saito - the cult of the dead moxos

8/13/2019 SAITO - The Cult of the Dead Moxos

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67ournal Latin American Lore 22:2 2004), 167-196Printed in u s A

The Cult of the Deadand the Subversion of State Justice

in Moxos, Lowland Bolivia

KIR S ITO

National Museum Ethnology, Osaka, Japan

Until the mid-l 980s, the Trinitarios, an indigenous people of the Moxos regionof Lowland Bolivia, occasionally held nocturnal seances where the mediuminvoked the spirits of the dead at the request of their living relatives. The deadwho appeared at the seances were, with one exception, all indigenous people.The only exception was a white man named Virtuchi. He would often come tothe seances and help the Trinitarios find a missing person or object and, as areward for this service, receive Catholic prayers that were indispensable forhis salvation.

I first heard of Virtuchi when I had an interview with an elderly woman inSan Lorenzo (Moxos Province, Beni Prefecture). 1 She told me about a seanceshe had attended in her childhood. That seance was held at the request of aman whose mother had recently died. Before her death, she had buried hergold ornaments inside the house without telling her sons where they were hidden. Therefore, in the seance, the man wanted to ask the spirit of his motherAUTHOR S NOTE: An earlier draft of this article was read at a Spring Semester Seminar, Instituteof Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool, England, 9 March 2000, and at a Lent Termpen Seminar, Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, England, 13 March2000. I thank the participants of the seminars for their valuable comments. My research in Bolivia

was made possible by the 1993 Overseas Study Scholarship for Japanese Students provided by theIshizaka Foundation, Keidanren, Japan, and the 1997 Overseas Research Grant provided by theMinistry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan. 1 am grateful to these institutions.1. Interview with a Trinitario woman, aged 55, San Lorenzo, 11 February 1996. My field

research was mainly conducted in San Lorenzo and Trinidacito, Moxos Province, Beni Prefecture, between October 1994 and March 1996.


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168 AKIRA SAITOabout their location. Her spmt, however, refused to answer the questionbecause she had buried the ornaments in order to prevent her sons from quarreling about them.

Among the dead in the seance was Virtuchi. In place of the mother, whokept silent, he answered the question. He said, There, at the base of that pillar. Then he added, No matter how hard you look for it, you won't be ableto find it because it moves. This means that the spirit of the mother moves theornaments or that the ornaments themselves move in order that her sons notfind them.

When I carried out my field research in the mid-1990s, many elderly Trinitarios still remembered Virtuchi. According to them, he was a white man who,in the remote past, had killed many people. He was caught by the police andpublicly executed by firing squad. A number of questions might be raisedabout this white murderer: How did the Trinitarios get to know him? Whatmotivated them to let him appear at their seances? Why was he the only whiteto do so? Is the fact that he was a murderer and was executed related to hisappearance at the seances? This article seeks to answer these questions.

The stories that my Trinitario informants told me about Virtuchi are typicalexamples of the great criminal genre, namely, stories that center on fabulousexploits of criminals and their inevitable deaths at the hands of the judiciary.My informants went to considerable lengths to convince me of the almostsuperhuman qualities of Virtuchi. Although they knew nothing about his victims, they unanimously stressed that there were many of them. They said thatevery time the police caught Virtuchi and put him in jail, he managed toescape. The police made every effort to catch him and finally arrested and thenexecuted him. At the moment of the execution, he showed a surprisinglystrong hold on life. It is said that it took the firing squad several volleys ofshots to kill him.

According to Walter Benjamin, great criminal stories owe their mainattraction to the fact that they demonstrate to the public that violence stillexists outside the law. He claims that it is an essential characteristic of themodern legal system to monopolize violence and to deny the public the rightto resort to it. The great criminal fascinates the public because the latter isno less a target or potential victim of modern legislation than the former:One might perhaps consider the surprising possibility that the law's interest in amonopoly of violence vis-a-vis individuals is explained not by the intention of preserving legal ends but, rather by the intention of preserving the law itself; that violence,whennot in the hands of the law,threatens it not by the ends that it may pursuebut by its mereexistenceoutsidethe law.Thesamemaybe moredrastically suggested,for one reflects howoften the figure of the great criminal,howeverrepellenthis endsmayhavebeen,has arousedthesecretadmiration of thepublic.Thiscanresultnotfromhis deed but only from the violence to which it bears witness. In this case, therefore,the violence that present-day law is seekingin all areasof activityto deny the individ


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169HE CULT OF TH DE D IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAual appears really threatening, and arouses even in defeat the sympathy of the massesagainst the law. (Benjamin 1996:239)

Benjamin suggests that "the masses" see in the figure of the "great criminal" a symbol of defiance against the law, which implies that the criminalcould be their liberator from an oppressive legal system. From such a viewpoint, the Trinitarios' fascination with the white murderer may seem lessstrange than it first appeared, for the law that condemned him is an instrumentof social control in the hands of the white population, who are none other thantheir oppressors.'

In Latin America, the relationship between the whites and the natives isbased on an uneven distribution of power and is, accordingly, filled with tensions and frictions.' The Trinitarios' case is no exception to this rule. In thedays o Spanish colonialism, the Trinitarios lived under the tutelage o theJesuit missionaries, maintained a relatively peaceful relationship with theJesuits, and developed a distinctive Catholic culture. However, the cooperation with the whites ended with the expulsion o the Society o Jesus from theSpanish dominions in 1767 and, since then, the whites have almost alwaysbeen oppressive and exploitative toward the Trinitarios. From the middle ofthe nineteenth century onward, large numbers o white immigrants came tosettle in Moxos, with a view to commercializing the natural resources of theregion. They deprived the Trinitarios of their land and cattle and exploitedtheir labor. Today, cases o oppression and exploitation have become less frequent, but the basic structure o an uneven power relationship still remains.

The white immigrants came into conflict with the natives when theyattempted not only to monopolize economic resources but also to control violence. Throughout the nineteenth century, one o their main concerns was tocreate a centralized judicial system and to concentrate violence in the hands othe State. For this purpose they established courts of justice in major towns,staffed them with qualified lawyers, and reinforced the police force. They alsotried to take the administration o justice out of the hands of the natives and toimpose on them a modem, white concept o justice that was largely alien tothe native traditions. As a result, two culturally distinct ways o administeringjustice collided with each other. It is my intention to show that the case of2. The Australian Aborigines' stories about Ned Kelly, a famous bushranger of the nineteenth

century, are another example of the sympathy the oppressed have with outlaws. As DeborahRose states, for the Australian Aborigines, Captain Cook brought the immoral law of oppression, which Ned Kelly broke and, "in doing so, he aligned himself with the moral positionof those who were being dispossessed" (1994:183). See Rose 1984; Rose 1994.

3. Throughout this article, I use the term "whites" blancos) to designate the non-indigenouspeople who trace their descent from Spaniards because, in Moxos, it is the term they use inorder to distinguish themselves from the natives. Its use is not very frequent, however. Moregenerally, they simply call themselves nosotros (we) in contrast to ellos (they) or esa gente(those people).


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170 KIR S ITOVirtuchi fits into place precisely along this boundary between two opposingforms of justice.

The incompatibility of the white and the native concepts of justice and theconflict arising from their juxtaposition in a colonial situation have receivedmuch attention from scholars. A growing number of studies on legal pluralismand alternative justice are now available.' This article, however, does not pretend to be a full-scale analysis of the traditional justice in Moxos; neither doesit aim to assess the feasibility of incorporating native practices into the modem judicial system. Its scope is more limited. It takes up the case of Virtuchias a telling example of the contradiction between two forms of justice andattempts to illustrate the native perception of white justice, especially, thewhites' monopoly of violence and their self-attributed authority to kill.'The public execution is a pseudo-ceremonial event in which the State'spower of life and death over its citizens is spectacularly displayed and reaffirmed." These "rites of execution" (Masur 1986) are designed to give the public a clear message that the State dispenses justice and that it is ready tointervene wherever there is an infraction. I shall argue that the Trinitarios whowitnessed or heard about the execution of Virtuchi had not missed this message and that their belief about him was formed as a counter-argument againstit. The Trinitarios' stories about Virtuchi were and continue to be an act of subversion against State justice.

