socolow susan - spanish captives in indian societies
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Spanish Captives in Indian Societies: Cultural Contact along the Argentine Frontier, 1600-1835Author(s): Susan Migden SocolowSource: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 73-99Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2515948.
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HispanicAmiierican
istoricalReview
2:1
Copyright
?
1992 by Duke Universityress
ccc ooi8-2i68/92/$1.50
Spanish
Captives
n Indian
Societies:
CulturalContact
Along
he
Argentine rontier, 600-1835
SUSAN MIGDEN SOCOLOW
EU
O
P
E
A
N
-
N
D
I
A
N frontiers, he intermediate
zones
between
areas of secure European settlement
and those where Amerindians maintained their au-
tonomy,were similar n many ways in the American empires
of Spain and
Great Britain. In both colonial empires frontier egions were
usually zones
oftension nd conflict,where frequent aiding ometimes ave way to
open
warfare. n
bothempires,
iolencebetweenEuropeans
nd Indians
regularlyed to mutual aking
f aptives.While iterate nglo-Americans
had little nterest
n
captured
ndians nd rarely othered o record nfor-
mation bout them, hey
were often nterested
n
their ellows
who had
been
held
captiveby
ndians.As a result
Anglo-American
istorical
itera-
ture ncludes substantial ocumentary
ecord n
European
aptives,
ma-
terial hatprovides xtremely
aluable,often nique, nformationbout
the societies n both
sides ofthe frontiernd their nteraction.'
rontier
The authorwould ike to thankJames aeger,
Kristine ones,Juan
Carlos
Garavaglia,
nd
John uricek or heirhelpful omments n
earlier ersions f his
paper.
i.
The studies
f
aptives
n
English
America nclude
James
Axtell: he
nvasionWithin
(1986), The European and the ndian 1981),
nd The White ndians
fColonialAmerica,
William nd Mary
Quarterly 2 (1975),55-88; Alden T. Vaughan,
Crossing he Cultural
Divide: Indians ild
New
Englanders, 605-1763,
roceedingsf heAmerican ntiquarian
Society
go
(April 1980),
23-99
(with
D. Richter), nd Puritans mong the Indians
(with
Edward
W.
Clark).See alsoJ.Norman
Heard, White nto Red: A Study f theAssimilation
of
WhitePersons
Capturedby
ndians
Metuchen,N.J.:
Scarecrow
ress,
1973);
A.
Irving
Hallowell, American ndians,White nd
Black:The Phenomenon
fTransculturalization,
CurrentAnthropology
(i963),
519-31.
One ofthe major ources
vailable o U.S. histori-
ans has been thecaptivity arrative;ee WilcombWashburn, d., The Garland Library f
Narratives f
NorthAmerican ndian Captivities
New York:Garland,1977). For an
inter-
esting nalysis f the weakness fthese
ources ee
Rov
Harvey
Pearce, The Significances
of
the Captivity
Narrative, merican iterature
9
(1947), 1-20.
Because Latin America
lacked both a strong
radition f widespread
iteracy nd a religious radition hat mpha-
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74
|
HAHR
I
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I
SUSAN MIGDEN
SOCOLOW
relations etween
Europeans nd Indianshave been studied ar ess thor-
oughlyforSpanish
America, lthough ecentworkon northernMexico
and New Mexicohas begun to examine his uestion n a SpanishAmeri-
can
context.2 his essay
s
intended s a
contributionowardfilling hat
gap
in the
historicaliterature or ne frontier
rea, central nd southern
Argentina, sing the often ragmentaryut
nonetheless ntriguing ata
from he sixteentho the earlynineteenth
enturies.
Patterns f Frontier
Relations
The southern egionof South
America,
he area
that n the
eighteenth
centurywould become theViceroyaltyf the Rio de la Plata, was, like
northernMexico, a
region nhabited y several ndian societies ble to
fend
ff panish
onquest
n
greater
r esser
degree
until
he
nineteenth
century. he
independence f hesegroupswas n part ided by the adop-
tionof the horse,which
by
the
end
ofthe
sixteenth
entury ad become
an
integral art
of ndigenous ulture
n
southern outh America.As
a
complement o the
Indians' warrior thos, the animal allowed for the
development f a
horse culture nd permittedndiansto imagine nd
sometimes o achieve
militaryqualitywith he
Spaniards. ndian tribes
also gradually ecamedependent n cattle s both source ffood nd an
object oftrade
with
ther ndians
nd Spaniards like. But t s the horse
sized the Babylonian aptivity,aptivity arratives ere relatively areduring he colonial
period.
The most
well-knownaptivity arrativen LatinAmerica s Cautiveriofeliz, ritten
by FranciscoNnfiez ineda y Buscafian, eld captive
n
Chile n
1629
for evenmonths. or
Argentina,
.
Guinnard, res nos
de
esclavitud ntre
os
Patagones BuenosAires-M6xico:
Espasa-Calpe, 1941), recounts Frenchman's xperiences
n
1856-59. Some
studieshave
concentrated n the
arger
ssue ofwarfare
long hecolonial rontier,ncluding uanCarlos
Garavaglia, La guerra n el Tucuman olonial: ociedady economia n un area de frontera
(1660-1760), HISLA 4 (i984), 21-34; PhilipW. Powell, Soldiers, ndians, and Silver:The
NorthwardAdvance of New Spain,
1550-16oo
(Berkeley:
Univ. of California
ress, 1952);
AlvaroJara,Guerre et societe u Chile: Essai de sociologie oloniale Paris: Inistitut
es
Hautes Etudes de l'Am6rique atine, 1961). For captives n non-Indianiociety ee ElleniG.
Friedman, panish Captives
n
NorthAfrica n the Early ModernAge (Madisoln:
Univ. of
Wisconsin ress, 1983).
2.
On
Mexico, see Oakah
L.
Jones,Nueva Vizcaya:Heartland f the
SpanishFrontier
(Albuquerque:
Univ.
ofNew MexicoPress,1988);ThomasH. Naylor nd CharlesW.
Polzer,
The
Presidio nd the Militia
on
theNorthern rontier f New Spain: A
Documentary
is-
tory Tucson:
Univ.
of ArizonaPress, 1986). Two notable xceptions o this
generalization
are PeterAlan Stern, Social Marginalitynd Acculturationn the Northern rontier fNew
Spain Ph.D. diss.,
Univ.
ofCalifornia, erkeley, 984),312-53; and GabrielGuarda Gey-
witz, Los cautivos n la guerra e Arauco, Boletin e la AcademiaChilena de la Historia
54:98 (1987),93-157.
The first
escriptionfSpanish aptives
n
the Latin
Americani
istori-
cal
literatures provided y BernalDiaz del Castillo,who encountered wo
Spanish aptives
in his 1519 expedition o Mexico. BernalDiaz del Castillo,The Discovery nd
Conquest of
Mexico,1517-1521 New York:Harper& Bros., 1950),45-46.
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SPANISH CAPTIVES
IN INDIAN SOCIETIES
75
thatheightened
he
level of conflict
mong ndian
groups nd between
Indians
nd white
ociety.3n addition,
hese ndian
groups endedto
in-
habit onesthatwere either eripheralr inaccessible o themainstream
of Spanish
colonization,
o
live in
dispersed
nd smallcommunities,
nd
to be adept
at the techniques f eminomadic
iving nd guerrilla
arfare.
From
the beginnings f
Spanish ettlement
n the sixteenth
entury,
ranches, owns,
nd citieswere periodically
hreatened
y Indian raids:
to thenorth he
Ava-Chiriguanosnd
the Calchaquies;
n
the center
of
the region, he Chaco groups
uch
as the Guaycurua, he
Charrua, nd
the
Mocobi; and
to the southPampas,
Pehuenche, ehuelche,
nd
Arau-
canian tribes.4
At times a state of
endemicwar existed, s
Indian
raids
and Spanishentradas xplodedalongthe frontier.5n themiddleof the
eighteenthentury,
owever, combination
f
foreign nd colonialpolicy
considerations
aused the Spanish
rown
o
reexaminets
defense
osition
3. Throughouthis aperthe
term paniard s used to describe hosepeople, regardless
of theirbirthplace,who
believed themselves o be of Hispanicculture.
