los originarios ... Contains 1692 materials.For totals see Stavig, "The IndianPeoples,"p. 354.
49 ANP. D.I. LXXIV C. 706. 1756, 1692. Autos promovidos en virtuddel decreto expendido por el
SuperiorGobierno para que se empadronasena los indios llamados ausentes con los originarios ...
Morner,Perfil de la Sociedad Rural del Cuzco, p. 144.
50 ANP. D.I. LXXIV C. 706. 1756. Autos promovidosen virtuddel decreto expedido por el Superior
Gobiernoparaque se empadronasena los indios llamados ausentes con los originarios.
544
IN COLONIAL
COMMUNAL
SURVIVAL
PERU
nity's mita. By doing this they maintainedcommunalrights and preserved

the possibility of someday returningto their natal community.Perhapsthey
had fallen into debt and had to remain,or perhapsthey had found work that
allowed them to accumulatefunds which would be used to maintainthemselves upon theirreturnhome, but the priest of San Pablo and San Pedro de
Cacha (Canas y Canchis) noted that after long absences if the mitayos
returnedfrom the mita they were "so old thatthey do not serve for anything
in their Pueblos."'' Undoubtedly many originarios in the Villa Imperial
hoped to avoid the mita and tribute,however curacaswere dogged in their
pursuit of community members residing in Potosi. Mita captains from
Quispicanchis in the late seventeenth century maintainedthat while their
curacasdid not know where most absentIndianswere "thatonly in this villa
The
(Potosi) are there some from whom they collect the tasa or tribute."52
curacaor his agent, often the captainor enteradorof the mita, tried to force
those who had fled to serve, even those like Pedro (Arusi) Gualpa whose
obligation to serve was tenuous. In 1643,
of Santiagode Yanaoca[Canasy Canchis],FernandoSurco,
the gobernador
accusedPedroAlataArusiof changinghis nameto PedroGualpaand his
placeof originto Oruroto evademitaservice.SurcochasedPedrodownafter
he fled fromPotosiafteronly a few daysworkingin the cerroandhadhim
jailedpendinga decisionby theAudienciade Charcas.Pedrosaidthathe had
beenbornin Oruroandlatermovedto the estanciaof Gonzailez
Pic6nat the
age of seven,afterhis parentshaddied.Evidenceon bothsidesof thedispute
showedthathe hadthenbeenentrustedto DomingoArusiandraisedalong
withhis threesons.Arusiwas originallyfromSantiagode Yanaoca(Canasy
Canchis),andservedin themitafromtheestancia;whenhis sonscameof age
they too traveledto Potosifromthere.Pedrofled fromPotosiafterhis first
tasteof mitaservice,andwhenhe was capturedby Surcohe challengedthe
legal basis for his obligation.Despiteseriousquestionsconcerninghis true
to Arequipaduringthecourseof thelitigaorigin-he changedhis birthplace
tion-the Audienciaruledthathis adoptionby DomingoArusididnotoblige
himto servein the mita.53
The enteradoresfrom Acopia (Quispicanchis)had better luck in forcing
Baltasarand Agustin Ramos to serve in the mita afterthey fled. The Defensor de los Naturales arguedfor the communitystatingthat it was important
to have everyone serve who was supposed to serve because it increased
51 Cuzco 1689, p. 241.

52 S'anchez-Albomoz, Indios y tributos,pp. 142-149.
53 JeffreyAustin Cole, "ThePotosi Mita UnderHapsburgAdministration.The SeventeenthCentury,"
(Ph.D dissertation,University of Massachusetts,1981), pp. 222-223.
WARDSTAVIG
545
royal fifths, served the public good "and because the said Provinces and
pueblos ... are deterioratedof people."The fatherof these brothershad died
and for many years they had lived in the province of Porco near Potosi.
However, when the baptismal record from Acopia was presented and
Agustin's godmother confirmed his birth that was enough for the court
which orderedthat they ought "to be restoredto their pueblo and Province
of origin in order ... [that] they may have recourse to mita service from
which depends the conservation of the Royal treasury and the public
good."54 In this case the community's and the crown's interests coincided
and the communityused colonial law to enforce its wishes.
Most people who fled their communities were, however, not found. By
the late seventeenth century 12.5 per cent of the forastero population of
Chayanta,a province close to Potosi, was composed of people from Canas
y Canchis. Having either escaped mita service or having decided not to
returnhome aftercompletingtheirturn,these folk ceased to be a partof their
communitiesin ruralCuzco. Becoming forasteros,they rentedlands or they
congregatedwhere employmentcould be found such as the mining center of
Cabanillaswhere several forasterosfrom Canas y Canchis resided.'"These
people were a most significantloss to their villages in ruralCuzco.
INPOTOSI
WORK,LIFE,ANDSEGREGATION
Upon arrivalin Potosi mitayos were assigned their various tasks, some
being sent into the mines while others were orderedto the refining mills.
From the very onset of the mita there was a consistency to these assignments, communities being placed with the same miners and refiners year
after year. Death, decline in population, sale of mines, and alteration in
assignments sometimes disrupted the consistency, but for the most part
mitayos had knowledge, either personalor by word of mouth, of the people
for whom they would work when they arrivedin Potosi. For instance, several Quispicanchisand Canas y Canchis mitayos worked for the Gamberete
family. In 1692 Potosi officials had allocated to Miguel de Gamberetetwo
different groups of 80 mitayos each for his mines and refineries. In one
group25 mitayos were from Pichiguaand 13 from San Pedroand San Pablo
54 ANB. Minas 7. 126. no. 8 1798. Don BartolomdUancoiro y don SebastianCondori,enteradores
de la mita del pueblo de Acopia ... sobre que los hermanosBaltasary Agustin Ramos exhiben sus partidas de bautizo, por donde constardla obligacion que tienen de servir la mita de Potosi, como originarios de dicho pueblo.
55 Brian Evans, "Census Enumerationin Late 17th
CenturyAlto Peru:The NumeracionGeneralof
1683-1684," Studies in SpanishAmericanPopulation History, David Robinson,ed. (Boulder:Westview
Press, 1981).
546
de Cacha (Canas y Canchis). The other group contained 12 mitayos from