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, I want to clarify the culturalpeculiarities of the contemporary Trinitario belief about Virtuchi. I attempt toexplain the exact nature of the relationship the Trinitarios maintain with thespirit of the white murderer and to show that despite its seeming abnormality,his appearance at the seances makes perfect sense within the context of nativeunderstanding of death and afterlife. What comes to the fore with this examination is the theme of atonement and salvation. The State condemned Virtuchito death, whereas the Trinitarios are helping him atone for his sin and achievesalvation. Second, I want to locate the case of Virtuchi within its historicalcontext and to bring out its implication for the broader issue of State justiceand the subversion of it. Using historical documents, I attempt to reconstructthe murder case and its impact on the Trinitarios. My hypothesis is that the

4. See, for example, the following thematic issues of journals: "Popular Justice: Conflict Resolution within Communities," Marie-Claire Foblets, Anne Griffiths, Carol LaPrairie, andGordon Woodman, eds., Journal Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 36 (1996); "Pluralismo juridico y derechos indigenas en America Latina," Milka Castro Lucic and MariaTeresa Sierra, eds., merica indigena 58, no. 1/2 (1998); "Justice et societes rurales," JuanCarlos Garavaglia, ed., Etudes rurales 149/150 (1999); "Justicia comunitaria en los Andes,"Antonio Pefia Jumpa, ed., llpanchis 59/60 (2002).

5. The following studies provide testimony of the Native Americans' critical appreciation ofwhite justice: Grabowski 1993; Grabowski 1996; Krippner-Martfnez 1995; Zeitlin andThomas 1992.

6. On the public execution, see Evans 1996:25-189; Foucault 1975:9-72; Masur 1989:25-49.


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171HE CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIATrinitarios understood the public execution in religious terms and consideredthe State's appropriation of the power of life and death over mortals asacrilege.The TrinitariosThis article focuses on an ethnic group of Lowland Bolivia who call themselves Trinitarios.? They live extensively scattered in the south of Beni Prefecture. A large part of their territory belongs to the tropical savannah called

lanos de Moxos (Moxos Plains) and, therefore, there are high temperaturesand a great deal of precipitation throughout the year. Their population is estimated at a little less than 10,000, the bulk of which is concentrated in threeareas: Trinidad, San Lorenzo, and San Francisco. A significant number ofwhite settlers live in these towns and the natives are obliged to coexist withthem. The whites are usually government officials or owners of cattle farms orshops, while the vast majority of the Trinitarios are subsistence farmers. Usingslash-and-burn farming, they cultivate rice, manioc (cassava), plantains, sweetpotatoes, and squash. They also catch fish in the rivers and lakes and raise pigsand chickens. They occasionally hunt wild game in the forest. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, their main subsistence activity was raising cattle in the savannah. Today, however, the whites control most of the livestockindustry. In order to earn money, the Trinitarios sell their products to thewhites or work for them as herdsmen or domestic servants.

Anthropologists know the Trinitarios as a subgroup of the Arawakspeaking people, called Mojos or Mojefios." In the second half of the seventeenth century, the Society of Jesus came into contact with the inhabitants ofthe Moxos Plains. The Jesuits gathered these inhabitants into large towns andorganized them into a centralized mission system known as the Mojos Missions. When the Jesuits first reached the upper Mamore River, there weremany different ethnic groups, and most of them spoke an Arawak dialect. TheJesuits, indifferent to their ethnic diversity, called all of them Mojos. Later,most of these groups were gathered into four towns: Loreto, Trinidad, SanIgnacio, and San Javier. Thereafter, they lived under the mission system untilthe expulsion of the religious order in 1767 and, during that period, their society and culture were fundamentally transformed. One of the most notableresults was the creation of new ethnic identities based on the mission towns.The inhabitants of these towns gradually took on a common identity relatingto the town in which they lived and came to call themselves Loretanos7. On the Trinitarios and their neighbors, see Denevan 1980; Metraux 1942:53-80; Lehm

Ardaya 1999; Riester 1976:311-339. The preliminary report of the national census of1994-1995 gives the following estimations of their populations: the Trinitarios 9,813, theIgnacianos 6,317, the Javerianos 410. See Bolivia 1995:755.

8. On the history of the Mojefios, see the excellent study of Block 1994.


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172 KIR S ITD(inhabitants of Loreto), Trinitarios (inhabitants of Trinidad), Ignacianos(inhabitants of San Ignacio), and Iaverianos (inhabitants of San Iavier).Except for the Lorentanos, who recently disappeared, these groups still existtoday.As mentioned above, the Trinitarios and the other groups have long expe-rience with white settlers' abuses. They call the whites carayana and stronglyresent them for taking away their land and cattle and exploiting their labor,?They say that their hometown, Trinidad, had been founded by their ancestorsin the remote past but that the incoming carayana seized the best part of it andmarginalized the native inhabitants. They complain that although it is theirtown, they cannot stay or eat there without paying. They also say that the sameprocess is repeating itself in San Lorenzo and San Francisco, where the whiteshave large houses constructed around the plaza, while the natives live behindthem in small huts made of cane and palm leaves.

The Trinitarios often express the difference between the whites and them-selves in religious terms. According to them, the carayana are highly irreli-gious.'? They show little interest in Catholic observances and do not obeyGod s commandments. They usually stay away from the fiestas (festivals) anddo not help during them. They rarely engage in religious devotional acts, suchas velorio (vigil) or limosna (charity). They are extremely greedy and nevershare their wealth with the poor. They lose their tempers easily and often quar-rel among themselves. In short, they look more devilish than godly.

The Trinitarios maintain a highly religious culture, with Catholicism at itscore. This culture, which they call costumbres (customs), is a form of Catholi-cism unique to them and does not coincide with the religious practices the con-temporary Catholic Church has endorsed since the Second Vatican Council.For this reason, their relationship with the Church is often strained. TheChurch tends to be intolerant of those aspects of the costumbres that smell ofidolatry or paganism and, as a result, in towns like Trinidad or San Lorenzowhere there are resident priests or nuns, the indigenous people perform theirpractices not in the church but in the council house. They attend Mass andother ceremonies in the church side by side with the whites. However, afterMass, they move to the council house and practice their own devotions underthe supervision of doctrineros (catechists).

The costumbres consist of community festivals, familial rituals, andindividual works of charity. These include festivals of saints, those of the9. The word carayana is probably derived from the Guaranf word karai by which the Guaranidesignated the Spaniards. ana is a Mojo suffix signaling the plural form. The word was

already in use at the time of Jesuit entry into Moxos in the second half of the seventeenthcentury. See Castillo 1906:343.

10. Testimonies abound. To take a single instance, a Trinitario man said to me: "They (thewhites) say that they are truly Catholic. But they are not proper, not those who are trulyCatholic. They care about their business only, because they don't know how to pray, how todo the office of the church, do they?"; interview with a Trinitario man, aged 45, SanLorenzo, 29 February 1996.


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73HE CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAvirgins, a series of ceremonies that commemorates the life of Jesus fromChristmas to Holy Week, various rites of passage from birth to death, and rituals and prayers dedicated to the dead. In the Trinitarios' view, participation inthese costumbres is a crucial difference that separates them from the whites.The whites, it is true, are no less Catholic than the natives. They attend Massand receive Holy Communion and have their children baptized. However, forthe Trinitarios, participation in the costumbres means much more than that. Itmeans becoming a full member of local organizations, assuming a positionwithin them, and performing corresponding duties. Almost all the whites failin this respect.

In Trinitario communities, some organizations and professions exist inorder to support the observance of the costumbres The most important organization is the town council, the Cabildo Each community has a Cabildo andall the adult male members are supposed to participate in it. The Cabildo hasofficers, who are elected on the first day of each year. At one time the Cabildoperformed some secular functions, such as maintenance of public order andadministration of community properties, but today the public offices of therepublican government supersede the power of the Cabildo and its role is limited to religious affairs. Of the professions, that of doctrinero is preeminent.The doctrineros preside over religious ceremonies and lead prayers. They arethe living depositories of traditional knowledge and, as such, are held in highesteem.

The Trinitarios maintain some beliefs that are not part of orthodox Catholicism. These are the cult of the devil, witchcraft, the cult of the dead, the beliefin the spirits of the natural world, and messianism. I call them "unorthodox"beliefs because the Trinitarios themselves admit that they are different fromand opposed to the faith in the Christian God. They often hesitate to talk aboutthese beliefs and some feel guilty about putting them into practice.

One such belief that has received much attention from anthropologists isthe movement in search of the mythic place called Tierra Santa (Sacred Land)or Tierra Prometida (Promised Land)." The participants of this messianicmovement believe that there is a vast flat land rich in livestock and wild gamein the west or southwest of the Moxos Plains. God reserves this land for theTrinitarios as a replacement for their hometown, Trinidad, which they considerlost to the white settlers." God encourages them to move to this promised landand does not permit anyone else to do so. t is said that God hides the landfrom the eyes of any white who dares to approach it. In order to attain their11. The Trinitarios themselves do not use the words "orthodox" or "unorthodox," nor do they

have any words that might have similar meaning. The distinction, however, is quite clear. Inaddition to the uneasiness the Trinitarios feel towards unorthodox practices, neither theCabildo nor doctrineros take part in them.

