gruzinski serge - nathan wachtel cultural interbreedings constituting the majority as a minority...

8/14/2019 Gruzinski Serge - Nathan Wachtel Cultural Interbreedings Constituting the Majority as a Minority Comparative Stud

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Cultural Interbreedings: Constituting the Majority as a MinorityAuthor(s): Serge Gruzinski and Nathan WachtelSource: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 231-250Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/179314

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CulturalInterbreedings:Constitutingthe Majorityas a MinoritySERGE GRUZINSKIE.H.E.S.S.NATHAN WACHTELCollege de FrancoFrom the time of the Spanishinvasion, in the Andeanworld as in Mexico, amere handfulof conquistadorescame to impose their dominationupon theindigentmasses. Onecannot,therefore,begin by speakingof minoritiesnorofthe marginalizationof Amerindianpopulations,even when these decreasedramatically ollowing the demographiccatastropheof the sixteenthcentury,for in spiteof this they remainsignificantlymorenumerous han the Spanish.Yet it is true that the term Indianappears, rom its originseven, as a derogato-ry term(see the flood of contemporaryiteratureon savages, idolaters,and soforth) and that it is in fact appliedeven now in countries such as Peru andBolivia, where the autochthonous ubstratum urvives in manyregions,to thepopulations east integratedntonational ife, who mightbe considered, n thissense, as "marginal."What, then,has takenplace duringthese last five centu-ries?THE INDIANS OF MEXICO OR THE CONSTITUTION AS A MINORITYOF A MAJORITY POPULATIONAt the moment of their conquest, the Indians of Mexico City formed anagglomerationof 200,000 to 300,000 inhabitants.Against several thousandconquistadors, hese Indiansconstituted a demographicmajoritythroughoutthe sixteenthcentury.Even thoughepidemics greatlyreduced their number,they were still the most important thnicgroupof thatcity at the beginningofthe seventeenthcentury.Ourinquiryconcerns the means by which this majoritywas progressivelytransformednto a minorityby theplayof constraints manating romcolonialdomination.Toputit anotherway, we askin whatmanner,n whatstages,andin what rhythmsdid Occidentalization n its most diverse forms-the gaze,discourse, law, faith, work-model andphagocytizethe populationswhich itencounteredby determining heirstatus,theirmarginsof expression,and theirmodes of existence.0010-4175/97/2220-4344 $7.50 + .10 ? 1997 Society for Comparative Study of Society and History

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232 SERGE GRUZINSKI AND NATHAN WACHTEL

MINORS, NEOPHYTES AND EXEMPTSIn the days afterthe Spanish conquest,a varietyof institutionalandjuridicalmeasuresassigned a minor statusto members of the Indianpopulation.TheIndians were, in the eyes of the Church,a populationof neophytes whoneededspecial attentionand a separatestatus. This is why the tribunalof theInquisitiondid not hold any jurisdictionwhere the Indianswere concerned.The formula of ellos son como ninos which the ecclesiastical chroniclersemployed reveals the state of mind of the monks who felt that the Indianswere placed undertheir tutelage and that they were to show the monks thefilial obedience thatchildrenowe to theirparents.At this point, the Indianswere not yet a minority,properly speaking-unless a spiritualone-but agrouptreated n a special mannerbecausethey benefited froma paternalisticbenevolence and because they were regardedas needingprotectionas muchfrom the abusesof the Spanish' as from themselves (forexample,a return oidolatry).THE PRINCIPLE OF THE TWO REPUBLICSTo speak of Indians or ratherof naturales,as do all of the Spanish,revertsto delimitingan irremediablydistinctgroupfromthatformedby the invaders.To provide it with an institutionalreality, the republica de Indios, and ajudiciaryorganism, heJuzgadode Indios,leadsto differentiatingtjuridicallyfrom the rest of the population.The effect of this was to set apartthe van-quishedsocieties withoutnecessarilyrespectingthe pre-Hispanicdifferencesby which the indigenous world was distributedamong a multitudeof eth-nicities and states with distinctlanguagesand origins. The Spanishdomina-tion designatedand characterizedan Othernessby assigning objective con-tours to it.

This separation,emporalandspiritualn principle, endedtowardsa physi-cal separation.The monks even envisaged totally isolating the Indians fromthe Europeans, earingthebadhabits andperniciousexampleof the latter.Byenclosing the Indianpopulationwithin their networkof churchesand monas-teries, the religious orders strove to make material a line of demarcationbetween conquerorsandconquered.By insisting thatblacks, half-castes andthose of mixed blood should be chased out of indigenouscommunities,themonkshopedto renderairtight he frontierwhich, it must be recalled,guaran-teed theirhold over the natives.In the case of Mexico City, the distinction between the republicof theIndians and the republic of the Spanish established a physical and spatialseparationbetween the groups. The conquerors settled in the center ofI "Defenderestasovejasde los lobos"in the "Carta olectiva de los franciscanosde Mexico alemperador"17-XI-1532)publishedFrayToribiode Benavente('Motolinia'),Memoriales Mexi-co: UNAM, 1971).


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CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 233Mexico-Tenochtitlan,while the conqueredwithdrew to the core of two par-cialidades, San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco, located in theperimeter.Provided with its institutions, its police, and its resources, theIndiancity offered to the conqueredpeoples a frameworkwithin which theycould preservethe remainsof theirheritage,maintain heir own personalityorratherfashion an identity and a mode of life betteradaptedto the colonialcontext. The Indians were not yet made a minorityquantitativelynorsystem-aticallymarginalized,butthey were alreadyplacedin theperiphery elativetothe Hispaniccenter.INTERBREEDING AND MARGINALIZATIONThe politicsof theregularChurchand of the Spanishcrown came to be linkedto the formationof the Indians nto a group providedwith a particular tatus.2It was not a matterof makingof them a minoritybut, rather,a categorythatcould be integratednto anold-regime society formed of naciones,3of bodies,of communitiesand corporations.Nevertheless,the Indiansoccupied a sub-altern position due to their situation as conqueredpeoples and as formerpagans.Multiple pressures,however,stood in theway of theclosing and the consol-idation of the indigenousgroup.These pressuresdevelopedprincipallyout ofthedemographicweakeningdue to therepeatedepidemicsthatthe indigenouspopulationsuffered.They also came from the processof interbreeding et inmotionin theaftermath f theConquest.Unions-legitimate or illegitimate-multipliedbetween IndiansandSpanish.Afterthe birthof thefirsthalf-castes,there rapidlyappearedan intermediarygroup with a confused status whichwas sometimes assimilatedinto the Spanishgroup, sometimes thrownbackinto the indigenous world. To this biological interbreedingwas added thecultural nterbreedinginked to the daily coexistence of Indianswith Spanish.Contrary o the principleof separation,many Indians-domestics, servants,merchants-lived in the Spanish city andbecameaccustomedto othermodesof life. All this took place as if the interbreedings roded the Othernesswhichthe prejudicesand the institutionsof the Spanishattempted o circumscribe.But theeffects of interbreedingwerestill morecomplex.Inthecity, Indian-ization andHispanicizationplayedan unequalgame. The attraction xercisedby the European ectorprevailedand in the end largelyswept awaythe other.This promptedthe Indians and the half-castes to distance themselves fromtheir indigenousheritageor to modify it in noticeableproportions.Fromtheseventeenthon andespecially in the eighteenthcentury,the indigenousmodeof life became a phenomenon f not of a minority,at least of marginalization