three communities in Canas y Canchis and 30 from five different Quispicanchis communities. In 1736 mitayos from Pichigua were still being
assigned to one Francisco Gamberete,but the number had been reduced
from 25 to 18.56If the mine owner had a reputationfor abuse, the prospect
of descending into the mines or laboringin the choking dust and poisonous
mercury fumes of the refineries was even more repugnant.On the other
hand, if mitayos were treated reasonably, albeit within the context of
exploitative forced labor, service was usually more readily tolerated.As we
shall see, these face-to-face relationshipsinfluenced behavior and compliance with, or resistanceto, the mita.
Backbreaking, dangerous work often led to flight. Even among the
Spaniards there were few who argued that the work was easy. Vicente
Cafiete y Dominguez, a late eighteenth century colonial official who was
both a defenderand reformerof the mita, was horrifiedby labor conditions.
He observed that "one bad night can break the most robust and well nourished man. For these unhappyones all nights are very bad. They climb and
descend overloadedwith four arrobas [100 lbs.] of weight, throughcaverns
filled with horrorand risk, that seem like habitationsof devils."57 Toledan
work "limits"gave way to quotas and penalties for not meeting the quota.58
Daylong shifts were abandoned and mityaos were forced to labor below
ground for the entire work week.59 A late seventeenth century observer,
Acarete du Biscay, gave this account of mitayos returningfrom their shift.
Aftersix daysof constantwork,the conductorbrings'em backthe Saturday
causesa reviewto be made
followingto the sameplace,theretheCorregidor
of 'em, to make the ownersof the mines give 'em the wages that are
appointed'em,andto see how manyof 'emaredead,thatthecouraces[cura-
56 ANB. M147 (Minas no.11l) Mano de obra minera no. 686. 1692. IV, 27, Lima. Repartimiento
generalde indios de mita paralas minas e ingenios de Potosi hecho al orden del conde de la Monclava,
virrey del Peru.And ANB 147 (Minas 1392) 1736. VI, 24-1736 XI.i Potosi. Entregade indios de mita:
El capitaingeneral de ella a los interesadosde las provinciasde Porco, Canas y Canches, Chuquito.
57 Cafietey Dominguez, Guia Histdrica, p. 112.
58 Enrique Tandeter,"Propiedady gesti6n en la mineria potosina de la segunda mitad del siglo
XVIII," Paper presented at El Sistema Colonial en Mesoamerica y los Andes. VII Simposio Internacional. Consejo Latinoamericanode Ciencias Sociales (CLASCO) Comision de Historia Economica.
Lima. 1986.
59 Crespo Rodas, "La Mita,"pp. 17-18. JeffreyA. Cole, "An Abolitionism Born of Frustration:The
Conde de Lemos and the Potosi Mita, 1667-73," HAHR63:2 (1983). The Conde de Lemos, one of the
viceroys most sympatheticto the plight of the workers,orderedmitayos be allowed to leave at the end
of the day to sleep in their own residences. But this regulationseems not to have been enforced once the
viceroy's term of office was up, if it was ever enforced to any extent.
WARDSTAVIG
547
cas] maybe olig'd to supplythe numberthatis wanting:for there'sno week

passesbutsomeof 'em die.60
Throughoutthe life of the mita, deaths were all too frequent.Mines collapsed, falling rocks crushedlimbs and men just weakenedand died. After a
mine accident in the late sixteenth century Luis Capoche wrote that the
grief-stricken wives, children and parents "broke the heavens with their
cries,"a scene thatcouldjust as easily have been witnessed 200 years later.61
Some workersunderstoodthe toxic natureof mercuryand to avoid becoming as "madas a hatter"they sought to protectthemselves
by swallowinga doubleduckatof goldroledup;thewhichbeingin thestomthatentersin fumeby theeares,eyes,
acke,drawesuntoit all thequicke-silver
nostrilles,andmouth,andby thismeanesfreedthemselvesfromthedangerof
whichgold gatheredin the stomacke,andaftercastoutby the
quicke-silver,
excrements:
a thingtrulyworthyof admiration.62
The mitayos of Quispicanchisand Canas y Canchis, like other mitayos,
were overwhelmingly concentratedin the hazardousand difficult jobs of
hauling the silver from the depths of the mines by climbing leatherladders
loaded down with ore (apiris) or breakingthe ore loose in the mines with
metal rods (barreteros).63 It is impossible to know if Joseph Ninachi from
Lurucachi(Canas y Canchis) who was marriedto MartinaColquema and
who died on 28 October 1750 at age 40 was a mitayo and, if so, if he died
of work-relatedcauses. But the death registries from parishes where the
people from Quispicanchis and Canas y Canchis lived are strewn with
entries like that of Ninachi, and hundredsmore for their wives and children.64It was dreadof such an end thatled many to flee Potosi and not return
to their communities.
The thousandsupon thousandsof indigenous workers in Potosi needed
coca to dull the pain of work and allow them to endure such heavy exertion
at high altitudes and the inadequatenutritionthat were part of life in the
mines. Capoche observed that "therewould not be a Potosi longer than the
60
Acarete du Biscay, An Account of a Voyageup the River de La Plata and Thence Over Land to
Peru, (n.p.: 1698), p. 50.
61 Capoche,Relacidn General, pp. 158-159.
62 Acosta, Natural & Moral
History, p. 212.
63
ThierrySaignes provided me with the informationbased on RepartimientoGeneraldel Marques
de Montesclaros, 1610, BibliothequeNationale de Paris,ms. espagnol n. 175, ff., pp. 257-318 and AGI.
Charcas51(?). 1617 Lista de mitayos presentesy faltos en Potosi; For totals see Stavig, "TheIndianPeoples," pp. 361-362.
64 ADP. San Pablo 1749-1787. 1750, 6v.
548
PERU
INCOLONIAL
SURVIVAL
COMMUNAL
The eighteenthcenturyhistorianBartolomeArzans de Orstia