On
the heightenled
conflict, ames chofield aeger, Aniother
iew
of he Mission
s a Frontiernstitution:he
Guaycuruain eductions f
Sainta
e, 1743-1810,
HAHR
65:3 (Aug.1985), 495. On cattle,
KristineJones, La Cauitiva:AnlArgenitine
oltutiono Labor Shortage
n the Pampas, n
Brazil and the Rio de
la
Plata:Challenge nd Response, n Anthology
f Papers Presented
at the SixthAnnual Conference f ICLLAS, ed. Luis Clay M6ndez and LaureniceBates
(Charlestoni,L., 1983), 2. On
grotip
lharacteristics,
hierry aignies,
La gtierrasalvaje'
en los confines e los Andes y del Chaco: La resistencia hiriguana
la colonizaci6n uro-
pea, QuintoCentenario Universidad
omplutense e Madrid) (1985),
104. The Indians f
thisregioniended o travelwithini
ell-definedreas and were therefore lot ruly iomiiadic.
4. For a more detailed discussion
f the colonialperiod see
SusanlMigden Socolow,
Los cautivos espafioles
ni as sociedades ndigenas: l contacto ultural trav6sde
la
fronterargentina, nuario EHS (Tandil,Argentina) (1987),
99-136.
See also Thierry
Saignes,
M6tis et
sauvages:
Les
enjeux
du
metissage ur
la frontierehiriguano 1570-
1620), Melanges
de
la
Casa
de
Vel6zquez 18:1 1982),87; Padre Hernando
de
Torreblanica,
Relaci6n
hist6ricade
Calchaqui
(Buenos Aires: Ediciones Culturales
Argentinas, 984);
Teresa PiossekPrebisch, edroBohorquez:El Inca del Tucumdn,
656-1658
Buenos
Aires:
Gente de Letras, 1983); Edberto Oscar Acevedo, El gobernadorMartinez e Tineo y el
Chaco,
Revistade HistoriaAmericanay Argentina
2
(1983-84),
11-65;
James
.
Saeger,
Eighteenth-Centuryuaycuruan
Missions
n
Paraguay,
n
Indian-Religious elations
n
Colonial SpanishAmerica, d. Susan E. Ramirez Syracuse:Maxwell
chool of Citizenship
and PublicAffairs, 989), 55-86; Kristine
.
Jones, Conflict
nd
Adaptation
n the
Argen-
tine
Pampas, 1750-1880 Ph.D.
diss.,
Univ.of
Chicago, 1984),38;
Alfred
. Tapson,
The
Indian Problem n the Argentine ampas,1735-1852 Ph.
D.
diss.,
Univ.of
California,
os
Angeles, 1952),
nd
Indian
Warfare n the
Pampaduring
he ColonialPeriod,
HAHR
42:1
(Feb.
1962),
ii.
For contemporaryeports n the frontiernd Indian
ocieties ee Pedro de
Angelis, omp., Colecci6nde
obras y documentos elativos la historia
ntiguay moderna
de las provincias el Rio
de
la
Plata, 6
vols.
BuenosAires: mprenta
el Estado, 1836,
re-
print ditorialPlus Ultra,1969), and ThomasFalkner, .J.,A Description
f Patagonia nd
theAdjoining artsofSouthAmerica
1744]
(Chicago: rmanndArmann,
935).
5.
According
o Urbanode Iriondo, y 1722 notone estancia n Santa Fe had escaped
attack y Indians, long with he
oss ofpropertynd lives
and
the
taking fcaptives.Jos6
Urbano de Iriondo, Apuntes ara
la
historia e
la
Provincia
e Santa Fe, Revistade
la
Juntade EstudiosHist6ricos e Santa Fe
I, 44.
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76 | HAHR
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SUSAN MIGDEN SOCOLOW
in SpanishAmerica.One resultwas a new plan of militarizationn the
southern ndian frontierhat ombinednew presidios nd fortswith n
increasingmilitary resence.The governmentstablished line of mili-
tary orts
nthe
750s, reinforcinghem uringhe 770S and 178os.6 he
crown lso encouraged hesettling f ivilian opulation lose to each fort.
All male nhabitantsf he rural istricts ere required o enlist n militia
units.
n
addition, special military nit reated o protect he frontier,
the blandengues,was formed n 1751 and reorganized hortly fter he
founding f
the
viceroyalty.
The Spanishcombined his ine offorts nd missions
with
program
ofpacificationndcooptationf
hostile
ribes. ndian
eaderswere
nvited
to Spanish ettlements, heretheywere entertainednd presentedwith
trinkets.7unds were also suppliedby the sisa tax to pay forransoming
captives nd rewarding aithfulndians. When,
for
xample,
n Indian
referred o as Sinforoso
nd
his uncle brought ack
a
Spanish captive
from he
Tobas,
the
intendent
ewarded
hem nd
theirmen with
goods
worth 04 pesos, including onchos,hats, uniforms,
baston,
tobacco,
and knives.
Sporadic
ncidents
ontinued long
the
Indian frontier,8ut
in
gen-
6. On the forts, obertoH. Marfany,Frontera on los indios
en
el sud y
fundaci6n
de pueblos,
n
Historiade la naci6nArgentina, d. RicardoLevene,
vol.
4, part 1, 307-
33. See also F6lix de Azara, Diario de un reconocimientoe las guardiasy fortiniesue
guarniecena linea de froniterae Btuenos irespara enisanichlarla,n Colecci6nde obras y
docuimentos,omp. Angelis,vol. 5. For anl nalysis f the reaction n the partof the rural
populationi
o
thisdraft ee Carlos
A.
Mayo,
Sociedad rural militarizaci6nie la froniterani
Buenos Aires, 1737-1810, ahrbuch ur Geschichte on Staat, Wirtschaftnd Gesellschaft
Lateinamerikas4 (1987),
251-63.
On theblandengues,Marfany,l indio n a colonizaci6n
de BuenosAires Buenos Aires:Comisi6nNacional e Cultura, 940),85-106.
7.
On
entertainiingisiting
ndian
caciques, Jos6
Torre
Revello, Agasajos
los inidios
(1797),
Boletindel Instituto e Investigaciones ist6ricas 7 1938), 126-30. This practice
is
also mentioned y Angelis,
who adds that
heviceroys
wore su
trajede etiqueta, sign
of esteem for heirguests.Colecci6nde obrasy documentos, omp. Angelis, :106. For a
viceroy's xpenditures n entertainingndians ee Andr6s e Torres,Diario de gastos del
Virreydel Rio de la Plata Marques de Loreto, 1783-1790,foreword y Jos6
M.
Mariluz
Urquijo Bilbao: Diputaci6n
Foral del Sefiorio e
Vizcaya, 1977).
On
sisa funds,
Archivo
Genieral
e la Naci6n
Argenitina,
uenosAires
hereafter GNA],
Testimoniioel
expedienite
sobre a
gratificacion
echa a los indiosfieles
.,
Hacienda, Legajo 122, Expedieiite
081,
IX-34-5-8.
8.
In 1784 ndians raided the estancias n the Mendoza region, nd in
1786
and
i8o6
they
attacked cross the
San
Luis frontier.
n
1784
the
priest
n
charge
of
the Charriian
mission f
Cayastarequested hat he mission e moved o Los Mananciales, site near the
original
ettlement fthe
city
f Santa
Fe,
in
order
o
free
his wardsfrom
the
nvasions
f
the nfidel Indians] fthe Chaco. AGNA, Justicia, egajo 15, Expediente 63, IX-31-4-4.
As late as
1802
Toba Indian tribeswere making ncursions long the Rio Dorado. AGNA,
Testimonio
el
expediente
.
., Hacienda, Legajo
122,
Expediente 081, IX-34-5-8.
On
Spanish-Indianllegal rade,Kristine ones, Nineteenth entury
ritish
ravelAccounts f
Argenitina, aper presented t the AmericanAnthropologyssociationmeeting,Chicago,
Nov. 1983. A revisedversion fthispaper was published n Ethnohistory
3:2
(1986), 195-
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78 | HAHR
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more solated anches. he nextyear heprovincial overnmentf
Buenos
Aires, under the militaryeadership f the governor,MartinRodriguez,
adopted a more offensiveosturewith campaign o the southmodeled
closelyon colonialentradas.During thisfour-yearampaign,
Rodriguez
and his men nvaded ndian erritoryhree imes ut succeeded
n found-
ing onlyone new fort, uerte ndependencia present-day
andil).
Nine
years
later the new
governor
f Buenos Aires,
General
Juan
Manuel de Rosas, again interested n pacifying he
frontier o assure
greater roduction f cattleproducts, egan another desert
ampaign.
