Indians and mestizos in the lettered city
Subtitle: reshaping justice, social hierarchy, and political culture in colonial Peru
By: Alcira Dueñas
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Boulder, Colo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9781607320180; 9781607320197
Description: Verdadera, Y Exclamacion rendida, y lamentable, que toda la Nacion Indiana hacc ala Mageftad del Senor Rey de las Efpanas, y Emperador de las Indias, el Senor D. Fernando el VI. pidiendo los atienda, y remedie, facadolos del afretofo vituperio, y oprobrio en que eftan mas ha de ducientos anos EXCLAMACION DE LOS IN-dios Americanos, ufando para ella de la mifma, que hizo el Propheta Geremias a Dios en el cap. 5. y ultimo de fu Lamentaciones. --

Through newly unearthed texts virtually unknown in Andean studies, Indians and Mestizos in the "Lettered City" highlights the Andean intellectual tradition of writing in the context of their long-term struggle for social empowerment, questioning the previous understanding of the "lettered city" as a privileged space populated solely by colonial elites. Rarely acknowledged in studies of resistance to colonial rule, these writings challenged colonial hierarchies and ethnic discrimination in attempts to redefine the Andean role in colonial society. --

Scholars have long assumed that Spanish rule remained largely undisputed in Peru between the 1570s and 1780s, but educated elite Indians and mestizos challenged the legitimacy of Spanish rule, criticized colonial injustice and exclusion, and articulated the ideas that would later be embraced in the Great Rebellion in 1781. Their movement extended across the Atlantic as the scholars visited the seat of the Spanish empire to negotiate with the king and his advisors for social reform, lobbied diverse networks of supporters in Madrid and Peru, and struggled for admission to religious orders, schools and universities, and positions in ecclesiastic and civil administration. --

Indians and Mestizos in the "Lettered City" explores how scholars contributed to social change and transformation of colonial culture through legal, cultural, and political activism, and how, ultimately, their Significant colonial critiques and campaigns redefined colonial public life and discourse. It will be of interest to scholars and students of colonial history, colonial literature, Hispanic studies, and Latin American studies. --Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Foundations of seventeenth-century Andean scholarship; title: Andean scholarship in the eighteenth century : writers, networks, and texts; title: The European background of Andean scholarship; title: Andean discourses of justice : the colonial judicial system under scrutiny; title: The political culture of Andean elites : social inclusion and ethnic autonomy; title: The politics of identity formation in colonial Andean scholarship; title: Conclusions.