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La Florida del Inca and the Struggle for Social Equality in Colonial Spanish America
By JONATHAN D. STEIGMAN THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS
Copyright © 2005 The University of Alabama Press
All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8173-5257-8
Chapter One
Prelude
THE CONQUEST
Columbus's sea voyage west in 1492 to establish a new trade route to India for Spain that would avoid challenging Portugal's claims to the eastern trade route to India and his consequential accidental landing at Española gave Spain hegemony over New World explorations until the mid-sixteenth century. This colonization experience was called "the conquest" by the Spaniards. The narrative form now called the chronicle was the primary communicative tool used to record and relate conquest history and the exploits and activities of conquest participants, and those who wrote these works came to be known as chroniclers. The medieval tradition of the historical romance-idealizing individuals and their deeds-suited their purpose, and these sixteenth-century writers revived this medieval epic literary style. When El Inca wrote his chronicles about the New World, a Renaissance writing style based upon the Italian Renaissance writings had become popular in Spain. He includes both the medieval tradition and the newly acquired Spanish Renaissance style in his chronicles.
The Spanish soldiers who participated in the New World conquest created an entirely newsocial group in the world's population. The half-Amerindian and half-Spanish children born to these individuals and Native American women were called mestizos. These children had to learn to integrate their two-sided cultural heritage on their own; there was no previous mestizo generation to imitate. Mestizos were treated poorly and largely ignored in the evolving cultural social orders in the New World (Varner 46-50).
When the Spanish arrived in Peru in 1531, the twelfth Inca emperor, Huayna Capac, and his warriors ruled over the inhabitants in the vast territories that the Incas had conquered in wars over centuries. Huayna Capac knew that the Inca oral history contained an ancient prediction that strangers would one day appear and conquer the Inca empire, "a story that bears a strong resemblance to the Aztec legend of the coming of Quetzalcóatl" (Castanien 14). This analogy was not a connivance between the two civilizations. There is no trace of historical evidence that either nation had any communication with, or knowledge of, the other (Prescott 1: 8). Huayna Capac predicted that he would be the last Inca and that the o ld prophecy would soon become reality. He ordered h is people to obey these conquerors and told them that their law would be superior to the Inca law (Castanien 12-14).
In January 1531, Francisco Pizarro, the soldier Diego de Almagro, the priest Vicente de Valverde, 180 men, and 27 horses sailed from Panama in three ships and landed on Peru's shore. Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, and the Council of the Indies granted Francisco Pizarro permission to explore and conquer Peru, or New Castile (Castanien 13). Pizarro established his beachhead on the island of Puná, which was close to the Bay of Túmbez, a Peruvian seaport to the south, and shortly thereafter he was joined by reinforcements led by Hernando de Soto. The participants in the Peruvian conquest cooperated while conquering the natives, but otherwise they continuously argued about each other's opinions and actions. Pizarro and de Soto were continuously suspicious of each other. Each was afraid that the other would try to gain political advantage and become the governor and captain general of Peru and enjoy all resulting economic benefits (Castanien 18).
Just prior to the conquest, the Inca ruler Huayna Capac died. Huayna Capac left his northern kingdom to his son Atahualpa, borne by his concubine. He left his southern kingdom to his son Huáscar, borne by his sister-wife. He asked the half-brothers to agree to this inheritance and to live amicably with each other. With this last act, Huayna Capac subverted the Inca laws by leaving half his kingdom to a son not born into the "pure" lineage and created the seeds of discord and division (Prescott 1: 240).
In 1532, just before the Spaniards landed in Peru, Atahualpa, coveting the southern kingdom, started a civil war and captured and imprisoned his half-brother, Huáscar. His army chased his southern-kingdom kinsmen to a plain north of Cuzco, where his warriors encircled their captives and attempted to complete the genocide ordered by Atahualpa. Among these captives were two children-the Palla Chimpu and her brother Hualipa-El Inca's mother and his uncle. The guards allowed children younger than eleven years old to escape. The Palla Chimpu and her brother were within this age group and were allowed to slip away to safety (Varner 12).
By this time, Francisco Pizarro and a small contingent of his army had landed at Túmbez and were proceeding toward Atahualpa's residence, Cajamarca. Atahualpa could have conquered the Spaniards rather than having the Spaniards conquer him, but apparently he believed that they were sons of Viracocha, the white-skinned and bearded god of the sun, and had come to fulfill the ancient prophecy told by Huayna Capac. Rather than confront the Spaniards, Atahualpa "retreated to his suburban baths and left ... noblemen to render to the invaders those luxuries due men descended from the Sun" (Varner 13). When de Soto and Pizarro visited Atahualpa at his retreat, he thought the Spaniards resembled the legendary Viracocha, as well as the image that the eighth Inca had asked to be carved on a stone portraying the Viracocha apparition he said he had seen when he was a prince, banished by the seventh Inca to the sheep pastures at Chita to effect a change in his attitude (Varner 13).