2 It wouldbe suitable n this instance o compare he case of Americanswith the earlierones ofthe CanaryIslandsand of Grenada.3 "Esta nacion"concerningthe Indiansin "Cartacolectiva de los franciscanosde Mexico alemperador," 38.


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in Mexico City.The irresistibleHispanicizationof Indianelites, old nobilityand recently wealthy caciques, and of the mixtures of blood contributed oaccentuating he process of marginalization.THE EXOTICISATION OF THE PRESENTAt the same time, the transformation f indigenousmodes of life and tradi-tions into expressionsof a minorityfollowed anotherpath. In the sixteenthcentury,the place of the Indiancity in Renaissancefestivals is never second-ary or accessory.Whether it concerns a scenic representation f the Fall ofRhodes (1539) or the celebrationof the funeral of Charles V (1559), theIndians and the authoritiesof the parcialidadesparticipatedn a mannerthatwas as extensive as it was active. Theirvisibility, to use an anachronism,wasoptimal.In the following century,with the demographicdecline of the Indianpopulation, the social deteriorationof its elites, and the entrenchmentofHispanic society, this interventionwould take a different urn.After the floodof 1629 whichaffectedonly the indigenouspopulationof Mexico, the Indiansceased to constitutea majority.On the contrary, hey appeared hereafterassurvivors of a groupon route to extinction.Throughout he seventeenthcentury,publicand official usages of the Indi-an traditiondeveloped which reduced it to exoticized forms or used it toreevaluate memories of a past abolished for good. The villancicos sung inMexico, for example, puton stageIndianswhose language,accent,dress,andreactionsentertainedhe audience.The artistsof CreoleandpeninsularMexi-co in particular xploited the indigenousvein with insistence and talent. Intruth t was impossiblefor the urbanelites to ignorethese Indians,who madeup an integralpartof theirdailyroutines.Again it was necessaryto metamor-phize the Indianreality to betterintegrate t into the Baroqueentertainmentand imagination.Musicians,poets, decorators,andpaintersemployed it as asourceof flashy exoticism.They treated t as an estheticizedvision and, thus,stripped t of all displeasingormenacingharshness,purifying t of anyforeignor disorientingnote.This reflection of the Indianworld could only be festive,the interventionof Mexicans on the stage being synonymouswith joy andexhilaration:

Los Mejicanos alegrestambien sus usanza alen.4In this expurgated orm, the Indian worldgained,throughout he seventeenthcentury, ts place in the streetfestivals andin the most sophisticatedentertain-mentsgiven at the Courtor in the city. It appeared n the ceremonialhalls ofthe palacewhere one did not hesitate to displayit before the gaze of viceroysand theirretinuenewly disembarked rom the old world. The masterpieceofJuana Ines de la Cruz, Los empenos de una casa, concludes with a sarao

4 Sor JuanaInes de la Cruz, Obrascompletas,t. II (Mexico, FCE), 16.


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CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 235of four nations in which the Mexicans participate.While the dances followone another, he choir sings:

I Venid,Mejicanos,alegresvenid,a veren un solmilsoleslucir.5The same entertainment ppearsseveralyearslater in the Comediede saintFrancoisBorjaof Matias de Bocanegra(1612-68). The studentsof theJesuitcollege of San Pedro and San Pablo performed t on the occasion of a visitfrom the viceroy, the marquisof Villena. The finale of the spectacle was

assignedto gracefulchildren n Indiancostumes,who sang "tanvistosamenteadornadoscon preciosas tilmas y trajesde lama de oro, cactles o coturnosbordados de pedreria,copiles o diademassembradasde perlasy diamantes,quetzalesde plumeriaverdesobre los hombros."The actors ntoneda homageto the viceroy:Salid,mexicanos,bailael tocotin,queal sol de Villenateneisen zenit6

On thatoccasion sixteen children danced a tocotin or a mitote,a majesticand solemnindigenousdance.The musicalaccompaniment trove to be faith-ful to Indiantraditions:"Alo sonoro de los ayacatzitlesdorados,que son unascuriosas calabacillasIlenas de guijillas, que hacen un agradablesonido y alson de los instrumentosmusicos,tocabaunninocantor,acompanadode ostrosen el mismo traje,en un angulodel tablado,un teponaztle, nstrumentode losindios parasus danzas,cantandoel solo los compasesdel tocotin en aquestascoplas, repitiendocada una la capilla, que en un retiro de celosias estabaoculta."The precision of this reconstitutionbetrayed an indisputablefamiliaritywith indigenoususages, instruments,colors, pieces of clothing.The effect ofexoticism thatwas producedwas not thereforenecessarilymixed with carica-ture or stereotype.The Creoles manifestlypossessed a precise knowledgeofthe resourcesof the indigenousart,even of the nahuatl anguage.Sor Juanadid not hesitate to introducenahuatlphrases and words into her Spanishvillancicos, even in series of couplets. An example follows:5 Ibid., t.III, 180.6 Trezpiezas, 377-9. Conceived after the model of the plays of Lope de Vega, at onceedifying, humorousandpleasant,the Comddiede saint FrancoisBorjatells of the conversion ofa great Jesuit saint, the Duke of Gandia, grandee of Spain and viceroy of Catalonia. It ispunctuatedby interludesand dances such as the branle and a partof the alcancias, earthenwareballs filled with flowers or ashes. Tenstudentsof the highestnobility playeda part n it thatwasremarkedupon.


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Solo Dios PiltzintlidelCielobajo,y nuestro tlatlacolnoslo perdono.

