Inca in Peru, Indian in Spain: Indian Travelers to the Spanish Court, 1532–1700

The key social change that Indian peoples of Peru experienced throughout the colonial period was the fragmentation of pre-Hispanic ethnic polities into semi-autonomous peasant communities. To understand this process, this work focuses on Indian travelers from Peru to the royal court of Spain, one of the most sophisticated forms of indigenous political culture. These traveling communities contested and impacted state-making processes at the highest level, weaving their demands for justice throughout the fabric of state institutions. By doing so, Indians reconstituted their communities relationally. Involving a two-way struggle (between the state and ethnic groups and among ethnicities) these trips recreated discrete ethnic identities that, nevertheless, had to operate within a common ‘Indian' framework of reference.