12. See Jones 1980:289-295; Lehm Ardaya 1999; Riester 1976:311-339; Roca 2001: 128-133.13. "It is said that each town has its substitute"; interviews with a Trinitario man, supposedly

aged 70, Trinidacito, 12 and 14 July 1995. "What they are looking for is a substitute for thatTrinidad"; interview with a Trinitario man, aged 62, Trinidacito, 5 August 1995.


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174 KIR S ITDaim, the Trinitarios must have a firm faith and pure hearts unstained by anysins. They may not speak Spanish or wear manufactured clothing introducedby the whites, which are thought to belong to the devil. 4This movement occasionally takes on millenarian overtones. Rumor has it that God's judgment isimminent, that towns like Trinidad or San Ignacio will be submerged under theweight of their inhabitants' sins, and that only those who have reached thePromised Land will be saved.

The messianic belief about Santa Tierra has a strong grip on the Trinitariosand their neighbors and, throughout the twentieth century, migratory movements occasionally broke off, which led to the dispersion of the native population and the creation of many small settlements in the Isiboro-Secure region(Moxos Province). As I explain in the next section, the spirit medium hasplayed a key role in these movements.he Seance

Among the Trinitarios, there used to be mediums who were able to invoke thespirits of the dead. They are called espiritista (spiritualist) in Spanish andmuechjiru viya (or iiechjiru viya if the speaker is female) in Trinitario, whichmeans "those who are spoken to by God." In fact, being a medium is nothingless than a vocation, a calling from God. Such people become aware of theirvocation when, one day, God, Christ, or the Virgin Mary suddenly addressesthem. Ordinarily they live normal lives. They hold seances when they areasked to invoke the spirits of the dead. There is no payment in money, thoughthe best part of the food and drink prepared by the client for the dead is givento the medium as a token of gratitude.

It is not known when this practice started. As far as I could find, the earliest record of the seance dates back to 1887, when the fame of an Itonamamedium named Andres Guayocho attracted a large number of Trinitarios toSan Lorenzo, and the white population of Trinidad, fearful that the nativeswere preparing a genera] uprising against them, sent an expeditionary force,which ransacked the town and abused its inhabitants." According to testimonies made at the time, Guayocho held seances at night and God, Christ, andthe spirits of the dead came to talk to the congregation." It is noteworthy thatthe earliest mention of the Santa Tierra movement was made in connection14. Interview with a Trinitario woman, supposedly aged 45, San Lorenzo, 4 May 1995. Inter

view with a Trinitario man, aged 45, San Lorenzo, 29 February 1996.l5. Early Jesuit chroniclers recorded the existence of mediums and the practice of holding

seances among the Mojefios (Altamirano 1979:32-33; Castillo 1906:355-357). However,there is no evidence to link this practice to the contemporary one. On the turmoil of 1887commonly ca ed Guayocheria see Arteche 1989; Lehm Ardaya 1999:55-68; Rene-Moreno1974:75-80,388-391; Roca 2001:119-127; Suarez l887.

16. An interesting report by a white public servant who participated in Guayocho's seances ispublished in Los Debates no. 117 (Sucre, 10 October 1887).


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75H CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAwith this event. A report of 1888 states that those Trinitarios who had escapedfrom the persecution fled deep into the jungle in search of "the Cross andplain" (Arteche 1989:21).

When I carried out my research in the mid-1990s, there were no mediumsamong the Trinitarios. The last woman known to be a medium died in the firsthalf of the 1980s. People still remembered her and had clear memories of theway she held seances.'? In this article, I shall call her Angela Cayuba. Angelawas born in San Lorenzo and, as an adult, practiced her profession there. Butthe white inhabitants of the town denounced her for devil worship and threatened her with punishment, forcing her to leave the town and lead an itinerantlife in the Isiboro-Secure region. She died in a small town near the upperSecure River. 18

The medium invokes the spirits of the dead at the request of their living relatives. People ask the medium to hold a seance simply to greet their dead relatives; but, more often than not, they also do so for a specific purpose, forexample, to know the cause of the death of a relative, to locate a missing person or object, or to identify the thief when something is stolen. The Trinitariosbelieve that since the dead are on their way to heaven, they can see everythingon Earth. Like God himself, the dead know everything that happens in thisworld.

For this reason, the seance is closely related to the Santa Tierra movement.The dead, like God, know the exact location of the Sacred Land and are willing to reveal it to the Trinitarios through the medium. Therefore, the mediumis in fact nothing other than a principal promoter of the movement. As an interpreter of the divine will, the medium urges the Trinitarios to go on an exodusin search of the Promised Land. The spirits of the dead who come to theseances often tell their living relatives that Santa Tierra is within their reachand indicate the direction to follow. "Let's look for that Sacred Land. Do notget dispirited. Just keep up. Be men of courage," they exhort.'?17. The disappearance of mediums is only one of many symptoms of the decline of native traditions in Moxos. Educated in state-run schools, younger generations show little or no inter

est in the costumbres The majority of them cannot speak Trinitario, do not attend Cabildomeetings, and do not participate in the festivities. Another important factor is the spread ofProtestantism. Since the late 1960s, missionaries of the New Tribes Mission have beenactive in the region and have gained a large number of converts. They show some respectfor native culture but advocate a spirituality with all the Catholic gaudiness eliminated anddiscourage the natives from participating in these customs.

18. During my field research, I neither knew nor heard of any white who had participated in anindigenous seance. There are several reasons for this. The Trinitario seance is not a healingsession like those held by the shamans of Southwest Colombia (Taussig 1980; Taussig1987:139-473) or Northern Peru (Joralemon and Sharon 1993). Though privately sponsored, it is an occasion for communal gathering, and it is never a business. Moreover, as itshistory shows, it has always been a subject of conflict between the whites and the natives. Itis highly improbable that Angela Cayuba, a strong supporter of the Santa Tierra movement,would have accepted a white man's request for a seance.

19. Interview with a Trinitario man, aged 62, Trinidacito, 22 July 1995.


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76 KlR SAITOThe basic structure of the seance is like that of the Catholic festivals, which

consist of prayers and a banquet. After the Mass and the procession during afestival, the community members gather together in the council house, reciteprayers, and hold a banquet. This practice is called limosna (charity) orcomilona (banquet). Here, charity refers to practicing charity toward thedead. The prayers and banquets on festive occasions are always dedicated tothe dead. The idea of entertaining the dead with food and drink is widely heldamong the indigenous people of Latin America. According to the Trinitarios,the dead are souls espiritus) without bodies and they do not eat and drink.However, they can taste the vitality alma), essence espiritu), or grace gra-cia) of the meal.

The seance does not have a special name. It is simply called limosna orcomilona. However, it differs from the limosna or comilona of the festival inthat the latter is held in the council house in daylight under the supervision ofa doctrinero, while the former is held in a private house in darkness under theguidance of an espiritista.

In the house of the client hosting the seance, an altar with images of saintsis set up and food and drink are prepared to serve to the dead. A partition ofmosquito nets or blankets hides the altar from the participants. The mediumtakes a seat in front of the altar. When these preparations are completed, thecandles are put out and, in the darkness, first the saints come to visit. TheArchangel Michael, Saint James, or the Virgin of Carmel often descend to thealtar and greet the congregation. Because of the partition and the darkness,people cannot see the saints, but they hear their voices and any noise theymake. The participants recite prayers for them and, when they have finished,the saints leave. Then the spirits of the dead come, one by one. The spirits givetheir names and greet their relatives. When the spirits are all present, peoplerecite prayers again. The dead then have a meal. There are chickens, boiledeggs, rice cakes, boiled plantains, and chicha (an alcoholic beverage made ofmanioc). The Trinitarios maintain that they can clearly hear the spirits eat anddrink. However, after the dead leave and the candles are lit again, they are sur-prised to find the food and drink still laid out, exactly as before the seance.

ral Traditions about VirtuchiThe dead who come to the seances are all indigenous people whose identitiesare well known to the participants: they are deceased relatives. The onlyexception is Virtuchi. My informants explicitly admit this and talk about himwith surprise and curiosity. They state that Angela Cayuba would invoke himevery time she held a seance and would ask him about the locations of miss-ing objects or the identities of thieves. Since the seances largely depend on themedium's dramaturgic creativity, it is most likely that Angela is the one whochose Virtuchi and let him work for her as a spiritual helper.