Latin, Castilian,andthe Mexicanlanguagemingleto form what this nun calls:un tocotinmestizode Espanol Mejicano.7

In any case exoticizationequally concernsgroupsother than the Indians.The peoples of Africanorigin were also presentin the Baroquefestivals. Inthis case, it is the accent reconstructedby the poet thatgives rise to laughter,even if it restoresfor us the sonorousimage of a lost world. But the miraclethat the acceptanceof Africano-Mexican culture would have been did nottake place. The song was limited to expressing the manner in which theliterateSpanishimaginedthe blacks who surrounded hemwould speak.Thefigureof the good Negro accompanyingChristian estivities with hisjovialityalso belonged to the repertoireof stereotypes.The process of exoticization is linked to a culturalexploitation, in thecurrent sense of the term, of non-Europeangroups. This exploitation suc-ceeded so well that it producedforms capableof being exportedacross theAtlantic.This was the case with the famous Indiandance,the tocotin,whicharrives n Spainaround1680,perhapseven earlier.8This was not in anycase anew phenomenon.Almost a centuryearlier,the vogue of Africandances inMexico, New Spain,and the Caribbean rossedthe ocean to spreadthrough-out old Europe.9In this way the chaconne and sarabande wept throughourcontinent.THE HEROIZATION OF THE PASTThe domesticationof Indian raditionsand of theirpatrimonyoperatedalso bythe bias shown in the recovery of the indigenous past. This time, the pastrecovereddid not conflict with a daily reality which by necessity had to betransformed. t fell to chroniclersand historiansto invent a past that was asglorious as it was inoffensive.They were so successful thatat the end of theseventeenthcentury heprestigiousmemoryof Mexicansovereignsfascinated

7 Sor JuanaInes de la Cruz,Obrascompletas,II, 41, 17. The "interbreeding"f cultureswasso evidentandso familiar thatthe adjectiveitself-mestizo-was from the commondomain,tothe pointof being used in a villancico as popularandas burlesqueas that of San Pedro Nolasco(1677).8 Marie Cecile Benassy, p. 31.9 Therecoveryof Indiancultures ookon occasion the route of mythologicalallegory:In 1713,a float presentedby the corporationof pulquemanufacturers auntedthe virtuesof pulque,thefermented uice of the agave. A Creole poet took it uponhimself to invent a creationalmythtoattachthe Mexican plant to classical mythology.Createdby Hercules, bornof the milk of theGoddessJuno,thepulquebecame that"preciosisimabebida,tenida de sus aficionadospor dignobrindisde la mesa de Jupiter,y aptisima para procerizarsea deidades."


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CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 237lettered Creoles and Europeanvisitors. This recoverywas foundedupon thefirst archeologicalworksbegun at the end of the seventeenthcentury.In thisperiod the Italian Gemelli Careri came to admirethe sculptedstones whichfeaturedan eagle on a nopal,or cactus,while literateMexicanswere alreadyspeculatingaboutthe site of thetempleof Huizilopochtliwhich some amongstthem believed to be under the cathedral.10From this periodthe excursion toantiquities(for example, the pyramids)of Teotihuacanalso became a mustrequiringan indispensableextension to any stay in Mexico. Teotihuacanwasto be visited in the same way: One went to the Churchof Guadalupe.Gemelli Careri had the privilege of meeting the greatestconnoisseurofrelics of Indiancivilizations, don Carlos de Sigtienzay Gongora.The latterhadgathereda collection of Indian codex so famous-"alhajas tan dignasdeaprecio y veneracionporsu antigtiedad,y seroriginales"1-that he dreamedof presentingit as a gift to the libraries of the Escurial, the Vatican,andFlorence.The decipheringof the manuscripts,as well as his archaeologicalexplorations,hadgiven him a broadfamiliarity or his era and was authorita-tive enoughto allow him to imposehis vision of thepast.The imagewhichheproposed concerningthe ancientMexicans is flattering.l2It contrastssharplywith the vision of paganidolatersplungedinto sin andbarbarity.

But interest in the pre-Hispanicpast was not merely an exercise in erudi-tion. It satisfied more immediate designs. During this period pre-Hispanicarchaeologywas in tune withpolitics.Baroque estivalshaveprovidedus withthe example of the triumphalarch conceived by don Carlos in honor of themarquisde Laguna and on which Aztec kings allegorically embodied the"political virtues." The rehabilitatedvision of Indianness served a doublefunction: It carrieda message intended for the metropolis representedby theviceroy even as it served to root the memory of a young fatherlandcalledMexico in Indianprehistory.The Indians found themselves doubly dispos-sessed of theirpast.THE SACRALIZATION OF THE MEXICAN LANDAND OF ITS FIRST INHABITANTSDuringthe sameperiod, priestsof the archbishopricof Mexico succeeded inassociatingthe cult of the Virginof Guadalupewith the indigenousworld inan irreversiblemanner.The blossoming of this devotion had multiplecauseswhich we will examinehere. It hadnumerousrepercussions,amongthemthat

10 GiovanniGemelli Careri,Viajea la Nueva Espana (Mexico: UNAM), 123.l1 Elias Trabulse,p. 19.12 Don Carlos de Siguenzay Gongora,p. 252: "geniearrancada e sus pueblos,porser los masextranos de su provincia, gente despedazada por defender su patriay hecha pedazos por supobreza; pueblo terrible en el sufriry despues del cual no se hallariaotro tan paciente en elpadecer,gente que siempreaguarda l remedio de sus miseriasy siemprese hallapisadade todos,cuya tierrapadece trabajosen repetidas nundaciones."