coca lasted."65
forced
to chew coca, which made his tongue grow "so thick that
y Vela was
there was no room for it in my mouth,"before entering the mines because
besides suppressingappetite and increasing vigor the workers claimed the
"richnessof the metal will be lost" if someone entered the mines without
chewing coca.66To supply this lucrativemarketother naturalesworked and
all too often died in the hotter, damper,lower altitudes, such as those of
Quispicanchis,where coca was grown and where diseases like "mal de los
Andes" consumed workers in a manner"thatleaves them [the Indians] no
more than bones, and skin full of sores."67For many people of ruralCuzco,
however,especially those of Canasy Canchiswho had access to nearbycoca
growing regions and who used their llamas to transportgoods, the demand
for coca in Potosi and other marketsprovideda means to earn silver. Thus,
the exploitationof some lessened the burdenof exploitationon others.
Potosi was not residentially integrated.Physically divided by a stream
that ran throughthe city providing water for power and the washing ores,
from the earliest days indigenous peoples lived on the side of the stream
closest to the cerro rico. Toledo merely reinforced this traditionwhen he
ordered the naturales, in keeping with the notion of two republics (one
Indian and one Spanish), to live on the opposite bank from the Europeans.
Residences of the indigenousbarrioreflectedthe differencesin standardsof
living in this segregated world. In contrastto Spanish neighborhoods,the
"housesof the Indianswere small and little more thanhuts or chozas where
The indigenous barriowas further
they lived in very crowded conditions."68
and
divided into settlements or rancherias
parishes in which the colonial
state and church separatedmitayos and their families in accordance with
theircommunitiesand provincesof origin. In this way, by organizingpeople
on the basis of their home provinces and communities, state-churchpolicy
functioned to perpetuateprovincial and village communal and ethnic ties.
Thus, the "destucturing"mita containedwith it aspects that served to maintain or "restructure"identity and communal solidaritybased on village and
regional origin.
Discriminatorylegislation furtherenhancedseparationsin the city where
the Spanish passed laws to control the drinkingand rowdiness of the naturales. It became illegal, although not necessarily enforced, for Indians to
overindulgeduringthe normal work week. Due to the realities of the work
65 Capoche,Relacidn General, pp. 173-176.
66 R.C. Padden,Talesof Potosi (Providence:Brown University Press, 1975), pp. 117-118.
67 Capoche,Relacidn General, p. 175.
68 Jiminez de Espada,Relaciones Geogrdficas, p. 373.
WARDSTAVIG
549
regime, as well as the law, most drinkingwas done at fiestas or after mass
on Sundays.To furthercontrol the situation,a law was passed which sought
to dampen indigenous' revelry by prohibitingnaturalesfrom beating their
drums while drinking.The drummingof inebriatedIndians disturbedthe
Spaniardswho describedthe sounds emanatingfrom the indigenousbarrios
as "bien indecentey mal sonante."69
Even in mattersof faith native people were kept separatefrom the Spanish communityand, to a fair degree, from otherAndeanindigenouspeoples.
Naturalesfrom Quispicanchiswere incorporatedinto the parishes of Santa
Barbara,San Sevastian, and San Pedro. Mitayos and others from Canas y
Canchis were in the parishes of San Pedro, San Pablo, San Juan, Concepci6n, Copacavana, Santiago and Sta. Bunvana (Santa Buenaventura?).70
Mitayos, and sometimes the "indioscriollos," were also requiredto support
a church and a priest in Potosi based on their villages of origin. Thus, not
only were naturalesfrom the same region concentratedin the same part of
the city, but they also attendedthe same masses and even shared the economic burden of their church. For instance, the three communities over
which T6ipacAmaru was curaca-Pampamarca, Su(o)rimanaand Tungasuca-were all in the parishof Santiago.
Communitymemberseven remainedunited in death.Those parish death
registers that specify if the deceased was born in rural Cuzco or in Potosi
indicatethat aboutone-half the deathsrecordedfrom villages in ruralCuzco
were actually people born in the Villa Imperial who were referred to as
"criollos."Even though many of these indios criollos from Cuzco no longer
had lands or possessions in the ayllus from which their families had come,
they continued to have contact with people from their villages and were
identified with those people by churchand state. For instance, when Roque,
the legitimate child of Martin Vilcay and Maria Poma, both criollos of
Potosi, died in 1761 at one year of age, his passing was recorded in the
parishof Concepci6n,along with the deathsof othersfrom Coporaque.Even
thoughbothparentshad been bornin Potosi, he was identifiedwith the community from which his forebearshad migrated.Likewise, Ysidora, the child
of Manuel Humachi and Alfonza Chequa-both criollos of Potosi-died
after one day on this earth. Four days later the mother joined her baby,
69 La Audienciade
Charcas,Correspondenciade presidentesy oidores,RobertoLevillier,ed. (Buenos
Aires, 1922), I, pp. 68-70; For a laterperiod see ThomasAbercrombie,"Q'achasand La Plebe in 'Rebellion': Carnivalvs. Lent in 18th CenturyPotosi,"Journalof LatinAmericanAnthropology2:1 (1996).
70 ANB. M.T. 147. (Minas 1367a, Mano de obraminera721a). Potosi. Extractode las
provinciasque
vienen a mitara esta Villa de Potosi, su CerroRico y Rivera, con los pueblos que cada uno tienen...los
curatosa quienes tocan los indios....
550
apparentlyof complications resulting from childbirth.The mother was at

least a second-generation"criolla,"both of her parents having also been
criollos. Mother and child, however, were recorded in the death register
underSicuani, the family's ancestralhome.7"
The lives of mitayosand othersin Potosi were subjectto the whims of man
and nature.Arbitraryviolence could compoundthe alreadydifficultsituation.
CatalinaCailaandher two grandchildrenwere awarded150 pesos by authorities when the personin chargeof a llama pack trainthrewa rock thathit her
son, a mitayo from Canas y Canchis,in the head and killed him.72Epidemic
diseases also left their deadly mark. In the mid-sixteenthcentury Cieza de
Leon commented that "the climate of Potosi is healthy, especially for the
This normally astute chroniclercould not
Indians, for few fall ill there."73
have been more mistaken.Broughtto the Villa Imperialby mitayos, traders,
and an arrayof others who passed throughthe city, Europeandiseases such
as smallpox, measles, plague, mumps, and influenzaravagedthe rancherfas
and then were carriedback out to the provincesto infect, or reinfectvictims.
Potosi laborersbecameunwittingvectorsof deathandthe people from Cuzco
were no exception.74In 1719-1720 an especially deadly pandemic struck
Potosi and wrought havoc throughoutthe Andes. The Potosino historian
Arzainsput the total numberof dead at 22,000; and another 10,000, mainly
Indians,died in the nearbyenvirons. Deeply affected by the death and suffering he witnessed, this historianwonderedif the maladies were due to the
"forgetfulnessof God" and "thebad influence of the starsthat presidedthis
year of 1719."75Refining nearlycame to a standstillbecause "all of the mita
Indiansperished."Free workerswho survived,recognizing the opportunity
createdby scarcity,demandeddouble their normalwages.76
This 1719 pandemiccarriedaway numerousCuzco naturalesresiding in
the Villa Imperial,including 12 people from Pomacanchis,23 from Copo71
ADP. San Pablo. 1749-1787. Difunciones.