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177HE CULT OF THE DEAD IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAAccording to the Trinitarios, Virtuchi killed many people in his lifetime,

before he was arrested by the police and publicly executed by firing squad. Atthe time of my research, there were no living eyewitnesses of this event. How-ever, some elderly people were still able to give me a full description. The fol-lowing is a summary of one of their testimonies:Virtuchi was a murderer of the past. He was a white man and he killed many people.The police arrested him and chained him up. But he escaped as many as three times.He was no longer a man but had become a real devil. The last time he was caught, hewasn't chained up but tied up with a rope. He had such a Herculean strength that noless than twenty policemen were needed to hold him and put him in jail. Then he wasblindfolded and shot dead. The execution took place in the middle of the plaza inTrinidad. He was made to sit on a chair, but kept talking. He was still alive after hav-ing been shot with as many as five bullets. "Give me the gun, I ll show you how toshoot," he shouted. It was not until he was shot in the upper arms that he died. t is saidthat his soul was in his upper arms."Virtuchi came to Angela's seances and talked in Spanish. People went to her whenthings were lost. Then Virtuchi showed up and answered their questions. When clothes,axes, ploughs were lost, or cows were gone, people had Virtuchi tell them who the thiefwas and then claimed damages. The reward for Virtuchi was prayers or Mass, notmoney."

The Trinitarios' stories about Virtuchi dwell, at great length, on the scene ofhis execution while they say little or nothing about the murders he committed.t is clear that for the Trinitarios, it does not matter whom Virtuchi killed. What

is important for them is how he met his end. I think this reflects the way theTrinitarios came into contact with Virtuchi, namely, they attended his publicexecution as spectators. Most of them would not have known him personally.They only gathered at his execution as curious spectators, and then the execu-tion somehow impressed them. They felt compelled to tell their experience toothers, and the stories were passed down from generation to generation. I thinkthe stories I collected in Moxos are a kind of aftereffect or reverberation of theimpact that Virtuchi's execution must have had on the indigenous people.

In order to understand that impact, I begin by examining another of itsaftereffects, namely, Virtuchi's appearance at the indigenous seances. I explainthe Trinitario concept of death and afterlife and clarify the exact nature of therelationship between the white murderer and the natives. This seeminglyroundabout way is, in my opinion, the surest way to understand the Trinitar-ios' view of the event. When it comes to native concepts and values,20. My informant compares Virtuchi to the ukumari (u ari in Trinitario), the Andean bear

(Tremarctos omatus), which in Moxos is a purely imaginary creature. According to talessimilar to the ones collected by Morote Best, this hairy monster lives on top of rocky moun-tains and goes down to human settlements to kidnap adults and children (Morote Best 1988).Some Trinitarios think that the ukumari is a kind of devil with its soul in the upper arms andthat, in order to kill it, they have to shoot it in the arms.

21. Interviews with a Trinitario man, aged 73, San Lorenzo, 23 and 29 February 1996.


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178 KIR SAITOethnographic data often give us more insight than historical documents, whichare usually written from the whites' perspective.

The Living and the eadThere are two different ways the Trinitarios invoke the spirit of Virtuchi, andthe medium plays a key part in both. One is the previously mentioned nocturnal seance. The other is to celebrate a Mass for his skull. This second methodis interesting and worth close examination.

When something is stolen, the Trinitarios procure a human skull and ask themedium to perform a Mass for it. Not every skull can be used for that purpose.According to my informants, the skull of a murderer is one of the most suitable. They say that when Angela Cayuba was alive, people used Virtuchi'sskull. They dug it up from the graveyard and made Angela say Mass for it, sothat he might return to this world and help them identify a thief. However, theskull of a murderer is not the only type used for this Mass. The Trinitarios saythat it is also possible to use the skull of one who got lost and died in thewilderness, of one who has no relatives to pray for him or her, or of one whodied a long time ago and whose identity nobody remembers."

First, one must "buy Mass" (comprar misa , which means asking the priestto perform a special Mass for a dead person on an anniversary of his or herdeath or to read out a dead person's name and pray for him or her during normal Mass on Sunday or a festive day. In either case, the Trinitarios feel it necessary to pay a fee and voluntarily bring the priest money or chicken eggs. Itis said that it is necessary to buy Mass from three to six times for a dead person in order to persuade that spirit to find the thief.

After having bought Mass, the natives go to the graveyard and dig up askull, that of Virtuchi or someone else. They wrap the skull in a black cloth orput it into a wooden box and take it to their house. At night, they cover thefloor with a black cloth, put the skull on it, and light two candles. Then theyrecite prayers for an hour or two. After that, they talk to the skull. They explainwhat has been stolen and beg the skull to identify the thief and recover thestolen objects. When all this is finished, they put out the candles and go to bed.Then, in the darkness, the skull returns to human form and goes out to look forthe thief. The Trinitarios say that they can clearly hear the skull stand up, openthe door, and leave the house. When the skull finds the thief, it bites him, pokes22. Interview with a Trinitario man, aged 71, San Lorenzo, 27 February L996 Interview with a

Trinitario woman, aged 55, San Lorenzo, 28 February 1996.23. The idea of compr r mis is widespread in Latin America. In the mid-1990s, the incumbent

priest in San Lorenzo requested nothing for this service. It is likely, however, that his predecessors were not as generous as he. I am grateful to the JIAL s anonymous reviewer forthis piece of information.


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179HE CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAhis body, pulls his legs, and keeps tormenting him until he gives up and returnsthe stolen objects.

Why do the Trinitarios use the skulls of murderers, of those who died in thewilderness, of those who have no relatives, or of those who died a long timeago and are lost from memory? In the Trinitarios view, all these people havelost a link with the living and have fallen into oblivion. Nobody recalls themand recites prayers for them. Therefore, they are particularly in need ofprayers. This is why they sell their services and contract with the living to findthieves and, in return, make those who are not their relatives pray to God fortheir salvation.

To the Trinitarios way of thinking, the dead go to purgatory and are burnedin the flames in order to atone for the sins they have committed in their life-time. The torment of purgatory is severe and hard to bear. But if their relativesremember them and recite prayers for them, they are momentarily cooled andable to take a short rest. In this way, thanks to the prayers of their relatives, thedead can endure the torment of purgatory and achieve salvation.

The Trinitarios have a variety of ways to pray for the dead. To buy Mass isone of them. Another common way is to hold a private limosna or comilonaThe relatives of a dead person usually hold one on the first anniversary of heror his death, but they may also do so any time they feel it necessary. In eithercase, they prepare food and drink, invite friends and neighbors, and haveprayers recited for the dead. On All Saints Day, November 1, the souls of thedead are believed to visit their living relatives and stay overnight with them inthis world. On that day, people go to church with food and drink and haveprayers recited for the dead. Moreover, the limosna or comilona that accom-panies any public festivity is also dedicated to the dead. Therefore, it can besaid that Trinitario Catholicism is none other than the cult of the dead in itsentirety. The seance and the Mass for the skull, unorthodox though they maybe, are simply other ways of praying for the dead.In Trinitario society, strong bonds closely link the living and the dead. Thedead do not cease to be members of the community. They occasionally returnto this world and intervene in the lives of their relatives. The living can feeltheir presence close to them on many festive occasions. The dead, on the otherhand, need the collaboration of their living relatives in order to follow, with-out any missteps, the path to salvation.

However, there are people who have strayed from the path to salvation.These are the murderers, those who died in the wilderness, those who have norelatives, or those who have fallen into oblivion. They are, so to speak, out-casts from the community of the living and the dead. They are unable to atonefor their sins and, therefore, they are on the verge of damnation because theyhave no one to recall them and pray for them.

Fortunately, the Trinitarios have two mechanisms in place to rescue theseoutcasts from damnation and reincorporate them into the community of the


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180 KIR S ITOliving and the dead. One mechanism is orthodox, and the other is unorthodox.

The orthodox mechanism consists of the prayers and banquets offered during Camival.s' In Trinitario communities, there is a religious confraternitycalled Hermandad (sisterhood), composed exclusively of elderly womencalled abadesas (abbesses), who play an important part in the festivities. Theyrecite prayers in the church and hold a banquet in the council house during thethree days of Carnival, namely, the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before AshWednesday. According to my informants, the prayers and banquets of the second and third days are specifically dedicated to those who died an unnaturaldeath: those who got lost and died in the wilderness, those who drowned whentheir canoe capsized, those who were killed by a snake, an alligator, or ajaguar, those who were homed by a bull, those who were struck dead with astick, or those who are missing. While in the church, the abadesas recall themand pray to God for their salvation. The banquets in the council house are alsoheld in their name.

The unorthodox mechanism is the seance and the Mass for the skull. Thesemethods are dangerous in that they make use of the abnormality of outcasts.These outcasts urgently need prayers and are willing to perform difficult tasksin order to obtain them. In addition, they are devilish creatures who have deviated from the path to salvation. This makes them suitable for such violentwork as threatening thieves and recovering stolen property.