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of makingthe Indiansthe guardiansof a miraculous mage of an exceptionalnaturewhich allowed themto acquirea considerable nfluencein the Mexicovalley and thenthroughoutall of Mexico. The legend set down in the middleof the seventeenthcenturysaid the Virgin appeared o, and left herportentousmarkupon, one of the membersof the Indiancommunity,JuanDiego. TheIndiansreceivedin this way a certificateof Christianity ndof Baroquepiety:"nonfecit taliter omni nationi."The perceptionof the present as folklbre and as exotic, the rehabilita-tion and exaltation of the pre-Hispanicpast, and lastly divine election werethe inventions of the Creole elites of the seventeenthcenturywhich providedthat indigenous groupwith an essentialcharacteristichatremainstheir owntoday. Having become a minority, the Indians remainedin the opinion ofMexicans andin theeyes of touriststhe exotic celebrantsof feathereddances,the fallen descendants of the pyramidbuildersand the bearersof a super-stitious and sometimes fanaticalpiety. Significantly,the Indians were still anation and not yet a discreditedminority.Further, lthough hey werecontem-porarywith a discourse haracterizedn thisway at the same timethatdiscourseabout secta distinguishedand severely condemnedthreeminoritygroups inseventeenth-centuryolonial society-"marranes" [maronites],"sodomites,"and "idolaters"-identified by sexual practiceor religious deviationin con-trast to the way the Indianswere viewed.THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND REPRESSIONThe Baroquecity hadencouragedandeven promoteda festive Indiannessandan exuberant eligiosityeagerfor marvelsand miracles.Around1800,Mexicocounted 135,000 inhabitants,half of whom were Europeans.It harbored26,500 half-castes,about12,000 mulattos,and another33,000 Indians.Toputit anotherway, the half-castesneverconstitutedmorethan a strongminority;the Indianswerefar fromhaving disappeared; ndEuropeans, rthose consid-ered as such, were indisputably he majority.The town visited by Alexandrede Humboldtwas comprisedone quarterof mixed bloods, a quarter ndians,and one-half whites. It had not thereforebecome a half-caste town-sincewhites andIndians still represented hreequartersof its inhabitants-nor thebottomlessmeltingpot which one might imagine.It is within this context, in which the survivalof an important ndigenousgroup contrastedwith the decline begun in the sixteenth century, that thepolitics followed by the agentsof enlighteneddespotismmust be interpreted.In the second half of the eighteenthcentury,a series of measuresmarkedachangein course.In 1769,the Churchoutlawedthenescuitiles,therepresenta-tions of the Passion, those of Pastores y Reyes, and forbade the palo delvolador and dances such as the santiaguitos, the fandango del olvido de losmaridos difuntos, and the bayle de la camisa. There was no longer a questionof the Indiansoffering incense to the horse of Saint Jacques (Santiago)or


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CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 239or engaging in the frenzieddance that went with it. For the Church he argu-ments were strong:the indecencyof the participants,he profanationof litur-gical ornamentsandclothing,themishaps,theexcessive expenditures,andthegrotesque aspectof the celebrations.Civil authoritieswould no longerput upwith seeing Indiansundressed n public:"La impiezay aseo es uno de los tresprincipalesobjetosde la policiay este no solo comprehendeas calles y plazasde las poblaciones, sino tambien las personas que las habitancuyo trajehonestoy decenteinfluyemucho en las buenascostumbres." n truth,wearingan indigenouscostume was not forbidden,but the combinationswhich "dis-torted"traditionalclothing were no longer tolerated:"con andrajosu otrossemejantestrapos,come suelenhacerlo a imitacionde los individuos de otrascastas."Also banishedwere, consequently,"mantas, abanas, rezadas, ergaso lo que Ilamanchispas, zarapesu otroqualquieragiron o traposemejante."Men of the Enlightenmentalso intended to normalizeappearances,"con lainteligencia de que siendo como es en los hombres la desnudez un indiciovehementisimo de ociosidad o de malas costumbres."13For a populationmaterially incapableof dressing themselves correctly,this was a signal forthem to be drivenback into the squalidsuburbs.In other terms, in the second half of the eighteenth century, under thepressures of enlightened despotism, numerousforms of expression in theIndian town suffered all sorts of restrictions: he suppressionof the poorestconfraternitiesor those withoutproperanddue authorization,he banningofindigenoustheater, imitations mposedupon processions,on marches,andonpublic demonstrationsof indigenous religiosity, the destruction of chapelsbuilt by the Indians.This sequenceof measuresdid not in any case concernonly the indigenous world but encompassedthe ensemble of popular prac-tices, whether of half-caste,Spanish,or Africanorigin. Projectsenvisioningthe impositionof the Castilian anguagecompleteda mechanismunderwhichthe motivationfor public order,hygiene, and decency combinedto justify aprogressiveelimination of Indianvisibility.THE LEGAL DEATH OF INDIANS IN THE TOWNThedecrees of theCortes of Cadiz andthe decisionsof theyoungindependentstatebecame linked to the pursuitof Enlightenmentpolitics in theirattackoneven the structures f the indigenousgroup.In suppressing ndigenousmunic-ipal institutions,he civil andecclesiastictribunals eserved or Indiansbrother-hoods and communities-juzgado de Indios, provisorato de Indios-theMexican authoritiesundermined he foundationsandeffaced the prerogativesthroughwhich the MexicanIndians had maintaineda collective andjuridicalidentityand a communal existence.

13 AGN (Mexico), Bando 20, no. 25.


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Having disappeared n principle from the census, the Indians became apoverty-strickenminorityof whom the novels of the nineteenthcentury-such as Los bandidosdelRio Frio of ManuelPayno-and the storiesof travelersportrayeda folkloricportraitof sordid lives. The descriptionsof pilgrimagesto the Virgin of Guadalupeor to the Indian chinamperosof Xochimilcoevoked a picturesqueminority,drawn back into its own past, althougha farless menacingone thanthe leperos of the town.Not only did the modernizationof the city create a minorityout of theIndians,but the rapid expansionof industryand of urbanizationacceleratedthe proletarianization f those who had survived the colonial epoch at thesame time thatit drove back into the same lower-classcolonias and the sameshanty towns Indians who were without community, immigrantswithoutroots, and discarded rom all places of origin.This rapidoverview-necessarily summaryand without nuance-of thefate of the Indiansof Mexico City illustrates he manner n which the succes-sive manifestations f Occidental omination-what we callOccidentalization-workedunrelentinglyat transforming defeatedpopulation irst into Indians,then into a republic,and finally into a minoritywith a stereotyped profilebefore expungingthem progressivelyfrom the territoryof the city and theurban andscape.ANDEANISATION AND OCCIDENTALIZATIONThe Andean world was also, from the sixteenth centuryon, the theaterofmultipleculturalconfrontations,of intermixings,migrations,and interbreed-ing thatengenderednew collective identities.The processesof acculturationdevelopedin both directions:On one side, the indigenoussocieties subjectedto the colonial system received, accordingto diverse modalities,Occidentalcontributions;and on the other,the Spanishwere inevitablysubjectedto theinfluences of the American milieu (on this "inverse acculturation,"whichproducedCreoleculture,see the work of SolangeAlberro on TheSpanishinColonialMexico).14We are interestedherein thephenomenaof acculturationaffecting indigenous societies, which themselves appearcomplex, variable,and even contradictory.To summarize(and simplify), one can distinguishinthe Andean world two opposed types of acculturation:First,on the one hand,principally n the frameworkof indigenouscommu-nities stemming from colonial reductions,Amerindian societies absorbedacertainnumberof occidentalelementswhile integrating hese in the systemsof representation overnedby a specificallyautochthonousogic: This typeofacculturation ngenderedwhat was definedpreciselyby the termIndiannessand correspondedeventuallyto a process of Andeanization.