72 ANB. M125, no. 13. f.220-229. Mitayos.
73 Cieza de Leon, Travels,p. 392.
74 La Audiencia de Charcas, III, pp. 27 and 86; Cobb, "Potosi and Huancavelica,"p. 82; ANB.
CPLA. (MC92) 1565. IX, p. 19, Potosi.Acuerdodel cabildo... curacionde los indios ... de romadizo...;
ANB. CPLA. t.5, f.410. (MC296a) 1589. XII, p. 20, Potosi. Acuerdo del cabildo ... la peste de viruelas
y sarampionentre los indios .. .; ANB. CPLA. t. 5, f. 407 (MC294a [ord]) 1589.XI, p. 23, Potosi.
Acuerdo del cabildo ... Se habianhecho processions ...; ANB. CPLA. t.5, f.406 (MC294c) 1589. XI,
p. 16. La Plata. Provision de la audienciade Charcas ... teniendo noticia de la pestilencia de viruelas;
Henry E Dobyns, "An Outline of Andean Epidemic History to 1720," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, no. 6 (November-December,1963),p. 510; Arzins, Historia, II, pp. 427, 447 and 467-468 and III,
pp. 17-18, 25 and 43.
75 Arzins, Historia III, pp. 82-96.
76 Ibid., p. 92.
WARDSTAVIG
551
raque, and 13 from Pueblo Nuevo, which was three to six times the death
ratethese communitieshad experiencedover the precedingdecade. Families
were wiped out. Pablo Luntu and his wife, Nicolasa Casa died. Francisco
Cayagua, age 13, succumbed, followed shortly by his father and mother.
Maria Colquema and her son, Melchor were also among the victims from
rural Cuzco.77 Confrontedwith massive death and with no end of the epidemic in sight, mita captains and enteradoresasked that the mita be suspendeduntil the epidemic ceased. Ever mindful of theirhome communities,
these indigenous officials warnedthat if this was not done before the new
mita people would flee and the communities would be ruined. Soberly
reflecting on the devastation,these naturalesnoted that already "innumerable mita Indiansfrom all regions may be dead with the pestilence."78
ANDVILLAGE
CUzco MITAYOS
SOLIDARITY
INTHE18THCENTURY
The devastationof 1719-1720 disruptedcommunalcompliance with the
mita in Canas y Canchis and Quispicanchisfor several years, the longest
known interruptionof the colonial period. In 1727, the colonial official
Felipe de Santistebanwas orderedto recounttributariesin the provinces of
Lampa,Azangaro and Canas y Canchis in order to reestablishtributepayments and the Potosi mita. In the six years since the epidemic the communities of Sicuani, Marangani,Lurucachi,Checacupaand Pitumarcahad not
sent mitayos. While these communities may have delivered their mitayos
after 1727, the fact that new mita numerationswere conducted in 1733 for
Quispicanchisand Canas y Canchis and again in 1736 for Canas y Canchis
suggests on-going instabilityin mita compliancein the wake of the devastation. This may well have been calculated resistance by the communities,
however even authoritiescould not agree on the number of mitayos the
Cuzco communities were obliged to send. Two 1733 lists of mitayos-one
from Lima and the other from Potosi-provided differing mita quotas for
Canas y Canchis. Not surprisinglythe list from Potosi, where demand for
workers was ever pressing, ordered a significantly greater number of
mitayos--453-to the mines than that from Lima-318.79 It is unlikely that
77 ADP. Defunciones. San Sebastian,
Concepci6n.
78 ANB. E. Can. no.68 t.126,
no.XIII (M9291). 1719. XII, 15. Carangas.Don JuanBautistaUri-Siri
alcalde mayor y capitanenteradorde la mita...ennombrede los demas capitanesenteradores...sobreque
se suspendala mita hasta que cese la peste en Potosi.
79 ANP. L. 10 C. 234. 1727. Diligencias que se actuaronen orden a la revisita numeracion
y
que de
los indios tributariosde los repartimientosde Lampa, Azangaro, Canas y Canches .. .; ANB. M147
(Minas 1365) 1733. VI, p. 15, Lima. Nueva numeraciongeneralde indios sujetos a la mita de Potosi ...;
ANB. (Minas 1392) 1736. VI, 24- 1736. XI, p. 1. Entregade indios de mita ... En la Retasa del Pueblo
de Cullupatahuvo ciento sesenta, tributarioslos ciento veinte, y siete originarios(should be 142), y los
552
such numerationswould have been conducted on the heels of one another

had mita reimposition gone smoothly for the state. Villagers no doubt did
what they could to avoid the reestablishmentof this dreaded service that
bled them of their neighborsand provokedinternaldiscord.
In additionto the harshwork in Potosi, there were mita-relatedproblems
thatmitayos faced in theircommunities.Who would take care of theirfields,
animalsand children(if all did not go with them)? Could fellow villagers be
relied upon to protecttheir interests?The relative infrequencyof complaints
by returningmitayos against fellow villagers suggests that they were vigilant in guarding the mitayos goods and interests. There were, however,
exceptions. When Diego Merma, a tributaryfrom Yauri, was ordered to
Potosi it was necessary for him to arrangecare of his 120 sheep. He rented
the flock underthe normalterms-one-half the naturalincrease-to Mateo
Lima who, in turn, contractedthe sheep to Thomas Pallani and Bernabe
Cabana.Upon returningMerma went to reclaim his flock, but was refused.
Instead, Lima offered him a reparto (forced sale of goods) mule, three
mares, and 17 sheep. Even though he really wanted his sheep, Mermatook
the mule as partialpayment of what was owed him. However, the curaca
soon came looking for him demanding 35 pesos, the repartoprice of the
mule, and Pallani refused to returnhis sheep. Merma took his complaint
before the corregidorarguingthat Pallani and Cabanawere "indios ricos"
and were the source of many problemsand complaintsin Yauri.The "indios
ricos" maintainedthat the sheep had been full of worms and many of them,
and their young, had died. The corregidor ordered Pallani to return 100
sheep to Merma,but the process had been divisive. Merma,having complied
with his mita service, was left poorerthanbefore. Fellow communitymembers had taken advantageof him.8"Lucas Chancayarniof Pichigua also suffered a loss of animals due, in part,to the mita. Shortlybefore departingfor
Potosi, Chancayarniwas fleeced of ninety sheep. He complained that the
mita "obligationhas prejudicedme considerablybecause it has not given me
opportunityto look for ... [the sheep] robbedfrom me.""'
dies y ocho Forasterosde que revajantreinta,y tres los dies, y ocho por Forasteros,y quinse parael servicio de la Yglesia Republica,y Restan parala deduccion de la mita ciento veinte, y siete Yndios originarios, cuia septima parte son diez, y ocho Yndios, y seis para de continuo trabajocon dos descansos.
ANB. M. t. 147 (Minas 1367 y Mano de ObraNo. 7219). 1733. Extractode las provinciasque vienen a
mitar a esta villa de Potosi su, cerro Rico y Rivera .. .; See also EnriqueTandeter,"Trabajoforzado y
trabajolibre en el Potosi colonial tardio,"Desarrollo Econ6mico, 80 (1981), p. 516.
80 ADC. Corrg. Prov. Leg. 69, 1772-75. Yauri. Diego Merma, yndio del Pueblo de Yauri contra
Mateo Lima y Thomas Pallani indios del mismo pueblo por ciento y viente ovejas.
81 ADC. Intend.Prov.Ord.Leg. 94, 1797-99. 1797. Siquani.no. 44. Robo en Pichigua. Lucas Chancayarni.
WARDSTAVIG
553
Absence in the mita also led to property disputes. In 1780 Domingo

Hanco, the cacique of ayllu Chiguaro in Sicuani, claimed that Pasqual
Quispe had left for Potosi owing him 28 pesos thathe needed for tributepayment. The cacique sought to collect the supposeddebt from Quispe's goods.
However, Quispe and his wife, Lucia, had entrustedtheir possessions to a
friendwho deniedthe cacique's claim and stronglydefendedtheirinterests.82
A few years earliermembersof the Hanco family had been on the other side
of a propertydispute. Antonio Hanco's father had been awardedan urban
plot before leaving for the mita, but the propertywas occupied while he was
away. Fifteen years laterAntonio broughtthe case before a sympatheticcorregidorwho awardedhim the contestedreal estate despite the long period of
possession by others.83Likewise, when two brothersfrom Lurucachiwere
serving their turn in Potosi, individuals from their communitybegan using
their private lands. The brotherscomplainedto the corregidorthat because
they had been complying with their communal obligations, now they
scarcely had lands "to plantor maintainthe few sheep thatwe have."On top
of this, the villager who had taken their propertyalreadyhad enough for ten
tributariesand he had thrownrocks at them. Colonial officials put them back
in possession of theirfields.84Because of the mita, the people of Marcaconga
(Quispicanchis) even experienced a change in the line of curaca families
which, in turn, evolved into a communal rift. In 1705, Juan Tanqui petitioned the governmentto be installed as curacaof Marcaconga.Tanquiwas
of "the blood of curacas,"but had been serving in Potosi when his relative,
the curaca, died. In this situation another curaca was selected but this
divided the community. Tanqui, supported by community elders who
wantedhim back in power,turnedto the state to install the hereditarycuraca
as the rightfulcommunityleader.8"
As seen, one of the greatestproblemsconfrontingvillages was depopulation due to flight and disease. Although mita obligations were supposed to
be adjustedto population fluctuations, such adjustmentsor revisitas were
less frequentthan their need. And since, until the mid-eighteenthcentury,
populationusually declined, remainingcommunity members were encumbered with even heavier burdens.Those who fled sometimes improved or
alleviatedtheirsituation,integratinginto new communities,such as the indi82 ADC. Corrg.Prov.Leg. 71, 1780-84. 1780. Siquani.Ordinariacontralos bienes de
PasqualQuispe
a pedimto a Dn Domingo Anco por 28 ps que este demanda.
83 ADC. Corrg.Prov. Leg. 70, 1776-79. 1777. Sicuani. Antonio Hanco (Ancco), indio del Aillo Lari
contra Dofia ThomasaRequelme sobre un solar...
84 Intend.Prov.Ord.Leg. 99, 1807-08. 1809 Marangani.Adjudicaznde las tierrasde Quereraa favor
de los yndios de Maranganiy Ayllo Lurucachi.Felix Poco y Thomas Poco.
85 ADC. Corrg.Prov. Leg. 61, 1679-1705. 1705.
Marcaconga.Don JuanTanqui.
554
viduals from Quiquijana,Pichigua, Yauri,Langui and Sicuani who fled and