Nevertheless, it is also true that the seance and the Mass for the skull provide the means for socially rehabilitating the outcasts. They reestablish a relationship of responsibility and obligation between the outcasts and the living.This is true in case of the relationship between Virtuchi and the Trinitarios.According to my informants, Virtuchi made a contract with the Trinitarios. Hepromised to identify thieves for them and, in fact, he kept his word. Thisbecame his obligation, or his cargo which means office of the town council.By means of the seance and the Mass for the skull, Virtuchi was converted intoa member of the Trinitario society.

We now have a partial explanation for why the spirit of a white murderershows up in indigenous seances. In the eyes of the Trinitarios, Virtuchi was anoutcast from the community of the living and the dead. Publicly executed, hehad been ostracized from society and, therefore, nobody recalled him andprayed for him. This is why he made a contract with the Trinitarios and agreed

24. This orthodox Carnival should not be confused with the merrymaking we are more familiarwith today. The orthodox Carnival involves a three-day penance that marks the beginning ofLent. The popUlarCarnival was introduced into Moxos by the white settlers and today manyTrinitarios celebrate it, calling it Camaval Chico (Small Carnival): its celebration is, however, voluntary, and the Cabildo and doctrineros do not participate in it.

25. Interview with a Trinitario woman, aged 68, San Lorenzo, 4 March 1996. Interview with aTrinitario man, aged 45, San Lorenzo, 4 March 1996.

26. Interview with a Trinitario man, aged 57, San Lorenzo, 26 February 1996.


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181HE CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAto identify thieves and locate missing objects for them. He fulfils his obliga-tion more faithfully than do other spirits who are not outcasts because, with norelatives in this world, he is more in need of prayers.

istorical ReconstructionThis explanation is, however, still insufficient in that it does not explain whythe Trinitarios singled out Virtuchi and let him appear at their seances, for heis only one among many available outcasts. Even if it is true that they chosehim because he was a murderer, the question why this singling out happenedto him and only him still remains. Like all the other dead persons who appearat the seances, he has an individual identity and life history: he cannot bereduced to any generic type, be it racial stereotyping or criminologicallabelling.

f we consider the peculiarities of Virtuchi, the relationship the Trinitariosmaintain with him looks quite abnormal. As they acknowledge, he is a whiteman who does not share their customs and beliefs. Moreover, he is among themost sinful of persons and, therefore, least deserves to be saved. Despite allthis, the Trinitarios invoke his spirit at the seances, pray for his salvation and,in so doing, help him atone for his sins and go to heaven. Thanks to their"charity," Virtuchi undergoes a double metamorphosis: from outsider toinsider and from damned to saved. Why, however, do the Trinitarios take somuch trouble for his sake? Clearly, they have no obligation to rescue this whitemurderer from his merited destiny of damnation. It is improbable that theyhelp him simply because of his suitability for the task of recovering stolenproperty, for they could easily find an indigenous dead person, murderer ornot, who could do them the same service.

Now is the time to turn our attention to history. In this section, havingexamined available documents such as official reports and newspaper articles,I intend to reconstruct the past event upon which the indigenous traditionshave been built.27

Our protagonist, Jose Virtuchi, was born in Loreto. His father had migratedfrom Naples, Italy, to Bolivia and had lived in the town for many years. Vir-tuchi was, in a word, the son of an Italian immigrant. His name, "Virtuchi,"may well have been a Spanish rendering of the Italian name "Bertucci."

27. Through a mix of meticulous research and good fortune, I was able to identify Virtuchi andhis case at the National Library. The historical reconstruction is based on the followingsources: Callau 1906; La Ley nos. 1400 (Santa Cruz, 28 March 1906), 1464 (17 November1906), and 1468 I December 1906); El Trabajo nos. 70 (Santa Cruz, 6 October 1906), and10] (23 January 1907); La Abeja no. 277 (Santa Cruz, 18 January 1907); La Democracianos. 139 (Trinidad, 1 July 1906), 149 (9 September 1906), 151 (23 September 1906), 158(11 November 1906), and 163 (16 December 1906); El Beni nos. 26 (Trinidad, 11 Novem-ber 1906) and 104 (4 July 1908).


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182 AKIRA SAITGOn February] 9, 1906, a whole family was murdered in a place called Jayu

naje on the right bank of the Mamore River near Loreto. The victims wereJuan de Dios Montalvan, Ange1a Navarro, his wife, Ribeldina, their four-yearold daughter, and Leonor Terrazas, their domestic servant. Their bodies werefound seven days after the murder.

The murderers were soon arrested. They were Jose Virtuchi and R6muloHurtado. Hurtado was Virtuchi's servant and a minor still in his teens. According to the annual report the public prosecutor submitted to the Ministry of Justice, the motive for the crime was money. The prosecutor's report says thatVirtuchi owed 50 bolivianos (Bolivian currency) to Montalvan and begrudgedpaying it back. Instead of settling the debt with him, he killed him. He alsokilled his family to silence them and so as not to leave eyewitnesses of thecrime. However, only one day before their execution, Virtuchi and Hurtadoretracted their previous testimony and confessed that a Scot named Carlos Pollock had contracted them to kill Montalvan and that they had received 100bolivianos each as payment.

At that time, Beni Prefecture was an independent judicial district distritojudicial) with its own high court in Trinidad (Cespedes 1906:120; Cronenbold1910:26-27). The district was divided into three areas partidos): Trinidad,Magdalena, and Riberalta. Since the murder was committed in the Trinidadarea, the local judge juez de partido), Rene Barba, took charge of the investigation. He interrogated Virtuchi and Hurtado in person for four days, June 26to 29, and on September 6 sentenced them to death. The judge o the highcourt, Manuel Cespedes, approved this decision on September 22.

In those days, the president of the Republic had the authority to grant pardons to convicts on death row. Therefore, before executing them, it was necessary to ask him whether he would make use of that authority. However,while the officials of Beni were waiting for a reply from the president, Virtuchibroke out of prison and escaped on the afternoon of November 4. An investigation showed that a servant named Jose Abaroma, who had free access to theprison, had handed him a file and that he had sawed through the bars with itand escaped.

Virtuchi was not at liberty for long, however. He was caught again and sentback to prison by December 3, the day when the presidential decision not togrant a pardon to Virtuchi was communicated to the high court of Trinidad.Unfortunately, the documents I have seen do not indicate where Virtuchi tookrefuge following his escape or how he was found and arrested again."28. According to oral testimony, Virtuchi took refuge in San Lorenzo and set up a kind of modus

vivendi with the villagers: Virtuchi promised the villagers not to do them any harm, and thevillagers gave him food, until their relationship worsened and the Cabildo denounced himto the authorities of Trinidad. However, this is the only testimony I collected about Virtuchi'swhereabouts during his escape, and there are no documents that support it. Interview with aTrinitario man, aged 57, San Lorenzo, 25 February 1996.


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183HE CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAVirtuchi and Hurtado were publicly executed on the morning of December

6, 1906. Let me quote a relevant passage from an article in the local newspaper La Democracia:At night, they slept well. At dawn, the priest, who had come from San Javier, went toadminister the sacrament to the convicts. One and the other received it strictly in conformity to the norms.At 9:30, they were taken to the path of sufferance, which they followed in a perfectstate of mind. At 9:40, they sat down on the bench. While the priest delivered an admonition to the public, the executioners tied up the convicts. But when they tried to put abandage over Virtuchi's eyes, he resisted and said, "I want to die like this." Despitethat, he was blindfolded at the priest's request.At that moment, they handed over the crucifixes they held in their hands. Virtuchiraised his voice as loud as he could and shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen, I will saygood-by, farewell to everyone!" Then the guns banged and each of them took fourshots.Then Virtuchi shouted, "Another shot!" Two soldiers stepped forward, whileR6mulo moved as if he was trying to stand up breathing strongly. The soldiers shot atthe chest of each of them where General Monje had indicated.They were still breathing and the medical doctor, Dr. Vargas, declared that theywere alive. New movements in the victims. Once again, two soldiers stepped forwardand shot at the place indicated to them. Finally, at that moment, the bodies slumped forward. It was 10:02.The medical doctor examined them and declared them dead. At this instant of general stupefaction, Dr. Rigoberto Justiniano went into the enclosure and delivered aspeech, which we will make room for in Sunday's La Democracia.In this way, for the first time, with this sanguinary justice, the criminals of Beniwere given a good example.For the moment, we do not intend to discuss whether the procedures were correctand whether the sentence was perfectly sanctioned. We only confine ourselves to relating the facts as faithfully and exactly as possible."