14 Solange Alberro:Les Espagnols dans le Mexiquecolonial. Histoire d'une acculturation(Cahiers des Annales, Paris, 1992).


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CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 241

Second,on the otherhand,the phenomenaof interbreeding, t once biolog-ical andcultural,whichdeveloped principally n the urbanandminingcenters,gave place equallyto a plurisecular ocial ascension,such that the boundariesbetween the interbred ulturewhich resultedand Creole cultureseemedsome-times fluid, permittingall possible intermediaries s well as slippagesin bothdirectionsbut from an indigenouspointof view was a processof Occidental-ization.If these movements of Occidentalizationand Andeanizationspreadin aparallelmanner n distinctmilieu, they neverthelessdid not remainseparatedfrom one another,for these milieus continue to be linked by tight relation-ships,maintainedby themigrations hemselves and the intermixingof popula-tions, so much so thattheprocessesin essence opposedeach otherand in factintersected, nterfered, ven imbricatedwith each other.Toputit anotherway,these are contrary luxes that one sees at work, in which the inverse effectsneverthelessreact,one uponanother, o thepointof mutuallyreinforcingeachotherin theirantinomy:Andeanizationproducedan Indiannesswith specificcharacteristicswhich was subjectedto Spanishand then Creole dominationand then committedto a pathof marginalization;Occidentalization ead to amoreor less progressiveintegrationof the interbred lasses into Creole soci-ety. More or less, for the process of Occidentalizationfollowed neither aunilinearnor a uniform course. Between the Indianpole on the one hand andthe Creolepole on the other lies the complexityof interbreddentitieswhich,contradictorily, reat the sametime signaled by their own traitsand dissolvedin the face of movingboundaries. n this unstablecontext,the marginalizationof one appearsall the more radical as the integrationof the otherbecomesmore massive andcomplete.It is this combinedplay of exclusion and assimi-lation that our researchmust attempt o bringto light, includingits particularrhythmsand therespectiveperiodizations hemselves,which variedaccordingto aregionalor local situation.But we know thatin theend, duringthecourseof centuries,within the samearea,it is Occidentalization hat endsupprevail-ing over Andeanization,of which nevertheless something remains, to theextent that the residual Indians find themselves in our day, in effect, moremarginalized han ever.The questionmightbe posed in anotherway: How do we makesense of thefact that Indians still remainin our own time, despite the diverse interbreed-ings exercised over Indiannessfor five centuries in a constant process oferosion? It is also appropriateo go backto the originsof colonial society andto observe that Indianness is itself the culminationof vast phenomenaofinterbreeding,not only with the Spanish,but also, and first of all, within theindigenousworld.At the time that they invaded the Inca Empire,the Spanish encounteredseveral dozen ethnic groupsor political formations,which little by little losttheir own as they dissolved characteristicsduringthe colonial transformation


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into what has become, in effect, theircommunityof Indianness.On the highAndeanplateauaroundLakeTiticaca,the Incas had themselvesimposedtheirdominance,one or two centuriesbefore,over a half a dozen chieftainshipsorrealms that still formed,at the time of the European nvasion,distinct socio-politicalunitieswhich the Spanish designatedby the term naciones (contain-ing in turn diverse subdivisions).These Lupaqas,Pacajes, Carangas,Soras,and otherQuillacasspoke the same language, Aymara,and shareda commonuniverse of symbolic representations.Where among these Indians lay thelimits of a sentimentof belongingto a collective entity?The lines of greatestseparationmight lay within the Aymarawhole, among the different nationsnotedby colonial documentation.But the lines of separationbetween differentsocial groupshave a more or less strong ntensity, allowingthresholds o shiftat various levels accordingto the historicalconjuncture. t is in this mannerthatthe politics of the regroupingof the population reducciones),carriedoutprincipallyby viceroyFranciscode Toledo,helpedto disrupt hepoliticalandsocio-economic organizationof the indigenous world: The Cacique hier-archies suffered a repeatedseries of ruptureswhile affirmingnew autono-mies. The Spanishauthorities mposed in effect taxation(for the tributeandthe mita) within the frameworkof the regroupedvillages, which in the endformedthe basic units of viceroy administration.With this progressivefrag-mentation,from the end of the sixteenthcenturyto aroundthe beginningofthe seventeenth,the traditionalnetworksof solidaritywere forced to definethemselveswithinincreasinglynarrow imits,passing,thus,frommembershipin a vast chieftainship o attachment o the indigenous communityof colonialorigin.A remarkablephenomenonmanifested itself in most of the regroupedvil-lages: They were always composed of two halves, generallydesignatedac-cordingto thecategoriesof HighandLow,whichregrouped he ayllusof newcommunities.To put it anotherway, despite the disruptionsprovokedby theEuropean nvasion and by the process of dividing up the old chieftainships,the colonial communitieswere reconstitutedeverywhereon the basis of adualisticorganization. n his advice to Francisco de Toledo for the Govern-mentof Peru,15 the auditorJuande Matienzoofficially recommended hat thenew villages be placedinto two principaldistricts:hence, the recognitionandapplicationby the Spanish authoritiesthemselves of a specifically Andeanmodel. But the permanenceof the principlesof organizationwas from thattime on combinedwith profoundchangesregarding heirexercise, for it wasthe same systemof bipartitedivisionandof interlockings,peculiarto Andeandualism,on which the definitionof collective identities at a more local levelwas founded by lowering the thresholdof the largestdivision. Despite thisreductionof underlyingterritorialunity, the principles of dualistic organi-