Rosas was a prominent ancher nd industrialist. e was also a consum-
mate, ruthless olitician ommittedo extending he grazing ands of
the
province fBuenosAires nd willing o allyhimself o so-called friendly
Indians to achieve his ends. His goal was to free those ands between
the
Salado
River o
the north nd the Colorado
nd
Negro
rivers nd
the
cordillera o
the south rom
ostile ndianencroachment.'0
Rosas was successful.He added
to Buenos
Aires
province
n area
ex-
tending
wo hundred
eagues
west
to
the Andes and
south beyond
the
Rio Negro. Moreover, s leader ofone ofthreedivisions nvolved n the
1833-34 campaign,he was able to returnwith large number f people
previously apturedby the Pampas ndians. Rosas' division,
esponsible
for he eft lank fthe nvasion, dvancedfrom is ranch t Los Cerrillos
to the island of Choele-Choel on the Rio Negro and from
here to the
mouth f he Rio Colorado. Here thetroops plit,with ne
group ontinu-
ing south long the coast to the Rio Negro and thenup
this
river
o
the
confluence f he Limay nd the Neuquen. Other roops
marched
nland,
following he Colorado
nto reas neverbefore
een
by
the
Christians.
The captives hatRosasbrought ack o civilization ere ll encountered
in
this
argeregion.
The
Takingof Captives
The fact hatRosas encountered panish aptives n his desert ampaign
is
hardly urprising, orone of the constants f Spanish-Indianwarfare
in
the Rio
de
la Plata throughout ourcenturieshad
been the taking
10.
Arturo e Carranza,La campaiia del desierto e 1833 Buenos Aires, 1969). John
Lynch,Argentine ictator:Juan Manuel de Rosas, 1829-z852 Oxford: larendon
Press,
1981),
39-41 discussesRosas' recruitmentf ndiansfor is own political nds.
11. On Rosas' conquest,Lynch,Argentine ictator, 4. On the captives,Relaci6nde
los cristianos alvados del cautiverio or la division zquierdadel ejercito xpedicionario l
mando del Seiior BrigadierGeneralD. Juan Manuel de Rosas BuenosAires: mprenta el
Estado, 1835).
A
facsimile dition ntitled uan Manuel
de
Rosas y la redenci6n e cauti-
vos en su campana al desierto 1833-1834) was published y the AcademiaNacionalde la
Historia (Buenos Aires, 1979).
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SPANISH CAPTIVES
IN
INDIAN SOCIETIES
79
ofcaptives
by
both
parties.
Whether t was the
Ava-Chiriguanos
o the
north, he
tribes f the Chaco that ssaulted panish
ettlements,r
the
Indian groups to the south, all seemed
to be interested
n
two types
of
booty-livestock
and human
captives.'2As early
as
1577,
the
Avd-
Chiriguanos ttacked he newly ounded
panish
ettlement
fTarija
and
carried ff
ome 40 people.
Bycapturing paniards nd mestizos he
Ava'-Chiriguanos
ere n fact
continuing heir raditional
ultural atterns, or heyhad alwaystaken
captives
rom ther ndiantribes.'3
lthough fficiallyorbidden y Span-
ish law,
these ndian prisoners fwar were sold as slaves
to Spanishand
mestizo
andowners. panish nd mestizo
aptives,
uch s
twoveryyoung
girls nd a youngmestizo reed n
1590,
were either ansomed r recap-
tured
by the
Spanish
and returned o
Spanish society.More than two
centuries ater, he
Ava'-Chiriguanos
ere
still esisting panish ncroach-
ment nd still aking aptives. n
1809, he
Ava'-Chiriguanohief umbay,
angered that five
captiveshad
been turned
ver to the
comandante
f
Santa
Cruz,
mentioned
hat
since
olden
times,
t has
been
the
custom
to ransom captives]forone silver
peso apiece. Although
n the peace
treaty ignedwith he Spaniards
he same yearCumbay
promised o turn
over all Christian
aptiveswithin
wo years,by i8ii thisclause had not
yetbeen honored.
In
the
south,
n the
pampasregion,probably he
first
eference
o
taking
aptives concerned Spanish sailorcapturedby the
Tehuelche
Indians
n
the early 6oos.'4 By thebeginning f he
eighteenthentury,f
12. On Indiancaptives, arlos
A.
Mayo, El cautiverio sus funciones
n una sociedad
de frontera: el caso de Buenos
Aires (1750-1810), Revista de Indias 45:175
(1985), 235.
On
Tarija, Thierry aignes, Andaluces n el poblamiento el
sur
boliviano:
n torno unas
figuras ontrovertidas,l fundador
e Tarija y sus herederos, I Jornadasde Andalucia y
America I, 186.
13. Saignes, Metis et sauvages, 9, 93, 118,
119.
In general heSpanishdid not enter
intoformalwritten reatieswith
ndians
until
fter 763,far ater han
ither he Frenchor
the English. Lawrence Kinnaird, SpanishTreaties
with
ndianTribes,
Western istorical
Quarterly
10
(1979), 39-48.
14. The sailor's aptivitytory s told
n
SilvestreAntonio e Rojas,
Derrotero
e un
viaje de Buenos Aires a los Cesares,
Colecci6nde obras y documnentos,omp. Angelis,
2:537-48. On the freeing f captives, ee for xample he 1738 etter
f
Juande
Santisso
y Moscosa
to
the Marques
del Torrenueva etailing nvasions nd the taking
f
captives
n
C6rdoba and Tucuman ArchivoGeneralde Indias, Seville [hereafter GI],
Audienciade
Buenos Aires 49); the letter
f
Miguel
de
Salcedo to Josede la Quintana
mentioninghe
taking f some captives
n
an
Indian raid on the Arreciferea of theprovince f Buenos
Aires
n 1740
(AGI,
Audiencia e
BuenosAires42); the etter rom he
Cabildo ofAsunci6n
describing he nvasion f henations f he GranChaco and their aking fcaptives n 1761
(AGI,
Audiencia e Buenos Aires48). As late as 1789,Rafaelde Sobremonte,
he ntendant
ofC6rdoba,referredo ndian nvaders aking somewomen aptives long
he Rio Tercero
(AGI, Audiencia
e
BuenosAires
0).
For an example f hefreeing f aptives ee
the etter
of
JuanVictorinoMartinez e
Tineo to thecrown AGI, Audiencia e
BuenosAires49).
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8o I
HAHR
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SUSAN MIGDEN
SOCOLOW
notearlier,most ndiangroups
ncluded omecaptives mong heir opu-
lation.Reports fmyriad ncursionsy hostile ndiansnormallyncluded
mention f the taking f captives,while Spanishentradas ften reed t
least one or two. t was from heranks f x-captives ho had learned he
languages nd customs f their
aptors hatthe Spanishoften ecruited
interpretersnd scouts.
Sporadichostage aking ontinued
long
with
poradic aiding.
ome
of thesehostageswere incorporatednto
ndian
society,
ut others
es-
caped, and still therswere ransomed ack to Spanish ociety.Governors
and
viceroyswere often alled upon to contributeo funds or he ransom
ofcaptives. n 1788,for xample,Viceroy oreto donated totalof 663
pesos
31/2
reales to ransom
rom ndian aptivitypaniardswho had prob-
ably been captured n the 1786 San Luis
raids. From the entries
n his
accountbooks, hepricefor
escuing captive
eemsto
have ranged
rom
50 pesos 41/2
eales
paid
for
woman
n
April1788
to
ioo
pesos paid
for
a
man two months arlier.'5The viceroy lso paid 512 pesos 7 reales for
eight aptives reed n Salinas n
December 1788,an average f64 pesos
per individual.
Such
relativelyarge private iftswere
not
the
only ource of money
for
reeing paniards.
After
eceiving
overnment
ermission,
ndividual
citizens lso ransomedmembers f heir amilies hohad been taken ap-
tive. In
addition, ll people
drawing p
wills n
colonialRio
de
la
Plata
donatedat least two reales to the Fund for he Redemption f Captives,
one
of
the
mandasforzasas riginallynvisioned o
aid in
freeing aptives
in
the
Holy
Land. In the
Rio
de la
Plata thismoneywas
used
to ransom
local people.
Indianswere notthe only nes
to take aptives. panish fficials
ere
not averse to holding ndians as
hostages
n an
attempt
o
coerce
local
tribes. After earning f an Indian raid
in
1582, for xample, Pedro
de
Segura, corregidor f Tomina,heldhostage groupofAva'-Chiriguano
chiefs
who
had
cometo visit.