then marriedpeople in the Colca valley."86
However, others did not fare so
well. Sebastianand Diego Palli, from Maranganibut living as forasterosin
the province of Larecaja,did not adaptwell to theirnew surroundings.They
defied obligations imposed in the community where they relocated, they
spoke badly of the priest, stole from the church, and attemptedto start an
uprising. Sebastian died, but Diego was convicted of sedition, given 100
lashes, and sentencedto an obrajewhere he was to receive no wage because
of "the gravity of his crimes.""87
Forasterosfrom other provinces also sought refuge in Canas y Canchis
and Quispicanchis.Some of these people settled in the largertowns or found
work on haciendas,in mines such as that at Condoroma,or in coca production.88Forasteros were reasonably well received by the communities of
Canasy Canchis for much of the colonial period.With populationdeclining
and tribute and mita demands pressing ever harder,the renting of land to
forasteroswas a ready sourceof revenuefor the communityor curaca.Many
of these migrants,or theirchildren,marriedinto the local communityand in
this way gained access to land, sometimes being referredto as sobrinos or
nephews.89However, as the situation changed and per capita resources
diminishedrentinglands to forasterosfrequentlyirritatedneedy originarios.
Such was the case when the people of Checacupeand Pitumarcacomplained
to royal authoritiesthat lands allocatedto the communityand needed by the
originarioswere being rentedout by the cacique.90In this situationforasteros
were not always so welcome. Diego Sunca, a forastero from a nearby
province,had come to Maranganiwith his entirefamily to escape the Potosi
mita. Sunca had lived in Maranganifor one and one-half years, and the
cacique assessed Sunca ten pesos "tribute"twice a year.As tributewas once
again being collected in 1773 there had been drinking,customaryat such
events, and an argumenterupted.The forasterocomplainedthat the tribute
demandedof him was too high. Sunca never made it home. He was found
dead in a creek with a cut on his forehead.Well off for a forastero,Sunca
owned considerable personal items in addition to some 200 llamas, 125
pacochas or alpacas, and 700 sheep. After Sunca's death indigenous offi86 Noble David
Cook, ThePeople of the Colca Valley:A PopulationStudy(Boulder:Westview Press,
1982), pp. 65-79.
87 ANB. Minas 127, no.6 (MC1517) 1750-1754. III, 26. Mita. El doctor don Martinde Landaeta,
cura propio del beneficio de Ambana,provincia de Larecaja,contraSebastianPalli y Diego Palli originarios del pueblo de Maranganiprovinciadel Cuzco.
88 Glave, Vidasimbolos y batallas, p. 88.
89 Glave, Vidasimbolos y battalas, p. 68.
90 Wightman,IndigenousMigration, pp. 133-134.
WARDSTAVIG
555
cials in Maranganitook 160 of his sheep, which the state later ordered
returnedto the family. When asked why they had taken the sheep they
answeredsimply that Sunca was "comfortableand a forastero."9'
Communities, caciques and provincial corregidorswere under constant
pressurefrom officials and mine owners in Potosi to maintainmita deliveries. While this vigilance was constant, so was the resistance. However, it
was not just those subject to the mita who objected. Corregidorsand other
Spaniardsfrom rural Cuzco had no inherent interest, other than to avoid
trouble with colonial authorities, in having the naturales on whom they
relied for labor,production,and as a market,going off to Potosi. Likewise,
curacas saw the mita, and flight from the mita, as a threatto communal, as
well as theirown, well-being. Accusationsof hiding men and using them for
private purposes were frequent.When in the 1720s a crown representative
conducted a revisita in Canas y Canchis and regions near Lake Titicaca,
Potosi miners distrustedhis figures because he was the corregidorof Canas
y Canchis and his brotherwas a priest near Lake Titicaca. The Potosinos
instinctively suspected that there were naturaleswho had not gone on official lists because the brothersor their associates wantedto pocket theirtribute or use them in their own businesses.92Similarargumentshad been made
since the initiation of the mita. Corregidorswho did not force compliance
with the mita were threatenedwith suspension, while miners and government officials also blamed curacas and hacendados who gladly received
those who fled the mita for the decline in their labor supply. It was argued
that corregidors "occupied [Indians] in their businesses, trag(j)ines, and
marketing"and they and other Spaniardsin the provinces were accused of
"excesses and frauds"in lowering the mita.93Thus, on the issue of the mita
the people in the provinces-rich and powerful, poor and weak, indigenous
and Spanish-sometimes shared a common ground, but the influence of
Potosi silver usually outweighed local concerns.
91 ADC. Corrg.Prov. CriminalesLeg. 80, 1773-75. 1773. Marangani.Criminalsobre la muerte de