15 Juan de Matienzo,Gobiernodel Peru (Paris, 1967).


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zation neverthelesscontinued to inform the society globally and to assureamultiplicityof functions;it was also the same binary logic thateverywhereordered he distributionof space, the redivisionof social groups,therepresen-tation of time, andfinally the conceptionof the universe.The Andeandualis-tic schemes also appearedas powerful operators by means of which theindigenousworld not only adapted tself to colonial dominationbut further-more absorbed he contributionsof the Occidentinto the interiorof a systemof representationswhich remainedsubject,despitereorientationsand distor-tions, to preexistinglogics.This incorporationof foreign elements in an autochthonousunit whichconserved its principlesof organizationaccountedin particular or the mostremarkablecharacteristicsof the process of religious acculturation n theAndean world. This process did not simply amountto a series of recoveries,reinterpretations,r translations. t is known,forexample,thatSaintJacques, heknightbrandishinghis sword,was assimilated nto Illapa,the god of lightningandof thunder,ustasthesuperposingof Christonto the Sun was favoredbytheproximityof the dates of the solstice andCorpusChristi. But in practicethenoveltyof theprocess aynot in theseidentificationsn andof themselves,butinthe fact thattheytookpart n a systemof classificationandthatthecomponentsof the syncreticcombination,whetherpagan or Christian, ound themselvessubjected to pairs of binary opposites (high-low, right-left, masculine-feminine, and so forth) of the dualistic order. In the frameworkof sacredtopography,hesaintsquite ogicallycame tooccupytheupperextremityof thevertical axis, while the devils were symmetrically positioned at the lowerextreme.Moreover, he originaltraitsof Andean dualismaffected,even moresubtly,theOccidentalcontributionshemselves:From he timethat heyenteredinto theplay of classifying categories,they were in turnsusceptibleto infinitedivisions.In thiswaytheVirgindisaggregatedntodifferentaspects:On the onehand she resided in the UpperWorld,with the saints;and on the other,shemergedwithPachamama,heEarth-Mothernd, nthisaspect,belongedequallyto the Lower World.Inananalogousmanner heancientdivinityforwhomshewas asubstitute,Copacabana,hegreat dol ofLakeTiticaca,was onthe one handtransformednto the Virginof Copacabana, learlycelestial,but on the other,survived nthe formof aquaticand nfernal irens.16Insum,despitechanges,theperpetual ogics in theAndeancontinuitieswere whatgaveorder othereligiousrestructuringsnthecolonialepoch,andparticularlyntheseventeenth entury:In the end, it was an example of the phenomenonof Andeanization.

To summarize,the model governed by a dualistic order controlled thiscombination of a territorialunity with pagan-Christiansyncretismon whichwere foundedthe new identitiesborn of the colonial transformations.These16 Cf Nathan Wachtel. Le retour des ancetres. Les Indiens Urus de Bolivie (XXeme-XVIemesiecle). Essai d'histoire regressive. (Paris, 1990), 549-58.


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did not, however, follow concomitantrhythms.The conjuncturesdifferedaccordingto the type of phenomenonenvisaged and not without some over-lappingor discrepanciesbetween contextual function and local conditions.Ifthe process of the fragmentationof ancient chieftainships began with theEuropean nvasion and if the indigenouscommunitiesconstitutingthe newfoundationalunits traced theirorigin generallyto the reduccionesorderedbythe Spanishadministrationn the secondhalf of the sixteenthcentury,the tiesof solidaritythat extended their networksacross a largescale (regional,eveninterregional)often persisted up to the end of the seventeenthcenturyanderodedonly gradually.In the case of evangelizationand the "extirpationofidolatries,"both collidedwithstrongformsof resistance,so much so that n anearly periodthe two camps of belief, Christianandautochthonous, emainedwhile giving way to reciprocalreinterpretationsnd notmerging n a synthesisuntil a periodwhich may be located approximatelyn the second half of theseventeenthcentury.The institutionalexpressionof thispagan-christian syn-cretism, namely the system of rotation of religious offices, did not in turnseem to emergeas a regularpracticeuntilwell into the eighteenthcentury,sothat the crystallizationof elements constitutingthe model to which AndeanIndiannessconformeddid not take place until afterthe restructuringworkedout over nearlytwo centuries.During this time an inverse movementof Occidentalizationdid its work,principally n the urbanmilieu and in the mining centers.The historyof theIndians of the cities in the Andean world during the colonial period stillremainslargely unknown.The case of the three principalcities of the highplateauin present-dayBolivia-Potosi, Oruro,andLa Paz-will be studiedas illustrations,allowing us to enter into the details of certain colonial trans-formations.

Potosi, the ImperialCity founded in 1545 at the foot of Cerroand wellknownfor its fabulous silvermines,rapidlybecame one of the most populouscities of the Occidentalworld:At the beginningof the seventeenthcentury tspopulationwas estimated at close to 130,000 inhabitants 6,000 Spanishand120,000 Indians).More so than Cuzco, the old Inca capital, or Lima, thecapitalof the Viceroyalty, t is at Potosi that,with the flood of migrants romall parts,the intermixingof the Andeanpopulationsbegan, followed by theprocess of internalinterbreeding hat resultedin the dissolution of ancientethnic identities.The census takenin the time of Franciscode Toledo,in 1575, registeredatPotosi a list of 690 taxpayers isted in the categoryof yanaconas, which is tosay Indianswho residepermanentlyn thecity and who havealreadydetachedthemselvesfromtheircommunityof origin.17 nfact, theycome fromregions

17 Ibid, 476-7.


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CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 245as far away as those of Cuzco (37 percent), Lake Titicaca (18 percent),Huamanga(11 percent), and more distant still, since certain ones amongstthem are originallyfrom Quito, Bogota, and even from Mexico. The censusindicates that an enormous majorityof the Indian yanaconas (536, or 78percent)areguayradores,or miners,who use traditionalAndeantechniques.For nearlythirtyyears, in effect, from 1545 to around1575 (when the amal-gam was introduced),these Indiansessentially controlled the extractionofcrude ore that was later convertedinto silver. These Indians formedteamsofworkerswho negotiatedreal contractswiththe Spanishmining entrepreneurs:They procured he necessarytools for themselves andagreedto supplya fixedquantity of minerals while keeping the extracted surplus for themselves.Moreover,the Spanish had to employ the same indigenous teams to makesilver from their portion of the ore. Certain sectors of the Andean world,therefore,are to be found notably engaged in the new economic networksfrom very early on. The otheryanaconasof Potosi were essentially artisanssuch as tailors, cobblers, saddlers,and carpenters,who worked at crafts thatthe Spanish ntroduced.There was even a complementof 47 merchantswhosepresenceappearsall the morenotablein the traditional conomicorganizationin the centraland southern Andes founded on an ideal of complementaritywhich excluded commercialexchanges.An anonymousdescriptionof Potosi, datingfrom 1603, confirms this inte-gration ntothe colonial economic systemin anothercontext(aftertheIndianshad long lost technicalcontrolover the productionof silver).An enumeratedtableof the indigenouspopulation ndicates that30,000 Indiansworked n themines or performedthe services linked to the exploitationof mines, while30,000 others "findthemselves in this City occupied with diverse trades andactivities."'8 Regardingthe former, if the hardesttasks (mostly inside themine) were carried out by the 4,780 miners forced into obligatory labor,another10,000free workerswere requiredat the variousstagesof production.Still, this half of thepopulationreceivedsalaries(unequalaccording o wheth-er one is dealing with the mita or a voluntary engagement). The Indiansoccupied with other trades,which constitutedthe otherhalf, appeared o beworking on their own behalf. Among these, one discovers 1,000 merchantswho suppliedthe construction imber;2,700 who procured he wood for fuel;and, last, 10,000 Indians who transportedo the city the necessaryfoodstuffsand fodder. The Indiansin this last categorywere not limited to the tasks oftransport:Without a doubtthey also includedIndianscoming from commu-nities to sell a partof theirproduceatPotosi and those who maintainedn thisway (along with the other migrants) the multiple links between the ruralmilieu and the urban center.All of these Indians rubbedshoulders n Potosi, learningfrom one another