6
It is
also clearthat
hroughout
he
Rio
de
la
15.
Torres,Diario de gastosdel
Virrey.
i6. On Segura, Saignes,
Metiset sauvages,
8. An6nimo,
Viaje al Riode la
Plata
y
Chile (1752-1756),
Revistade la Junta e EstudiosHist6ricos
e Mendoza9:2 (1980),
367,
mentions
hat the Spanish oldiers ttack
he ndians,
nslaving hosewhom hey
apture.
Recently
publishedresearch hows thatduring he seventeenth
nd
eighteenth
enturies
Spaniardstook ndian
captives
n the Tucuman rea. See Gast6n
Gabriel Doucet,
Sobre
cautivosde guerray esclavos
ndios n
el Tucuman:Notas n torno
un ficheroocumental
saltenio el sigloXVIII, Revista e Historiadel Derecho16
1988), 59-152,
for n interest-
ing discussion f how the
Spanish uthority
sed Indiancaptives
s slaves and
for
detailed
information
bout Spanishcapture
f bothCalchaquisand Guaranis.
On the
Salta official,
Guillermo
urlong, edroJuanAndreu
y su cartaa MateoAndreu
Buenos
Aires:Libreria
del Plata,
1953),
123.
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SPANISH
CAPTIVES IN
INDIAN
SOCIETIES
81
Plata many Indians whom the Spanish managed to capture
in battle were
enslaved. In
1750,
the JesuitAndreu mentioned a government
fficial n
Salta who had captured some Indian children and was selling them for
ioo pesos apiece. In addition, Indians held
in
prison
by Spanish authori-
ties or working n religious institutions r private homes
in Spanish towns
and cities commonly believed
themselves
to
be
captives
of
the
Spaniards.
The finedistinctionsbetween captivity nd imprisonment
r between
cap-
tivity nd Christianization escaped many Indians.'7
From time to time,
captives were exchanged. In
1783
Pedro Pablo Maldonado
was sent to the
Lujain
fort
by
his Indian
captors to
deliver a
message
offering o exchange
two Christians fortwo
specific
ndians.
If the
exchange
were
effected,
he
Indians would consider it a sign of peace, but if the Spaniards failed to
release these two captives, the Spaniards would be
attacked when they
made their yearly visit to the Salinas salt flats.
Spanish society probably took captives as booty, for
profit, nd to teach
a lesson to those whom they considered heathen savages. '
8
Although
the Spanish colony often sufferedfrom a scarcity of
labor, Indian slaves
were too few in number and too intractable to offer viable solution to
Spanish society. Indian societies probably took captivesfor profit, o gain
a
medium of exchange with other Indian groups and the Spanish, and to
increase their labor force. Adult male captives were often enslaved, or at
least thought of themselves as being in some type of
serfdom. n the sur-
viving captivity declarations, both men and women
referto their amo,
their Indian master.
Surviving documents further ttest to the use of
the captives, espe-
cially children, as a medium ofexchange or as goods to be bought, sold,
or
bartered.'9
In
1790,
for example,
the Auca Indians approached
the
17.
On Indians' onfusionbout aptivity:One Indian nd one Christian
ho said
they
had escaped from he Rancheria rrived in the ndiancamp],andthey old howthevhad
been held withhandcuffs
grillos).
ater wogirlswho escaped fronmheResidencia y going
overthe roof ame, and they oldus how
much
heyhad been
made
to work n
the ooms.
Carlos A. Mayo, Fuentespara la historia e la frontera: eclaraciones
de cautivos
Uni-
versidadNacionaldel Mar del Plata, 1985), 19, Declaraci6nde Andresde Rodriguez,
an
Juan e Chascomus,Feb.
20,
1781. On the Christian-Indianxchange, dem.,23, Declara-
ci6n de Pedro Pablo Maldonado,Frontera e Lujan, Aug.26, 1783.
18. For the sale of ndian captives, o-calledpiezas
in
Tucuman, ee Doucet, Sobre
cautivos,
o-12.
According o Mayo Fuentes,
),
captiveswere used as slaves, as part
of
intertribalommerce, s hostages, s messengers,nd as peace offerings.ee amo refer-
ences in, for xample, he testimony
fRafaelde
Soto BuenosAires,June
4, 1752) and of
Juan
Macias
Fuertede NuestraMadre de Cristoy Frontera el Zanj6n, Dec. 31, 1768), in
Mayo,
Fuentes, 3, 11.
19. The testimonyfJuan
ascual
Zurita,
Guardia
del Zanj6n, Dec.
26,
1768,
in
Mayo
(Fuentes, ), alludes to
Indians
who
had
five
Christian
aptives o sell. Nicolas Romero,
after pending wo months s a captiveof the Pampas,was sold to the Pehuenchesfor
poncho. Mayo, Fuentes,17, Declaraci6nde Nicolas Romero,
Guardia
del Monte,
Jan.
15,
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82 | HAHR
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SUSAN MIGDEN
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small Spanish
garrisonn Patagonia fferingo trade
a girl ged 4 or
5,
daughter f
Christians, or
aguardiente, lannel aize, yerba, yellow
tin
foil, having
owls, and othergoods. The
governmentesponded
by
supplying lue glass
beads, baize, littlemirrors,mall
bells, ribbons
f
various olors, nd
blue woolenstuff
rom he royalwarehouse, nd pur-
chasing guardiente,
ats, purs,
bridles, mall inbasins, himbles,
arge
rings or eins,
obacco,yerba,
nd
driedfigs or he ndians.The entire
shipment, orth
95 pesos
6
reales,
was
dispatched outh,whilefunds o
cover
his xpensewere transferredrom
he Fund for
he
Redemption f
Captives o the War
Department. reparations ere also
made to
receive
the
child
n
the Buenos Aires
orphanage
while
waiting
o see
ifher
par-
entsor anyrelative laimedher.Although hegovernment arned gainst
havingcaptivity
ecome a branch f commerce,
hat,
n
part,
s what
it
had alwaysbeen.
The very act hat he
RoyalWarehouse tocked
uch
items s glass beads
and smallbells
attests o an ongoing radefueled
by
the
ransoming
f
Spanish aptives.
n
addition, aptiveswere
occasionally
used in
intertribalrade; Pampas
ndians,who did not themselves rac-
tice
formal ondage, provided he Araucanianswith
slaves.20 aptives,
ransomed ack to the
Spaniards r
exchanged etween boriginal
roups,
provided medium
fexchange or ndian ommerce.
The periodicreturn f captives o Spanishsociety ould sometimes
serve
either s a ritual
emonstrationhat n Indian
groupwas willing
o
enter
ntopeace
negotiations ith he ocal authorities
r as an affirmation
of that
peace.21Captives
were also used
by
ndian
groups
s a vehiclefor
signaling heirwillingness o come into
missions.
n
the
mid-eighteenth
century, or xample, s soon as a
provisional eace
was
signed
between
the
Spaniards
nd
an
Indian
group
n
which he ndians
requested
hat
missionary e sentto them, hey
voluntarilyeleasedany captives
iving
among
them. As
Governor ose
de
Andonaegui eported o
the
Spanish
government, hen the Indiansrequested reduccion, theybringwith
them,
t the
same time, large number
f
Christian
aptives. 22
ndeed
1781. On the younggirl,AGNA, Tribunales, egajo 227, Expediente17,
IX-38-9-2.
The
Royal Exchequer frequently entioned upplying imilar oods to the Patagoniagarrison
so that hey an buy horses nd other ivestock.. from he nfidel
ndians. According o
the 1781testimonyf woman aptive, many f hewomen aptives
which he ndian
took
were exchanged or loth nd aguardienten the Spanish utpost long he Patagonian oast;
they lso exchanged attle. Mayo,Fuentes, 1, Declaraci6n e Maria
Paula Santana,Fortin
de Areco, Feb. 23, 1781.
20. On the Pampas ndians,K. Jones, Conflictnd
Adaptation, 4. On captives s
an
exchangemedium,Mayo, El cautiverio,
37.
21. Mayo, El cautiverio, 38.
22. AGI,
Audienciade
Buenos Aires49, letter f Andonaegui
o
Ensenada, June
4,
1749.
See
also
Acevedo,
El GobernadorMartinez e
Tineo, 34,
for
he same
behavior
among he Chunupies.
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SPANISH CAPTIVES
IN INDIAN
SOCIETIES 83
the Spaniards ostno time n interpretinghis onduct s an indication f
the ndians'willingness o eave all savage ustoms ehind.