Diego Sunca.
92 ANP. L. 10 C.234. 1727. Diligencias que se actuaronen orden a la revista y numeracionque de los
indios tributarionde los repartimientosde Lampa,Azangaro,y Canas y Canchis.
93 All referencescome from the ANB. ANB. CPLA. t.5 f.436v (MC301). 1590. VII, 1 Lima. Provision del virrey ... corregidoresque con su descuido ocasion la continuadesercionde mitayos .. .; ANB.
MSS 9. no. 97, fs. 294-311. 1616.; ANB. CPLA. 16, fl69-169v (MC600) 1619. XI, 3. Potosi. Acuerdo
del Cabildo. Viendose la proposicion, inserta, presentadapor los azogueros sobre los nuevos inconvenientes contrael enterode la mita.;ANB. Minas 125, no. 1. 1640. Titulo conferidopor don Jose...de Elorduy, corregidorde Potosi ... parael entero de la mita.;ANB. Minas t. 145, no. 4 (MC 879) 1660. X, 7.
Madrid.Copia de real c6dula dirigida a esta Audiencia de la Plata:Enviese relaci6n de los corregidores
y demis encargadosde ella.
556
COMMUNAL
SURVIVAL
PERU
INCOLONIAL
In ruralCuzco naturaleshelped meet their needs and comply with colonial exactions throughthe productionand transportof goods to Potosi and
other markets.The trajinesor haulingof merchandisewas especially important here. In this way the continued economic significance of Potosi and
other mining centers in Alto Peru createdan ironic situationfor the peoples
of Quispicanchisand Canas y Canchis.Their forced labor in the mines produced the wealth thatspurredthe colonial economy and createdmarketsthat
needed to be supplied.Throughtheirwork in trajines,agriculture,and obrajes they earnedsilver and suppliedthe marketsthatthey helped create.This
made it possible for themto meet levels of demandsthatcould not have been
sustained without these earnings. Thus, the mitayos' work in Potosi made
possible increased state exploitation which the naturaleswere able to meet
by working to supply Potosi and other marketswhere demand would have
been much weaker without their mita labor.
Naturalesin Quispicanchisand Canas y Canchis developed strategiesto
preserve their communities and minimize the damage of the mita, while
forcing people to rendertheir obligation to the crown. The degree to which
they succeeded attests to their tremendouswill to maintaintheir communal
way of life, as well as their ingenuity.As with other matters,the colonial
legal system was one of the first lines of defense, althoughit never brought
the total relief so desired.While the crown pressed enforcementof the mita,
it occasionally lowered or relieved this burdenwhen formallyrequestedand
when to do otherwise could well have strainedrelations and undermined
colonial legitimacy.For instance, duringand afterepidemics, such as thatof
1719-1720, the mita was not always enforced. Likewise, during times of
drought mitayos were not necessarily pursued when they returnedhome.
Some colonial officials even used incentives and theirlegal powers to foster
mita complianceand communalstability.CorregidorDon Gregoriode Viana
of Canas y Canchis orderedcaciques in Sicuani to distributevacant urban
plots "to the Indiansthat go to the mita ... of the Villa de Potosi."94By this
gesture Viana, in a small but direct way, acted to maintainthe community,
and his own and the crown's interests.
Through the legal system-the "working of the system"-naturales
denouncedabusive treatmentin Potosi and attemptedto abolish mita service
entirely, sometimes with the support of Spaniards.When the caciques of
Tintapetitionedthe governmentto abolish the mita in 1789, the priestsof the
province providedwritten supportfor the abolition.The priest from Langui
94 ADC. Corrg. Prov. Leg. 70, 1776-79. 1777. Antonio Hancco, indio del Aillo Lari contra Dofia
ThomasaRequelme sobre un solar.
WARDSTAVIG
557
and Layo wrote thatdue to forced laborin Potosi "thesepoor mitayos suffer
such calamities in their leaving, stay and returnthat they cannot explain it
withoutmakingthe heartcry blood."The priestarguedthatin the mines they
contracteddiseases thatare "verygrave for the fatigue of the chest and lungs
of which they suffer,that while they do not die they are unfit for all species
of work:he who suffersmost from this disease, for which therehas not been
a remedy,hardlylives a year;in the present[year]fourteenhave died vomitThe priest of Yanaocaarguedthe case against
ing blood from the mouth."95
the mitamore succinctly,"YourExcellency the statein which these miserable
Indiansare found most probably[is] caused by said mita."96
Complaintsby Canas y Canchis caciques against the mita in the 1700s
mirroredthose made two centuriesearlier.The travel stipendor leguaje was
not being paid. People had to sell many of their goods just to provision
themselves for the journey.When they returnedto their communitiesnothing awaited them-"their houses [were] destroyed, their fields ... [were]
uncultivated"-except the "paymentof five or six tercios (tributefor two
and one-half or threeyears) thatthey have fallen behindduringtheirabsence
in Potosi." The caciques continued to be charged tributeand, one of them
argued,"[as] we caciques do not have the means to replace this money, it is
necessary to charge them [the mitayos] upon their return.This is the cause
why more do not returnto their Pueblos remainingvagabonds."'97
While local officials like the corregidordemandedrespect,the face-to-face
natureof indigenous-corregidorrelationsgave more complex form to these
interactionswhich often proved to be antagonistic.The king, however, was
for the most partconsideredto be above the evil and exploitationdone in his
name. This special tie to the king was perhapsmost clear in indigenouscompliance with the Potosi mita. Mita work was viewed by many communities
as part of the pact of reciprocity,albeit an increasingly onerous part, they
believed existed between themselves and the crown. EnriqueTandeterpoints
out that mitayos from a province neighboringCanas y Canchis arguedthat
their service to the king throughthe mita endowed them with special rights.
They made demandsof otherIndiansin routeto Potosi, rioted,remaineddefiant and even meted out punishmentin the name of the king.
ThemitaIndiansdidnotfailto notethatthemitawasa "painfultask,"and
thatin Potositheywould"undergo
butit is alsoevidentthatcomhardships,"
pliancewith this obligationwas perceivedas partof a peculiarrelationship
95 BNP. C373. 1789. Representacionhecha por los caciques de este partidode Tinta, e informes de
sus respectivos curas sobre extinguie la mita que va a la villa de Potosi.
96 Ibid.
97 Ibid.
558
withthe colonialstate,or moreprecisely,withthe kinghimself,whichperor identification,