The Social Significance of the Murder aseLet me now address the social significance of this criminal case. First, it willhelp to outline the historical details that make Beni Prefecture unique." Theprefecture was created in 1842, seventeen years after the Republic of Boliviabecame independent from Spain. t was founded on the former Jesuit missions.At the time of its creation, Beni Prefecture was the most backward region ofthe Republic in terms of white immigration and its transportation network. t29. El Trabajo, no. 101 (Santa Cruz, 23 January 1907). This is a reproduction of an article pub

lished in a Democracia (Trinidad). The English translation is mine.30. Because of its marginal position in the Republic, Beni Prefecture of the nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries has attracted little attention from historians, which permits us only a cursory discussion of its history. See Block 1994:149-173; Carvalho Urey 1975:35-65; Carvalho Urey 1983:30-50; Greever 1987:31-112; Rene-Moreno 1974:68-85. The bestpublished source is Limpias Saucedo 1942. The following travel diaries are also useful:Bayo 1911:323-406; D'Orbigny 1844:3(1):84-250; Gibbon 1854:193-262; KellerLeuzinger 1874:142-170; Mathews 1879:119-164.


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184 KIR S ITOwas the frontier region least controlled by the republican government. Fromthe historical viewpoint, the political economy of Bolivia always centers onthe Andean highlands, while the Amazonian lowlands are neglected, despitethe fact that they occupy more than half of the national territory (Klein1992:3--4). The main factor that encouraged such a backward region tobecome an independent prefecture was the growing awareness that the transatlantic trade through the Amazon River system would be a matter of vitalimportance for the future economic development of the Republic (Greever1987:8-30). The aim of the republican government was to incorporate theMoxos region firmly into the State and explore its economic potential.

The immigration of the white population into Moxos began in the 1830s.At first, government officials and professionals comprised a considerable proportion of the white immigrants (Block 1994:154). Originally, in Moxos, therewas no white population and the mission towns founded by the Jesuits servedthe settlers as a foothold for penetration into the region. They settled in thesetowns, formed a privileged minority, and gradually relegated the indigenousmajority to a marginal position.

However, the number of white settlers was too small and the Moxos regiontoo vast. In order to control every corner of its territory and make full use ofits natural and human resources, white immigration had to be encouraged inevery possible way. The republican government worked out various programsto promote white immigration, including land sales and loans to entrepreneurs.At the same time, the government also encouraged foreign immigration (Block1994:154-155). It is because of this policy that foreigners such as an Italianand a Scot appear in Virtuchi's case.

From the middle of the nineteenth century, international demand for thenatural resources of the Amazon basin rose, and so did the importance of BeniPrefecture. First, from the 1840s, entrepreneurs started collecting the bark ofthe cinchona trees in the south of Beni and the north of La Paz. The bark wasan ingredient in a medicine for treating malaria. This cinchona bark industrycame to an end in the mid-1860s when it lost out to competition from European and other Andean countries." However, from the 1860s, the collection ofrubber sap started around the Madeira River in Brazil, and its influence spreadto Beni Prefecture." From the 1880s, many people started exploiting the rubber forest of the Beni River and the Bolivian rubber industry developedrapidly. As economic activities intensified, the numbers of white settlersincreased and the local administration became more elaborate.The exploitation of the natural resources and the growth of the white population had a negative impact on the indigenous people. Since the missiontowns were close to the center of cinchona and rubber production and since31. On the regional level, however, the Bolivian cinchona industry remained financially viable

until the end of the nineteenth century. See Pefialoza Bretel 1992.32. See Fifer 1970; Gamarra and Kent 1992; Roca 2001:173-312; Sanabria Fernandez

1988:35-102. A thorough history of the Bolivian rubber boom has yet to be written.


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185HE CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAthey had a large number of settled inhabitants, these towns served as a majorsource of labor. The indigenous people were taken to the Madeira River or theBeni River either by force or by being tricked with stories of quick gains. Theywere forced to work under harsh conditions as bark and rubber collectors orcanoeists. As a consequence, they came to dislike coexistence with the whites.Many of them abandoned the mission towns, migrated to the savannah to thewest of the Mamore River, and built new towns, freeing themselves from theoppression of the whites (Suarez 1887:10-11). The Trinitarios who had abandoned Trinidad founded San Lorenzo as one of these towns in the mid-nineteenth century. In the words of an ex-prefect of Beni, San Lorenzo was "therefuge of all the spongers who shirk the cancellation of their debts and the fulfilment of contracted obligations" (Suarez 1887:11).Thus, at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Virtuchi's caseoccurred, the frontier region of Moxos was being gradually incorporated intothe political and economic system of the Republic and, at the same time, thedomination of the whites over the indigenous population was being consolidated. Nevertheless, it is also true that their dominance was still limited to themajor population centers such as Trinidad, Magdalena, and Riberalta and thatthe vast majority of rural areas were out of the reach of State control. This isclearly shown by the fact that the indigenous people who had abandoned themission towns created liberated districts to the west of the Mamore River.The white settlers in Moxos worked hard to construct a local State apparatus. One of their concerns was the creation of a centralized judicial system."This was brought to fruition when the law of October 5, 1892, created the Beni .judicial district, with its own high court (Limpias Saucedo 1942:275). In thecolonial and early republican period, the administration of justice was largelyin the hands of the priests and the Cabildo officers who were their indigenousauxiliaries. With the creation of the judicial district, the white settlers tried totake this authority out of the hands of priests and Cabildo officers andmonopolize it.

At the beginning of the twentieth century however thejudicialsystemof Beni sufferedfroma numberofdefects whichareapparent n theannual reports thatthejudgeofthe high court and the publicprosecutor submitted to the Ministry of Justice n 1906(Callaii 1906:227,232-234; Cespedes 1906:120-121, 123-126). FIrSt therewas a seri-ous shortage of judges.The post of superior judge juez superior) and those of localjudges jueces departido were filled. But,of thepostsof preliminary judges jueces deinstruccioni, only that of Trinidad was occupied, while those of Magdalena,Villa-Bella, Riberalta, Santa Ana, and Reyes remained vacant. Moreover, therewere no rural judges at all. The public prosecutor frankly admits in his report,"the rural judges are an exotic plant in our country. They have neither object,33. The formation of the State judicial apparatus in rural areas is one of many lacunae in Latin

American historiography. See the valuable study of Mocho 1997:8-20 on New Mexico andthose of Fradkin 1999, Garavaglia 1999, and Gelman 1999 on Buenos Aires.


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186 KIR S ITOnor raison d'etre (Callaii 1906:234). The main reason for this shortcoming isthat, in Beni, very few people were qualified in law. To fill the posts of judges,it was necessary to bring lawyers from other prefectures.

Second, there were not enough fixed venues and furnishings for the courtsand the prisons. Among the courts of Beni, only those in the capital securedtheir own space. The rest of the courts probably had no fixed venue at all. Theshortage of furnishings was a serious problem for all the courts except the highcourt. A proper prison existed only in Madgalena. In Trinidad, a small room,insecure and unhealthy, in the garrison's post, which was insufficient toaccommodate 10 people (Callau 1906:233) served as a prison. Virtuchi maywell have been confined there.

Naturally, breaking out of prison was the order of the day. Virtuchi's caseillustrates how easy it was to escape from prison in Beni. He obtained a filewithout difficulty, removed the bars, and escaped in broad daylight. Accordingto a newspaper article, the guard was absorbed in playing cards while a pris-oner named acinto Tarraga watched over the other prisoners. As the articlesays, it is the old story of Beni. Such being the case, it seems that Virtuchibelieved to the very end that he could escape at any time if he wanted. In fact,one day before his execution, someone informed the police that he had theintention of escaping after dark. The police examined his belongings andfound scissors for a haircut. He was moved to another room for security.

In short, in 1906, the judicial system of Beni was far from being estab-lished. The judge of the high court summarized its limited capacity to dealwith criminal cases in the following way:As for the criminal cases, the crimes that deserve the death penalty and imprisonmentgo their own way mainly because of the shortage of police officers in the countryside.The majority of suspects cannot be arrested because the natural environment of thecountry makes it easy to escape. Those who are arrested run away because the prisonsprovide very little or no security. (Cespedes 1906:121)

Virtuchi's case was a highly memorable event for the authorities of Benibecause it was the first death sentence and the first execution since the creationof the prefecture. It was not the first criminal case that deserved capital pun-ishment, however. Such cases may well have been numerous, but none of themwas brought to a conclusion because of the defects in the judicial system.