The
morethan ix hundred aptives reed uringRosas' engthy am-
paignwere taken rom ampas,Tehuelche, nd Araucanian roups.23 ili-
taryofficialsnterrogated
he
captivesone by one, asking fixed et of
questions
to elicit
basic informationbout
them
and theirexperience.
Upon
his
return o Buenos Aires,the governor ad a list of those freed
printed nd widelydistributedn thehope ofhelping hesemen,women,
and children
o find heir infolk. he
published
ist s an excellent
ource
of nformationn
the
demography
f
captivity.
ach
captive
s
described
by name, sex, age, years
n
captivity,ndabilityospeak Spanish.Several
entries re enhancedby more detailedphysical escriptions. ecause of
the
uniformityf the questions sked, the ist of
freed
aptivesprovides
comparable
nd
quantifiable
ata on theentire
roup.
There s
every
ea-
son to believe that hosefreedby Rosas were representativef a typical
groupofcaptives.
DemographicAnalysis f Rosas' List
of Freed
Captives
The moststrikingharacteristicf those ex-captiveswho had not been
born
in
captivity
was thatwomen
outnumbered
men
by
almosttwo
to
one.
Of
the
totalof
634
such
ndividuals, 89 (6i percent)
were
female;
245
(39
percent)
were male.
Indeed the
1833
group fcaptivesprobably
had a
largerproportion
f men than
most aptivegroups, uggesting he
possible presence
of
Spanish renegades mongthose Rosas classified
s
captives.
n
1764, for example,the outgoing overnor f Tucumarn
e-
ferred o
33 Spanish
aids
nto
he
Chaco that ad freed
20
male Christian
captives
.
.
[and]
. .
.
240
women nd
young hildren. 24Another 3
unspecifiedchildren orn ncaptivity presumably estizos)werefreed
in the
1833 campaign, ringing
he otalnumber
eturned
o
creole
ociety
to
707.
The
overwhelmingredominance fwomen
n
the captivegroup
can
in
part
be
attributed o
the Indians'
systematicallyakingwomen
and
childrenwhile
killing
men.25n
the wordsof a
mid-eighteenth-century
23. On the Chaco raids,K.
Jones, Conflictnd Adaptation, 12.
24. AGI, Residenciade
Coronel Don JuanVictorinoMartinez e Tineo, 1764, Audi-
encia de Buenos Aires49. Data cited by Axtell The White ndians, o-61) suggest hat
NorthAmerican ndians lsopreferred omen aptives.Two lists fcaptives reed n
1764
contain 07 men nd 170 women
nd children. aughan nd Richter isagree.
25. Muchthesamepattern f
apturing
omen nd
children nd annihilating en can
be
seen
in
the Spanish apture f ndians n theTucuman egion.Doucet, Sobre
cautivos,
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84 | HAHR
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SUSAN MIGDEN SOCOLOW
Scottish raveler o the Rio de
la
Plata, thedeathofthe men s certain
f,
by some misfortune,hey re captured y the savages,for hey acrifice
all the Spanishmen except he children. he same treatmentf
Spanish
male
captiveswas
still
n effect
n
1803; according o a freedmale captive,
the Indiansraided to rob from he haciendas nd to take the boys they
encounter aptive,bringing hemup according o their ustoms, nd kill-
ing theadults. Twenty-fiveears arlier heviceroy f he Rio de la Plata
reported hat the Indiansare so inhumane hattheydelight n killing,
making o exceptions ecause of ge or sex, nd only ometimes eserving
the ife f hewomen,whom hey akewith hem n order o ndulge heir
abominable ices.
Specific r approximateges are given or 7.8 percent f hecaptives.
The
mean age forwomen s 21.3 years,while thatformen s only
13
1.
The
same typeof age discrepancy an be seen
in
the median ge,
19
for
women nd 13 for
men.
When menand women re divided nto en-year
age groups,
elow
the
age
of
o there
were more
males
than
females
see
Table i). The largest roup fcaptives alls nto
he
10-19
age group;
his
group s also the modal groupforbothfemale nd
male
captives.
Above
the
age of
19
the male and femaleprofiles iffer reatly. or example,
between the
ages
of
30-39
and
40-49
there re sizable
groups
f
female
captivesbut virtually o males.
Regrouping
he
data nto wo
ets-o
to 14 childhood) nd15+ (adult-
hood)-we can again see thatwhile therewere slightlymore male chil-
dren
han emale mong hecaptive roup, n the dultpopulationwomen
predominatedTable
2).
Only
35 percent
of the female
aptives
were children.The
rest,
n-
deed the largestgroup n captivity, ere adult women.The nextmajor
groupwere whitemalesbelowthe ge of15.Amongmalesonly 8 percent
were
adults.
While
therewas a
slightlyarger
umber f
males
mong
he
totalunder-1s ge group, heover-15 roupwas dominated yfemales.
Thus ndian
captives onsisted
fwomen
f
ll
ages
and
young oys.
Even
among
the
over-15
male
captives, nly
four
were above the
age
of
25.
Interestingly,hese four older men were somewhat typical: wo
were
Paraguayans nd two,Chileans.
The Indian preference or
female
aptives
was
probably
ased on
a
combination f
sexual, trategic,
nd
economic
easons.
Possibly,
women
could
help the ndian tribes eplenish heir opulation. panishwomen,
114-16.
For the Scottish raveler,
ee An6nimo, Viaje al Rio
de la Plata, 67. For the 1803
report,AGNA,
Testimonio
el expediente . . Hacienda, Legajo 122, Expediente
3081,
IX-34-5-8.
or the viceroy's
eport, GI, Audiencia e Buenos
Aires307, Letter
fViceroy
Cevallos to
Jos6 e Galvez,Nov. 27, 1777.
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SPANISH CAPTIVES
IN INDIAN SOCIETIES 85
TABLE 1: Age and Sex ofCaptives
Women Men
Age
N
percentage
N
percentage
0-9
67 17.7
79 32.7
lo-1g
135 35.4 137 56.6
20-29 8o 20.9
22
9.1
30-39
61 16.o
1
.4
40-49 30 7.9
1
.4
50+
8
2.2
2
.8
Total
381
(100o0) 242 (100.0)
Note: Onlycases that ncludedgood age data were ncluded n this able.
TABLE 2: GroupedAge
and Sex of
Captives
Percentage Percentage
f
Percentage Percentage
f
of ll women n this of ll men n this
Age
Women
women
age group
Men
men
age group
Total
0-14
133 34.9
47.0
150 61.9 53.0 283
(ioo.o)
15+ 248 65.1 72.9
92
38.2 27.1 340
(ioo.o)
Total
381 (100o0) (100o0)
242 (100o0) (100o0) 623
like their ndian
counterparts,
ere
economically roductive
members f
native ociety.They were more docile and
physically asier to manage.
Once
capturedby
Indians
hey
howed ittle
endency
o
escape
back to
Spanish ociety
with
eports
f
ndian
military reparations,
s did
Span-
ish men. Of
course,thoseSpanishwomenwho had borne hildrenwhile
in captivity ould have been evenless willing o escape, as thatwould
have
obliged
them o leave their hildren ehind.
The
data on
age
at the
time
of
capture
re far
cantier,
n
part
a re-
sultofthe
ong years
f
captivity
hatdimmed he
memory
f
those aken
captive young see
Table
3).
The
average
femalewas
i6.2 years
old at
the time of her
capture,
while the
average
male was only
7.6 years
old.
It is
interestingo note
thatfemale
espondents
ad a much
higher
ate
of
recall,
n
part
function ftheir
suallybeing
older thanmales when
taken
aptive.
While 62
percent
fthe females
uestioned
ould
give
the
approximateengthoftime of their aptivity,nly37.3 percentofthe
males
could supply
he same
nformation.
evertheless,
he data ndicate
that
males were
overwhelminglyoys
below the
age
of
io
at the timeof
capture. Young children, oth male and female,were attractive o the
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86 | HAHR
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FEBRUARY
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SUSAN MIGDEN
SOCOLOW
TABLE
3:
Age at
Capture by Sex of Captives
Women
Men
Age N percentage
N
percentage
0-9
88
37.5
69 75.8
lo-19 63 26.8
'9
20.9
20-29
40 17.0
2
2.2
30-39 39 16.6
40-49
5
2.1 1
1.1
Total
235
(100o0)
91
(100.0)
Indians because
they could be more fully cculturated nto ndian
society;
yet
the
data show a relative
preferencefor capturing male rather
than
female children.26 n
other
words,
females were
at
risk
to be taken captive
at
any age,
while
the older a male was, the
more probable it was thathe
would be killed
ratherthan captured.