18 Ibid., 478-9.


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to recognizetheirdifferencesand theircommoncondition.While it is truethatthe mitayoscoming from the same corregimientowere attachedto the sameparish (the Pacajes to that of the Concepcion, the Caracaras o that of SanCristobal,and so forth), they were not the only residents,as other Indianslived there as well; nor were their neighborhoodsrestrictedto streets andmarkets, for they extended in the workplace as well: The mita in effectallocated to each of its beneficiariescontingentsof Indians of different ori-gins, andinverselythemitayosof the sameoriginfound themselvesdispersedandregroupedwith other Indians.Thereis all the more reason for free work-ers to have the same experience. The intermixingof the population thusaffectedeveryaspectof daily life in Potosi, leadingus to conclude thatit verymuch represented he crucible in which the gestationof a new identitytookplace, one in fact of interbreedingbut where at the same time the permanentcontact with the Spanishsector,the indefinitelyrenewed movement of socialascent, and the opening onto vast networksreachingeven to the Old Worldconstantlysustaineda strong process of Occidentalization.Analogous phenomenaoccurredin a city such as Oruro,even though itssilver mines were much less importanthanthose of Potosi. It is not surprisingto find that the majorityof the 1,246forasterosregistered n the census of theDuke of La Palataare,19 n 1683, employed in mining production;but onediscoversthat,as in Potosi,a significantpartof them exercised artisanal rades(181, or 14.5 percent) or occupations linked to transportation159, or 13percent).Two remarkableraits,contradictoryn appearance,distinguishthisgroup of forasteros. On the one hand, more than half of them (54 percent)were bornin Oruro,descendantsof migrantsalreadysettled in the city; andamong those who were not bornthere,more thana quarter 27 percent)hadresided there for at least five years:The constantflux of migrationsdid notpreventa certainstabilityin thaturbanpopulation.On the other,despite thelong historyof these migrations of whichmany go back threeor fourgenera-tions, all the way to the time of the founding of Oruro),a very substantialmajority(83 percent)of these forasteroscontinueto pay tributeto the caci-ques of theiroriginalvillages. Moreover,more thanhalf of them(54 percent)have even fulfilled theirobligationof mita in Potosi "in silver"(which is tosay that they paid a monetarycommutation o theircaciques, and one men-tions only for the sake of the record the 2 percentwho servedin person).Toput it anotherway, even in this urbanmilieu, the majorityof these forasterosstill conserved,at the end of the seventeenthcentury,ties with theircommu-nities of origin.The crucibleof acculturationn Oruroextendedits influencewell beyondthe limits of the city, through hemultipleramifications hatunitethe urbanIndianswith the more distantcountryside.

19 Ibid. 480-2.


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The thirdcase, La Paz, representsanotherexample, not a miningcenter20but a commercialway station,one situatedon the grandaxis linkingCuzcotoPotosi and which benefited as well from its proximity to the yungas, theAmazonianPiedmont in which cocoa leaves were produced.The city of LaPaz presentsanotherpeculiarity: ts jurisdictionencompassedtwo, and laterthree, peripheralruralparishes organizedafter the model of the indigenouscommunity(SanPedro,SantaBarbara,and SanSebastian).Duringthe coloni-al period,therefore,some of the Indiansof La Paz were trueurbanites,whileotherswere suburbancountrydwellers.21If to begin with, one examines the global evolution of the populationof LaPaz, to the extent that availabledocumentationpermits,one finds the indige-nous sector, taken in its ensemble, sufferedlong-termerosion. Our earliestinformationdatesback to 1586, when La Paz contained6,000 inhabitants,ofwhich 96 percentwere Indians.The first decline appears n the middleof theseventeenthcentury.In 1650, the populationrose slightly, to 7,500 inhabi-tants, but among these the Indians did not representmore than 81 percent,while the categoryof half-castes(recorded or the first time) increased to 13percent,andthatof the Spanishonly to 6 percent.A seconddecline appearedin 1675, when the totalpopulationhad almostdoubled to 12,000 inhabitants;but the Indianportionof the populationhad diminished to 60 percent,whilethe half-castesand Spanish(the two categoriesare confounded)made up 40percent.Withouta doubt the strongurbangrowth, accompaniedby the swellof half-castes, meant once again great waves of migrations.22But then fornearlytwo centuries, f thepopulationof La Paz continued o grow(abovethefluctuationswhich we cannotexaminehere in detail), on the whole a certainstability in its compositioncan be observed: it is, thus, that in 1854, out ofsome 60,000 inhabitants,58 percentare inscribed in the categoryof Indians,while 42 percentarehalf-castesand whites (categoriesstill confounded).It isduring the second half of the nineteenthcentury that a new and markeddecline occurs, resultingin a profounddisruptionof the urban andscapebythe beginning of the twentiethcentury.The census of 1909 counted around80,000 inhabitants,amongwhom one may distinguish30 percentIndians,32percenthalf-castes,and38 percentwhites.Moreover, heevolution of the firsthalf of the twentiethcenturywouldonly continuethese shifts withrecomposi-tions, therebyaccentuating hem. In 1942, La Paz counted morethan300,000inhabitants,of which 23 percentarerecorded as Indians,35 percentas half-castes, and 41 percentas whites. Every bit as much as Potosi or Oruro,butaccordingto othermodalities,the city of La Paz playedthe role of a cruciblefor the process of Occidentalization.23

20 Cf RossanaBarragan,Espacio urbanoy dinamica etnica. La Paz en el siglo XIX.(LaPaz,Hisbol, 1990).21 Ibid. 85-122. 22 Ibid. 72-74. 23 Ibid. 76-82 and 75.