From the beginning, Virtuchi's case was extraordinary and attracted publicattention. The cruelty with which a whole family was slaughtered profoundlymoved the society. A great deal of pressure was put on the judicial authoritiesto complete the hearing, decide on the case, and punish the convicts. The pub-lic prosecutor stated in his annual report that he would direct the judge in34. El Beni no. 26 (Trinidad, 11 November 1906).35. El Trabajo no. 70 (Santa Cruz, 6 October 1906), and no. 101 (23 January 1907).


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187HE CULT OF THE DEAD IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAcharge to give preferential treatment to the case, to open a hearing, and pronounce sentence as soon as possible because of the gravity of the event and thepublic verdict demanded by it (Callaii 1906:228). In fact, Virtuchi's trial cameto its conclusion with exceptional rapidity. It took less than seven months. InBeni, the trials were generally very time-consuming and often took over adecade. Some people even attributed the frequency of prison breakout to thefact that the prisoners did not have enough patience to wait until the end oftheir trials. Virtuchi's case was indeed exceptional.

To sum up, the public execution of 1906 was a splendid opportunity to proclaim that State administration of justice existed in Beni. t was, in a sense, apseudo-ceremonial event to let the public know that the State was in controlof the administration of justice and, when necessary, was determined to takestrong action. The details of the execution reported by the newspaper clearlyshow its ceremonial nature. The execution was carried out at the site of thegarrison, inside an enclosure set up for that purpose. t is probable that a crowdof spectators was jostling around the enclosure. They may well have observedthe first public execution they had ever seen quite intently. At the beginning, apriest preached a sermon and, at the end, a government official gave a speech.In this way, the message of the execution was explained to the spectators. Alocal newspaper concisely summarizes the significance of the execution in thefollowing terms: The punishment has been severe, but it was necessary toteach a lesson. 37Execution and tonementThe hypothesis that guides the argument of this article is that Virtuchi's execution may have had a profound impact on the indigenous people who witnessed it and that this impact may have given rise to their peculiar beliefs andtraditions about him. We have seen that the execution of 1906 was in fact amemorable event. t was the first public execution in Moxos and, as such,served as an ostentatious manifestation of the power of the newly formed localjudicial apparatus. What remains to be determined is the way the indigenouspeople saw and understood this State ceremony.

Historical documents do not reveal anything about indigenous views of Virtuchi's execution. Therefore, it is necessary to turn again to contemporarybeliefs and traditions. Fortunately, there is one revealing piece of information:the belief that Virtuchi's soul was saved. The Trinitarios believe that afterbeing shot to death, Virtuchi was purified of his sins and went to heaven,despite the fact that he had killed many people. Here are some examples of myinformants' statements:

36. La Democracia no. 396 (Trinidad, 29 April 1911).37. La Abeja no. 277 (Santa Cruz, 18 January 1907).


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188 AKIRA SAITOf you kill sinners with a gun or a shotgun, you purify them of their sins and theybecome clean. If you kill them with a rifle, you clean them. This is why Virtuchi atonedfor his sins and he alone came to the seances. Of the white men, he is the only one whocame to the seances."

Since Mr. Virtuchi was killed with fire, he cast aside his sins, which fell on his executioners. So, his heart is now clean. f he had been killed with a knife or a stick, he wouldhave died with his sins on his shoulders. But, since he was killed with fire, he was purified and his executioners took over his sins."In the Trinitarios' view, the fact that Virtuchi shows up in Ange1a Cayuba's

seances is sufficient proof of his salvation because, otherwise, he would be inhell and unable to return to this world. It is because his soul is in heaven andcan see everything on earth that he can tell the Trinitarios who the thieves areand where stolen objects are.

Why could such a sinful person as Virtuchi have been saved and gone toheaven? According to my informants, the answer is that he was shot to death.f he had been stabbed to death with a knife or struck dead with a stick, he

would have gone to hell, as he deserved. But, since he was shot dead, by somemystery his soul was saved and his executioners took over his sins. The Trinitarios believe that all those who are killed with a firearm atone for their sinsand go to heaven, while their killers are unexpectedly burdened with their sinsand go to hell in their place.

The idea that firearms purify sinful persons is a matter of general acceptance among the Trinitarios. I have heard this idea expressed in a different context. When I stayed in Trinidacito, in the Isiboro-Secure region, a manexplained to me how to kill witches." The Trinitarios firmly believe in witchcraft and attribute illness and death to witches' activities. According to myinformant, we must not kill them with a firearm, because if we do, their soulswould be saved and go to heaven while we would go to hell in their place.Therefore, we must strike witches dead or drown them.

But why do firearms purify sinners? One of my informants gave me aninteresting explanation." Firearms are a kind of fire and, as such, have thesame power as the fire of purgatory that purifies the dead of their sins. In hisview, shooting someone to death can achieve in an instant the atonement thatthe dead normally accomplish only after many years of burning in the flamesof purgatory. Naturally, not only firearms but fire in general has the same purifying effect. In fact, my informant argued that if we burned murderers alive38. Interview with a Trinitario woman aged 55, San Lorenzo, 11 February 1996.39. Interview with a Trinitario man aged 57, San Lorenzo, 26 February 1996.40. "He was saved, because, if he hadn't been saved, how would he go to talk there where the

deceased ones are?"; interview with a Trinitario man, aged 73, San Lorenzo, 29 February1996.

41. Interview with a Trinitario man, aged 62, Trinidacito, 22 July 1995.42. Interview with a Trinitario man, aged 73, San Lorenzo, 29 February 1996.


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89HE CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos, LOWLAND BOLIVIAinstead of shooting them dead, their souls would also be saved. Furthermore,he suspected that the electric chair might have the same effect. It seems thathe saw a scene of electrocution on television. If he is right, heaven must becrowded with criminals.This explanation is not entirely satisfactory, however, for it overlooks animportant element. t does not take into account the fact that the sins of thosewho are shot to death do not disappear. Their sins are transferred to the shoulders of their killers. Accordingly, the atonement by fire in this world is, unlikethat of purgatory, a mere pretence. The sins remain in this world and someonehas to pay for them. One soul goes to heaven instead of hell, while anothergoes to hell instead of heaven and there is no change in the balance. Therefore,the argument that fire in general purifies criminals of their sins cannot beaccepted without reservation. Since criminals can atone for their sins insofaras their killers take them over, killing is a necessary condition for the atonement of sins. Nobody would shoulder the sins of those who perish accidentally, for example, in a grass fire.

Nevertheless, my informant's explanation is outstanding in one respect: itingeniously links such a worldly affair as the execution of a murderer to sucha religious affair as atonement. In so doing, he helped me understand that, forthe Trinitarios, the traditions about Virtuchi are in fact highly religious storieswhose central theme is atonement and salvation.State Monopoly of JusticeAs my informants' statements make clear, the Trinitarios implicitly or explicitly equate the execution of Virtuchi to God's judgment. In their view, it was akind of penance, which sought to purify the criminal of his sins and in whichthe firearms worked as a substitute for the flames of purgatory. However, compared with God's judgment, this human judgment had a serious shortcoming;namely, the sins did not disappear but fell upon the executioners. In consequence, the execution resulted in failure as an awkward mimicry of God'sjudgment.

Why did the execution of Virtuchi fail? What was its cause? To answerthese questions, it is helpful to explore further the Trinitario concept of p g rp to (to pay someone else's debt). This concept is not exclusively linked to theuse of firearms. In contradiction to the opinion of the above-mentioned informant, another Trinitario affirmed that there is no way of punishing witcheswithout the person who does so taking over their sins. The witches' sins fallon those who strike them or otherwise punish them. For this reason, the spirits of their victims who show up in the seances urge their relatives not to doany harm to witches. On the contrary, the dead persuade the living to do them43. Interview with a Trinitario man, aged 57, San Lorenzo, 11 February 1996.


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190 AKIRA SAITOgood: "Go get acquainted with them and like them. Receive them and givethem a chair when they come to the house. Give them something to drink andsomething to eat." treated in this way, it is said, the witches' sins stay withthem and, after death, they go straight to hell.Needless to say, the whole idea is based on the Christian moral imperative:"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may bechildren of your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:44-45).45 This does not mean,however, that due justice cannot be meted out to criminals in this world. Thereare God's earthly representatives, namely, the Cabildo officers. The Trinitarioscall themjue es (judges) and invest them with the authority to judge and punish in God's name. Before the police were permanently stationed in SanLorenzo, the Cabildo officers dealt with crimes such as robbery, adultery,injury, and the like and inflicted a certain number of whippings on offenders.Their violence was considered a legitimate, divinely sanctioned punishment,not an arbitrary act of vengeance based on personal resentment. t wasbelieved that the Cabildo s punishment was a kind of penance and, therefore,helped offenders atone for their sins."