between
mittedthemitaworkersto establishanequivalency,
themselvesandthemonarch.98
Using the legal system to protest, the caciques of Canas y Canchis
summedup theirdespairover the mita, and theirdesire for governmenthelp
in changing policies when they wrote, "The caciques of the entireprovince
of Tintain voice and name of our respective communities ... say thatwhen
evils frequentlybecome insupportable,hope has no other asylum than the
recourse, and the humble representationof them, to our superiors."99
However, while individual colonial officials sympathizedwith the naturales, or supportedthem for their own reasons, the crown did not relent on
the issue of mita.'? In 1791 the people of Tinta,having once again sought to
abolish the mita, received a reply to theirrequest.The subdelegateof Canas
y Canchis was "to proceed with the greatestwisdom and prudencein order
that the Indians do not go away angered."Mitayos were to be paid their
leguaje, the mita was not to exceed the one-seventhlimit, no people were to
remainin Potosi after completing their service, and they were to be accompanied home, but the mita was to be maintained!'0'
To ensure compliance with the mita and other governmentaldemands
under these difficult circumstancesnaturalesdeveloped strategiesthat fostered mita compliance in their communities. In ayllu Suio of Sicuani the
communityinformedthe state
Thatbeingthe ancientandestablishedcustomwe gathereveryyearin a cerin thesemesterof SanJuan,in orderto deal
tainplacethatwe areaccustomed,
withthe thingspertainingto the Serviceof God,of the King,andthe public
good,andon the sameday we elect fromone yearto anotherthe officialsof
Alcalde,Seconds,Captainenterador,
c6dulas,andthe otherobligations....
the
we
are
to
first
as c6dulas,[andthenas] enteradores,
[In mita]
subject go
thisis afterservingthepersonalobligationsandmenialpositions(serviles)of
Second,localmitaservice,mailcarrier... andtherest... all of theseobligationsserveas stepsfor us ... [andthosewhocompletethemcanthenfill]
thehonorificpoststhatdistinguishloyalandtruesubjectsof YourMajesty.'02
98 Tandeter,Coercionand Market,p. 19.
99 BNP. C373. 1789. Representacionhecha por los caciques de este partidode Tinta, e informesde
sus respectivos curas sobre extinguie la mita que va a la villa de Potosi.
100In most regions of Peruand in Mexico, thoughcertainlynot all, free laborratherquickly came to
play a more significantrole.
101ANB. MSS (Ruck) 575, t.9 f. 135-136v. 1791. IX, 10. Lima. Despacho del conde Lemos, virrey
del Peru; de conformidadcon el auto acordadode la Audiencia de Lima, de 1791. VII, p. 22. que se
expidi6 en consideraci6na lo que pidieronlos caciques del partidode Tintaparaque se extingue la mita.
102 ADC. Inten.Ord.Leg. 43, 1798. Sicuani. Expedte.iniciado pr.Clemte Sulca solicitandono turnar
en ir a la mita de Potosi.
WARDSTAVIG
559
Thus, ayllu Suio used the Potosi mita and other colonial demands that
threatenedcommunity solidarityto enforce that solidarityby making compliance steps on a ladder that led to positions of honor and respect. They
took an obligation of the state and, in line with what de Certeausuggested,
"they made it function in anotherregister."'03By so doing they protected
their social reproductionand safeguardedtheir compact with the king and
state throughinternaland agreed upon means.'04
Despite efforts to ensure that the mita rotation was completed, mitayos
sometimes fled Potosi and returnedhome. While such action may be viewed
as a form of resistance,the prematurereturnof mitayos, especially when not
justified by community standards,put the curacaand community in a difficult position. In these instances unprovoked fleeing was not viewed by
Cuzco villagers as resistance to colonial authority,but as a challenge and
threatto the community.
When Lucas Cano, the enteradorfrom Layo (Canas y Canchis), and his
son Juan, a c6dula, slipped away from Potosi before finishing their service
communityofficials had theirgoods, includingover 700 sheep, 20 cows and
some 75 llamas, embargoed.Then Lucas, his wife, and two of his sons were
jailed. In spite of Cano's accountsof abuse, communityofficials arguedthat
Cano had "abandonedthe people thatwere his responsibilitywhom he ought
to have restoredto the pueblo and from whose abandonmentnew responsibility and delay in the collection of tributescan result, inasmuch as those
dispersed Indians perhaps may not returnto their pueblo. Cano is accustomed to fleeing the Potosi mita as he did now some years ago, that when
named c6dula he fled without completing his time."'05
With a historyof fleeing, Cano's tale of abuse was not believed. Cano and
membersof his family escaped from jail not once, but twice. The first time
they not only put up resistance,but also were aidedby membersof the neighboring communityof Langui.The peoples of Languiand Layo were often at
odds with one another,so it was not surprisingthatthey might help someone
avoiding the "justice"of Layo. It was somewhatironic, however,since just a
year earlier the people of Langui had broughtcharges against one of their
enteradores,MatiasAquino, for fleeing Potosi along with all but one of the
mitayosunderhis supervision.Aquinoclaimedthathe andthe othershadfled
due to excessively harsh labor demands and difficult conditions. Aquino
103de Certeau,pp. 31-32.
104 Stavig, "EthnicConflict,"p. 743.
105 ADC. Inten. Ord. Leg. 53, 1802-03. 1803. Layo. Autos seguidos por el yndio Lucas Cano contra
el cacique GabrielGuamainy Alcalde mayorVenturaSarviadel Pueblo de Layo sobre prision y embargo
de sus ganados injustamente.
560
IN COLONIAL
PERU
COMMUNAL
SURVIVAL
declaredthatit was "too much work thatcaused us to give up, as we did not
rest, not even an instant,even though working with our wives and children
while not completing [the quota] of our day's work and recently we found
ourselves in a state of perishing without having anything to eat."'" Juan
Apasa, the mitayo who remainedin Potosi, claimed thatAquino had acted in
bad faith as enterador,while others testified that Aquino had influenced
people to leave. Anotherenteradorwho servedafterAquino statedthathe and
the mitayos had been well treatedand had been paid their travel monies.
Othersmaintainedthatthey had always been treated"withthe utmosthumanity and consideration"in the De La Cuestarefinery.Not only were they paid
theirleguaje,but they even had money advancedto them when neededby the
operatorsof De La Cuesta.107Thus, it appearsthatAquino and most of those
under his supervisionattemptedto take advantageof the bad reputationof
Potosi to cover their desire not to serve. The people of Langui disliked mita
service, but they realized the necessity of fulfilling their obligation to the
crown in order to maintainthe community.Trustingtheir own face-to-face
experience-their personal relations-they did not supportwhat they considered to be unwarrantedcomplaints by those who wished to avoid what
they all wished to avoid, but could not. By fleeing when conditions did not
warrantsuch resistance,Aquino andthe othershad violatednormsof conduct
and placed an economic burdenon the community.To keep the community
out of difficulties with colonial authorities,the communitybroughtcharges
againstAquino to force payment of the 378 pesos he and the others owed,
which otherwisemight fall on the community.108
In 1775 an enteradorand mitayos from Coporaquealso abandonedPotosi
and returnedto their community. Due to their good reputation,however,
these naturales were treated quite differently by their curacas, Eugenio
Sinanyucaand Roque Mollo. Two days before Christmasthe curacaswrote
to the corregidorthat Bartolom6Garcia, enterador,and Gregorio Choquecota, c6dula, had returnedfrom Potosi without fulfilling their obligations
and thatthey had been detained.When asked why they had fled, the curacas
noted that:
... theyhadexperiencedverybadwhippingsandaffrontson the partof the
headcarpenter
andotheradministrators
of therefineryof Dn.Bernardo
Zenda
andthatnotbeingpossiblefor themto enduresuchinhumanetreatment
they
106ADC. Intend. Ord. Leg. 52, 1802. Langui. Expediente promovido por el yndio Matias Aquino
sobre no volver a turnarla mita de Potosi y libertadde pagarpor los profugos.
107ADC. Intend. Ord. Leg. 52, 1802. Langui. Expediente promovido pr el yndio Matias Aquino
sobre no bolber a turnarla mita de Potosi y libertadde pagarpr los profugos.
108Ibid.
WARDSTAVIG
561
returned,obligedby the conservationof theirlives to seek refuge,abandoning theirpackllamas,theirsleepinggearandtheirprebendof food;thata few