The Spaniards plotted to capture Atahualpa by extending to him an invitation to meet in Cajamarca. Atahualpa accepted the invitation, and the two leaders and their armies came together on November 16, 1532-the first encounter between official representatives of these two alien civilizations (Castanien 13). When Atahualpa arrived in the town, the priest Valverde appeared before him and began explaining Catholic doctrines, which the Spaniards expected him to accept. It is unlikely that Atahualpa perfectly understood what the interpreter who had accompanied Pizarro from the coast told him. He probably did understand, however, the suggestion that he should recognize the authority of the Spanish king (Castanien 15). Atahualpa asked the priest upon what he based his authority. The priest answered by giving Atahualpa a religious book. Atahualpa glanced at the book and threw it upon the ground. Pizarro used this incident as the excuse to arrest Atahualpa. He gave the signal to attack, and his soldiers began to slaughter the natives. Within half an hour, Pizarro and his forces had killed more than three thousand Amerindians, winning a very one-sided victory (Varner 14).
Huáscar's murder was ordered by Atahualpa and executed by his loyalists after the Spaniards put Atahualpa into prison. Pizarro wished to use the murder of Huáscar as a pretext to execute Atahualpa immediately, thereby avoiding the possibility of his leading a native revolt against the conquering Spanish. De Soto believed that Atahualpa should be sent to Spain to receive a fair trial and due process of law. This desire on the part of de Soto was probably due less to a sense of justice and more to the fact that Atahualpa was more useful to him than to the Pizarros: "Soto's attitude toward Atahualpa had elements of fairmindedness, generosity, and chivalry, but there was also another dimension ... Atahualpa alive and free would represent a threat to the rulers of Peru, the Pizarros, but for Soto ... such a fluid and insecure situation might bring with it great opportunities" (Lockhart 191, 196). During a period in which de Soto was absent, Pizarro and his forces put Atahualpa through a pretend trial and executed him (Varner 14-15; Castanien 15).
Not only was Atahualpa's execution by Pizarro considered extraordinary but also the way he and his army plundered and pillaged the natives' possessions was shocking. The 169 Spaniards who marched across the highlands to Cajamarca secured over a million pesos for division, with horsemen receiving some 8,800 gold pesos and 362 marks of silver and footmen about half that amount. Brading writes, also, that the Pizarro brothers sent the Spanish king 153,000 gold pesos and 5,058 marks of silver (31).
After Atahualpa's execution, Francisco Pizarro led his army to the ancient Inca capital, Cuzco, and set up a Spanish-type government. While engaged in this task, he received word that another army was arriving in Peru, led by Pedro de Alvarado, who was already known for his exploits with the Cortés army in the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. Alvarado believed that Pizarro's claims excluded the northern Inca kingdom, Quito. He organized an expedition, which included about five hundred men, to explore this region. It was this expedition that brought Captain Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's father, to Peru. No date for his departure from Spain is available, but historians believe that Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega joined Alvarado's expedition in Spain in July 1528 (Castanien 15). Historical evidence corroborates that he was with the Alvarado army in Guatemala in 1531.
Castanien describes the ensuing events:
Pizarro, whose ideas of his own rights did not correspond with those of Alvarado, sent his partner, Diego de Almagro, to challenge the intruder. By the time the two met, it was obvious that it was mutually advantageous to join forces. Alvarado had discovered that the kingdom of Quito did not offer all the rewards he had hoped for. Almagro and Pizarro could make good use of the additional strength offered by Alvarado's army. (16)
At this point, the Alvarado army, including Captain Garcilaso, joined the Pizarro army. Thus began the Pizarro-Garcilaso association that was to so greatly affect El Inca's life. The ever-threatening civil war in Peru was postponed, although this reprieve was short-lived.
In 1534, Francisco Pizarro returned to Peru after a visit to Spain and brought with him new land grants given to him by the king that allowed him and his brothers to gain economic advantage over Diego de Almagro, his partner. Feeling that his land grants were of poor quality, Almagro captured Cuzco, an act that provoked the full-scale civil war that caused such suffering in Cuzco and other areas in Peru. Francisco Pizarro and his army eventually captured and executed Almagro and stole his land grants. This provoked Almagro's allies and his mestizo son to plot vengeance against Francisco. On June 26, 1541, they entered his home in the colonial capital and killed him. Gonzalo Pizarro replaced his brother as the army's commander. The younger Almagro was captured in battle and executed, which ended this phase in the Peruvian civil war. Peace, however, was not yet to be (Varner 34-38, 46-49).
THE NEW LAWS
In Spain in the 1540s, the public was shocked and unhappy with the news about events in Peru. Charles V-the Hapsburg prince who had inherited the Spanish throne because his mother, married to a Hapsburg, was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella-was absorbed by interests in his European empire and had allowed Spain's New World empire to progress almost unheeded by his court (Prescott 2: 173). The land and the natives were "appropriated by the victors as the legitimate spoils of victory; and ... outrages were perpetuated ... at contemplation of which humanity shudders" (Prescott 2: 174).