The judicial function of the Cabildo dates back to the Jesuit period. In themission towns, the missionaries served as judges and the Cabildo officers executed their sentences." This justice was firmly rooted in Christian ethics. Theseven deadly sins, violations of the Ten Commandments, and such acts as failing to attend Mass or breaking the fast of Good Friday were consideredoffenses. The punishments were usually whipping, imprisonment, and obliga

44. Wayne Gill, a missionary of the New Tribes Mission who worked at San Lorenzo in the late1960s, recorded a similar belief: "A man who hits another man will carry the sins of the manhe hits, the attacker will have to pay for the sins of the man in hell, infiemo or purgatory."San Lorenzo, December 1969. I am grateful to Joe Snyder for allowing me to consult themanuscript in his possession.45. t is possible that the concept of p g r p to has a prehispanic antecedent. As EduardoViveiros de Castro states, the idea that the killer assimilates the victim through killing iswidely held among the Amazonian societies (1992:238-248; 1996). In Moxos, an earlyJesuit chronicler recorded the killer's practice of adopting his victim's name (Altamirano1979:50). The witch's sins may well be considered a contemporary example of the victim'smetonymic attributes that the killer assimilates through killing. However, the comparisoncannot be pushed too far, for, in the case of p g r pato "the fusion between the enemy andhis killer" (Viveiros de Castro 1996:87) does not occur. Like the labor produce of a marketeconomy, the sins are alienated from the witch and transferred to the killer. As a result, farfrom sharing the same destiny, the two follow completely different paths. Alienation is, ofcourse, quite the opposite of the "ontological predation" Viveiros de Castro detects in theAmazonian practices (1996:98-102).

46. Referring to the Cabildo s punishment of adulterers, a Trinitario affirmed, "God will punishadulterers in hell. If they are whipped here, the whip is the 'justicia' or judgment of God, itwill save them from eternal punishment." San Lorenzo, October 1969. From the manuscriptof Wayne Gill.

47. On the justice of the Jesuit period, see Altamirano 1979:94-95; Eder 1985:363-366; Eguiluz1884:50-51.


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191HE CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos LOWLAND BOLIVIAtory participation in an act of contrition. The most serious punishment wasdeportation. There were no executions.

After the expulsion of the Jesuits, the Cabildo officers assumed the fullpower of judges in their respective towns. The late eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury official reports and travel diaries often refer to their enormous authority over the townspeople. For example, a French traveler of the earlynineteenth century stated, "The Indians showed great respect for them andfeared them to the ultimate dcgrce.?" In the mid-1990s when I carried out myresearch, much of the judicial functions of the Cabildo had given way to theauthority of the police. However, many elderly people still remembered thetime when "Whipping reigned" and held the Cabildo officers in great respect."For the Trinitarios, the Cabildo s authority ultimately derives from God. Onthe first day of the year, the priest, or the doctrinero in his absence, gives hisblessing to the newly elected officers and to the staffs that are the symbols oftheir authority. These are called vara virtud (staff of virtue) and are considereda real embodiment of Christ.'? The holders kiss them with veneration and treatthem with great care.

From what has been said so far, it can be deduced that the Trinitarios distinguish two forms of justice: one is the divinely sanctioned justice of theCabildo, and the other is the arbitrary justice of those who are motivated by apersona] grudge. The former helps offenders atone for their sins and reachheaven; the latter incriminates those who dare to perform such justice andsends them to hell. The execution of Virtuchi falls into the second category.

For the Trinitarios, the execution of 1906 was an abnormality because itdepriveda man of his life and because those who sponsored it were the whitesettlers. In the Trinitarios' view, the whites were like enemies of the faith ofGod. In the republican period, the whites attacked indigenous customs asanachronistic superstitions and as stumbling blocks to the progress of theregion. For example, at the end of the nineteenth century, Beni Prefecture prohibited the natives of Trinidad from celebrating Catholic festivals in the traditional way." This measure provoked a reaction among the Trinitarios, who leftthe town en masse and migrated to the savannah to the west of the MamoreRiver. Even in the mid-1990s, elderly people repeatedly told me that thewhites made fun of their customs and interfered with their observances.

48. D'Orbigny 1844:3(1):94. See also D'Orbigny 1844:3(1):230-231; Gibbon 1854:243-245;Limpias Saucedo 1942:156--158, 170; Mathews 1879:152-154.49. Interview with a Trinitario man, supposedly aged 70, Trinidacito, 9 July 1995. Interview

with a Trinitario man, aged 62, Trinidacito, 10 July 1995.50. "What they (the Cabildo officers) had in their hands had been Christ himself'; interview

with a Trinitario man, aged 45, San Lorenzo, 23 February 1996. "Our Lord is there (in thestaft)"; interview with a Trinitario man, aged 71, San Lorenzo, 29 February 1996.

51. El Heraldo, no. 1179 (Cochabamba, 16 April 1887); El Pueblo Cruceiio, no. 7 (Santa Cruz,26 November 1887).


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192 AKIRA SAITONow we can understand why the whites' attempt to judge Virtuchi failed.

In the Trinitarios' eyes, the whites were not qualified for the office of dispensing divine justice. At first glance, it looks as if the State-organized public execution had successfully replaced God-supervised purgatory. Virtuchi seems tohave atoned for his sins by taking numerous bullets as a substitute for the expiatory flames. But, in fact, his sins did not disappear. They were only transferred to his executioners, who were none other than State representatives.Therefore, he who went to hell was in fact the State itself, which was impertinent enough to meddle in God's affairs and play with fire. From the nativeviewpoint, the white settlers dared to replace God as the dispenser of justicein their attempt to create a local judicial apparatus and, naturally, they paiddearly for this sacrilege.onclusion

This article started with the question of why the spirit of a white murderer isinvoked during indigenous seances. My examination of the indigenous concept of death and afterlife has shown that there is a contractual relationshipbetween Virtuchi and the Trinitarios, with Virtuchi recovering stolen propertyfor them and the Trinitarios praying for his salvation. The previous discussionhelps us understand a deeper meaning of this contract, which is not merelyutilitarian.

As shown above, the execution o Virtuchi was intended as a public proclamation that the whites and their State controlled the administration of justice.The Trinitarios who witnessed or heard about this event, however, did notaccept the message o the execution the way it was intended for them. Theydenied the whites' self-attributed authority and reduced their justice to a simple act o vengeance. In so doing, they exonerated Virtuchi, saving him fromdamnation, and transferred his sins to the State, which, as a result, went to hellin his place.

This argument makes clear that, in the Trinitarios' view, Virtuchi serves asa mediator in their antithetical relationship with the whites. The Trinitariosmake a contract with Virtuchi and support him in his attempt to achieve salvation. But his salvation is possible only insofar as the whites and their Statetake over his sins and go to hell. In other words, his salvation presupposesdamnation of all the other whites." Virtuchi were a damned, devilish creature, the Trinitarios who invoke him would also be destined for hell. But if heis purified of his sins and capable of salvation, this is because the whites and52. The Trinitarios' condemnation of the whites as a whole is implicitly, but quite clearly,

expressed in their belief about Tierra Santa It is said that the Sacred Land is accessible onlyto the Trinitarios and that the whites can never reach there. t is also said that God will saveonly those who have managed to take refuge in Tierra Santa We can easily guess what willbecome of the whites at the moment of the Last Judgment.


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193HE CULT OF THE DE D IN Moxos, LOWL ND BOLIVItheir State are burdened with his sins and go to hell in his place. In short, theTrinitarios and the whites compete with each other in a seesaw game of salvation and damnation via the intermediary of Virtuchi.

As mentioned above, it is Angela Cayuba who chose Virtuchi as her spiritual helper. Angela was born in San Lorenzo and, as an adult, practiced herprofession in the town. But the whites denounced her for devil worship andpersecuted her. This forced her to leave the town and lead an itinerant life. Itis possible that her interest in Virtuchi was born out of this personal experience. By means of Virtuchi, she may well have tried to throw back on thewhites the blame that they had cast on her. The whites stigmatize the spiritsshe invokes as devils and her seances as devil worship. But, in her view, thosespirits who come to her seances are on their way to salvation, while those whodo not are tormented by devils in hell. Therefore, the fact that, among thewhites, only Virtuchi shows up in her seances means that all the others musthave gone to hell after death. Virtuchi is supposed to have been banished tohell by the whites. f he is the only person to be saved, it implies that all theother whites are in fact damned.

In my opinion, this is why Virtuchi has such a strong grip on Angela's andother Trinitarios' imagination. He enables them to reverse the power relationship between the whites and themselves, to their own advantage. In fact, whata telling irony it is that the only faithful white man who comes to the seancesin pursuit of prayers is none other than a murderer who was banished to hellby the white society

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