Because
of the
relatively greater age at time of capture among the
female
population,
it is
not surprisingthat a sizable number of women
captured at age 15 or above were
already married
(2i
percent or
52/
248) or widowed (another
ii
percent or 28/248) at the time they were
taken. Indian
raiders
displayed no cultural bias
against takingwomen who
had been previously married or women
with children. Indeed, women of
proven
fecunditymight have been more attractive s prospective
sexual
partners.
Did female
gender help
assure better treatment
once captured?
At
least one source
suggests that
neither
native norcaptive women were well
treated,
both
being flogged
in
a most barbarous manner
if
they
lost
any
of the animals under their care.27
On the other
hand, Spanish captive
women were often taken as wives or concubines by a cacique or warrior
among
both
the
Chaco and
Pampas tribes,although among
certain
groups,
such as the
Chaco
Guaycuruans, captives
had such a low
status that
only
26. For example, n 1832 ndian raiders irculatingn a zone of quintasnear Santa F6
killed
ightmen,
en
women, nd one nfant
n
two hacraswhile aking hree r four oung
boyscaptive.
Urbanode
Iriondo, Apuntes, 5.
27. On flogging, . Jones, La Cautiva, 1.
On Spanishwomen s wives and concu-
bines, Saeger, Another iewof he Mission,
03; Mayo, El cautiverio, 40. For mention
of an Indian married
o a woman aptive ee
the Testimonyf SebastianGonzalez Fron-
teradel Pago de la Magdalenay Fuertedel Zanj6n,Nov.
24, 1770),
Mayo,
Fuentes, 13.
On
status mong he Pampas, Raul Mandrini, La agriculturandigena n la regi6n
pampeana
y sus adyacencias siglosXVIII y XIX), Anuario
EHS
1
(1986),
12.
It has been suggested
that
nly aciques could affordo provide ormore han ne wife nd any hildren he might
bear. On
avoiding he brideprice, Mayo, El cautiverio, 40.
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SPANISH
CAPTIVES
IN INDIAN
SOCIETIES
87
menwho could do no better ook hem s mates.The practice fpolygamy
in Chaco and Pampas Indian society s well as among the Patagonian-
based Tehuelches, specially mong hecaciques,made t easierto absorb
women nto the nativefamily tructure.ndeed amongcertain
Pampas
groups,having manywives,manyhead ofcattle nd much ilver were
all signsof power
and
wealth, nd therefore f social standing.
n
some
tribes he availability f Spanish
women s mates
llowed
men to avoid
the payment f the brideprice that heywould have had to pay for
n
Indianwoman.Seen in this ight, aptivewomen epresentedn attractive
alternative or ndian men ofmarriageablege.
The practiceof
Indian men
taking panish
wives was
beginning
o
change somewhat n the early nineteenth entury s larger groupsof
Araucanians rom hile came to dominate he pampas,
restructuringhe
indigenous ampa tribes
n
the processof Araucanizing he
Desert. 28
The Araucanians isplayed widespread ultural roclivity or
reating
male-centeredmyths bout the sexual skillsof females f another
ul-
ture. They prized Spanish women for their special erotic talents
and
as a result tended to
incorporate
emale
Spanish captives
into their
society
s
slave-concubines, ather hanas wives. Nevertheless,
women
held by Araucanizedtribes as consorts r slaves also providedpower,
wealth, and status to their captors. The net result was that Spanish
women, hrough ne form f exual iaison r another, ormed onds
with
their ndian captors hat
were
usuallynot createdbetweenSpanish
men
and
Indian women. CapturedSpanish dult
men were
rarely
llowed
to
take
ndian wives,
but rather
orced o
endure
nvoluntaryelibacy.
Even though aptured
n
harrowingaids,many panishwomen
ame
to
identify
ith heir
aptors, referring
o
live
among
he ndiansrather
thanreturn o civilization.
his was
especially
rueofwomen aptured
as
younggirls.
The
aforementionednonymous
cotsman lluded
to the
case of twogirlswho werecaptured s young hildren ndsubsequently
ransomed,
ut
who
soon afterward
scaped
from
panish ociety
o
rejoin
the ndians.29
s
early
s
theend
of
he sixteenth
entury panish
oldiers
28. K. Jones, La Cautiva, , 93.
29. On the two girls, Viaje
al
Rio de la Plata, 367. For
another
xample
f
a
Spanish
womanwho preferred o return o
Inidian
ociety,
ee Mayo, El cautiverio, 42. In 1573,
the Toledo expedition eported n
a
mestiza
who
had
remained
with he chiriguanes
hen
theykilled captainAndresManso
. .
when theother ndian womenfled ntothe monlte,
she
wentwith
hem.
Although
ome
Spaniards
who knewher, dvised her to
remain
with
them], he did notwant o return, hoosing o followheothers, nd until oday he remainls
with he ndians,havingbecome a chiriguana. fter en years mong he ndians, he had
no second thoughts bout her oyalty. eginaldode Lizairraga, escripcio6nreve de
toda
la tierrade Peru, Tucuman,Rio de la Plata y Chile,chap. 38 (Madrid: Ediciones Atlas,
1968), quoted by Saignes, Metis et sauvages, 5.
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88 | HAHR
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SUSAN MIGDEN SOCOLOW
came acrosscaptiveSpanishwomen
who had been completely ccultur-
ated into ndian society nd who, when giventhe chance, preferred o
remainwith heir o-called aptors.
An instructivepisode s provided
y Luis de la Cruz, a Spanishmili-
tary fficerentto survey
trans-Andeanoutebetween outhern hile
and BuenosAires n 1806.30 Twenty
ays aftereavingSantiago,
etween
Guacaque and Puelee, a woman
whomhe first elieved to be an Indian
was brought o de la Cruz. Upon ookingmore losely he officerealized
that she had Spanish features, nd
he proceeded to questionher. Her
name was Petronila
erez,
and she
was a native f Pergamino, ne ofthe
fortslongtheBuenosAiresfrontier.he was a captive fthe Pehuelches
and
the wifeof the Indian Marifian,
avingbeen previouslymarried
o
Carrilon, rother f he cacique, who
had since died. Petronila ecounted
how she had been taken aptive s a
young hildalong with sister nd
two stepbrothers
n
a
raid
along the
Buenos
Aires
post road,
in
which
her
mother nd stepfather ad been killedby the Indians. De la Cruz,
amazed at
her
ability o speak Spanish, sked her how she had come to
learn it. I've had dealings withother
womencaptiveswho taughtme
how to speak as theydid, Petronila
esponded, estifyingotonly o the
existence f groupof Spanishwomen
aptiveswithin ndian society ut
also to their wareness fbeing inguisticallynd culturally ifferentrom
their
aptors.
While the first
art
ofde la Cruz's
nterview ithPetronila
uggests
self-consciousttempt y Spanish
women aptives o preserve nd trans-
mit their
culture, heirsubsequent
onversation eveals other evels of
complexity.
t is
interestingo notethat
de
la Cruz himself ould not de-
cide whether
o treatPetronila
s
a Spaniard r
an Indian. He enticedher
to return
or
further
uestioning y
offering
er
manygifts,
he tradi-
tional
Spanish pproach o influencing
ndians.
Petronila
n
captivity
ad
lived nthe Salinas rea,a region raversedyannual panish xpeditions
to the salt marshes nd
a
zone of
ncreasing panish
ncroachment. he
admitted hat
over
the
years
he had seen several
paniards,
nd that
n
fact
veryyear
her
twobrothers,
ho had
subsequently
een
freed,
ame
to visit
her
at her
home. Clearly
he
frontier
as a
permeable
one
with
Indians visiting panish settlements
nd
Spaniardsvisiting
ndian ones.
At
this point de la Cruz could no longer ontainhis amazement. Why
didn't
you oin them nd return o theChristians? I didn'twant o eave
because
I
love my
hildren,
as
her
most
human nswer.
30. Bibliotheque
Nationalede Paris, Fondeespagnol179,
Diario e informes
e Luis
de la Cruz sobre a apertura e un caminodesde
el surde Chile hasta
BuenosAires, trav6s
de los Andes i8o6).
