Seeking Honor at the Spanish Royal Court: The Transatlantic Journey of Alonso Atahualpa and His Quest for Social Recognition in 16th-Century Spain

In 1582, Don Alonso Atahualpa, grandson of the Inca emperor Atahualpa, left his hometown of Quito for the Spanish royal court. He followed the path of his father, Francisco Atahualpa, who visited the court on two occasions to pressure Philip II of Spain to grant him the numerous economic rewards that the Crown had promised him in virtue of his royal blood. Faced with the failure of the royal promises, Don Alonso traveled to Spain to force the royal administration to fulfill what the Crown promised and owed to his ancestors as Natural Lords of Tawantinsuyo. Employing unstudied documentation of the sixteenth-century century from private aristocratic archives in Madrid, this paper analyzes Don Alonso Atahualpa's transatlantic journey to the Spanish court and how he navigated the intricate cosmos of the Spanish administration as he litigated for his rights and exploits before royal councils. Despite what the historiography has presented about Andean travelers to Spain in general, and Don Alonso in particular, I argue that the transatlantic travels of Indigenous elites were not based solely on claims for financial pensions and economic promotion. Rather, like Don Alonso, many Andeans risked their lives and left their families behind to litigate for honorific rewards that would elevate their social status and place them in a preeminent position within colonial society. This paper contributes to the prolific discussion of Indigenous mobility across the Spanish empire through its analysis of Incas that mastered Spanish legal culture and employed the instruments of the "lettered city" to seek justice and redress while countering imperial domination.