In 1541, after having been in Germany overseeing his German interests, King Charles revisited Spain, "where his attention was imperatively called to the state of the colonies" (Prescott 2: 178). No one pressed the issue as strongly as Bartolomé de las Casas, the priest called "Protector of the Indians" because his attitudes and actions toward the Amerindians were so benevolent. Las Casas had just completed his well-accepted treatise on the Spanish destruction of the Indies, and he gave his manuscript to Charles V in 1542. That year, a council was called, comprised chiefly of jurists and theologians, to write laws to govern the Spanish colonies (Prescott 2: 178). Las Casas, "the uncompromising friend of freedom" (Prescott 2: 179), appeared and presented the proposition that Amerindians were free by the law of nature and that they had a right to the Crown's protection. His arguments prevailed, and the council passed a code of ordinances called "The New Laws." The laws received the king's approval, and in 1543 they were published in Madrid. The ordinances threatened the economic security of the colonial landholders. The news "was conveyed by numerous letters to the colonists, from their friends in Spain. The tidings flew like wildfire over the land, from Mexico to Chile" (Prescott 2: 181). The laws applied to all Spain's colonies. A number of provisions had an immediate effect upon Peru. First, the laws stated that the Amerindians were true and loyal vassals of the Crown and were to be free. Yet, to keep the promises the government had given the conquerors, those who lawfully owned Indian slaves could retain them until the next generation, at which time the slaves were to become free. Second, slave owners who had neglected or ill-used their slaves would lose them. Third, slave ownership by public functionaries, ecclesiastics, and religious corporations would end. Fourth, all who had taken a criminal part in the Almagro and Pizarro feuds would lose their s laves. Fifth, Indians should be moderately taxed; they should not be compelled to labor where they did not choose and where from particular circumstances this was necessary, they should receive fair compensation. Sixth, the excessively large land grants should be reduced, and seventh, the landowner s who had been notoriously abusive to their slaves should lose their estates altogether (Prescott 2: 180; Castanien 19).
Cristóbal Vaca de Castro was sent to Peru in 1541 by Charles V to work with Francisco Pizarro to calm the social unrest caused by the provisions of The New Laws, and he became governor upon Pizarro's death. He was unable to calm the upheaval caused by the new ordinances, so the king sent a viceroy (royal representative), Blasco Núñez de Vela, to Peru to regain governmental authority and to implement The New Laws.
Núñez de Vela was unable to promulgate these laws because his approach was "high-handed" (Brading 30) and was provocative to Gonzalo Pizarro, who by this time had become a very influential landholder. The participants in the civil war between Francisco Pizarro and Almagro were in danger of losing their land grants, and "the entire land was inflamed, but the turmoil at Cuzco exceeded that of any other city" (Varner 57). In accordance with the royal decree establishing the office of viceroy, Vaca de Castro resigned upon Núñez de Vela's arrival and ceded all governmental authority to him (Varner 69).
In 1544, before stepping down, the governor had bestowed upon Captain Garcilaso five Indian towns in Havisca that had belonged to Francisco Pizarro, as a reward for his help in defeating the younger Almagro's forces in the Battle of Chupas on September 16, 1542. With this new acquisition added to his other landholdings, Captain Garcilaso qualified as one to be severely targeted by The New Laws. Captain Garcilaso was willing to join with others to choose someone to present their cause to the king's viceroy in Peru's new governmental center, Los Reyes, but he wanted to stay loyal to the Spanish government. The group thought that Gonzalo Pizarro was the logical person. The petition that they presented to him included no seditious intent or overtones. Captain Garcilaso and others "apparently had misjudged Gonzalo Pizarro, since ... there lurked a stubborn determination which could not be satisfied with subservience to a viceroy who threatened ... economic ruin" (Varner 57). Pizarro believed that the new viceroy would not be willing to negotiate and that the armed strength of the landholders should be employed in the pursuit of their cause.
As Gonzalo Pizarro prepared to embark upon the journey to Los Reyes, Cuzco began to look like an armed camp:
[M]any were alarmed lest what purported to be a peaceful and justifiable plea should eventually come to be regarded as a manifestation of sedition. Captain Garcilaso, among others, remonstrated privately with Pizarro, but the latter quickly excused the militant aspect of his preparations by referring to necessity for protection along the highroad against the guerillas of the Inca Manco and in Los Reyes against the Viceroy himself, who was known to have boasted of the power to deprive Pizarro of his head. (Varner 58)
(Continues...)
Excerpted from La Florida del Inca and the Struggle for Social Equality in Colonial Spanish America by JONATHAN D. STEIGMAN Copyright © 2005 by The University of Alabama Press. Excerpted by permission.
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