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SPANISH
CAPTIVES IN INDIAN SOCIETIES
89
We
do
notknowhow ndian ocialmores ictated hat man
treathis
wife, r whetherwomen, ither
ndianor Spanish,had any say n choos-
ing theirmarriage artners.3'fcapturedwhile stillyoung, s theabove
examplesdemonstrate, panish
womencould be integratednto
ndian
societywell enough hat hey
preferredt to
the
Christian world.
This
preference robably
esulted rom heir oyalty o
their ndian
husbands
and children,
nd
from earof returning
o a
Spanish
worldthatmight
brand hem s socialoutcasts.
Regardless of their motivation, heir behavior
was
inexplicable
o
European men, who could only nterpret
t as a
sign
of
feminine
exual
passion
and weakness.
They prefer
o
live like slaves and
satisfy
heir
passions,thanreside amongthose of theirrace (so corrupt s human
nature). 32While womenwhopreferredndian ifewere licentious
nd
corrupt,
men who chose
captivity
ver
freedom
ere seen as outlaws
or traitors.
o the
Spaniards,
aptivity
as furthermore
punishment
r-
dained by God; one
female
aptivereported
hat
her
daughter
ad spent
the ast
years
s a
beata
in
the House ofReligiousRetreat
n BuenosAires
beseechingGod
that
her
mother e freed, nd doingpenance.
Both men and women
aptured
y the ndianswere expected
o par-
ticipate
n the Indian economy.Among he Guaycuruans o the north,
Indian women nd captives fboth sexesparticipatedn spinning,weav-
ing, preparing
wild
honey
nd carob beans forfermentationnto ntoxi-
cants,
nd
otherdomestic hores.33
o
thesouthfemale aptivesworked
along with
ndian
women t
herding ivestock,mounted n horseback o
tend
he
cattle nd
sheep day nd
night.Among hose ribes hat racticed
agriculture, panish
women
were
involved
n
cultivating heat,barley,
and
beans. They probably
lso joined
in the
preparation f
raw hides,
wool, skins, allow,grease,
nd
ostrich
eathers or rade o
Spanish
mar-
kets,
as
well as in artesanal
roduction
f woven
fabrics,
eather
goods,
and silverobjects.Nativewomen nd captiveswerealso responsible or
all housekeeping hores, ncluding ookingfood, saddling
horses, and
setting p the tents toldos)
hat erved s nativehousing.
31. NorthAmerican ndians, according o Axtell,were most civil to
white women,
allowing hem
s
wide
a
latitude f hoice
n
marriage artnerss they
id
ndianwomen.
He
also argues hat n NorthAmerica he ndianis reated heir nglish aptiveswithkindness,
adopting hem nto ndianculture. The White ndians, 5, 67 passim.,78.
32.
The
quote
is from
An6nimo, Viaje
al
Rio de
la
Plata, 367.
On
the beata, see
Relaci6nde los cristianos alvados, 6.
33. On the Guaycuruans, aeger, Another iew of the Mission, 96,
504.
On herd-
ing, K. Jones, La Cautiva, 1. On agriculturalasks,Mandrini, La agriculturandigena,
14.
On goods for rade,K. Jones,
La
Cautiva, 2. See also Mandrini,
La agriculturandi-
gena, 13.
On
housekeeping asks,
Alcides
D'Orbigny, l
hombre
mnericano
BuenosAires:
EditorialFuturo,1944), 244; Raul Mandrini, os araucanos de las pampasen el siglo
XIX
(BuenosAires:CentroEditorde Am6rica atina,1984), 13.
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go
HAHR
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FEBRUARY
I
SUSAN MIGDEN SOCOLOW
TABLE
4:
Physical
Attributesf
Captives
Women
Men
N percentage
N
percentage
Skin olor
White
92
69.2 50 50.5
Swarthy triguefio)
28 21.0
25 25.5
Dark moreno)
4 3.0 12 12.0
Not given
9 6.8 12
12.0
Total
133 (100o0)
99 (ioo.o)
Hair color
Blond 46 34.6 14 14.2
Red
37 27.8
Brown r
black 37 27.8 43
43.4
Not given
13
9.8 42
42.4
Total 133
(100o0) 99 (ioo.o)
Eye color
Blue 13
9.8 11
11.1
Brown 87
65.4 64
64.7
Green 2
2.0
Not
given
33 24.8
22 22.2
Total 133
(100o0)
99
(ioo.o)
The Indians
certainly hose
their aptiveswith
a view
towardwho
could
best serve heirneeds when cculturatednto heir ociety.
A
modi-
cum
of physical
preferencemay
also have been at work
n
determining
who would
be
captured
or at least who would
survive.
Rosas'
list
pro-
vides
physical escriptions
or
4 percent
fthe women 133/389)
nd
41
percent f
hemen
99/245)
o aid
in
dentificationSee
Table
4).
An
analy-
sis demonstrates
strong reference
or
eople
described
y
the soldiers
freeing hem s
fair-skinnednd/or lond rubio).
Blue
eyes
ojos azules)
were also a popularfeature.This descriptionf the captivepopulation
is rather
tartling
iven
he
overwhelming
redominancef
dark-skinned
(triguenio
r
moreno), ark-eyed
ettlers
long
the frontier.
nalyzing
he
physical
ttributes y
the sex of the
captives,
here s a
suggestion
hat
fair
omplexion,
robably quated
with xotic
physical
eauty,
was even
moreprized
n the
choice of
female hanmale
captives.
In
addition o thosewomen
escribed s dark
were
two lave
women
(one negra
nd theother
morena),
morena
x-slave,
nd a
parda. Among
the
men,
one was classified s
a
mulatillo
nd another s
a black.
The
captivegroup lso included hreehispanizedmale Indians nd a woman
described
as
having
been born
n
the
Abipon Reduccion.
At
most
this
group
f
non-espaiioles
umbered
en. The vast
majority98.5 percent)
f
thecaptives erceived
hemselvess racially panish.
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SPANISH CAPTIVES
IN
INDIAN
SOCIETIES
91
TABLE
5: Birthplace
fCaptives
Province Male Female
Total
Buenos Aires
107 143 250
San Luis
41 99 140
Chile
23 36 59
C6rdoba
11
43 54
Santa Fe
3 14 17
Santiago del Estero 2 10 12
Mendoza 7 7
Paraguay 3
--
3
San
Juan
2
1
3
Entre
Rios 1
1
Tucuman
1 1
Unknown 52 40
92
Total
245 394 639
An
analysis of
geographical
zones
supplying captives
shows
that the
largest group of
captives
were
people born
in the
province
of Buenos
Aires
(Table 5). Providing half
as
many captives
was
San
Luis
province
to
the
west of Buenos
Aires.
The
next-largest
number of
captives
were born
in
Chile and Cordoba. The small numbersofparaguayos, tucumanos, and
san juaninos
freed in the
Rosas
campaign
is
not
surprisinggiven
that
the
captives
found were all
in
an area
to
the
south of Buenos Aires
province,
and
thus
relatively
farfrom he northern
Chaco areas.
But
the small num-
ber of
mnendozinos
s
surprising, especially
in
contrast
to the
relatively
large number ofcaptives born in neighboringChile.
The
vast
majority
of
the
captives
were
countrypeople,
inhabitants of
the agricultural and stock-raising ones opening along the frontier.Only
sixteen individuals
(nine women
and seven
men) had been born
in
a city;
all the others listed rural towns, estancias, and chacras as theirplaces of
birth. Their
modest
origins
show in that
only eight
of them referto their
father
by
the title
Don,
a universal
sign of respect, social standing,
and
at
least a modicum of wealth
in
the
society. Only
one
captive
made
any
reference to owingpropertyherself, nd another dentifiedher husband as
a
wagon
driver
and owner. 34Three
city-bornwomen,
two
of
whom were
related to arrieros, were taken while traveling fromone city to another.
On the
whole,
the
captives
were
typical representatives
f the rural
popu-
34. The former as FelicianaGutierrez, 50-year-old idowfromGuardia del Salto,
who declared that
he had lefther two sons and some goods comprising
er fortune
n
the place of her birth
Relaci6nde los cristianos alvados, 6). The latterwas Maria Angela
Benosa, native fthe city fC6rdoba,who
had been taken n the
same raid on the Guardia
de Salto as she and her husbandwere returning
rom uenosAires
Ibid., 14).