days earlierfor the samereasontwo othercedulasof the said mitadid the
sameabandoning
theirwives andchildren:thatwhenthe womenwith their
not to mistreatthuslytheirhusbands,
weeping[asked]said administrators
themwithblows,afterward
theyalsomistreated
lockingthemin a chapel,and
thatlatelythecrueltyof saidadministrators
is so greatthat...theyhaveforced
the wives of theseIndiansto workin placeof theirhusbands.Thetwo aforementionedIndians,especiallythe enterador,are knownin these ayllus for
beingof verygoodrepute,forwhichreasonwe cannotpresumethattheyhave
comebackfleeing,butobligedby gravemotives.... WeassureYourMagesty
that we received continual complaints .
. .
for some years from the captain
enteradores
andcedulasthatreturnfromsaidmita[and]theydo notpay the
leguaje,norjustly [pay]the dailywages andthatthey obligethemto work
morethanphysicallypossibleandas a resultmanyIndiansreturnwithchest
injuriesandthey die herethenasthmatics,for this reasoneveryonehas the
greatesthorrorof saidmita.Althoughwe havetriedto persuadethetwo Indiansto returnto completetheirmitatimetheyabsolutelyresistandwe do not
have [means]to remitthemby force a distanceof morethantwo hundred
havealsocomplained
on otheroccasionsof violence....
leagues.... Captains
WeimploreYourMagesty... for a remedyof the referredexcessesthatwe
bearandfor whichwe askjustice... .109
Like the people in Langui,the caciques of Coporaquetrustedin theirown
and the community's face-to-face experiences. On this occasion, however,
the communitysupportedthe assertionsof theirneighborswho were of good
repute, especially since they had previous knowledge of the abusive treatment meted out by those to whom village mitayos were assigned.Corregidor
Reparaz, known for his fair treatmentof the naturales,asked officials in
Potosi to end the abuses the mitayos suffered at the hands of those in the
refineryof BernardoZenda, and he orderedBartolomeGarciaand Gregorio
Choquecota freed on bail."oReparaz trusted the word of Sinanyuca and
Molle, just as Sinanyucaand Molle trustedthe word of theirpeople. Because
theirface-to-facedealings createdtrust,the corregidor,curacas,and community memberswere able to work togetherto alleviate a difficult situation.
When such understandingrelationsdid not exist, which was much of the
time, the result of such conflicts could be very different.The "cacique of
Surimanafrom 1750-1766, was bankruptedby the seizureof a trainof mules
and a hundredpesos worth of goods because his mita quota was one man
109ADC. Corrg.Prov. Crim.
Leg. 80, 1773-75. 1775. Coporaque.Quejas de los caciques de Coporaquepor el mal tratamientoque sus indios reciben en la mita de Potosi.
110Ibid.
562
short.""'The nephew of this unfortunatecacique, himself a curaca, sought

to put an end to the mita thathad so affectedhis uncle andthe people he governed. The uncle was Marcos Thupa Amaro and the nephew was Jose
GabrielCondorcanqui,betterknown as TfipacAmaru,who from his Canas
y Canchis homelandled a rebellion against Spanishcolonial rule in 1780.112
In conclusion, the lives of villagers in rural Cuzco were inextricably
linked to the economic and political decisions of Spanish monarchsand the
demands of the growing Atlantic world economy. Through their work the
mitayos and their families helped shape thatAtlantic world and, indeed, the
world we live in today. At the same time they also contouredthe colonial
world,just as their lives were contouredby the complicatedarticulationsto
local, regional, viceregal and Atlantic world economies throughthe mita.
The forced labor regime for Potosi raised havoc with village life causing
communitymembersto flee, separatingfamilies, forcingformaland informal
migration,killing people and leaving others with the limbs crushedor lungs
destroyed.Toledo even alteredthe structureof villages by "reducing"communitiesto meet mitaandothercolonialdemands.Facedwith these problems,
people in ruralCuzco struggledto make the most of their new village structures and these communities proved to be resilient entities from which to
defendtheirinterestsand ways of life. Villagersin Quispicanchisand Canasy
Canchisdeveloped ways of dealing with demands-strategies-that allowed
them, at least partially,to determinetheirown destiny,maintaintheiridentity,
and strengthenthe communitywithinthis exploitativeworld.Trustingin faceto-face relationsand using the legal system, these Andean villagers became
adeptat "workingthe system,"particularlythe law. While the colonial regime
enforcedthe mita and, especially in Potosi, policies of racialand ethnic segregation,these very same colonial policies containedwith them the "space"
that, ironically and inadvertently,these Andean people were able to take
advantageof to socially and biologically reproduce.These Cuzco villagers
used this "space"-this makingthe system functionin a differentregister-to
not become "cadavers"and to survive as distinct,viable communities.
Universityof South Florida
Tampa,Florida
WARD STAVIG
111John Rowe, "The Inca underSpanish Colonial Institutions,"HAHR, v.37 (1957), p. 176.
112 I encounteredlittle evidence about the mita
duringor in the wake of the 1780 rebellion.

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Continuing the Bleeding of These Pueblos Will Shortly Make Them Cadavers: The Potosi Mita,

Cultural Identity, and Communal Survival in Colonial Peru

CONTINUINGTHE BLEEDINGOF THESE PUEBLOS

the mines of Potosi is almost as infamous as the silver they extracted

COMMUNAL SURVIVAL IN COLONIAL PERU

such as access to land and subjectto state obligations)to becomeforasteros

faced with fleeing and reluctanceto work in Potosi, developed strategiesto

hunger-dampeningleaf were the minersin Potosi. Thus,Canasy Canchisand

COMMUNAL SURVIVAL IN COLONIAL PERU

The mita affected a vast region of the southernAndes that stretchedfrom

COMMUNAL SURVIVAL IN COLONIAL PERU

tive officially notified the communityand their curacaof their obligation to

poor."Likewise, the captainsfrom Quispicanchiswhen asked if there were

Sinchez-Albornoz, Indios y tributos,pp. 142-149.

including his Potosi entero or payment.32In reality,faltriquerawas nothing

meted to less thanone-half of what it had been!36One can only wonderwhat

COMMUNAL SURVIVAL IN COLONIAL PERU

usage of the term) in parish records.48These originarios composed a very

imitating all other men prone to leave subju-

gation." Orellana,however, also recognized the problem this presentedto

nity's mita. By doing this they maintainedcommunalrights and preserved

51 Cuzco 1689, p. 241.

(Ph.D dissertation,University of Massachusetts,1981), pp. 222-223.

COMMUNAL SURVIVAL IN COLONIAL PERU

de Cacha (Canas y Canchis). The other group contained 12 mitayos from

cas] maybe olig'd to supplythe numberthatis wanting:for there'sno week

The eighteenthcenturyhistorianBartolomeArzans de Orstia

apparentlyof complications resulting from childbirth.The mother was at

ADP. San Pablo. 1749-1787. Difunciones.

such numerationswould have been conducted on the heels of one another

Absence in the mita also led to property disputes. In 1780 Domingo

COMMUNAL SURVIVAL IN COLONIAL PERU

viduals from Quiquijana,Pichigua, Yauri,Langui and Sicuani who fled and

91 ADC. Corrg.Prov. CriminalesLeg. 80, 1773-75. 1773. Marangani.Criminalsobre la muerte de

withthe colonialstate,or moreprecisely,withthe kinghimself,whichperor identification,

returned,obligedby the conservationof theirlives to seek refuge,abandoning theirpackllamas,theirsleepinggearandtheirprebendof food;thata few

for some years from the captain

COMMUNAL SURVIVAL IN COLONIAL PERU

short.""'The nephew of this unfortunatecacique, himself a curaca, sought

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