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After this sketch,in broadstrokes,of the globalevolution of thepopulationof La Paz, we must call attention o severalparticularpoints and examine ingreaterdetail the distributionof categoriesof people in the differentdistricts.Let us return herefore o the threeruralparishessituatedon theperiphery.Fortwo of these, San Sebastian and Santa Barbara,the bipartite organizationseemed to disappearat the very momentof their creationfollowing the divi-sion of the original parish,called de las piezas at the end of the seventeenthcentury.At San Pedro,on the contrary, he dualistorder,with its two halves,Hanansayaand Hurinsaya,was still testified to in 1770 and did not fade inturnuntil afterthegreatIndianuprisingof 1781(duringwhich therebeltroopslaid siege to La Paz for six months,spreading error hroughoutCreole soci-ety). Let us clarifyhere that the three ruralparisheswere not only peopledbyIndians of the community, for very early on these parishesunderwent theprogressiveintrusionof the Spanish,who established haciendasthere. Theseencroachmentsaccelerated after 1781, particularly n San Sebastian and inSanta Barbara,where the category of originarios Indians then disappeared(althoughit survived in San Pedro). A second acceleration,of a differentcharacterbut actingin the same direction,occurred n the second half of thenineteenthcentury,with urbanexpansion:Santa Barbaraand San Sebastiansaw themselves thereafterabsorbed into the city itself. In fact, in 1877 thepopulationof La Paz reached70,000 inhabitants.This included some 6,000more ruralIndians,who concentratedn theparishof SanPedro,as a substan-tial majority(70 percent).24When the three categories (Indian,half-caste and whites) are consideredtogether, t is possible to see that after the same census of 1877they can all befound,in unequaldistribution,n each of the eightdistrictswhich makeup thecity, althoughSan Pedro is distinguishedanewby showingthe most elevatedpercentagesnot only of Indians(30 percent)but also of half-castes (64 per-cent). Strong correspondencesappearas well between the geographyof thedistricts and the distributionof occupations:Most artisanalactivity (from70to 90 percent)of bakers,butchers, ailors, cobblers,hatters,and so forth)wasconcentratedn theperipheraldistricts.Conversely, t is remarkable hatoutofthe entirepopulationof La Paz, 32 percentof Indiansand36 percentof half-castes were neverthelessregistered n the centraldistricts,while 44 percentofwhites were to be found also in the peripheraldistricts.Thatthese last shouldbe distinguishedby characteristicsmoreclearlyIndianor half-casteis not, inthe end, the least bit surprising;he essential matter s thatin proportionshatwere, to be sure, variable,all the categoriesof people rubbed shouldersandintermixed n all the districts of the city.25One other observationmustbe made on the sexual distributionwithinthecategoryof half-castes,for the same census of 1877indicatesthatforall of the

24 Ibid. 96-122, and 185 passim. 25 Ibid. cf table, 196-7.


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CONSTITUTING THE MAJORITY AS A MINORITY 249districtsof La Paz, 61 percentwere women, and only 39 percent,men. Thisstrongimbalanceconfirms,on the one hand,the vital role thatwomenplayedin the migratorymovements towardsthe city and the processesof interbreed-ing. As recent work shows, it was generallymigrants(or theirdescendants)who, froman early epoch of the colonial period,exercised the urbanoccupa-tions of domestics and, above all, the activity of sellers (regatonas) in themarketstalls.26But the imbalanceregisteredby the census also indicated,onthe otherhand,the complex problemof identifyingindividualsattributed othe categoryof half-caste.It will be recalled herethatone of the most visiblecriteria, and one which denoted a self-designation, for example, that ofclothing,was in effect trulypertinentonly for women. Half-caste men distin-guishedthemselveslittle, in this view, fromthe Creole membersof society (ifnot by the qualityof their clothing);while half-caste women, from the six-teenth centuryon and throughout he colonial and later republicanperiods,despitethe manychangingfashions,wore clothingthatdifferentiatedhemasmuch fromthe Spanishas from the Indians.Even today(andsince around heend of the eighteenthcentury), n La Paz as on all the high Andeanplain, thefamouspollera (gatheredand layeredskirts),inheritedfrom an ancient formof dress used by Creole women, is a quasi-emblematicsign of the chola.27Why does the latter,who does so muchto distinguishherself from the Indianwoman, not follow the course of Occidentalization o its end? Her daughter,especially now, doubtless does so: Did not the pollera marka stage in theprocess which has continuedthroughgenerations?This apparentlymodestcostume raises the whole problem,which we may only invoke here, of theautonomyof a half-casteculture.If the constitutionof the Indiansas a minorityhas followed, in Mexico andin the Andeanworld, distinctmodalitiesand differentrhythms, n the end itresults in a commoneffacement of thecollective identitiescreatedby colonialdomination. During several centuries Indianizationand Occidentalizationhave producedopposite effects, but the processes in reality have becomeintermingled;and it is Occidentalizationwhich, everywhere,has finished asthe victor.But this has notbeen entirelytrue,for Indiansremainminoritiesallthe same, if one is to be precise. Is this a questionof last vestiges before anineluctable and final disappearance,or will the construction of new con-sciousnesses of identity open other perspectives for them (as the "neo-indigenist"movements whichhavebeendevelopingoverthecourseof thelastfew years seem to testify)? The questionreachesbeyond the boundsof ourbrief reflectionhere.Yet the Mexicancase as well as thatof the Andeanworld shouldperhaps

26 Ibid. 192 and passim.27 Cf Rossana Barragan,"Entrepolleras, nanacas y lliqllas. Los mestizos y cholas en laconformacion de la "TerceraRepublica,"in Tradiciony modernidaden los Andes, HenriqueUrbano,ed. (Cuzco, 1993), 43-73.


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250 SERGE GRUZINSKI AND NATHAN WACHTELincite us to reconsider he infatuationwith which we interestourselves thesedays with minorities,ethnic andother;to reflecton the manner n which theyspring up andconstruct hemselves withinour discourse and ourimagination;finally, to scrutinize he manner n whichthey disappearwhenlucidity, usury,or the effects of fashion,take ourattentionelsewhere. The rhetoricof alterityequallymeritsreview in the lightof an historicalexperiencewhichrevealstheextent to which the Creole and European ntellectual elites have long beenfond of a concept which embracesthe most diverse strategies.

gruzinski serge - nathan wachtel cultural interbreedings constituting the majority as a minority...

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