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92 |
HAHR
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FEBRUARY
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SUSAN
MIGDEN
SOCOLOW
TABLE 6: Region
WhereCaptureOccurred
Region Male Female Total
Buenos
Aires
37 97
134
San
Luis
20 56
76
C6rdoba
6 29 35
Santa
Fe
2
8
10
Chile
4 5 9
Mendoza 1
1
Total
69 196 265
lationof the Spanishpampas,people ofmodestmeanswho tendedcattle
or
raised crops for
an
absentee andowner r
perhaps
themselves
eld
smallparcels
of and.
Theydifferedrom
he
rural
opulation
t
argeonly
in
the overrepresentationfwomen n theirmidst.35
Comparing nformationn
place
of birth nd
place of capture
offers
some nsightsnto
herural
opulation f hepampa Table
6).
Just s most
of the
captives
had
been born
n
Buenos Aires or San
Luis, most
were
taken aptive
here.
Those few isted s city wellers
were captured
n
the
campo.
The
greatmajority fcaptives
were
country
eople
taken
aptive
in the very one orregionwheretheyhad been born, reflectionf ow
geographical
mobility
or he
population
t
large. Seventy-one ercent f
the women
forwhom nformation
s
completewere captured
n the
place
of theirbirth
127/180);
formen the numberwas
64 percent 44/69).
A
group
of male
and
female ural
migrantsrom antiago el Estero,
Men-
doza,
and
Paraguay
had
moved to the Buenos
Aires-Cordoba-San
uis
frontier
n
the
hope
of
finding
etter conomic onditions.
n
spite
ofthe
presence of female
migrants,aptures f womentended to occur
n
the
region
ftheir
irth, uggesting
ess
geographicalmobility
or
he
female
ruralpopulation.
One hundred
ninety-fiveespondentsupplied
ven more
pecific
n-
formationn where
they
had been
captured.
Overwhelminglyhey
had
been taken
while on
an
estanciaor chacra
156
individuals),
n a
rural
chapel 6),
or
along
a road
8),
that
s,
in the
countryside.
nother
roup
had been
captured
n
or near fort
5)
or
n
posthouses
postas) ii). Only
7 captives
described he
place where heywere seized
as in
town,
while
another were found
hiding
n a
coal
shed. Those
takencaptive
were
overwhelmingly
ural
people, performingural asks.
Their
capture
had
probably akenplace inmuch hesamewaythatAndreshad been taken
in
1803.
35. Axtell
lso finds hat he NorthAmericans
aptured y ndians
were a typical roup
of
colonists xceptfor he prevalence
fwomen The White ndians,
7).
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8/11/2019 Socolow Susan - Spanish Captives in Indian Societies
22/28
SPANISH
CAPTIVES
IN INDIAN SOCIETIES
93
TABLE
7:
Language Retention fCaptives
Women Men Total
No
Spanish 42 64 1o6
Knows
only name
in
Spanish 3 5 8
Minimal Spanish 25 44 69
Total 70 113 183
Working
s an
indenturedaborer
conchabado)
n the estancia
which
belongs
to Don
PastorCornejo on
the
edge of
the
Rio Dorado along
theChacofrontier,lineof everal ndianwarriorsuddenly ppeared
a little fter
oon,
and
shouting
war criesand
making great
deal of
noise,they
made me mount
n
a
horse, hreatening
o killme
f
didn't
do
it,
and
they
arriedme
away
with n Indian
eadingmy
mount.36
While t
s
difficulto
determine
hat
psychologicalrocesses
he
cap-
tivesunderwent uring heir apture nd early aptivity,he istoffreed
captives nd other vidence provides ome nterestinguggestions s to
the ability fthe captives o survive s culturallypanish.
One importantndicator fSpanish ultural ersistence as the reten-
tionofspokenSpanish.Althoughess than peifect ndication f ulture,
it
s a
surrogate ariable.Among hosefreed
n
the Rosas expedition o6
people (or i6.7 percent f he group) ould not peakone word
f
Spanish
(Table 7).
Another
7 were imited o
at
most few panishwords.
More
striking
s
the difference
n
language
retention etween male
and female
aptives.
While at
least
28
percent f the
male
captives 69/
245)
had suffered
otal anguagedeprivation,
he
comparable ercentage
forfemaleswas
only
ii.6
percent 45/389).Females,
who
represented
6i.
5
percent
f the
entiregroup,
were
only 8 percent f those
who
had
sufferedanguagedeprivation. ere, threefactorseem to have been of
capital mportance: ge
at time
of captivity,xposure o a
sizable
group
of
captives
within ndian
society,
nd the
captor ociety's
ttitude oward
the
group.
Those
capturedyoung uickly orgot
ot
only
heirnative
an-
guage
but even the names
of theirmother
nd father.
onversely,
hose
held with
othercaptiveswere able to maintain
heir
anguage
n
spite
of
youth
and
long years among the
Indians.37
inally,
ndian
societies
deemed
women's anguage o be differentrom, fnot nferioro, thatof
36. AGNA,Testimonio el expediente . . Hacienda, Legajo izz, Expediente 081,
IX-34-5-8.
37. Although he ist
of
captivesfreedby Rosas givesno indication f the numbers
f
Spaniardsheld together, olonial ources uggest hat t least some ndian groupsheld as
many
s
30
to
50
captives
t
a time.
Mayo,
El
cautiverio, 40-41.
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23/28
94
| HAHR
I
FEBRUARY
I
SUSAN MIGDEN
SOCOLOW
menand seem to have tolerated panishwomen
continuing o speak a
differentongue.
There s much ndirect videncethat ome groups fSpanishwomen
who spent
much
f heir dult ives n captivity ever osttheir onscious-
ness ofbeing Spanish nd their se of the Spanish anguage.The above-
mentioned estimony f the capturedPetronila
erez,
the woman who
could speak Spanishbecause otherwomen aptives aught t to her, s
evidence of the existence f
groups f captives ware of
their
inguistic
heritage nd working o preserve t amongotherSpaniards.
n
the 1833
group,
at least
eight
women
testified hattheyknew their
names,
the
namesof theirparents, r detailsoftheir apture, s well as theirnative
language,because of nformationiven o them y their companieras.n
some
areas
Spanishwomen aptives eem to have been so
numerous hey
almost ormed heir wn subsociety, ut apparently he same cultural r
informationetwork ever unctionedmongmale
captives.
The
Spanish anguage
was
also maintained y captives
kept
with
ther
members f theirfamilies.
Although his situationwas rare,
at
least 85
captiveswere takenwith t least one otherfamily
member.The largest
family roup freed was thatof Dofia Felipa Ortiz, a
nativeof Antuco,
Chile, and the wifeof Don Pablo Castro. She was freed long with heir
four aughtersndtwo ons,rangingnage from
2
to
6.38
Morefrequent
were
the cases
ofmothers aken aptivewith ne or two
small hildren.
Given the
predominance fwomen mong he
captives,
t s
not
sur-
prising
hat
groupof childrenwas born
n
captivityo
Spanishmothers
and
Indian
fathers.
n
addition o the
634 men, women,
and
children
listed
n
the
inventory,
nother
3 young
hildren
who
are at
the
side
of their
respective
mothers
were
also
freed,
nd at
least
2
more were
left ehind
with
he
ndians.39 nlike hosedetailed
n
the
published ist,
these
children ad been born
n
captivity.
Was one function fcaptives ohelp ndiantribes ecover rom heir
demographic
osses?The data
suppliedby
the
1833 ist,
while too
incom-
plete
to allow for
ophisticated emographic alculations, rovide ome
possible
answers.The
above-mentioned
5
children
robably epresent
most
of the
surviving ffspring
f the female
aptives,
s there
s
little
reason
to
believe thatRosas was willing o leave more than
handful
f
these childrenwiththe Indians.
Calculating
he
ratioof
these
surviving
children o the number fwomen
2io)
between he
ages
of
15
and
39-
38. Relaci6nde los cristianos alvados, 50-51.
39. Ibid., 92, gives hetotalnumber f hildren orn n captivity. he onlywoman
who
specificallymentionedeavingher children ehindwas Manuela Chasarreta,
5o-year-old
widowwho had spent 14 years n captivity. ccording o her
declaration, she has left wo
Indian sons among he nfidels nd has brought Christian
onwithher Ibid., 38).
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8/11/2019 Socolow Susan - Spanish Captives in Indian Societies
24/28
SPANISH
CAPTIVES
IN
INDIAN
SOCIETIES 95
the childbearing
ears-yields
a
rough
stimate
f
36
children orn
and
surviving or ach woman.
Informationn age at captivitynd age at return rovides rough